The comments below were provided by Jefferson County. These are collected for and against ballot issues and are required to be provided in a 500 word summary format. The comments accepted are not verified.
5A: Mill Levy Override
The following summaries were prepared from comments filed by persons FOR the proposal:
Issue 5A will allow Jeffco to offer competitive compensation to attract the best educators and staff and keep them here. On average, teachers in Boulder make $75,000. Cherry Creek is second at $71,000. Littleton is third at $66,000. Jeffco falls below all three with an average teacher salary of $57,000. Jeffco should be a destination district for educators. We can do more to ensure the teachers, paraprofessionals, bus drivers, custodians, IT professionals, and others who educate our children, maintain our school buildings, and keep our students safe are the best.
Additional mill levy overrides in other communities make it hard for Jeffco to compete. Denver students benefit from $950 more per student than Jeffco students; Boulder Valley students get $901 more per student; Cherry Creek students get $732 more per student; and Littleton students get $526 more per student.
With 5A, schools will have more money for resources and programming to help students develop 21st-century skills. This includes expanding STEM, technology, and career programming across the district. 5A would also provide funding to establish another campus for Warren Tech in addition to the current central and north campuses.
5A allows Jeffco to be more proactive concerning student safety. Improvements include additional mental health support and counseling professionals to improve student mental health services, including suicide prevention and substance abuse counseling.
No funds from 5A will be spent on senior district administration. All 5A funds will be used to expand education programming and support our students in the classroom. 5A funds will be monitored by a citizen oversight committee, and audited annually by an independent party.
5A funds will improve education by replacing worn-out and outdated classroom textbooks and materials. Student achievement scores continue to outpace the state in every subject. Think how much more we could do with current textbooks and materials. 5A also funds an expansion of early childhood education to ensure our students are prepared for elementary school and beyond.
An investment in Jeffco provides a significant return: 2018 graduates received more than $80 million in scholarship offers. Also, 35 Jeffco Schools recently earned 45 academic awards from the Colorado Department of Education, and three Jeffco high schools made a national magazine’s Top 25 List for the Best High Schools in the Country.
All of our schools — charter, neighborhood, and option — share 5A dollars equally. That’s an investment in all Jeffco students and in Jeffco’s future.
Since 2010, Jeffco has received $642 million less in state funding due to the state’s budget situation. During that time, the district has operated as efficiently as possible and spends less per-pupil dollars on administrative costs than neighboring districts. 5A provides a local funding solution that stays in Jeffco to benefit Jeffco and provides more school level budget funding so schools can best serve the needs and interests of their students. Together, 5A and 5B are an investment in Jeffco’s future that will cost just $3.91 per month for every $100,000 of assessed home value.
The following summaries were prepared from comments filed by persons AGAINST the proposal:
5A will NOT attract and retain great teachers. 75% of the total is planned to go to PERA which has no ability to encourage new, highly qualified teachers.
There is no mention or promise to allocate any of these funds toward improving student achievement. Having 50% of our 3rd graders reading below grade level or Wheat Ridge High School in the 40 percentile nationally instead of the top 10 is unacceptable.
Jeffco student enrollment in district run schools is declining. If the student enrollment is not increasing and achievement is not improving, there is no reason to increase spending by $90 million ($1100 more per student) that only results in a growing bureaucracy. For example, over 10 new administrators have recently been hired, each making over $100,000. Since the numbers of students and teachers are declining, there is no logical reason for such hires.
5A purports to be just a $33 million per year increase in taxes; however the amount will increase with inflation but not decrease if the economy declines.
Jeffco’s budget is currently One Billion per year – more than $250,000 per classroom. Given the lack of an increase in number of students, no increase in taxes is warranted.
Increasing property taxes hurts our senior population living on fixed incomes. And by raising the cost of housing, it becomes more difficult for young families with potential students to rent or buy.
In 2015, 63% of Jeffco 4th graders did not meet the State math standard. Three years later, on the 2018 test, 61% of Jeffco 7th graders didn’t meet the math standard. Jeffco needs to quickly and substantially improve student achievement performance to enable our children to succeed in an intensely competitive global economy. In 1999, Jeffco passed a national-award winning "Performance Promise" mill levy that tied increasing taxpayer support for schools to improving student achievement results. 5A does not do that.
