School board supports state proposition 103 to fund education

“We may be setting the stage, if 103 doesn’t pass, for another mill levy override"

The Gunnison RE1J School District is taking on 16 students they hadn’t budgeted for, meaning the district will take in around $100,000 in state money they haven’t already planned to spend. And still, administrators are seeing their share of state funding continue to erode. Superintendent Jon Nelson told the board Monday, October 3 they could expect further cuts of up to 5 percent next year.

So in an effort to push back a little, the school board is throwing its support behind a November ballot initiative to balance the flow of funds leaving Colorado’s schools with some going in. According to board member Bill Powell, it might be the district’s best chance to avoid another mill levy override to pay for operations.
If approved by voters, Proposition 103 would increase state income taxes from 4.63 percent to an even 5 percent and sales and use tax from 2.9 percent to 3 percent that could raise as much as $2.9 billion over five years for public education. The details of how much each school district would get aren’t clear just yet, but the Gunnison Watershed school board was willing to bet that something would be better than nothing.
“It’s a five-year Band-Aid,” Nelson said. “The idea was that would bring some stabilization to schools and about the time the economy comes back the Band-Aid will come off.”
Looking at the last several years, the 2011-12 school year has been a bright spot in terms of funding, since the state has said it isn’t going to take any more money from the school’s per pupil funding. Previous cuts have already cost the district more than $1 million. The state is also reimbursing the district $2 million for a drop in area property valuations of $200 million that the district can no longer collect on.
But with increased enrollment and more reporting requirements from the Colorado Department of Education putting additional strain on district staff, the money isn’t going to go far and the school board is hoping Proposition 103 will help. Board member Bill Powell told Nelson he was concerned about the ability of the district office staff to keep up.
“If the state keeps pushing more reporting requirements on us, we’re going to start to feel the crunch. Those smaller districts … are probably already feeling the crunch,” Powell said.
Nelson conceded that the district’s teacher development efforts might suffer as the district tries to keep up with outside demands, but they were willing to work with what they have.
“We’re doing our job as best we can at the moment,” he assured the board. “Districts all over the state are dealing with the same thing.”
With all districts in roughly the same situation in facing further cuts from an already minimal budget, the board considered a resolution to express support for Proposition 103.
After the motion to support Proposition 103 was passed by the board unanimously, Powell said, “We can no longer rely on the state or federal government to provide the resources at the local level our people want and demand.”