OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Carson City School Board Meeting and Budget Workshop - March 24, 2026

Board of Supervisors — Tuesday, March 24, 2026
BodyCarson City, Nevada
SessionBoard of Supervisors
DateTuesday, March 24, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 5:05:44

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Shop to order.

0:01

This will be the first on the agenda.

0:03

The rest of the agenda will be taking place at 6 p.m.

0:06

So at this time we have a roundtable discussion among board members and staff addressing the following topic for discussion only no action.

0:14

This is a presentation and discussion regarding the general fund, summer school fund and gifts and donations fund in the Carson City School District presented by Spencer Woodward.

0:24

Thank you.

0:27

Thank you, Madam President, members of the board.

0:29

As you know, this will be our final workshop, at least at the level of detail that we've gone into all of the funds.

0:34

I'm going over the final three funds that we haven't covered in our previous workshops.

0:40

I have a couple of smaller funds that we'll start out with.

0:43

First one is our summer school fund.

0:46

As way of information, the last couple of years this fund has been uh mostly idle as summer school costs have been covered by ESSER funds.

0:53

We don't anticipate that this year, and we've budgeted accordingly.

0:57

Uh, where funds from this are generally transferred from the general fund.

1:02

Um so if you look at our worksheet here, we'll we'll quickly go over some of the expenditures.

1:08

And the bulk of this is for salary and benefits of 131,000.

1:12

The difference here is this does not cover any one position, one full-time equivalency.

1:17

It is all based off extra duty or extra hours performed by many employees who uh cover summer school.

1:24

Um we're required to have an administrative member there, nurse there, and then of course instructors and paraprofessionals.

1:30

And so that 131,000 covers mostly salary and a little bit of benefits because for these individuals there's not PERS cost for this because it's extra above and beyond their full-time equivalent positions.

1:42

On top of that, we also budget uh $73,800 for supplies as needed for summer school for a total amount of 205,000.

1:52

I believe last year that was pretty close to what we spent out of multiple funding sources to cover our summer school expenditures.

2:02

The revenues of where this comes from.

2:04

Um, we had some funds sitting there that were unspent from the COVID years.

2:10

So the opening fund balance of 180,000 was already transferred from the general fund a couple years prior, and it's just been sitting there waiting for its opportunity to shine, which will be this summer.

2:20

And then to cover the our needs that we've anticipated, we're uh transferring 25,000 from the general fund for a total of 205,000.

2:30

This is one of those funds where we we budget to spend everything that we have in there.

2:34

If there is, if we don't spend everything totally that we have, then we would reduce that transfer from the general fund.

2:41

Um we don't, or we can leave like we did a couple of years ago, we would just leave an amount here that would reduce next year's transfer from the general fund.

2:50

Any questions so far?

2:52

Yeah, so and how I'd like to do this is we'll go one fund, ask the questions, go the next fund and ask the questions, and then if we have questions that address the overall budget, we'll go down the line as well.

3:06

Okay.

3:07

So yes, I do have a question.

3:09

Um you said that we had funds coming in from the SR fund, and we no longer will have that.

3:17

Is that correct?

3:18

Yeah, SR funds have all been expended now.

3:20

September 30th, more or less was the deadline for the spending those.

3:23

So this upcoming summer, those funds are not available to us anymore.

3:26

The last couple of years that is 100% covered our our summer school costs.

3:31

Okay.

3:32

So I guess my question would be summer school is used for students who didn't take advantage of going to school or taking advantage of a regular school year, correct?

3:47

Uh you could say that there's certainly some students that probably didn't maximize their potential during the school year.

3:52

So they're given a second chance through summer school.

3:56

Yes, they have an opportunity to typically earn credits or credit recovery is often what it's referred to.

4:02

So why wouldn't we be charging them?

4:05

Why shouldn't they pay for summer school?

4:08

We don't do that.

4:10

We could in the past, a lot of times um, if students are free and reduced, we don't charge them, so there still would be some costs involved.

4:17

We have charged for some tuition in the past.

4:20

It's typically a small amount, and we still have costs very similar to what we've budgeted for.

4:29

Okay, just would like to take note then.

