Middle school principal hopes for best, prepared for worst

Like every other principal in the Clark County School District, Leavitt Middle School’s leader, Keith Wipperman, has been attempting to hit an unknown target with his budget.

School organizational teams (SOT) expected to receive their strategic budgets Sept. 18 and revise them before turning them back in Sept. 22. But the district asked schools to hold off on budget discussions after discovering an accounting error that would have had schools cutting too much from their budgets.

“I don’t know what they’re doing at this point,” Wipperman said of the district’s recent announcement. “The figures we were given originally were not the correct figures. … It’s frustrating. But I will say this. The district is somewhat under the gun, and the longer this goes, the more money it costs. If you don’t solve the budget crisis, the budget crisis just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.”

Wipperman had expected to have a $43,000 deficit, he explained to SOT members at a Sept. 19 meeting, which included two teachers and two parents. Most of the costs were static, such as wages.

“Under the first numbers, I’ve got $60,000 for the rest of the year,” he said. “I need at least $52,000 to run the building, and that’s if I’m being very tight. It leaves no room moving forward to do great things for the kids.”

In recent years, the school has lost elective classes, after-school programs and extracurricular programs. But the school values activities outside the classroom, Wipperman said. He used $2,500 to start a soccer league for students.

“Was it necessary? No,” Wipperman said. “But I thought it was worth it. I look at what affects the children the most.”

SOT members considered ways to save money, including staff cuts and program cuts.

“Our break-event point is $34,000,” Wipperman said. “If we can absorb $22,000 of that, we’ll be OK.”

In the end, the group had to vote on two scenarios: if the the budget numbers came back worse than expected or if the numbers were the more manageable $22,000 or less. When he received the final numbers and if the school is in the red more than anticipated, Wipperman said he would call each SOT member for another vote.

That night’s meeting felt more important and more stressful than previous ones, members said.

“This is one of the more involved ones with more critical decisions,” said Greg Cassell, a parent on the board. “Everything else has been building blocks up to this point.”

However dire the outlook, Wipperman said he is proud of how his school has handled adversity.

“We’ve taken budget hits for seven or eight years in a row,” he said. “They keep raising the class sizes, but the staff here has always done a good job of protecting students from those things. And I think we’ve done a good job of not having parents feel a decrease in services, despite the fact that we’re doing more with less.”

Contact Jan Hogan at jhogan@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2949.