A spending measure on the November ballot could jeopardize schools’ ability to provide a safe environment, Platte Canyon Superintendent James Walpole said Tuesday.
Walpole’s district includes Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, where a gunman held students hostage and fatally shot student Emily Keyes last month. He joined other administrators in opposing Amendment 39 at a Denver Area School Superintendents Council news conference.
If passed, the measure would require schools to spend at least 65 percent of their operating budgets on instruction that directly touches students.
That includes classroom teachers and personnel, field trips, libraries and librarians, music, arts and computers.
It excludes costs associated with administration, food services, transportation, nurses and counselors, which would be covered from the remaining 35 percent.
Walpole said that if voters pass Amendment 39, security costs – including equipment and people to monitor cameras – could not count toward instruction. Currently there is no restriction, he said.
State Rep. Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, a proponent of Amendment 39, said many security systems at schools are covered by county law enforcement or federal security services and that 35 percent of a budget could still be used for those costs.
He said he believes school superintendents are paid far too much and the amendment would put a focus back on classroom spending.
Cindy Stevenson, superintendent of the Jefferson County School District, said the amendment takes local control away from district families.
Citizens in a district currently can tell their local school board how they want funds to be spent, she said.
Stengel said local control would not be lost. “Thirty-nine doesn’t tell one school district how to spend any money,” he said.
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-954-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
