Washoe Country School District

February 8, 2012

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Suggestions and Responses

FREQUENTLY PROVIDED SUGGESTIONS REGARDING DISTRICT BUDGET CUTS

Background: As you may know, there are complex and difficult issues facing education in Nevada right now. The Washoe County School District must cut $33 million (now updated to $36.7 million) from its general fund budget over the remainder of fiscal years 2010 and 2011. These cuts are a result of the 6.9% cut totaling $16 million that came from the just completed special session of the legislature and shortfalls of $17 million previously anticipated for fiscal year 2011 recently updated “net property tax changes” and per pupil (Distributive School Account) decreases of $3.7 million. Over the last three years, WCSD has cut $44 million from the general fund, which will increase the total cuts to $81 million over this five year period. Unfortunately, we believe there will be an even more serious problem for the 2011-2013 biennium; a projected $2-3 billion shortfall facing the state when the Legislature convenes in February 2011.

With this difficult news, the school board, the superintendent and district leadership continues to develop plans to address the budget cuts needed to balance fiscal years 2010 and 2011. As part of the discussions on the budget cuts that the Washoe County School District is faced with, we have asked that parents, staff and the community send us their best ideas to save money. Dr. Morrison has established a committee made up of key department leaders, a community business leader, a parent and teacher representation to review these suggestions and research responses and forward them to leadership for consideration.

We have received many suggestions regarding the District’s pending budget reductions and we want to present the more frequently provided items. The following suggestion or question with response format is intended to provide access to the same information for all interested parents, staff and community members.

Click on each suggestion to see the response.

Suggestions being implemented:

Suggestions being considered:

Suggestions already in place and being updated or reviewed:

Suggestions that cannot be done for legal reasons:

Educating the public about the budget:

Eliminate as many administrative positions as possible to save teaching positions. As part of this look at staffing allocations or ratios of personnel to see if costs can be saved.

School district leadership is currently reviewing every position in the school district (central administration, departments and schools) to look at redundancy, proper allocation, relevance, importance and critical need. This process had already started with the new strategic planning process that was under way and is being addressed even further with the budget cuts.

Update: Dr. Morrison announced a $2.5 million reduction to central services (those departments that support schools), the largest reduction ever to occur in the district. The cuts include positions on the executive cabinet, mid-level managers and other administration and support positions. Many of the positions are vacant and will be eliminated or combined with other positions. The school district is hoping to mitigate the number of job losses and is in the process of talking with impacted individuals. Most of the cuts will occur on the operational side of the system to help protect the core commitment to academics and instruction.

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Is the school district looking at early separation incentive programs to save funds?

The school district has an existing early separation incentive program in place to encourage employees who are close to retirement and are higher on the pay scale to leave early. This allows the school district to save money by replacing these retiring members with new or less tenured employees who are on the lower end of the pay scale. The existing program has limits as to how many employees can go each year. As with budget cuts in past years, we look to adjust these limits to see if further savings can be achieved. It should be noted that this program has limits so that we can carefully manage the number of experienced people leaving each year. The district has to follow IRS and state laws with this program.

Update: The Board of Trustees extended this program by providing a special early separation incentive program, in addition to the existing program, for the purpose of providing opportunities for more employees to retire or separate earlier than normal. As a result of both of these programs, the school district will be able to greatly reduce the number of jobs lost.

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Are cuts in salaries or benefits being considered?

This is under thoughtful consideration with WCSD bargaining groups.

Update: In an unprecedented level of collaboration between management and labor, leaders from the Washoe County School District (WCSD) along with representatives from each of the five employee associations, Washoe Education Association (WEA), Washoe School Principals Association (WSPA), Washoe Education Support Professionals (WESP), Association of Professional and Technical Administrators (APTA) and Washoe County School Police Officers Association (WCSPOA), have reached landmark agreements that will save the district nearly $11 million dollars (this includes Executive Cabinet members taking 5 furlough days and the Superintendent 10 furlough days and no step increases, which exceeds the association group agreements).

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Does the school district have to replace textbooks every year?

As part of the both the recent special and regular legislative sessions, school districts in Nevada were given greater flexibility on use of funds dedicated to textbooks. This new flexibility will allow the school district to retain existing textbook materials and use the saved funds to help address our budget shortfall.

Update: It has been recommended to the Board of Trustees that the school district take advantage of flexibility provided by the Legislature to use $2 million in previously required expenditures for textbooks or textbook equivalents to help close the budget gap.

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Why not use the reserves in the fund balance to cover the budget cuts?

