CARSON CITY, Nev.—The head of Nevada's largest school district said Thursday he may have to reduce staffing by about 1,000 positions if lawmakers go along with Gov. Jim Gibbons' proposed budget cuts.

At a Senate-Assembly subcommittee hearing on budget cuts to K-12 schools, Clark County School Superintendent Walt Rulffes said he hoped to make the staff reductions through attrition, and by keeping vacant approximately 300 currently unfilled positions.

Rulffes also said he would take a 10 percent pay cut "in the spirit of Las Vegas" if Gibbons followed suit, raising the stakes of the governor's earlier promise to cut his salary by 6 percent.

"If he will take it, so will I," Rulffes said.

Gibbons spokesman Dan Burns, noting the governor earns about half the salary of the Clark schools chief, said, "The whole proposal to reduce state employee pay is not a game, it's not funny, it's not a joke."

"To make a joke like this in a jovial fashion is just disgraceful," Burns added. "Why doesn't the superintendent just lower his salary so it is equal to the governor's?"

For the K-12 schools, the governor's proposal would result in the state's base per-pupil funding dropping from $5,098 this year to $4,945 next fiscal year. It would increase by just $1 in the second year of the budget cycle. Nevada currently is ranked 49th in the nation in per-pupil spending.

Under Gibbons' plan, pay for all school employees would decrease by 6 percent,

and cost-of-living increases would be eliminated. That has prompted questions about the legality of interfering with contract negotiations.

"Obviously, no one likes the thought of a 6 percent cut, or a suspension of merit increases for state or public employees," said Sen. Minority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno. "I would hope that the end result would be that any potential cuts won't be that drastic, if at all."

"However, we know we're in a difficult time," Raggio said. "No one has yet suggested where we would get the additional revenues, that are not now forthcoming, to reach a point where cuts of this kind would not be required. But I think we've got to face the reality that some cuts may be necessary."

Raggio also criticized Clark County officials for negotiating for cost-of-living increases with employee unions at a time when state government may have to cut employee pay by 6 percent.

Antoinette Cavanaugh, superintendent of the Elko County School District, said that two of her schools, where 80 percent of students are eligible for free lunch, rose from poor performance to high achieving in the past five years due to more funding for after-school programs and professional development. Both initiatives may be cut under the proposed budget.

Adult high school diploma programs also may see budget reductions based on declining enrollment, but lawmakers countered that in an economic downturn, people return to school, so enrollment may increase.

State schools chief Keith Rheault said that if enrollment increased past the maximum allotted in the proposed budget, a waiting list would be started.

"Maybe we should be rethinking what we're doing to that particular group of people," said Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas. "Those are the ones who need to get on the right track. Otherwise we're going to pay for it in the back end of the system through corrections and other means."


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