Preliminary budget talks indicate district could face $4.9 million shortfall
Carson City School Board trustees heard an update on budget assumptions for the upcoming school year Tuesday night, which according to Chief Financial and Operations Officer Spencer Winward, is the the “first bit of information of how the budget landscape is starting to shape up.”
Currently, budget assumptions predict the district will be facing a significant shortfall of around $4.9 million due to a decrease in attendance and an increase in educator salary and benefits.
He said that at this point in the process, there are “still a lot of unknowns,” which is why the term assumption is used, “because we’re making a lot of it up as we go, but it’s informed based off the information we have.”
The kickoff to the budget process, Winward said, began Feb. 15 when the district received the preliminary revenue projections from the department of taxation. The tentative budget will be due on April 15 back to taxation, but because this is a legislative year, state law allows the district to amend a budget within 30 days of the end of the legislative session if needed, he said.
Legislative influence, governor’s budget
Winward said when it comes to a legislative year, final budgets can be up in the air until session ends entirely due to potentials for last minute budget changes.
“[There is a] high likelihood that happens just as things are finalized, and things will probably come right down to the end of the session that may have a fiscal impact on us,” Winward said. “We can take that budget and amend it within those 30 days, and we’d bring that again to you with a budget hearing [for you to approve].”
Trustee Molly Walt clarified that amendments would include moving line items from different categories, and Winward confirmed they cannot create any more budget authority but rather it would be a rearrangement.
A determination of all district budgetary futures comes today, as the legislature will hear the K-12 education budget presentation. With the state facing a $335 million deficit in Gov. Joe Lombardo’s proposed budget, some have wondered if per-pupil funding will get the axe.
Lombardo instituted a record increase in per-pupil funding in 2023, but under his budget proposal this year, the pot of money directed to adjust per-pupil funding would decrease by almost $53 million in 2026 — projecting to decrease by $13 per pupil in 2025, and an additional $25 the next.
He also recommended a decrease of nearly $44 million in at-risk pupil weighted funding, but recommended increases in educator salaries and funding for charter school transportation, which would increase overall funding to the Pupil-Centered Funding Plan by 3% in 2026.
Carson City School District shortfall likely
Contrary to those estimates, however, Winward said in Carson, the overall budget allocation for education is described as “flat funding,” and said they’d be looking at about a $3 increase in per pupil funding — roughly a $20,000 increase for the district. In 2027, if the proposed amount of $75 per pupil holds, it would be slightly over half a million dollars.
Winward said district-wide, they are anticipating enrolling 45 less students next year than this year, which is “continuing our moderate decline that, unfortunately, gives us less resources to work with.”
With less enrollment, even with their estimated increased in per pupil funding, it leaves the district’s budget at $80.84 million — a loss of $631,000 from 2025’s budget.
In addition, employee benefits through PERS will be increasing 3.25% from 33.5% to 36.75% to the tune of around $1.8 million. Additional estimated or projected costs of step increases are around $860,000, COLA increases are 1% ($811,000), and health insurance increases are 10% ($485,000).
“The PERS increase … takes effect July 1, and our portion of $1.8 million [compared with] the $20,000 new dollars we’re going to get — it starts us off on the wrong foot,” Winward said.
Employee compensation makes up about 85% of the total budget, he said.
Other general cost increases include utility costs, an increase to the general liability insurance for 2025, and an increase in paper products, especially in food service.
In total, the budget is facing a projected deficit of $4.9 million.
Positives and caveats
Some positives, according to Winward, are that the district has been doing “excellent work” in reducing staffing vacancies and inflation projections are lower than in previous years.
Winward said these numbers are not final, and the district will continue to look into ways they can save and reduce the deficit without reducing any services.
“The nice thing is our district positioned itself to where if we do have a large deficit, it’s not going to put us in any danger,” he said. “[The] fund balance is still healthy, and after a year like [the one projected], I would consider it to still be healthy.”
The fund balance at the end of 2024 was $17.3 million, according to Winward.
Trustee Mike Walker also pointed out the district is also in the process of shifting grant funded positions into the general fund, and “it might be wise to start looking at what those programs are and figuring out where we could fill them in with vacancies we have.”
Winward said the estimates are also not taking into account retirements and resignations, which will improve the overall deficit when/if they occur. In addition, the budget is made as if every single position is fully staffed, which has not been the reality for both the Carson City School District, and districts throughout the state.
In addition, he said, there has been a “a lot of talk” about what the state is going to do regarding mental health, because there was a Department of Justice settlement.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, on January 3, 2025, a settlement agreement was announced between them and the state of Nevada to resolve the department’s findings that “Nevada violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C. by unnecessarily segregating children with behavioral health disabilities in institutional settings like hospitals and residential treatment facilities.”
Under the ADA and Olmstead, states are required to provide services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. According to the announcement, the agreement will “allow children with behavioral health disabilities to access the services they need without being forced to leave their homes, schools, and communities.” Nevada is just one of several states found to be in violation for similar reasons, including Maine, Florida and Alaska.
