Official pushes back on CCSD

Canavero: Deficit can’t be blamed on state

Nevada’s top education official took issue Thursday with Clark County school officials’ assertion that part of the district’s budget deficit was caused by declines in state funding, pinning the blame on poor planning on the district’s part.

“To blame the state is erroneous here,” state Superintendent of Public Instruction Steve Canavero said an interview with the Las Vegas Review-journal. “I’m just pointing out that the math doesn’t add up and the focal point of their narrative is disingenuous at best.”

Clark County School District Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky responded that the district is not blaming the state for its budget predicament.

“We have to work together to not cast stones,” he said. “I understand that we had expenditures and estimations that were off from what the state had. We’re going back and looking at legislative bills to see where the disconnect is because it’s important to get to the bottom. That’s not the biggest issue, though. Blame is not where we’re at.”

The statements came a day after the district announced a hiring freeze, saying total budget cuts this year could reach $70 million to $80

SCHOOLS

grandson didn’t know them personally, they said in interviews late Thursday.

“It’s pretty terrifying what happened,” next-door neighbor Diana Martinez said.

The grandmother lived with the family, said Marlene Garcia, another next-door neighbor. She said she wasn’t home at the time of the shooting, but she had seen the grandson hang out with his friends outside.

Before Thursday’s killing, the most recent homicide came Aug.

15, when Daevon Branon-banks died at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center. Police said the toddler was thrown across a room two days before he died.

The county’s longest stretch without a homicide does not include the death of a 19-year-old woman, whose body was found last Friday. Homicide detectives initially assisted in the investigation, but police said Saturday that they were not treating the incident as a homicide until they had more information.

Police called the death suspicious, and the woman’s cause of death is still pending at the coroner’s office.

Thursday’s homicide is the 111th investigated by Metro this year and the 131st investigated in Clark County.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@ reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter. Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@ reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.