‘Tell the truth this time’: Teachers outraged over budget

Rosemary Rodriguez did careful math to make her salary work. Then, her hours as a specialized program teacher assistant were cut.

A single mother who is working on getting her master’s degree, 29-year-old Rodriguez is already behind on her car payments. Now, she has to have difficult conversations with her 7-year-old son about cuts the family will have to make.

At a recent staff meeting, Schorr Elementary School handed out a sheet outlining the plan to reduce its costs by $225,000. The Clark County School District recently told schools it had detected a potential budget deficit, forcing principals around the district to re-evaluate and adjust their strategic budget plans — cutting staff, programming and supply funding.

Included in Schorr’s plan was cutting two staff members, $35,000 of extra duty pay for tutoring and training, and a yearly $1,000 stipend for all staff, to name a few.

Rodriguez said she was given the choice of whether to leave or take the hours reduction. With a lack of open opportunities given district-wide budget cuts, it was not much of a choice.

A letter to the district

Special education teacher Leann Silvia, who works at Steele Elementary School, grew so upset over the crisis that she sent a letter to the trustees and Interim Superintendent Brenda Larsen-Mitchell.

“This is my 4th year in the district and I’m learning quickly that as soon as one battle with CCSD leadership ends, there is another one right around the corner,” she wrote.

She added that it was “insulting” that the district blamed the potential deficit on litigation and cybersecurity expenses.

“In actuality, maybe it’s the raises Jara gave his buddies before he finally left our district?” she wrote.

School district officials did not respond to a request for comment.

In July, a Review-Journal investigation revealed that in former Superintendent Jesus Jara’s final weeks, he gave new contracts to his top administrators with added benefits that cost taxpayers $3 million.

She told the Review-Journal that the district often keeps staff in the dark, and she feels like she finds out more information about what is going on from Facebook than she does from the school district.

“I am urging you to do something different and tell the truth this time,” Silvia wrote.

Hurting the kids

Silvia also urged the district to think of the ways cuts could affect kids.

“It is evident that you despise your frontline educators, but to make decisions that negatively impact children is just cruel,” she wrote.

Rodriguez said she is not even sure how the student she works with is doing in the hour she used to work with him. By the time she sees him in the morning again, it is too late for him to be able to discuss and understand behavior from the day before.

“There’s nothing I can do,” she said.

Moving forward

Aimee Fuller said her school, Sewell Elementary School, has not been affected by the recent budget cuts. But she was worried about what the budget would look like going forward, specifically given that Gov. Joe Lombardo has called for an audit into the district’s budgeting.

“I am frustrated because the state did receive money to give teacher raises and now the district again is trying to villainize the teachers,” she said.

Part of the district’s message about the potential deficit budget was that it had not included the 8 percent teacher pay raises agreed upon last year — an aspect that has sparked outrage from the union and teachers across the district.

Charlotte Brigham, a third grade teacher at Schorr, said the issues have been especially difficult knowing how hard teachers worked for their raises. She recalls teachers lobbying in Carson City in order to bring funding to CCSD. Now, she said, she is concerned legislatures will not want to fund the district.

“It’s corruption at its finest,” Brigham said.

Now in her 19th year, Brigham said she has watched a pattern of inconsistency.

“Everyone is really tired of going through this over and over again,” Brigham said.

Contact Katie Futterman at kfutterman@reviewjournal.com.