The school district has a policy to maintain a minimum unreserved/undesignated budgeted ending fund balance that is established and maintained because an adequate fund balance is necessary for the District’s overall financial management strategy and a key factor in external agencies’ measurement of the District’s financial strength. Because the school district has been prudent in building up its fund balances over the last several years, it has helped to address some of the $44 million cuts made in the last three fiscal years. The fund balance is budgeted to be spent down further in fiscal year 2011. Spending down the fund balance further will be part of the conversation moving forward but this needs to be done thoughtfully as these balances not only have to address fiscal years 2010 and 2011 but the next biennium where further cuts may occur. Also once the reserves are spent, they cannot be replenished as long as expenses exceed revenues.

Update: It has been recommended to the Board of Trustees that the school district use $12.2 million from the district's fund balances and contingency funds judiciously set aside recent years to help close the budget gap.

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Can the school district save on cost by having computers automatically go to sleep when there is no activity?

This suggestion can and will be approached from two directions by our Information Technology department. First, all new computers will be set to automatically shut down at the end of the day to conserve resources. Second, we will publish directions on how to set computers so they will automatically go to sleep based on the needs of the user.

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Can the school district reduce the cost by printing to networked copiers, printing only to black and white printers, and minimizing the amount of color printing done?

Our Information Technology and Purchasing departments are both teaming together to seek ways to reduce printing and paper cost by getting education information out to our locations on these subjects. Where opportunities exist, networked copiers will be used for printing. To save paper, two-sided instructions are being sent out to locations along with directions for electronic documents. Users who have color printers are being asked to send printing requirements to a standard black and white printer when possible.

Update: Communications in Pinnacle, the school district’s now paperless new publication, are being presented to all schools and departments on how to save costs in this area. Additionally this committee is working to challenge all schools and departments to reduce paper usage by hopefully ten percent or more, communications and reports will be provided on this challenge.

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Can the school district review the white fleet to save cost?

In an effort to reduce costs and improve efficiency, the Washoe County School District’s Transportation Department has been engaged in an ongoing analysis of the District’s white fleet vehicle usage. Since the process began in January, nearly 50 vehicles have been removed from the fleet with further reductions anticipated in the near future. The goals of the white fleet efficiency project are:
1) Complete an analysis of every vehicle in the district including miles driven, maintenance cost, insurance cost, age of vehicle, use of vehicle, assigned drives, etc.
2) Eliminate as many vehicles as possible while simultaneously not increasing individual mileage cost to the district.
3) Eliminate or redeploy vehicles based on department and district analysis.
4) Align and assign department administrator responsibility with all vehicles in each department.
5) Improve systems of efficiency including department motor pools and inter-department motor pools.

Update: The school district has identified $100,000 in this process to help close the budget gap. Additional savings from this process may also help in future years.

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Will the District increase class sizes to address the budget?

The School Board and school district leadership are doing everything they can to minimize the impacts of cuts to the classroom. However given that 86% of the District’s budget are salary and benefits and the size of the cuts required are so large, class sizes have to be a part of the conversation as we work our way through this process. It should be noted the most recent special legislative session provided school districts in Nevada with greater flexibility in class sizes for grades 1, 2 and 3, if needed.

Update: It has been recommended to the Board of Trustees that the school district take advantage of flexibility provided by the Legislature by increasing class size in grades 1, 2 and 3 by two students to save $6 million to help close the budget gap.

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Why doesn’t the school district eliminate athletics or go to pay for play like other states?

Athletics does have a cost to it just as other programs in the school district, however cutting this program or having students pay for all of it is problematic. First, several educational studies indicate that athletics is a very important educational learning opportunity tool that keeps kids in school and graduating, our core mission. Another consideration is that pay for play creates an equity issue, quite simply some can afford to pay and others will not be able to do so. Others would argue that having kids playing sports is much better than doing other things that may not be productive. Finally, it should be pointed out that student athletes and their families contribute countless hours in practice, fundraising and contributing their own funds to participate. While reviewing cuts in this area, we must consider the many positive benefits that this program provides.

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Can the school district go to a four-day school week?

Several publications have stated that of the 15,000 plus school districts nationwide, 100 school districts in 17 states have gone to a four-day school week. The reason for doing this is that costs can be saved for transportation, utilities and some salaries by not operating school district facilities on the fifth day of the week. The challenge that this creates is that 180 days of legally required instruction now has to be compressed into a shorter time period. In a time where we are competing with other countries that educate their children over 200 days, this becomes very difficult. There are also the impacts on parents and various child programs that have to adjust to four day school schedules. While arguments can be made for and against this idea, most would agree that it is should be a choice of last resort.

