School District to Fill 30 Positions with Funding from Jobs Bill (NV)

August 27, 2010

Every school in Lyon County will be getting at least one new teacher as the Lyon County School District will spend its $3.4 million allotment from a new federal jobs bill to fill 30 positions throughout the District.

The District received notification last Wednesday, August 18, that it’s allotment of the $83 million received by the state of Nevada would be $3.4 million.

District officials immediately went into overdrive to figure out how the money could be spent, and where additional personnel was most needed.

District staff hastily came up with a plan that includes 30 positions, and which was approved Tuesday night by the District’s Board of Trustees.

The District had lost 35 licensed staff because of budget cuts this year, but will now be able refill most of those positions.

Of those 35, 12 opted for early separation, six moved or rejected callbacks, eight were called back to fill positions prior to the Education Jobs bill, and nine will be reinstated through the jobs bill funding.

Under the plan, each school in the district will receive one new teacher, with each school’s School Improvement Committee and principal deciding where that teacher is most needed.

In addition, all five high schools in the district will receive a second additional teacher.

Yerington and Fernley elementary schools will also each receive an English as a Second Language Teacher; Dayton Intermediate, East Valley Elementary and Cottonwood Elementary will receive a curriculum interventionist; and Dayton Elementary and Silver Springs Elementary will each receive a maintenance worker.

Trustee James Huckaby was the lone School Board member to oppose the plan to fill the 30 positions. The Board had heard a presentation on the District’s Adequate Yearly Progress earlier in the meeting, and Huckaby said rather than giving every school a position, the positions should be created at those schools that did not make AYP.

"We need to stop and think about what we’re spending money for and are we best utilizing it," he said. "Great staffing is the key, and this smacks of everybody getting the same thing and not addressing our concerns."

However, McIntosh said the proposal given to the Board was a collaborative effort throughout the District and was intended to give each school the opportunity to do what it believed was needed most.

She also said the District might be coming back before the Board to refine the plan for the positions, depending on how the hiring p rocess goes.

McIntosh said the item was placed on the agenda before the District even received the notice of how much money it was receiving, just in case the District had received word before the meeting, and so the District could move quickly with notifications of the open positions in an attempt to fill them before school begins next Monday.

The money the District is receiving is part of a $26 billion federal jobs bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on August 10.

McIntosh originally thought the District would receive about $500,000 from the funds, and was excited when she received the notification of the actual amount.

"We are absolutely delighted," she said, adding that she’s not sure how the money was allocated to each district.

"I’m just happy that so far we’ve won the race," she said.

Lyon County will receive $3,413,586, the third largest amount of any district in the state.

Clark County received the largest disbursement, $54,221,910. Washoe County will receive $12,191,117.

The Education jobs legislation allows school districts to spread the funding over two years, and under the plan approved by the Board of Trustees Tuesday night, $2.1 million will be spent in the upcoming school year and $1.3 million will be spent the second year.

According to the Initial Guidance for States on the Education Jobs Fund Program, sent to each state by the U.S. Department of Education, a school district receiving the money must use its funds only for compensation and benefits and other expenses, such as support services, necessary to retain existi ng employees, to recall or rehire former employees, and to hire new employees, in order to provide early childhood, elementary, or secondary education and related services.