Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Power outage doesn't stop board

A power outage in the south part of Nevada County didn't prevent the Nevada School Board from meeting, Thursday, June 21.

Nevada Superintendent Rick McAfee found several battery-powered lanterns and moved the meeting from the library, where it's normally held, to the administrative office.

The lanterns were used until the power was restored around 7:45 p.m.

The outage was caused by a tree being blown down on power lines during the storm.

Once the meeting began, McAfee said school districts across the state could face serious financial problems because of the ruling on the Lake View lawsuit.

This suit was filed by the Lake View School District because officials there believed the state's school funding formula wasn't fair.

A judge recently ruled in the district's favor, saying the state must give students an equal and adequate education.

However, the judge, McAfee said, went on to say there is no such thing as an equal education because of economic conditions varying across the state, and required the state to provide an adequate education for all children.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and the Arkansas Department of Education have filed an appeal on this ruling with the Arkansas Supreme Court. McAfee said it will be about 18 months before the high court hears and rules on this issue.

Because of this, he said, next year will be stagnant financially for schools across the state.

However, should the supreme court rule with the lower court judge, the state would have to come up with between $425 and $900 million to pay off the suit.

McAfee said the state's income tax could be raised by 125 percent to help overcome this shortfall, or the legislature could remove public education from the state's constitution.

Another option for the state, he said, would be mass consolidation, with county schools. Under this, he continued, there would be one superintendent in the state and all others would be assistant superintendents.

This issue will be a "hot topic," he said, when the General Assembly meets in 2003.

Nevada Elementary School Principal Natalie Sherwood had spent the day in a mentor program meeting in Hope. She told the board there is someone at Nevada who could be a mentor at the school.

Because of changes in the educational system, she said, the mentor program is part of the licensing process. College graduates in the teaching field are no longer licensed upon graduation, but must first go through a mentor program.

McAfee said the problem at this time is there needs to be a common planning period for the mentor and teacher so they can script lesson plans.

Eventually, he said, this will become an evaluation by peers, with principals also offering their evaluation of teacher performance.

Additionally, districts in the mentor program have to pay the mentor teacher $1,000 from the operating budget, along with the cost of materials required.

The board adopted a budget for the 2002-2003 academic year. McAfee said the district will not be held to these figures as it has no way of knowing what monies will be coming in during this time period.

However, state law requires a two-year budget to be approved to let the public know if a district plans to seek a millage increase. Nevada doesn't.

The budget approved is basically the same as the district is currently operating under, with the exception of a $100,000 increase for teacher salaries.

These raises were promised by Gov. Huckabee prior to the start of the recent legislative session.

But, McAfee said, the district looks to lose $132,000 from a drop in student population, along with a cut of $15,000 to $20,000 in transportation funds.

The actual loss from students, he said, is about $200,000.

The loss of revenue could result in the district being unable to meet state standards, as teachers can't be cut.

A bright spot for the district, he said, is all debt will be paid off by 2006.