Today, Boulder City High School, Garrett Junior High School, and Martha P. King Elementary School will be visited by the Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau (LCB).
The LCB is a Nevada state agency that provides legislative service, such as legal advice, fiscal information, and background research, for other Nevada state agencies or other U.S. governmental organizations.
The meeting today is to gather information about how Nevada legislatures can best support rural schools.
In 2017, Nevada passed a state law requiring that urban school districts in Nevada provide increased funding to rural schools proportional to that of the larger urban counterparts.
This proportional or “rural” adjustment allows schools with smaller student populations to receive greater per pupil funding and allowing us to hire more staff to support students.
The goal of today’s meeting is to assess the impact of this 2017 law on rural schools here in Boulder City.
Unfortunately, since 2017, Martha P. King has been ineligible for this “rural” adjustment, while most Boulder City schools have received this adjustment in funding over the past eight years, King has not. For that reason, the mayor and state assemblywoman asked for the LCB to research the unintended consequences of this positive and supportive legislation.
My goal as principal is to advocate for a more equitable distribution of these funds, allowing for all Boulder City and “rural” schools to benefit from this adjustment.
My hope is that the meeting today will provide the LCB with information that they can take back to legislatures, allowing them to revise or craft new legislation to benefit all schools.