Cyndi Loza

Cuts to programs, reducing per-pupil funding and larger class sizes are some of the options school officials recommended this month to tackle proposed statewide cuts to kindergarten through 12th-grade classes.

The reductions are in response to Gov. Jim Gibbons’ request in May to present “what-if” budgets with 14 percent cuts to operating costs for the 2009-11 school years.

The State Board of Education approved a proposal that included budgets during the next two bienniums:

• Increasing the student-to-teacher ratio by one student in first through third grades. Ratios vary based on grade levels. In first and second grades, the ratio is 16 students to every one teacher. In third grade, it’s 19 students to one teacher. Ratios for the higher grades were not immediately available Thursday.
• Reducing money for textbooks by $66 million.
• Reducing state per-pupil funding by $51 million.
• Eliminating Senate Bill 185 remediation grants, which fund tutoring, mentoring and other supplemental programs. “Hopefully, the economy will pick up to get back these programs that we’re proposing to eliminate,” said Keith Rheault, state schools superintendent.

At the Washoe County School District, educators and faculty are wondering if funding public education will be possible with possible additional cuts in upcoming years, said Lisa Noonan, superintendent of elementary education.

“Certainly, when we get to the legislative session, everyone’s holding their breath to see how big cuts will be for the next biennium,” Noonan said.

Rob Luna, grant fiscal administrator, agreed.

“I’m feeling a little pessimistic this year but hoping for the best,” Luna said. “If we have a very awful cut, that’s going to be the very painful type “» the district as a whole is going to have to look and say ‘Hey, there’s no more fat. Were do we get it from?’”

Cuts not noticed?

This year, students are not likely to notice any cuts to education, but “the effect will be really in what they don’t see,” Superintendent Paul Dugan said.

To adhere to state-mandated 4.5 percent cuts, Dugan said the district postponed some actions, such as the adoption of new kindergarten-through-fifth-grade science textbooks, the expansion of full-day kindergarten and implementation of empowerment schools.

Money that would have been used for K-5 science textbooks were allocated to programs funded by SB 185 grants, which fund a variety of programs in the district including tutoring, mentoring, instructional coaches, kindergarten aids, parent involvement facilitators and drop-out prevention.

But, 14 percent cuts will not go unnoticed in the classroom, Dugan said.

“At a minimum, my guess would be, it would increase class size,” Dugan said. “And if the state pulls back some of their programs, that will have a dramatic effect on supplemental educational programs that have been put in place, and professional development for teachers and those types of things that obviously are critical to a world-class district.”

In December, Gibbons ordered a 4.5 percent statewide cut that reduced funding to school districts by $95 million over the next two years.

In June, a special legislative session was held where school districts were directed to cut another 3.3 percent in addition to statewide textbook cuts for the 2008-09 school year.

Douglas County School District reduced funding in areas from school supplies to remedial courses to adhere to its 4.5 percent cuts.

Superintendent Carol Lark said the district reduced money for remedial night and summer classes, which could lead to more fifth-year seniors in high school.

Still, the outcome could still be worse if districts were asked to cut an additional 14 percent of its budgets, she said.

“I think it’s devastating,” Lark said. “It will take years and years to recover and education will not be what we’ve seen in the past. It will require a reduction in services. There’s no other way to do it.”