4:33

Um for public, I do think that if we continue to go in the spending that we do, I think it would be um something that we should look at too in the future.

4:44

That this is if this is a second chance for them.

4:47

They didn't take you know the opportunity, the first chance that they were given in a regular school year.

4:54

And if they want to graduate, they may want to, we may want to look at having them pay for summer school.

5:01

Any other questions?

5:02

Go ahead.

5:03

Uh trustee.

5:04

Um are we required to offer some of school?

5:08

That's an excellent question from the funding side.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Education Funding███████████████████████████████31%
Youth Programs███████████████████████23%
Procedural██████████10%
School Recess Policy██████████10%
Mental Health Awareness██████████10%
Fiscal Sustainability████████8%
Public Engagement███3%
Personnel Matters██2%
Community Engagement██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Carson City School Board Meeting and Budget Workshop - March 24, 2026

This meeting consisted of a budget workshop starting at 1:30 PM and a regular board meeting beginning at 6:00 PM. The workshop covered the general fund, summer school fund, and gifts and donations fund. The regular meeting included a trustee appointment, presentations on advanced placement, alternate standards, elementary school programs, and a recess policy discussion. Public comment was dominated by opposition to proposed cuts to school social workers.

Consent Calendar

  • The board unanimously approved the consent agenda after pulling item 13 (authorization of layoff notices due to reduction in force) because the superintendent was absent.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Dozens of community members, students, teachers, and social workers spoke against the potential elimination of all 12 school social worker positions. Many described personal experiences of students who relied on social workers for crisis support, mental health, and basic needs. Multiple speakers noted that social workers are the only mental health professionals at elementary schools and that contractors cannot replace the trust built with full-time staff.
  • Several speakers cited statistics: 45% of Nevada teens felt hopeless for two weeks or more, 22% seriously considered suicide (2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey). Social workers reported active caseloads of 60–177 students each, with many providing tier-two preventative interventions.
  • A few speakers supported keeping recess at 45 minutes daily, arguing it is essential for social-emotional learning and academic focus. One teacher defended the current recess structure, noting that withholding a small portion for academic or behavioral reasons can be reasonable.
  • One speaker raised concerns about paraprofessional cuts, stating that student literacy is at risk without intervention support.

Discussion Items

  • Budget Workshop (1:30 PM):

    • Summer School Fund: $205,000 budgeted ($131,000 salary/benefits, $73,800 supplies). Fund had been idle because ESSER funds covered summer school in prior years. One trustee questioned whether students should pay tuition for credit recovery. Staff noted that past tuition only covered a small fraction of costs.
    • Gifts and Donations Fund: $328,000 budgeted, mostly for supplies. Funds are restricted to donor wishes. The district does not aggressively seek donations due to limited staff.
    • General Fund: $98.9 million in total resources, $86.3 million budgeted, leaving a $12.6 million ending fund balance. Salary and benefits account for $65 million (85% of expenditures). The district has a structural deficit of about $3.5 million, and at current spending, the fund balance would reach zero in ~3.75 years. The board discussed the need to reduce transfers out, especially to the special education fund ($9.2 million).

  • Regular Meeting (6:00 PM):

    • Appointment of Trustee: Two candidates interviewed for the District 5 vacancy. The board voted unanimously to appoint Tina Saduki, effective April 14, 2026.
    • AP Program Update: Carson High School has seen a 47% increase in unique test-takers (from 412 to 753) and a pass rate of 73% in 2025, up from 55% in 2021. Students earned over $500,000 in college credits. The Carson City Schools Foundation provides $25,000 annually to reduce test fees. The district plans to expand AP offerings, including cybersecurity and business.
    • Alternate Standards Program (ASP): Serves about 120 students with significant cognitive disabilities. Key initiatives include the Next Step transition program (ages 18–22), community partnerships, and a micro-enterprise coffee cart at Carson High. The Project Achieve grant (ending this year) supports teacher training.
    • Elementary School Programs: Principals from all six elementary schools presented highlights, including CKLA literacy curriculum, MTSS Diamond Awards (Seeliger and Mark Twain), house systems, STEM certification, and family engagement programs.
    • Recess Policy Discussion: First reading of revised Policy 260 was deferred. The current policy mandates three 15-minute recesses daily (45 minutes total). The proposed revision gives principals more scheduling flexibility but maintains daily recess. Staff emphasized that recess is a tier-one MTSS intervention and should not be used punitively. The board will submit edits via email; the policy will return for discussion.

