Nye County school deficit raises fears of staffing cuts

Nye County School District’s deficit is no longer an abstract budget gap. It has become a countywide fight over who gets cut first, with staffing, student support and campus stability all on the table as leaders face pressure to settle on a final spending plan.

The issue surfaced again in a June 8 KPVM-TV studio interview with Matthew Winterhawk, who discussed school board issues and a deficit that has many people concerned. The station said it planned continued coverage with interviews from a local school board member and a Pahrump parent, a sign that the debate had already moved well beyond accounting and into the daily lives of families across Nye County.

The sharpest concern centers on jobs. Earlier budget proposals included cuts to campus monitors, social workers and district-level staff across multiple departments. The Nevada School Social Work Association warned that the third plan could lead to a 66% loss of school social worker services in the district, a steep reduction that would affect student counseling, crisis response and other support services in a county where schools are spread across a wide geographic area.

Backlash to those proposals was immediate. Dozens of community members showed up in Pahrump and also sent letters to object to the cuts, pushing school leaders to release a third budget proposal after trustees rejected two earlier versions. The district’s budget calendar shows the issue moving through board budget workshops on May 8 and May 15, followed by a regular board meeting on June 2 and a Wellness Committee meeting on June 5, underscoring how much of June has been consumed by the fiscal fight.

The pressure has been sharpened by the county’s own budget crisis. Nye County closed a roughly $7 million hole in its general fund budget on May 27, just ahead of the Nevada Department of Taxation deadline of May 29. County Comptroller Zena Teich said the general fund projected $57.7 million in revenues against $54.4 million in expenditures before contingency and transfers pushed the budget upside-down. Commissioners approved a 32% reduction in services and supplies, a $1.2 million cut in salaries and wages, and a $1.5 million reduction to the jail fund.

That countywide austerity matters in a district that serves Pahrump, Tonopah, Beatty, Round Mountain and Amargosa Valley. Nye County had also expected Secure Rural Schools money to help steady the books after a lapse, with almost $6 million anticipated for fiscal years 2024 through 2026, but the school deficit still left families facing the same question now confronting county leaders: which services can survive the next round of cuts.