The ruling went on that, to increase community integration for these children, Nevada has made significant commitments in this agreement, including:
- Children who may have a behavioral health disability will be screened and assessed, and provided with service coordination;
- Children with behavioral health disabilities will have access to expanded home- and community-based services. These services include wraparound facilitation, mobile crisis and stabilization services, respite care, individual and family therapy, behavioral support services, family peer support and youth peer support;
- Nevada will improve diversion and transition processes to ensure children with behavioral health disabilities are being diverted from, and transitioned as quickly as possible from, segregated placements; and
- Nevada will strengthen its quality assurance and performance improvement system.
“The state has to do something,” Winward said. “There’s been absolute crickets on this. I think [the settlement], in itself, should [lead to] a substantial amount of funding that could come to districts and help with some of the costs that we have. But nothing has come out of that yet.”
While the district has often started with a deficit at the beginning of the year, the final budget was not in a deficit by the end.
Winward said he believes the deficit will improve as time goes on, and the revenue is still four months from being finalized. He said he’ll be at the legislature today during these discussions, and that “there’s a lot of unhappiness with these numbers across all districts. We are not unique in any way, so that’s what we’ll be, we’ll be working on both sides of that equation here over the coming months.”
Winward said the bottom line of the update is that the timing of session “does not make any of this easy for us, but again, because we have been good stewards of the dollars that we have had and put ourselves in a good position, the idea of a planned spend down of known deficit may be, hopefully, not this large in any way.”
This is just one update of many before the budget is finalized in April, and another update will be returning in May with potentially closer numbers to what final revenue and cost projections will be.
Mexican Consulate to visit Carson City providing information to families, community, and law enforcement
According to Sheriff Ken Furlong, the Mexican Consulate, or Consulado Móvil, will be visiting Carson City to speak with students, the Catholic community, and law enforcement representatives.
Infórmese sobre los servicios que ofrece el Consulado durante una visita previa haciendo clic aquí.
During public comment of Tuesday’s meeting, Furlong thanked the district, board members and Superintendent AJ Feuling for partnering with the sheriff’s office on an initiative to bring the Mexican Consulate to speak with students and the community.
“Carson folks [can] hear the challenges that they face, the fears they face, the resources that are available for those folks, and better educate our community,” Furlong said.
The event is being hosted by the St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church, and Furlong said that while he knows Trustee Lupe Ramirez wishes there could be a bigger room for a larger capacity to open the discussion up for a larger audience, space is limited with the church and the discussion is being offered to the congregation.
“The consulate is very excited to attend,” Furlong went on. “There will be an opportunity for Ms. Ramirez and [Feuling] to meet directly in a couple meetings that we plan on having along with sheriffs of the adjoining counties, Washoe County and Douglas County, to speak about issues that are key to us here. So I think this initiative, while it may seem small — it is very large, and it is a step in the right direction.”
Furlong said they want all of the students, families and community members that live in tow to feel safe, adding “that’s a challenge in today’s world, and that biggest challenge is led by misinformation.”
Ramirez thanked the sheriff, and said she appreciated what he’d said about improving relationships, “because that’s the only way that we can make things happen, working as a team, so thank you for your partnership.”
Carson High School announcements
According to CHS representative Diana Angcod, all spring sports are now underway, and athletes have been practicing throughout the week.
Student council announced their new student body officers and class officers for the next school year, and class member applications are still open.
Middle school recruitments for student council also happened this week and last week with Carson and Eagle Valley Middle schools.
The “matter week,” a mental health awareness week, will be held March 10 to 14, which includes new dress day themes and activities for the student body to help them receive stress and be aware of their mental health.
The Carson High Ski Team competed last week, and eleven students qualified to compete in the state competition.
Athletic Director Thomas Reymer was selected as the Athletic Director of the Year.
CHS speech and debate students took top spots at their debate competition in Reno, Cadet Anna Shane with NJROTC placed third at the regional 22 Air Rifle Championships, and the Carson High Bowling Team is currently unbeaten with 10-0 wins.
Pioneer High School announcements
Juniors completed their ACT testing, and Pioneer students thanked Carson High for coordinating with them, because “without their help, we wouldn’t have been able to get in smoothly and complete all our tests on time,” according to Pioneer representative Kaitlyn Nguyen.
Nguyen said their “week of kindness” was a “huge success,” during which students and staff made thank-you notes and notes of kindness for each other, as well as friendship bracelets.
They also completed kinds bingo cards, which were traded in for rewards on Monday, a kindness trivia quiz, and on Friday, they received kindness fortune cookies.
The speech and debate tournament in Elko went well, with Pioneer students taking home several awards for impromptu speeches among others, Nguyen said.
Pioneer National Honor Society students also participated in candy grams, which raised money to support the fight against domestic violence, and to offer notes to students who hadn’t received any before.
