LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Clark County School District has a new CFO. I got an exclusive interview with Chief Financial Officer Justin Dayhoff.
His idea of success
Topics ranged from the budget, the compliance monitor, and what success would look like in his new role.
"Success looks like a community who knows where to go when they have questions, who is having a public discourse about education finance here. I don't want to run away from people talking about education finance and funding," he told me.
"Let's talk about the way CCSD tries to think about and actively works diligently to identify student need and the resources schools need to get there. And let's figure out as a community so everybody knows what we're doing and where we collectively still need to go."
Dayhoff replaces Jason Goudie, who was fired last year when the district was trying to figure out if it had a budget shortfall.
Transparency
When it comes to transparency, Dayhoff told me being transparent is one thing, providing clarity is another, but both are important.
"How can we be more clear about what we're doing, how we're doing it, and why we're doing it, and how that translates to the numbers that our communities that our families see in their schools and in central office and in the investments that Superintendent Ebert and the board are making in our district."
I've heard Ebert say she wants to make the Clark County School District a destination district, but that term can mean different things to different departments, so I asked Dayhoff for his perspective.
"I think trust and understanding, and again, I know that's part of the 100-day plan, but it's not just words. How do we turn data into something that people have a conversation with and understand?" he said. "A spreadsheet is not a presentation. Transparency is one thing. Clarity is another."
He said it's about providing the full picture so parents and community members see the dollars and cents showing up in their schools and where that money came from.
Lawsuits and settlements
A big part of Superintendent Jhone Ebert's 100-day plan is focused on transparency and accountability, so I wanted to talk to Dayhoff about how much of your taxpayer dollars have gone to lawsuits and settlements.
When school leaders announced the potential budget shortfall of $20 million last school year, one of the things they pointed to was lawsuits.
I asked how much it budgeted for, how much it spent and how much is budgeted for this year. Keep in mind it's all calculated by fiscal year.
So for fiscal year 2025, between July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025, Dayhoff told me the district originally budgeted $33 million, then upped it to $45.8 million.
As a rough estimate, he said the district spent a little more than $32.8 million. This fiscal year, they upped the budget again to $49.8 million.
"We put an additional $16 million of general fund money on top of our risk premiums just in case this year, and that's accounted for, and we want to do that because we want to make sure that at the end of the day, these aren't resources that we're pulling from kids," he told me.
"I think a parent hears that number and sees it going up and they might be thinking, are they preparing to have more lawsuits?" I asked him. "How do you justify and how do you explain that to the parents?"
"So no, we aren't preparing to have more lawsuits. What we do is we work with actuaries, and so we have an independent evaluation that looks and says, based on historically your trends, what's sort of an active litigation, how much should you put in there, that way you don't ever create a position in the future where you are over," he explained.
"So we have the cushion in just so that in the future we don't have to pull from kids from schools. But we don't anticipate exceeding that. The district hasn't exceeded it since and even fiscal 25, that $30 million it's slightly abnormal because of a single case."
He tells me if the school runs into a situation where they do go over, they would pull from the general fund. It wouldn't be a structural deficit because the district maintains a healthy fund balance at more than 4%, which is hundreds of millions of dollars, but again, the goal is not to have to do that.
Working with the compliance monitor
This week, I got a response from the interim state superintendent to CCSD's progress on its Corrective Action Plan.
It stems from the state appointing a compliance monitor because of budget issues last year.
After nearly nine months, it looks like Yolanda King is sticking around.
"CCSD is to be commended for the demonstrable progress made on the Corrective Action Plan," interim Superintendent Steve Canavero said.
However, he determined "continued monitoring and targeted implementation efforts are necessary to ensure the full and sustained execution" of the plan.
Canavero said he will revisit the district's progress in December. At that time, it will be determined if the scope of work and budget for the compliance monitor need to be adjusted.
When Yolanda King was hired, the district did not have a full-time CFO, so I asked Dayhoff about how the two will work together.
"Very excited for that. I think having a compliance monitor is frankly a gift. To take the work that was done this past year to say what have we been doing? What do we need to document, process to make sure that we are strong and tight on the technical work to now zoom out and say ok, strategically, what does this mean for us as a district? How do we actually make sure the processes that we're using in business and finance align to student need? How are we making students, teachers and schools the center of the conversation? How are we organizing our business and finance unit around that work to support schools, to support the community and not be afraid to engage, to talk about financial data? You shouldn't have to speak finance to speak with finance."
He went on to say he wants to make it a conversation, rebuild trust and not hide behind a veil of technical jargon while at the same time building strong, robust technical, financial controls.
Teacher salaries
Part of our conversation also centered around salaries. After all, they make up the vast majority of any company's budget, and CCSD is no different.
Dayhoff told me it's anywhere between 85%-87% of the budget, and 10 years ago, he said most of that went to base salaries. Now, almost half of it goes to pensions.
"I think that's really indicative and instructive to us in financial leadership within the district, too," he said. "How do we think about what that means for our employees in terms of what they're experiencing, what they're taking home, how they can afford to live, and how we as a district approach the sorts of opportunities and offereings we have, knowing our salary and budget limitations for ways we can get creative as well to recognize and lean into the expanding pie."
Enrollment numbers
We've talked about declining enrollment numbers across the district, so I wanted to know what that means in terms of dollars and cents.
"If the number of kids is going down and the number of total dollars is going down, we still are resourcing children the same way, even if the total dollar looks a little different," he said.
"Sure, but there's less that you can do with smaller numbers, right? It's not like you're picking certain programs or resources based on the numbers of kids, right? It's the overall picture of what you can do for all of the students," I asked.
"That's absolutely right, yeah, and economies of scale matter, right? And especially in our smaller schools where those are felt even more, you know, every kid is counting toward, in some cases, you know, four children, and you're up toward paraprofessional, right? That matters. Those are real consequential effects for kids.
"However, in the same way that some schools may go down, some schools are increasing, right? And so I think part of this is recognizing where kids go and making sure that in the same way that those resources for people might go down at that one school, in another school where they're receiving more children, where they are generating those economies, they also need to provide those services because the students there."
He said thanks to Senate Bill 460, CCSD has the flexibility to revisit its allocation formula to make sure schools are whole, and they can provide adequate services for all kids.
If there's anything happening in education you think we should know or have questions, whether in the Clark County School District, the College of Southern Nevada, UNLV or anything else, reach out to me.
