Nevada’s budget crunch is starting to hit locally. Washoe County pretty well knows what its revenue hit will be and is making cuts now. The Washoe County School District picture is a little more muddled.

Although the bulk of the WCSD operating budget comes from real estate taxes, most of the money gets funneled through the state which reallocates whatever amount is approved by the legislature to county school districts in equal amounts for each student enrolled. This system is called “the Nevada Plan” and is designed to assure there are no “rich” or “poor” school districts.

This puts school districts right in the middle of the legislative battle over tax increases so the WCSD budget may not be known until after the Legislature adjourns in June.

In an effort to stay ahead of events Superintendent Dugan appointed a committee of 22 local community members, students and school staff to review Incline schools’ resource allocation options and make recommendations to the district on how to meet local needs in a fiscally responsible way. I was fortunate to be selected for this committee.

So far the group has heard presentations from school district experts and has assembled enrollment and demographic data. Last week we formed task subcommittees so now the hard work begins.

I wanted to get an objective assessment of just where Incline schools stand right now so I did some independent study.

Annually US News & World Report looks at over 21,000 public high schools and ranks them competitively based on advanced placement course test results, International Baccalaureate Program test results or a combination of both. In Nevada 12 high schools made US News’ top rankings, two of which, Galena High School and Truckee Meadows Community College Magnet Senior High School, are in Washoe County.

Another statistical rating agency, Neighborhood Scout, gathers mounds of data and loads them into a search engine to provide its subscribers with comparative ratings on school performance, crime rates and home prices neighborhood by neighborhood. Their school performance ratings are derived from a sophisticated combination of National Assessment of Educational Progress tests each year (which are not given universally) and the tests required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (which are given universally). The results provide relative competitive standings of every public and public charter school in the United States.

Neighborhood Scout data shows Incline Elementary School at 69.4 (better than 69.4 percent of all Nevada elementary schools) and 50.5 (better than 50.5 percent of all U.S. elementary schools) based on 2005-06 data. Average student to teacher ratio was 14 to 1.

Incline Middle School was ranked at 83.8 (Nevada) and 67.1 (U.S.). Average student to teacher ratio was 12 to 1.

Incline High School ranked 91.6 (Nevada) and 80.4 (U.S.). Average student to teacher ratio was 15 to 1. By way of comparison with US News & World Report rankings Neighborhood Scout showed TMCC Magnet High at 99.4 (Nevada) and 97.2 (U.S.) with Galena at 97.8 (Nevada) and 92.7 (U.S.).

This also shows that Incline High School is close to vying for national recognition.

That’s where we’re starting from. The challenge is to see if we can find and recommend resources and efficiencies to give our teachers and administrators the means of doing even better, even if the Legislature cuts the education budget.

The committee meets the second and fourth Thursdays at 10 a.m. at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Non-Proft Center and the public is welcome. The final meeting will be May 14.

You can also participate in the Bonanza’s blog covering this effort at www.tahoebonanza.com.

Jim Clark is president of Republican Advocates, a vice chair of the Washoe County GOP and a member of the Nevada GOP Central Committee. He can be reached at tahoesbjc@aol.com.