Charging students to ride the bus, eliminating sports and laying off teachers were just some of the ways area school districts last week worked through painful budget cuts.
“It’s brutal,” said Janelle Albertson, spokeswoman for the Adams 12 Five Star School District, which made $22 million in cuts for the upcoming school year. “Every single department, every single school, everything has been cut.”
The economy, combined with lower- than-expected funding from the state, has put most districts in dire straits.
Colorado was already ranked near the bottom of kindergarten-through-12th-grade funding compared with other states. Now with the recession, major programs are being slashed everywhere.
In Adams 12, 188 jobs were lost, most of them layoffs. The district also implemented a $10 monthly transportation fee for students who ride the bus and a $15 technology fee for middle schoolers.
Adams 12 also eliminated eighth-grade football and softball and high school lacrosse. All seventh-grade sports are now intramural.
Cherry Creek schools cut about $18 million from its 2010-11 budget, although there won’t be any layoffs for the district. The budget cut was offset by $11 million still remaining from a voter-approved property-tax increase in 2008.
All departments except transportation were cut by 5 percent in Cherry Creek. Transportation reduced its budget by 10 percent by changing start and finish times and changing the boundaries for bus service. Salaries and noninstructional positions were frozen.
“Our goal of all our budget cuts was to preserve the classroom so when the children arrive in the fall, they will see no difference,” Cherry Creek spokeswoman Tustin Amole said.
Littleton Public Schools had to cut $7.5 million for the 2010-11 school year. About 200 jobs were lost, and employees will have to take two furlough days. Foreign-language programs, art, music and physical education classes were also severely impacted.
The reductions were enough for the Littleton school board to approve asking voters in November to pass a property-tax increase that would raise $12 million a year.
That could be a tough sell in these economic times, but officials felt they had no choice.
“Given the consequences to the kids and the schools, we didn’t feel like we could wait,” Littleton board president Bob Colwell said.
The Douglas County School District cut $36 million for the upcoming school year by losing 264 jobs, 168 of which were teaching positions. Those teachers were either on one-year contracts or on probationary status, and some retired or left the district.
Those cuts will mean increased class sizes. The district also implemented a transportation fee of 50 cents a ride on a school bus.
Denver and Jefferson County schools also saw big cuts, with Jeffco closing an elementary school that had been open for more than 50 years.
Aurora Public Schools cut $17 million from its budget. It added a sixth period for high school teachers, which saved about $4 million. Aurora schools also dipped into its reserves for about $5 million.
But only about a half-dozen jobs were lost in Aurora, and no major impacts will be felt in the classroom, officials said.
“We made a very conscious effort to bring back everyone who wanted to come back and find spots for them,” Aurora board president Matt Cook said.
The Englewood school district dipped into its reserves for about $2 million to avoid major layoffs and budget cuts, superintendent Brian Ewert said. But it may have to go to voters at some point because those reserves aren’t going to be replenished anytime soon.
Still, the crisis for the upcoming school year is over.
“If this isn’t a rainy day, I don’t know what is,” Ewert said.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
A clarification has been made in this online archive. Originally, an incorrect impression was made that the Cherry Creek School District was making no cuts to the transportation department budget. The department reduced its budget by 10 percent by doing such things as changing start and finish times and changing the boundaries for bus service.
