Colorado voters on Tuesday greenlit billions of dollars in spending by school districts, with major bond proposals in metro Denver winning significant support.
Denver Public Schools, Aurora Public Schools and the Cherry Creek School District each put bond measures on the ballot that approached or reached $1 billion. All three had tallied a majority of voters’ support as of 11 a.m. Wednesday.
ELECTION RESULTS: Live Colorado election results for the 2024 election
A smaller $490 million bond measure by the Douglas County School District passed with 58.97% support. That measure will be used to build schools and for maintenance projects. It was the district’s third attempt in three years to get a bond measure passed.
“I am so grateful for our entire community for shouting loud and clear that they support our schools, our kids, our teachers,” Douglas County Superintendent Erin Kane said in a statement.
Voters also passed Denver Public Schools’ $975 million bond Tuesday, with returns showing 73.94% in favor of Ballot Issue 4A.
Colorado’s largest school district plans to use the bond to pay for air conditioning in 29 schools, along with other maintenance and safety projects. It’s the most money DPS has ever asked voters to borrow.
“On behalf of everyone at Denver Public Schools, I want to thank the voters of Denver for the trust that you have shown in us by passing our bond initiative,” Superintendent Alex Marrero said in a statement. “We are grateful for the foresight of our community to help us ensure that our students will be provided a safe and welcoming environment in which to learn and grow. Denver Public Schools is dedicated to making sure that every student thrives.”
Results showed 73.64% of voters supported Aurora Public Schools’ $1 billion bond, which would be used to build three new schools, among other renovations and expansions.
The Aurora district’s $30 million mill levy — which would go toward general building maintenance, mental health services and teacher salaries — also received 62.85% of voters’ support, results showed.
The Cherry Creek School District’s $950 million bond proposal had received 54.74% of the vote. The district will use the debt on several projects, including building maintenance, expanding the Cherry Creek Innovation Campus and rebuilding Laredo Middle School. The district would also replace the West Building at Cherry Creek High School.
“We are grateful for the trust and support of our residents and look forward to bringing these proposed investments to life as step one of growing Cherry Creek excellence for our students, teachers, and community,” Superintendent Christopher Smith said in a statement.
Overall, at least 32 school districts across Colorado were seeking nearly $7 billion via bonds, mill levies and other funding mechanisms Tuesday so that the districts can repair aging buildings, construct new schools and make other improvements.
As of Wednesday morning, at least 21 of those ballot measures had passed or were on the path to do so, according to the Colorado School Finance Project.
If all of the ballot measures had been approved, more than half of Colorado’s 881,464 preschool-to-12th-grade students would benefit, according to the
This year is the first time any school district in the state has proposed a billion-dollar bond measure, according to data collected by the Colorado Department of Education, which tracks elections going back to 1981.
School districts asked voters to approve bonds so that they can make capital improvements and maintenance repairs — expenses that leaders at multiple metro Denver districts said are too costly to pay for with the money in their general budgets.
Coloradans historically like to approve school bond measures, but leaders expressed concern that growing mistrust in education and the cost-of-living crisis could have affected voters’ willingness to open their wallets this election cycle. DPS and the Douglas County School District have faced more scrutiny in recent years, partly because of infighting among school board members and for violating the state’s open meetings laws.
District officials in Denver, Aurora and Douglas County all said their bond measures won’t increase property taxes because, if approved, they would simply extend an existing tax increase. If the new bonds aren’t approved then taxes would decrease.
The Cherry Creek School District’s and its mill levy increase would lead to a tax increase of less than $3 a month for each $100,000 of property value.
