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Colorado Livin' / School

Jefferson County among 6 Colorado school districts with financial red flags

Six Colorado school districts — including Jefferson County — are considered at high risk for financial crisis, down from 19 identified by the state auditor last year.

Each year, the state evaluates the financial health of Colorado’s 178 school districts. “Our analysis just serves as an analytical tool and early warning system,” said legislative audit manager Crystal Dorsey. “It does allow the department of ed and the districts to take prompt action.”

The audit looks at six areas of the district books, including cash flow, debt and operating reserves. Depending on the trend in each area, a warning could be triggered. Any district that receives a warning in at least two of the areas may be identified as being at risk and potentially be put on the state’s watch list and required to submit a correction plan.

Brighton School District in Adams County and Manzanola 3J School District in Otero County were required to submit correction plans last year. They and 14 other districts flagged in 2010 improved enough to move off the at- risk list this year.

Three of the districts flagged last year — Buena Vista in Chaffee County, Hoehne Reorganized in Las Animas County and LaVeta in Huerfano County — are still considered at-risk.

Hoehne had an additional warning indicator that is triggered when the district may be near the inability to pay its debt.

School officials there told state auditors that their finances were in distress because a major property owner filed for bankruptcy, leaving the district with $211,000 in uncollected property taxes.

The district has requested financial assistance from the state.

No school districts were asked to submit a correction plan this year, and none were placed on watch.

Last year’s report had warned that state budget cuts could force districts to use up reserves, possibly triggering more warning indicators.

While the problem was expected to be widespread, five of the six districts flagged did have this warning sign as a central problem.

The state expects further cuts to education next year.

Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said she was not surprised her district was flagged for the first time.

“Jeffco had a plan,” she said. “We recognize what the report says, but we’re already on it.”

Jefferson County is the largest district in the state.

District leaders say the spending that triggered the warning indicators was part of a deliberate and long- term plan to take reserve funds as low as legally possible.

The reserve was built up using savings of up to $10 million per year, and from a mill levy override in 2004. At its high point, the reserve was equal to 25 percent of operating expenses.

Now the district is spending down the money to cushion large budget cuts, like the $40 million that was cut from the current school year. It also will be used to help cushion an additional $70 million in cuts over the next two years.

The reserve fund is expected to reach its legal, low-end limit of 7 percent of operating expenses, about $42 million, in the 2012-13 school year.

“It’s been very helpful,” Stevenson said. “If you can hold steady at that point, you can build the reserves back up.”

-Yesenia Robles

Mile High Mamas
Author: Mile High Mamas

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12 Comments

  1. 1 points
    (5 votes)

    Article Discussion: Jefferson County among 6 Colorado school

    Postby Anyabasha on Yesterday, 3:47 am
    Gee, Jeffco School District has be financially mismanaged for years. Whata shock. Maybe we should fire the whole bunch and take a looonnnng recess.

    The school districts pr machine must be working overtime to produce all these “po boy” articles in the post. Next they will have to pay the printers and writers to prepare the “tax bond increase requests”. The old election trick, write about the “poorness, and children suffering”. At first the voter is disbelieving, repeat article. 2nd, voter is mad, repeat article. 3rd, voter is sympathetic, repeat article. 4th Press and voter are becoming bored, repeat article. 5th, voter is apathetic, repeat article. 6th, voter votes NO, repeat article. 7th, voter becomes apathetic, repeat article. 8th, Only sympathetic voters vote, Tax increase passes, Do not repeat article for at least one year.

    The voters really are kinda dumb when you think about it.

    Perhaps the dp should publish an in depth study of each school district detailing the following by School year for a minimum of five years by year (calendar of school year, doesn’t matter).

