Lombardo seeks expanded audit of CCSD amid potential budget shortfall

“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

Also Friday, Lombardo announced that he’d written to Nevada Department of Taxation Executive Director Shellie Hughes requesting that the department’s Committee on Local Government Finance take action to evaluate the CCSD budget crisis.

Lombardo’s letters follow 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 $5,700 salary increase for licensed professionals in its budget, which meant many schools have higher operating costs than their budgets allow.

“The Clark County School District welcomes the opportunity to expand the scope of the legislative audit focusing on the District’s finances, respond to the Superintendent of Public Instruction’s questions, and address any other inquiries we may receive,” the district said in a statement issued late Friday.

In an earlier Friday statement, the district said it identified a potential central budget deficit due to unanticipated increased litigation and cybersecurity expenses during its accounting process done at the end of the year.

“The possible deficit did not impact the fall school budgets but we did inform principals for their awareness,” the district said in the statement. “The District will make every effort to absorb any identified central budget deficit to avoid impacting school budgets.”

It said that there are changes between the budget estimates that schools received in January 2024 and the actual budgets received in September 2024. Enrollment changes, salary increases and a correction of an allocation resulted in some schools receiving less money and higher payroll costs.

The district said that it has been working closely with principals throughout the process and helping those who are experiencing challenges balancing the budgets for the school year.

“If a central budget deficit is confirmed as the budget cycle concludes, we will keep our employees, families, and community informed and make every effort to not impact school budgets,” the district said in the statement. “We are also fully analyzing school allocation procedures to ensure we are able to improve estimates and accuracy, and we will share our progress along the way.”

2024 09 25 LtrToDrLarsen Mitchell by Jessica Hill on Scribd

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