Key Outcomes

  • The board voted unanimously to appoint Tina Saduki to the District 5 trustee vacancy.
  • The board received public comment and will consider input on the recess policy revision before the next reading.
  • Future agenda items requested: presentation on the Jump Start program and a presentation from the city on growth and development as it relates to schools.
  • The board pulled agenda item 13 (possible layoff authorization) due to the superintendent's absence; it will be rescheduled.

Meeting Transcript

Shop to order. This will be the first on the agenda. The rest of the agenda will be taking place at 6 p.m. So at this time we have a roundtable discussion among board members and staff addressing the following topic for discussion only no action. This is a presentation and discussion regarding the general fund, summer school fund and gifts and donations fund in the Carson City School District presented by Spencer Woodward. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. As you know, this will be our final workshop, at least at the level of detail that we've gone into all of the funds. I'm going over the final three funds that we haven't covered in our previous workshops. I have a couple of smaller funds that we'll start out with. First one is our summer school fund. As way of information, the last couple of years this fund has been uh mostly idle as summer school costs have been covered by ESSER funds. We don't anticipate that this year, and we've budgeted accordingly. Uh, where funds from this are generally transferred from the general fund. Um so if you look at our worksheet here, we'll we'll quickly go over some of the expenditures. And the bulk of this is for salary and benefits of 131,000. The difference here is this does not cover any one position, one full-time equivalency. It is all based off extra duty or extra hours performed by many employees who uh cover summer school. Um we're required to have an administrative member there, nurse there, and then of course instructors and paraprofessionals. And so that 131,000 covers mostly salary and a little bit of benefits because for these individuals there's not PERS cost for this because it's extra above and beyond their full-time equivalent positions. On top of that, we also budget uh $73,800 for supplies as needed for summer school for a total amount of 205,000. I believe last year that was pretty close to what we spent out of multiple funding sources to cover our summer school expenditures. The revenues of where this comes from. Um, we had some funds sitting there that were unspent from the COVID years. So the opening fund balance of 180,000 was already transferred from the general fund a couple years prior, and it's just been sitting there waiting for its opportunity to shine, which will be this summer. And then to cover the our needs that we've anticipated, we're uh transferring 25,000 from the general fund for a total of 205,000. This is one of those funds where we we budget to spend everything that we have in there. If there is, if we don't spend everything totally that we have, then we would reduce that transfer from the general fund. Um we don't, or we can leave like we did a couple of years ago, we would just leave an amount here that would reduce next year's transfer from the general fund. Any questions so far? Yeah, so and how I'd like to do this is we'll go one fund, ask the questions, go the next fund and ask the questions, and then if we have questions that address the overall budget, we'll go down the line as well. Okay. So yes, I do have a question. Um you said that we had funds coming in from the SR fund, and we no longer will have that. Is that correct? Yeah, SR funds have all been expended now. September 30th, more or less was the deadline for the spending those. So this upcoming summer, those funds are not available to us anymore. The last couple of years that is 100% covered our our summer school costs. Okay. So I guess my question would be summer school is used for students who didn't take advantage of going to school or taking advantage of a regular school year, correct? Uh you could say that there's certainly some students that probably didn't maximize their potential during the school year. So they're given a second chance through summer school. Yes, they have an opportunity to typically earn credits or credit recovery is often what it's referred to. So why wouldn't we be charging them? Why shouldn't they pay for summer school? We don't do that. We could in the past, a lot of times um, if students are free and reduced, we don't charge them, so there still would be some costs involved. We have charged for some tuition in the past. It's typically a small amount, and we still have costs very similar to what we've budgeted for.

SUMMARIZED BY OPENPUBLICA AI
TRANSCRIPT VIA PUBLIC VIDEO
openpublica.com