Next year's school budget is a moving target, according to Nye County School District administrators.

In fact, the only thing certain about the figures is -- they are bound to change. Then change again.

When Gov. Jim Gibbons detailed his proposed general fund budget Jan. 15, it was immediately attacked by Democrats and Republicans alike. The Nevada State Education Association, which represents more than 28,000 educational employees, also reacted swiftly to Gibbon's proposed 6 percent salary cut.

On the campaign trail, Gibbons ran as a friend to education, taking an 'education first' stand. Lynn Warne, president of NSEA, in a Jan. 20 letter to the governor, said, "All you have done for education ... is to propose cuts so deep that irreparable damage will be done to public schools and the quality of life in Nevada will suffer.

"In the upcoming legislative session, the NSEA will do all that it can to turn back your cuts. We will fight this ... Nevada's education system demands better leadership."

To Nye County School Superintendent Rob Roberts and his administrators, it is premature to agonize over what programs will be cut or if teachers or support staff will be reduced.

"Technically, until the state legislature passes the budget, there is no budget," said Rod Pekarek, assistant superintendent for district services. "Last year, that didn't happen until June."

Even James Wells, deputy superintendent for the state Department of Education, acknowledged, "This budget is a long way from being enacted by the legislature."

However, that does not mean Roberts, his staff and the school district's board of trustees are sitting on their hands. Countless budgets have been prepared from data compiled by school district department supervisors and discussed with the board for multiple scenarios. Numbers continue to be crunched as information becomes available.

The harsh reality, according to Pekarek, is that some of the budget cuts "may be taken out in bodies."

By law, the school district was required to notify all its employees a reduction in force might be necessary. The letter was sent in December, and some proactive teachers might already be looking for work in richer fields.

That doesn't bode well for Nye County, where it is already difficult to recruit highly qualified teachers for remote areas like Duckwater, where one teacher in a one-room classroom teaches multiple grades.

Funds earmarked for education make up nearly 51 percent of Gibbons' proposed budget, with $2.3 billion, or 37 percent of the total budget, earmarked for elementary and secondary public schools.

Unfortunately for Nevada schools, that's a cut of nearly $62 million.

Nye County's K-12 schools spending would drop from $5,098 per student for the 2008-2009 school year to $4,945 in fiscal year 2009-2010 and increase by $1 per student in 2010-2011.

That's more bad news for a state that ranks dead last in college graduates, according to Assistant Superintendent for Student Achievement Jerry Hill.

"This is a bare bones state," said Hill. "How can you cut what you don't even have?"