The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
$191,000 less in losses
If you can call it a break, the Gunnison Watershed School District isn’t going to see as big a cut in state funding as was expected as recently as last week. Due to an accounting misstep, the state will have to cut only $250 million from education funding next year, down from the $332 million projected earlier. But that still means a one-year loss of nearly $700,000 for the local schools.
Although the school board agreed at a meeting on Monday, April 11 that it was good news the district would be losing $191,000 less than expected, it wasn’t enough to change some of the tough decisions they’re facing to keep the school’s budget in the black.
“We don’t have the option of budgeting for a deficit,” board member Bill Powell reminded the crowd. It was also a reminder that until the governor signs the budget bill, nothing is final.
Similar to a meeting a week ago, if more subdued, a large number of Gunnison Valley School (GVS) supporters attended the meeting to express their hope that every available option would be explored before the alternative school’s program would be cut.
Several suggestions had come to the school board from the district’s Administrative Council (AdCo) that included a range of fates for GVS that included a complete shutdown. At the other end of the spectrum, the new recommendation from AdCo included an alternative that would bring stakeholders from every school in the district, as well as a member of the community, together to discuss ways of keeping the dream of GVS alive.
“You’re a family,” Powell said. “We get that.” After an emotional appeal from GVS supporters at a meeting in Crested Butte last week, the board expressed an understanding of the importance of the alternative education option in the district.
And again, with a tempered tone, supporters took the microphone at Monday’s meeting. But they talked as much to the crowd of fellow supporters around them as they talked to the board. “We have to try to understand, before we can hope to be understood,” was the message of one. Everyone seemed to agree.
But after a listing of the economic realities facing the district, the apparent mutual understanding wasn’t enough to stop the inevitable. Board president Anne Hausler told the audience, “Every site is going to operate radically different next year.”
Eventually the board voted to convene the ad hoc committee on saving GVS and didn’t go further in settling the school’s future. The decision was enough to elicit a round of applause.
Other programs weren’t so lucky.
Next on the list of 13 budget-cutting proposals from AdCo was the elementary Spanish program at Crested Butte Community School. No other elementary program in the district offers a foreign language, and since the board’s stated goal in approving funding cuts is to bring equity between the schools, they made short work of it.
“Budget decisions initially centered on creating equity in the district,” Nelson said. That policy has led to what will likely be the elimination of the Crested Butte Community School’s elementary Spanish program, but saves the teaching position, and eliminates all elementary guidance counselors in the district. CBCS has had elementary Spanish since the school opened in 1997.
The current proposal from AdCo would also cut part of the driving education program; athletic and activity travel will be reduced or eliminated, with coaches driving smaller vehicles to games or meets. Both parts of the proposal would affect nearly all of the school’s more than 1,800 students in one way or another. Field trips will be cut or eliminated, as well.
“It’s unfortunate but understandable,” Crested Butte Titans head soccer coach Than Acuff says of the cuts.
The perpetually struggling food service program will get only $20,000 next year, meaning there will be a “realignment of staff” or higher meal costs.
The proposal would also consolidate the Gunnison schools’ band program as well as library staff across the district, and would move one librarian into a teaching position.
It appeared that none of the decisions came to the school board easily; they tried to find some comfort in tough measures being taken, in one form or another, by most of the state’s 178 school districts.
The problems every district in the state are having with the school funding model, according to superintendent Jon Nelson, are the result of constitutional amendments passed by voters, like the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) and the Gallagher Amendment that influences how much property tax people pay.
Nelson said, “Our funding problem is complicated and it’s grown over time. In the constitution there are a number of amendments that hinder that, including TABOR, Gallagher, Amendment 23 and Referendum C—all things the citizens of Colorado have voted in over the years.”
While there are legislative solutions to the amendment problems under way, board member Bill Powell said the budget difficulties for K-12 education would probably continue for at least two more years as 2012-13 is expected to bring more significant rescissions in state spending.
At a town hall meeting in Crested Butte Saturday, April 2, Senator Gail Schwartz said there was little communication between the parties in Denver and that has yielded two bills that partially address the problems.
Nelson explained that prior to the passage of Gallagher in 1982, Colorado was slightly above average in terms of what it spent on its students. Today, he said, the state ranks 44th in the country for funding per $1,000 of personal income.
“Just six other states spend less on education funding than Colorado,” Nelson said. “Other states are not cutting education and some states are even making an investment in education this year.” But not Colorado.
The board will continue discussing options for making the budget less disagreeable until a final budget proposal is voted on by the board at the end of May. Nelson will be working with the Community Foundation of the Gunnison Valley to find a facilitator before convening the group. Their work, related to budget recommendations, will need to be done by late May.