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Can the school district stop printing direct deposit remittance advices and provide them electronically to save cost?

Yes, this would save various costs, like printing, school site time distributing, mail delivery time and business staff time preparing, sorting and putting advices in envelopes for distribution. Just in the last couple of months the school district implemented employee on-line where all employees can go to get current and past pay stubs. However, further study is still needed before we can implement this change.

Update: The school district is having positive conversations with our bargaining groups to consider implementation of this suggestion possibly by the start of the next school year.

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Why doesn’t the school district eliminate transportation?

Before considering this, it is important to understand the data of what transportation provides and also that it is a significant tool to helping students stay in school and graduate, again our core mission. The data is as follows:

  • In 2009-2010 over 24,000 Students rode the bus on a daily basis.
  • Athletic and field trips would be impacted.
  • Almost 50% of our students are on free and reduced lunch and ride our buses, especially high school students.

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Why doesn’t the school district outsource transportation?

This is an area that the District has studied over the years. Here are the Pros and the Cons that have been identified:

Pros to Outsourcing

  • Reduced personnel costs, most contractors provide lower or no benefits to their employees.
  • Contractor focuses only on transportation and may be more efficient in dealing with transportation issues.
  • Contractor may be able to purchase buses at a lower rate.
  • Competition between companies may result in lower costs.

Cons to Outsourcing

  • Poor public relations initially for the district.
  • Diminished District morale, especially among those directly affected by outsourcing.
  • Depending on how the contract is negotiated, District could lose control of transportation issues.
  • Depending on how contract is negotiated, current drivers could be replaced with outsourced company personnel from out of the Reno-Sparks area.
  • If outsourcing occurs, and the District decides to return to its own program, start-up costs would be extremely prohibitive.

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Why doesn’t the school district change the walk zones for transportation?

We have had a lot of discussion and analysis regarding our walk zones. Currently our zones set by the Board are at 1 mile or more for Elementary students, 2 miles or more for Middle School students, and 3 miles or more for High School students.

If we increased the zones by an additional .5-mile at all three levels we would have transportation cost reduction of approximately $1,167,000. Approximately 6,000 students would be affected. If we increased the zones by 1 mile at the Middle and High School levels we would have a cost reduction of approximately $670,000 and approximately 4,000 students may be affected.

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Is the district looking to eliminate multi track schools to save funds?

Multi track schools do cost additional funds to administer as well as added costs for utilities. Enrollment determines if a school needs to be on multi track or not. The district is closely monitoring enrollments and is evaluating declining enrollments at neighbor schools to see if there are opportunities to reduce multi track schools. Note, multi track schools were implemented to save on the cost of building new schools when growth exceeded available capital revenues.

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Can the school district advertise on buses and the web?

The school district has become aware that this is a practice that some school districts in other states have started. As such, we are currently researching to see how it can be done in Nevada.

Update: A school district committee has been formed and information has and continues to be collected on this subject matter. A recommendation will be provided to the Board of Trustees in the near future.

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Why doesn’t the school district combine services with the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) for transportation?

  • WCSD currently partners with RTC serving students at Opportunity School, Washoe High School, and several other special circumstances.
  • The majority of students riding the buses daily are elementary students. It would not be appropriate to have elementary students riding with the general public
  • RTC only travels routes on the main street. WCSD needs to go into neighborhoods to pick up students.

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Can the school district raise funds from other sources such as foundations, donations and fundraisers?

Yes funds can be raised through all of these sources. As part of the current strategic planning process, the school district is looking to enhance its support of foundation and fundraising efforts. Additionally, the school district has over the years received donations from caring community members seeking to help schools for various causes. Finally, our individual schools working with their parent and faculty groups bring in funds every year to support needed programs and students. These funding sources may help us in the long term offset some of the cuts that we are required to make.

Please note that donations can be made directly to the Washoe County School District and they are tax deductible, see link www.washoe.k12.nv.us/docs/pdf/IRS.pdf. Additionally, the District has a separate fundraising group called the Education Alliance which is a non-profit, 501(c) 3 organization created by civic and business leaders in partnership with educators to support all students in Washoe County. You can learn about this group at www.washoe.k12.nv.us/docs/pdf/EdAlliance_brochure.pdf.

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A number of suggestions were submitted regarding facilities and the ways to save funds on utilities and how cleaning practices are performed. Is the District looking here to save budgetary funds?

