GINA B. GOOD / PVT Kevin Pape is the president of the Nye County School Board of Trustees. Advertisement

During the May 15 school budget workshop, the public was invited to put forward ideas of how to cut cost while keeping student achievement high.

One suggestion centered on teachers' insurance coverage, noting that married couples both working for the school district currently have individual insurance policies. It was suggested that one policy be canceled, allowing the spouse to become a dependent. It was not known what the savings would be from that arrangement.

The meeting rules were relaxed for maximum interaction between committee members and the concerned teachers and parents in attendance. "We're operating under Roberts' Rules," said School Superintendent Rob Roberts. "That's Rob Roberts' rules so we can do what we want."

Many teachers expressed concerns about increasing class sizes which would severely limit their one-on-one interaction with students. Board members Dennis Keating and Tracie Ward agreed.

"Students going from a class of 30 to a class of 47 is unworkable," Ward said. "It's too much."

Keating said, "These are hard financial times. It's not going to get any better if we cut jobs. The task at hand is to look at the other options.

"Do we want a classroom of 45 students or do we all want to take a little hit?" Keating asked.

Roberts said, "If all of us took a little less, then we will all be working," although he was not able to address the issue further, since that would necessitate union contract negotiations.

School employee raises and step increases due to longevity with the district are included in the budget as those are mandated in union contracts.

"We will do whatever it takes and keep working until it works for the school district," said Kevin Pape, president of the school board of trustees. He also mentioned revisiting buy-outs of tenured teachers' contracts.

"This is hard," said Pape. "I want to keep building schools and putting teachers where they want to go. This has been a hard four- month stint."

Consolidating the elementary school with the high school in Tonopah was suggested by board member Harold Tokerud.

The idea was met with enthusiasm, but by law, Ray Richie said there wasn't enough time to meet the June 8 deadline to implement the idea, which will be considered for school year 2010-2011. Richie also said quite a bit of work needs to be done to bring Tonopah's "ancient elementary building" up to date, including re-roofing.

To all the concerned attendees Richie said, "We all care about education. It's kind of like American Idol. You need to call your legislators and write to the governor."