Denver native John Rosasco plays a lot of roles in his life — husband, father of three, Harvest Food Distributors employee. He recently added one more: member of the steering committee.
“This year I decided … I’d be fully involved” if the school board decided to ask voters to approve a mill levy, Rosasco said. “I don’t want to be one of those people that can sit there at the end of the election night and wish I had done more. Thatap not in my DNA.”
Rosasco is one of about a dozen members on the I am 27J steering committee, an advocacy group campaigning for a . It will appear as ballot issue 3D on this year’s ballot. Election Day is Nov. 7.
After the district’s board of education approved the measure for this year’s ballot Sept. 26, the baton was passed to parents, educators and other volunteers to persuade their peers to approve ballot issue 3D. The ensuing month consisted of a flurry of phone calls, texts, print and digital mailings, posting flyers and knocking on doors to reach voters.
Like many of the measure’s advocates, Rosasco is a 27J parent. Two of his children attend district schools and the third will enter the district next year. Another steering committee member, Brighton Education Association president Kathey Ruybal, was an English teacher for 23 years at Brighton High School, where she taught using a textbook that was 20 years old, she said. Both Rosasco and Ruybal have participated in district issues in the past, but this is the first time they’ve felt compelled to lead efforts to pass a measure.
“Right now itap a different way to try and help students and make sure they get the resources they need,” Ruybal said.
Proponents say money raised by the mill levy override would be used to update textbooks like the ones Ruybal used and better compensate teachers. Of the $12 million increase, $2 million would go to expand technology, $1.6 million to update curriculum materials, $5 million to compensate staff, $1 million to add positions and $2.4 million to support the district’s charter partners.
Mill levy advocates say the money is needed at the district’s 18 traditional and five charter schools across Brighton, Commerce City, Thornton and parts of Aurora. The last time 27J voters approved a mill levy override was 2000.
“We might have been a district of 5,000 students at that time,” school board president Patrick Day said. At least 16,000 students now attend district schools, officials said. “That mill override has continued and been spread thinner each year,” Day said.
Since then, the district has tried and failed to persuade voters to pass measures five times: 2003, 2005, 2008, 2010 and 2011. as the local population has grown — Brighton and Thornton grew 56 percent and 41 percent, respectively, in the past decade, and the population of Commerce City has doubled since 2000.
“Itap just growing so quickly we can hardly keep up with it,” Ruybal said.
The district’s current non-inflation-based mill levy brings in $43 per pupil — dramatically lower than the $1,306 collected, on average, across metro Denver districts. Ballot issue 3D would increase the amount collected in District 27J to $728 per pupil. The district also has the lowest starting teacher salary of all the metro districts, which many officials say is leading to a teacher turnover rate that is 22 percent higher than the regional average.
These needs are uniquely served by mill levy overrides as opposed to bonds, advocates say. Mills support operating expenses (think teacher pay, technology) while bonds fund construction and renovations. Bond money — — cannot be used for operating costs.
Educating the public about how money can be used is a crucial component of I am 27J’s campaign, Ruybal said.
“Voters feel, ‘We already gave you money two years ago, why more?'” she said.
The answer is clear for Rosasco. When he sees his friends’ children, who attend schools in other districts, work on school-provided laptops, he says he can’t help but feel that his family is getting left behind.
“We’re 17 years behind funding. Look how much in the world has changed since we placed the last override,” Rosasco said. “The future will not be the same either.”
Beyond ensuring 27J attracts the best teachers and that students have access to textbooks that aren’t older than they are, Ruybal sees a symbolic importance to residents supporting this mill levy override. It’s not only a vote for your child and their school but for the value of public education, she said.
“Our public schools system is what defines a community,” Ruybal said, citing the effects on the economy and home values. “I think people forget how sometimes schools impact a whole community.”
Read more about the proposed mill levy override, including arguments for and against ballot issue 3D, online at .