UTILITY SAVINGS

Lights: WCSD is currently retrofitting schools with occupancy sensors for lighting controls. Additionally, stickers have been placed at many schools reminding occupants to turn off the lights when they leave. The occupancy sensors have about a three year return on investment, so they do not reduce costs until the third to fourth year. Until then, the cost of installation is being paid back. Custodial staff is directed to leave only the lights on in the classrooms they are immediately cleaning. This practice will be more closely monitored to assure adherence.

Building Temperature: Most of the schools heating and cooling systems are controlled by a computerized, building wide Energy Management Control System (EMCS). The systems are programmed and monitored at the District office restricting most control capabilities at the schools. Individual rooms have a temperature override in them to adjust interior temperatures up or down within a fixed range (room setting plus or minus 2 degrees). Room temperatures are controlled between set points based upon the use of the area within the schools. For heating the set point ranges between 68 and 72 degrees; for cooling the set point ranges between 72 and 78 degrees. Room temperatures are set back to un-occupancy levels after school hours, weekends and holidays; 55 degrees for heating and 80 degrees for cooling. The systems are normally turned off or set back to minimal usage during the summer break.

A number of schools have obsolete inefficient heating/cooling systems that were installed at the time the school was built. To correct the over heating and cooling conditions created by these systems normally requires the replacement of the entire heating/cooling system which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The District is in the process of replacing these inefficient systems as capital improvement funds become available. Some of the schools are scheduled for control system replacement which is less costly and will minimize the problem. However, these projects too are costly and in need of capital improvement funding.

Appliances in the Classrooms: It is estimated that a classroom refrigerator uses $30 of electric energy per year; a microwave uses $3 per year; coffee pots use $55 per year; space heaters use $50 per year and computers in sleep mode use $8 per year. It is estimated than annual savings could approach $200,000 if these appliances and use habits were restricted which is being considered as a budget savings measure.

Occupancy Awareness: The District is in the process of deploying a utility cost savings program which is designed to make school occupants more aware of efficient utility use; energy, water, garbage (recycling), etc.). and how their routine behavior can affect it. Any waste observations should be reported to the school’s Site Facilities Coordinator so that they can take the necessary action to correct the deficiency. Some deficiencies are the responsibility of on-site personnel and some require operational corrections/repair/adjustments that must be handled by more knowledgeable technicians dispatched from the District or contracted.

Energy Efficiency Building Retrofits: The District has been working closely with NvEnergy through their Sure Bet energy rebate program since 2005. Participation in this program has identified energy saving building modifications resulting in $1,823,700 of electricity savings that has provided the District $281,874 in rebates from NvEnergy to help offset the cost of the retrofit. Most of the retrofits have targeted lighting systems to make them more efficient through lamp replacement and occupancy sensors. However, as with any retrofit, a funding source is necessary since the rebate only covers a fraction of the cost.

The District has received a $1,441,000 grant for the installation of photovoltaic (solar collecting electricity generating) systems. Leverage with rebate incentives the District has received from NvEnergy, thirteen schools will be retrofitted with the alternative energy systems resulting in more than $150,000 in annual electricity savings.

Recycling: The District is in the process of deploying a district-wide, single stream recycling program. A contract has been awarded to a waste management provider for the program, at no charge to the District. As an added benefit to the “green” purpose of recycling is the $200,000 estimated annual savings in waste disposal costs. The single stream program allows recycling of paper, glass, and metal. The only waste that is not recyclable is that which is contaminated by food or human waste.

Update: The school district has achieved $2 million in utility savings by implementing energy efficiencies and rate reductions to help close the budget gap.

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CUSTODIAL and BUILDING MAINTENANCE SERVICES

Currently, custodial services are staffed for an average cleaning station of between 28,000 and 30,000 square feet per full-time employee; 15% to 20% larger than the national average. In the early 2000’s, the District developed the “Pro Cleaning” process which allowed it to reduce its custodial staff by 20%. The process was awarded the Cashman Good Government Award in 2004 by the Nevada Taxpayers Association and has been adopted by school districts and colleges throughout the western United States and Canada.

The District has three levels of cleaning; Pro, Flex and Lean. Each decreasing level of cleanliness is employed depending upon a schools custodial coverage at the time due to absences and the District’s inability to provide coverage. The Pro level is with normal custodial staff.

Currently the District is filling school custodial vacancies with substitute allocations and not filling the substitute vacancy. As a result, the District’s ability to cover custodial absences in the schools is diminishing. This will continually reduce the number of custodial substitute positions in the District from a total of 28 allocations last year to 5, saving the District salary and benefit costs but consequently affecting the level of cleanliness in the schools.

