Schools for Tomorrow Blog

Boulder Valley School District is facing a split, DPS and other large districts around the state will be asking for more money this fall, but smaller districts around the state are facing tough decisions this summer as well.

The ( Longmont) Daily Times-Call is reporting this week on the ongoing deliberations by the St. Vrain Valley School District Board of Education to put both a bond issue and mill-levy override on the November ballot. This, as everywhere, is a potentially contentious issue in the face of rising prices and a weakened economy, and the Times-Call’s regurgitation of whatever the school board tells its reporters would seem to bear this out.

Interestingly, the bond issue has weaker support than the mill-levy override, which right now would seem to be passable — a first ever for this much less affluent Boulder County school district. And according to the district’s consultants, a smaller bond issue has a better chance of passing.

On one hand, this may be good news if the limited funds actually go towards shoring up existing buildings — the district is preparing to open two outlying high schools in the next several years while some of its central schools struggle with declining enrollment, disappointing student achievement, and deteriorating facilities.

Those surveyed by the district’s consultants seem to be more supportive of fixing what they have (and improving class size, etc. for students and existing teachers) rather than building more schools. There’s no indication in the story, however, of whether the board might allocate less bond money, if they choose that route. Unfortunately, the story also does not seem to include its own, even informal and anecdotal, poll of taxpayers regarding these proposals. Maybe next time.

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 8:45 am and is filed under School funding and finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.