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Glenn Cook
School Board feelin' mighty greedy
Updated: Feb. 12, 2012 | 8:13 a.m.
Frustrated sales workers, rejoice. You no longer have the hardest sell in town. The new front-runner for the most ridiculous, laughable, are-you-kidding-me pitch in Nevada? The Clark County School District.
School Board trustees decided Thursday night to begin the process of placing on the November ballot a property tax increase that would generate $5.3 billion over 10 years. They're prepared to ask voters to give them the money -- about $100 per year for a typical homeowner -- for construction projects, renovations, maintenance and new equipment.
For a district with declining enrollment. For a district that recently finished the most aggressive new-school construction and renovation campaign the country has ever seen. For a district that serves one of the most distressed housing and job markets in America.
And during an election season in which voters could be asked to support up to five other plans to raise taxes.
Good luck with that. Trustees have a better chance of selling an AMC Gremlin at a classic car show.
How much is $5.3 billion? Steve Wynn didn't spend that much to build the Wynn Las Vegas and Encore resorts on the Strip. It's almost enough money to fund all state government operations -- not just K-12, but higher education, prisons, welfare programs and every other agency -- for two years.
For $5.3 billion, the Nevada Department of Transportation could finish nearly every major highway expansion project that's on the drawing board for Southern Nevada. For $5.3 billion, you could pay the entire construction bill for McCarran International Airport's monstrous Terminal 3 project, the M Resort and The Cosmopolitan.
$5.3 billion? Seriously?
Movie villain Dr. Evil would be embarrassed to shake down the free world for half as much.
Where would all the money go? For starters, nine new elementary schools would be built to provide relief at the district's most crowded campuses, thereby getting more than 7,000 kids out of portable classrooms. Nine other schools would be completely replaced. That would cost about a half-billion dollars. Only $4.8 billion to go!
Some $1.6 billion would be spent on technology and equipment. Of course, older facilities (and by old, I mean a school that was built 20 years ago) would get more money than newer ones, but that still averages out to $4.5 million per campus, leaving about $3.2 billion in the slush fund.
That money is for major renovations such a new roofs, new air-conditioning systems and new electrical and plumbing, among other improvements -- an average of $9 million for each of the district's 357 schools.
How far does $9 million go? For heaven's sake, the UNLV basketball team's new practice facility, the massive Mendenhall Center, cost only $13 million!
Are they lining up Pentagon contractors for the work, or what? The numbers make no sense, especially when you consider that charter schools somehow get by with zero public funding for facilities.
Superintendent Dwight Jones insisted last week that the money is not a wish list for Santa Claus, but the "reality of an immediate need."
In reality, a good chunk of this money is dedicated to creating a perceived equality of environment: Because so many students get to sit in classrooms in newer schools, the argument goes, it's unfair for other students to be forced to sit in older buildings or portables. Never mind that at many of the district's older schools, in the valley's urban core, the system spends much more operating revenue, on a per-student basis, than it does at newer, suburban campuses.
News flash: Kids don't flunk because they attend an old schoolhouse. If that were the case, the entire East Coast would be in the achievement basement.
But the School Board can't do anything about the taxes that feed the state's general fund. That's up to the Legislature. Or the public, through the initiative process.
And it promises to be a busy initiative season. Already, one has been filed with the secretary of state to raise the gaming tax rate on large casinos from 6.75 percent to 9 percent. Another one targets the mining industry. The Nevada AFL-CIO is expected to petition to create a new business margin tax. (A proposal to raise the sales tax rate in the resort corridor to fund a state-of-the-art arena already has qualified for November's ballot.) The squeeze is on.
Southern Nevada voters traditionally have supported tax increases that are directed to a specific purpose, if they can be convinced of the need. They've supported previous school district construction bonds. But those were put before voters in times of record growth, not during a prolonged recession.
A handful of aging campuses do indeed need to be replaced. Several others need major renovations. The school district, like most every other enterprise in the valley, is making fiscal sacrifices, and if some maintenance work is delayed too long, it will lead to more expensive repairs down the road.
But the School Board is not lobbying lawmakers for a dollar figure that can be adjusted on the fly to gain the number of votes needed for passage. Once trustees make the commitment to place their plan on the ballot, it's an all-or-nothing proposition. If they ask for too much -- and they sure as heck are right now -- voters won't consider their arguments for a second.
The School Board has to do a better job of prioritizing. If trustees try to make the case that they have $5.3 billion worth of critical, equally important construction and equipment needs, then they've lost this issue already. In a region where the average campus is just 22 years old, no one's buying it.
Glenn Cook (gcook@reviewjournal.com) is a Review-Journal editorial writer.
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Otto de Fay: CCSD gets around the administrator scam by making teacher quasi administrators. Administator work, at teacher pay. CCSD is full of teachers who do not work in the classroom, but get paid as teachers. They are quasi administrators. Ask Chris G. on the Clark County Commission when they last time she taught a class. Do you know how much money the district spends on this? Enough to put it in the red. It is a problem that can be fixed. The present mindset is to have one people filling the bucket and another emptying it. Bloated is not the work. Get a copy of a CCSD Phone book and look at the "project facilitators" "project coordinators" "project liasons" "mentor teachers" and every other job they can think of.
Wow- the school district is asking for money to help fix older schools not fix their fancy corporate offices...how would you like to sit in a classsroom overcrowded with children in the summer and have no air! Or better yet how would you like to be stuck in a classroom that blows out icy cold air in the winter time. Now I'm sure if that was happening at your precious casinos you peopel would have not a second guess to fix it. That is what is wrong with the state the toal lack of respect for education. You complain that we are such a crappy district but what the hell are you willing to do to help fix it? Not a damn thing...what a shame!
Wow manwyze...I'm glad that GED education you received for free seems like it worked out very well for you...could you perhaps spell any word correctly or just have your post make sense at all?
As my ancestors will attest to, we can tell the USSC to shove it. Or as Andy Jackson said; "you have your decision, now enforce it." But that would require both a sheriff and a school board with a spine. That body part seems completely lacking ion high officials in these parts.
Zoning is a mess. As for the illegals,take that one up wit tha US Supreme Court,they have already handed down a decision.
Tear up the zoning grids. Reconfigure using geometric shapes instead of gerrymandering (to take care of the "privileged"). People may complain, but not if there is some semblance of logic behind "what kid goes where".
But that would require honest School Board Trustees (and no one can confuse Carolyn Edwards of being truthful!) and Zoning committee members that aren't rigging the system for the benefit of their own children!
Too many mid level admins, and too many illegals. My high school had a student body of 2k, but only one Dean of Students. Why do CCSD high schools need two for less? Illegals is self explanatory for anyone with even a borrowed brain cell. Take care of these two issues, and it will shock you how much money becomes available.
CCSD, zero credibility, needs to make one critical first move here: CUT roughly 50% of its useless administrators. Once that overdue purge yields a cool Many Many Millions, they can then try asking taxpayers for a prop tax hike, without risk of being laughed off their stage and out of town. Meanwhile, a simple NO to their delusional $5.3 Billion idea...will have to do.
Once again I noticed how you purposely did not display the comment I made about the paper's agenda.
To Deep.Thoughts: Why don't you try using deep thinking for a change? While you're at it try a dose of commons sense.