Lombardo: Expand legislative audit to include potential CCSD budget shortfall

Gov. Joe Lombardo is asking the Legislative Commission to amend an audit of the Clark County School District to include an investigation of its budget shortfalls.

“We are concerned with reports that CCSD’s current budget issues will potentially result in the release or elimination of teachers and other staff positions,” Lombardo wrote in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Nicole Cannizzaro on Thursday. “Given last session’s unprecedented increase in funding for education, such a scenario would be unacceptable.”

Lombardo requested that the Legislative Commission consider amending the scope of its ongoing audit to include investigating the recently identified potential budget shortfalls.

He specifically wants the audit to consider the processes in which the school district allocates funding to individual schools and what happened with the process that caused the current issues. He requested that the audit include what action CCSD can take to avoid similar problems in the future, as well as what the Legislature and his office can do to prevent it from happening again.

The governor pointed to Assembly Bill 517, which he signed in the last session, that required the Audit Division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau to conduct an audit of certain school districts. CCSD’s current budget issues are outside the scope of that original inquiry, but the Legislative Commission can amend the scope of the current audit, the governor’s office said in his statement Thursday.

Final Legislative Commission Letter 9.27.24 by Jessica Hill on Scribd

Lombardo’s letter follows another letter sent from Superintendent of Public Instruction Jhone Ebert earlier this week to the interim CCSD superintendent requesting information on the potential budget shortfall.

Ebert wrote in the letter that the Nevada Department of Education is obligated to inspect the record books and accounts of boards of trustees, and she identified eight budget questions for district leadership, requiring them to respond no later than Oct. 3.

Last week the Clark County Education Association called for the state to investigate what it called a systemic problem of mismanagement in CCSD, following the district sending a message to schools warning of a potential budget deficit parting ways with its chief financial officer.

The district learned that it failed to account for a salary increase for licensed professionals in its budget, which meant many schools have higher operating costs than their budgets allow.

Clark County School District did not immediately return a request for comment.

2024 09 25 LtrToDrLarsen Mitchell by Jessica Hill on Scribd

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.