Washoe County School District is becoming increasingly concerned about its graduation rates and being able to identify and help those students who “vanish” under the radar for many reasons, superintendent Paul Dugan said Monday.

At Monday’s Sparks City Council meeting, Dugan gave a presentation to the council members to address one of the district’s most pressing issues, other than the budget.

“I’m tired of talking about the budget,” Dugan said. “I want to talk about Washoe County (students) and some of the major challenges we have facing us in the future.”

Reflecting back to when he first took the district’s chief administrative position in 2004, Dugan dictated WCSD’s growth by the numbers between then and now.

“Back when I arrived as superintendent, enrollment was 31,000; today we have over 63,000,” he said. “When I arrived, we had 42 elementary schools; today, there are 64. Back then, eight high schools, today 12; 12 middle schools, today 15.”

The budget also has increased from just $78 million to nearing $450 million, he said. District staff has more than doubled from 3,000 five years ago to 7,000. Minorities also are up from nearly 15 percent to almost 50.

To become a “World Class School District,” the motto for which the WCSD acronym is appropriate, Dugan noted, is still yet to be achieved as the district’s own formula for graduation rates reveals that only 56 percent of students graduate on time – or at all.

“Students have a variety of options to be successful and while we have implemented some of those, we are not where we need to be,” Dugan reported to the council.

Career and technical programs need to be expanded. The district’s budget, which currently is a major hurdle with the shortage of educational funding in Gov. Jim Gibbons’ proposed spending cuts, ninth-grade transitions and vertical alignment between elementary and middle schools and middle and high schools all are deterrents to successful paths to graduation, Dugan said.

About 12 percent of all students are dropouts and about 18 percent seem to “vanish,” or become students for which schools have no records, Dugan said. Still, many more simply are credit-deficient by the time they get through four years.

Councilman Ron Smith was curious about that point.

“Superintendent Dugan, that 56 percent graduation rate is alarming,” he said. “Are those who are credit-deficient allowed to stay in high school or do they have to move out?”

Dugan replied that ultimately, the principal decides whether they can stay or have to go elsewhere.

Dugan reported that the district must find ways to engage and challenge students so they can have more options when they finish school, whether they pursue college or a career.

“There is no silver bullet,” he said. “If there was, we would have used it a long time ago. But we do believe there is an uncommon-like attention, focused on graduation rates more than ever before due to having more accurate information.”

Sparks Mayor Geno Martini said he understood the district’s challenges.

“We feel your pain,” he said. “We’re all in this together, struggling.”