5B: Bond
The following summaries were prepared from comments filed by persons FOR the proposal:
The average Jeffco school is more than 50 years old. Our school buildings and athletic fields host students, teachers, administrators, staff, families and community members during and after school, on weekends, and during breaks. We must invest in renovation and repairs to extend the life of Jeffco taxpayers’ biggest asset, our schools.
5B will fund major renovations and capital repairs needed to keep our neighborhood schools open and allow the district to save thousands of dollars on utility bills annually by upgrading to more efficient HVAC and electrical systems. All schools will receive improvements, and 10% of the bond will go to Jeffco’s charter schools.
5B funding will be used to update science labs and learning spaces in high schools built before 1980 and before personal computers were commonplace. Our students will be more prepared for college and career if they are educated in a building equipped for the technology they need in the future.
5B will fund state-of-the-art security systems to improve communication between schools, the district security office, and local law enforcement agencies in an emergency. 5B also funds an interior lock in every classroom, which is a proven first line of defense in protecting students.
5B will be used to implement Phase I of the Outdoor Lab Master Plan for much-needed improvements and repairs to both the Windy Peak and Mount Evans schools.
With 5B funding, Jeffco could build a Warren Tech South facility to expand career and technical programming choices. 5B also includes funding for two new schools and additions to some existing schools that currently have students in temporary classrooms.
Bond funds will also renovate closed buildings in preparation for future educational programming. For example, by renovating the former Sobesky building in Lakewood, it would be available for the proposed arts school or for a different option school program. 5B also includes improvements to sporting facilities like Trailblazer Stadium.
Jeffco has been accountable with our tax dollars. All projects in the 2012 bond package were completed on time and within budget. Bond funds will not be used for senior administration salaries and will be subject to an annual external audit. A citizen oversight committee will monitor the planning and execution of the bond package.
Jeffco has the lowest debt service of all neighboring districts and has not passed a bond for new construction since 2004. Jeffco has not received any marijuana tax revenue for capital construction. With construction costs increasing by 8 to 12% annually, taxpayers save money by building now.
Jeffco has a growing repair and maintenance backlog because it has received $642 million less in state funding than it should have since 2010. 5B will fund the replacement of four aging schools as well as improvements at all our schools to create safer schools and stronger, more vibrant neighborhoods and communities throughout Jeffco. Together, 5A and 5B are an investment in Jeffco’s future that will cost just $3.91 per month for every $100,000 of home value.
The following summaries were prepared from comments filed by persons AGAINST the proposal:
5B will cost just below $1 Billion to pay off and does not address repairs to the buildings most in need of repair. $170 million of this would be due to unnecessary interest because of the back-loaded nature of the repayment structure. This design puts the onus on our children and grandchildren to make those payments.
Parr, Stober and Green Gables were all promised new buildings in the 2016 proposed bond but do not get new buildings now, instead getting only “band aid” repairs.
The board wasted $60 million by adding unneeded capacity to middle schools as enrollment in district schools is declining. Don’t let them waste a billion dollars more.
This Billion Dollar proposal has no plans to add new schools even though Jeffco has been saying new elementary schools are needed in Arvada. Fletcher Miller was promised $22 million for a new building in the 2016 proposal… only gets $2 million. Jefferson Jr / Sr was promised $30 million for improvements in the 2016 proposal… gets less than $14 million. Wheat Ridge, Columbine and Green Mountain need new buildings just like Lakewood, Golden and Bear Creek. 5B only provides crumbs.
It makes absolutely no fiscal sense to make payments for 20 years to pay for lightbulbs or landscaping.
Nor does it make good sense to use $390 million of the initial $567 million on buildings considered to be in “fair” or “good” condition and not bring buildings in “poor” condition up to the same level.
It is unacceptable to have $20 million in non-allocated money.
Increasing property taxes hurts our senior population living on fixed incomes. And by raising the cost of housing, it becomes more difficult for young families with potential students to rent or buy.
In 2016/2017, district-run schools used only 81% of their capacity, which, given projections for flat student enrollment in the future, suggests that facility rationalization could significantly reduce Jeffco’s costs.
The latest Facilities Condition review shows that some Jeffco schools are in poor condition and need replacement. Yet the proposed bond issue does not fund this (e.g., replacement of Wheat Ridge and Pomona high schools). And there is no proposal to close schools that have low utilization and are in poor condition.
Rather than basing this proposed bond issue on a clear long-term capital plan that includes school closures, new school construction, and school boundary changes, the district proposes to spend most of the $567 million bond proceeds on a series of short-term measures to keep the current inefficient system afloat.