    Gross Receipts by source of funds
    Number of students by facility
    Number of teachers by course of study (ie: math, science, sports, etc)
    Number of students per teacher by course of study
    Number of facilites by classification owned and/or leased
    Number of counselors by classification
    Number of administrative assistants
    Number of principals and assistant principals by school
    Number of Administrators by school and/or facility
    Number of Executives and staff by location including headquarters
    Dollar amount of all equipment and faciliity leases by location
    Median salary and/or wage rate per employee classification
    Fringe benefit percentage and actual dollar amount
    Operating expenses (excluding payroll by location)
    Board of Education salaries and expenses
    Long term debt by classification along with the term of the debt and payment schedule
    And any other that this forum does not allow space for.

    All the information requested is public information. Should not be too hard to get, although the school districts may not like to provide it. Perhaps then we could at least make an informed decision on who is kidding whom.

  2. Maybe if JeffCo didn’t spend a fortune on it’s athletic facilities so our kids can play night games under $2000 dollar per night lights and every other cost you can think of, they would have some money left over. I wonder how much it cost JeffCo public schools to build that stadium at 64th Ave and Highway 93? I love sports, but the spending our school districts have to do to maintain the programs and the facilities is rediculous.

    I will stop short of blaming teachers unions. We have been listening to this line of BS about teachers and labor in general for 30 years when the reality is cuts could be made in so many other areas to make up for shortfalls in revenue. Our teachers are a valuable commodity we cannot afford to lose. Our gladiator mentality towards sports programs is really cutting into education and funding for it. I’m not saying stop sports, but only be smarter about it. Have more day games. Go back to good ole bleachers and a concession stand. Dress warm folks. It’s how it was done 40 years ago. Why can’t we do it again. Oh,I know. Your kid is going pro and he/she needs the spotlight. Right?

  3. So let me get this straight… they’re spending the money faster than they really need now in order to INTENTIONALLY drop the reserves??? Lemme guess, so that they can use the leverage of being at the low end of the legal range in order to force higher funding later?

    Sounds like a classic case of what’s wrong with govt. It’s all about extracting as much money from taxpayers as they can.

  4. And that Is exactly why as a property owner in Jefferson country I will NOT vote for any mil-levy increases in my taxes until I see some MAJOR reform I can believe.

  5. These districts need to make school cuts. Jeffco should have done that already. So should have the others.

  6. No, the whole point of reserves – “rainy day funds” – is to use them during times of drop-off in revenues.

  7. Jeffco already did make cuts and started furlough days. $40 million worth of cuts for this school year alone.

  8. What the heck is wrong with this country. Can we get our priorities right? We have the all the money in the world to launch million dollar missiles all over the world and feeding and educating the world but we don’t have the money to educate our own. Then we wonder why other countries are passing us up in technology.

  9. Aren’t you glad that you kept reading down to the last five paragraphs? They operated under budget and collected TOO MUCH TAXES for years resulting in a huge surplus. All the while whining about money. Now they must spend down that surplus to “cushion future budget cuts”. What does that mean?

  10. Jeffco made cuts and spent more on compensation, those are cuts? Here is JeffcoR-1’s definition to “furlough” days: Jeffco had to apply for a waiver to the state requesting permission to NOT have kids in the classroom for the state required time while district staff is given the day off without pay. That is not a “cut”. If you don’t work you don’t get paid. A cut would be the same amount of work for less pay, that is a cut. They also take no issue with $7000 lunch tables courtesy of the superintendent, Cindy Stevenson, quoted in this article.

  11. It never ceases to amaze me how in these economically hard times and budgets of every entity in dire straits for five, six years now, some people think those entities haven’t thought of that! How novel, they should have just asked keyboard economists to fix it all with a simple, “They need to make cuts”.

    But they go on believing nothing has been done hardheadedly, when hair has been pulled out, because investigating facts is too hard.

    Have the districts be too quiet about it? It would seem that after several years complaining about lack of money in the news someone would look into how they manage things.

  12. See I am probably one person who finds it totally offensive that schools are being graded on their financial attitude instead of their degrees of real teaching. Sometimes I feel really sad that people are not having fits and demanding that the states quit non funding of school systems. Just my opinion.

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