Nearly three quarters of Clark County public schools lost licensed personnel — including teachers — when the large district remedied a $68 million deficit last month.

The Clark County School District released information Tuesday that offers a glimpse into how its budget woes played out at the ground level. In total, 563.5 school-based positions were eliminated for the upcoming academic year, officials said. That figure includes 400 licensed positions, 104 support staff positions and 59.5 administrative positions.

Those numbers, however, do not reflect how many people actually wound up without a job.

District officials said most people affected by the reductions were reassigned to other open positions through a surplus process. As of Tuesday, fewer than five teachers and 20 support staff members had not been shuffled to another position. All administrators have been reassigned, they said.

“We are heartened that we were able to reassign almost all employees affected by this reduction to open positions created by retirements and other openings,” Chief Human Resources Officer Andre Long said in a statement.

When the district announced the shortfall in May, schools were tasked with shedding a combined $47 million from their budgets. Central Services departments cut another $15.5 million.

Ultimately, high schools reduced their budgets by $17.6 million, middle schools by $10.7 million and elementary schools by $18.8 million. What that looks like by the numbers:

• 260 schools cut licensed personnel, including teaching positions.
• 218 schools reduced their supply budgets, which cover everything from technology to textbooks.
• 82 schools eliminated support staff positions such as office staff, custodial positions and teaching aides.
• 60 schools cut site-based programs, including intervention-related ones designed to boost struggling students.
• 57 schools reduced administrative positions, including deans and assistant principals.

School Organizational Teams — the advisory group made up of parents, staff and, in some cases, community members — weighed in on the budget cuts before the principals made the final decision. That arrangement is a key part of the district’s dramatic reorganization, which aims to increase autonomy at the school level.

But that process also made it trickier for the district to gauge the effect of the cuts. Detailed information wasn’t known until district leaders sent a survey to principals and asked them to list the cuts made at their sites.

District officials couldn’t immediately explain why some schools appeared harder hit than others.

For instance, Cadwallader Middle School needed to cut $220,752 from its budget and did so by eliminating seven licensed positions and one administrative position, according to data released by the district. But Cashman Middle School only eliminated two licensed positions and one support staff position to trim its budget by $239,454.

The information released also doesn’t shed light on the types of positions eliminated beyond the broad personnel categories of licensed, support and administrative staff.

But district officials noted that the budget cuts didn’t eliminate the ongoing teacher shortage.

“CCSD still has almost 800 open teaching positions, and we encourage teachers who are considering moving to Clark County or others interested in entering the teaching profession to join our team,” Long said in a statement. “We look forward to welcoming new teachers to continue the recent momentum we have seen in increasing student achievement.”

The new information about the budget cuts coincided with incoming superintendent Jesus Jara’s first day on the job. Jara is replacing Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky, who retires at the end of this month.

School-by-School Reduction 2018-19 by Jackie Valley on Scribd