The District is currently evaluating other custodial service options for schoolhouse cleaning. Schools present unique conditions different from commercial buildings. Most schools are used afterhours by the community, i.e. Boy and Girl Scouts, civic groups, public agencies, etc. requiring a District employee in attendance for coordination and after use lockup. Workers must have security checks since they are working around children. Most of the custodians’ time is spent sanitizing the many surfaces children come in contact with during the day to minimize the spread of contagious diseases which could cause illness impacting a child’s learning ability. Custodians are also required to perform minor building maintenance as directed by their supervisors.

The more technical building repairs are performed by skilled trades technicians (electrician, plumbers, carpenters, heating/cooling techs, etc…) that are dispatched from the District to the schools. Many of the repair tasks require the service of only one technician. These technicians are provided with their own vehicle to maximize the labor efficiency of the full time employee. Where a majority of the technical tasks require more than one technician, a single vehicle will be assigned to multiple technicians.

A school building requires painting on a cyclic basis. It is recommended that exteriors be painted every 5-10 years for weather protection, cleanliness and aesthetics and that interiors be painted every 10-15 years for cleanliness and aesthetics. Currently the District’s cycles for both exterior and interior are 15-20 years. This is due to a paint crew size not adequately staffed to meet the labor demands required for the recommended cycles. Besides general exterior and interior painting requirements, there are maintenance painting demands. These include graffiti abatement, exterior metal protection such as mobile classroom stairways and hand rails and weather damaged surfaces to name of few.

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CONSUMABLES AND CONTRACTED SERVICES

The District provides bottled water only when the school’s water service is disrupted or if an area of the school requires water for students but water service is not available. The District utilizes one-time or annual contacts for many of its needed services to provide a labor resource not available in-house or to augment existing in-house labor resources for peak periods or emergency situations. These contracts are competitively bid or quoted to obtain the lowest, best pricing.

LEASED SPACES

The District has formed a committee to analyze its leased spaces and to explore opportunities for reducing costs. Options being explored are renegotiation of existing lease contracts, consolidation into lower priced buildings and utilizing District owned spaces.

SCHOOL CLOSURE

The District is currently analyzing current and future student enrollment trends to identify opportunities for the relocation of students to allow schools to be closed. These opportunities will be presented to the Washoe County School District Board of Trustees.

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Why not use Capital budgets to help the General Fund budget?

Capital projects funds or budgets are restricted by voters and law for purposes such as the construction of new schools and the revitalization of older schools. As such, the Capital Funds cannot be used for general operations or the General Fund budget which is the fund that supports the day-to-day operations of the school system, including the salaries/benefits of teachers and other staff, supplies and materials, and other operational needs of schools and departments.

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Why doesn’t the school district charge for transportation?

The board of trustees of a school district which has decided, pursuant to NRS 392.300, to furnish transportation for public school students to and from school does not have the authority to charge a fee for that transportation. AGO 81-7(6-2-1981).

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Can the school district charge tuitions to students?

Article 11 of the Nevada Constitution requires providing a public education to Nevada residents. Pursuant to NRS 386.350, the board of trustees has no powers that conflict with the Nevada Constitution. Charging tuition would conflict with the requirement to provide a public education to Nevada residents.

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EDUCATING THE PUBLIC ON SCHOOL DISTRICT FUNDS, AUDITS AND HOW FUNDING WORKS IN NEVADA

District Funds:

  • General Fund – Used for general operating expenditures of the school district such as salaries and benefits, utilities, supplies and equipment.
  • Capital Projects (Bond) Funds – Restricted by voters and law to fund capital projects such as the construction of new schools and the revitalization of older schools.
  • Special Revenue (Grant) Funds - Restricted to the specific purpose of the grantor or donor for purposes such as Title I, II and III, Special Education, Class Size Reduction, Full Day Kindergarten, Education Alliance, Community Education, Gifts and Donations and Wellness.
  • Debt Service Funds – Restricted by to law to fund the repayment of school district debt such as bonds and leases.
  • Enterprise Fund – Restricted to the food services provided to schools funded by user charges and federal subsidies.
  • Internal Service Funds - Restricted to the self-insurance of health, workers’ compensation and property/casualty services of the district.

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District Audits:

The school district is audited by an external auditor each year. As part of this process, a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report is prepared. This document is an excellent resource to see how all funds are budgeted and the actual results that occur. Go to the following link to see the most recent audits for our organization:

http://www.washoecountyschools.org/community/annual-reports-publications

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How Funding Works in Nevada: Funding for K-12 Public Schools in Nevada is administered by the State Department of Education in Carson City. To get information from the Department, go to the following link: www.doe.nv.gov/

DSA FACT SHEET which is a good tool to better understand education funding for school districts in Nevada.