Uncertainty Looms for Colorado Faculty District Staff Going through Job Cuts

Dozens of Jefferson County Faculty District staff will be taught this week whether or not they nonetheless have a job subsequent 12 months. The district is having to chop greater than $45 million from its funds forward of subsequent college 12 months.

A blueprint for the way the district plans to succeed in that purpose, shared with the neighborhood earlier this 12 months, is now turning into actuality.

“My vacation message this 12 months is a extra somber and severe one,” Superintendent Tracy Dorland stated in a recorded message delivered to employees in a cellphone name Monday morning. 

The district is getting ready to inform staff impacted because it eliminates roughly 160 full-time positions.

The modifications have been introduced at a November board assembly.

“Now we have to get to a spot the place we stay inside our means, and so we have to make these reductions and begin residing within the new actuality,” Dorland stated at that assembly.

District officers say the reductions will come first by way of attrition, retirement, and typical turnover, with a purpose of minimizing affect on lecture rooms.

Lindsay Datko, a Jeffco guardian and govt director of Jeffco Children First, questions whether or not that is doable.

“We will not deny the truth that this may have a ripple impact by way of our lecture rooms,” Datko stated.

As a district watchdog, Datko factors to choices by the board of training for continued funds hassle.

“The district — I feel you will need to give them sufficient credit score — they did warn the board of training that we have been going to be on this huge predicament,” she stated.

District officers cite low enrollment as the most important issue within the want for funds reductions. Low beginning charges and extra households leaving Jefferson County, they are saying, have impacted per-student funding.

“Our kindergarten class this 12 months is 4,092 college students. That’s the lowest kindergarten class we’ve had in Jeffco historical past,” Seanin Rosario, govt director of finance planning and evaluation, stated through the November assembly.

Mother and father like Datko are actually left bracing for the affect.

“We simply want to know these are grownup choices affecting kids, and we have to take a step again and understand how we acquired right here and keep away from it sooner or later,” Datko stated.

The district plans to launch the ultimate variety of positions lower on Thursday. And that is simply the beginning. Particular person faculties may be pressured to chop positions, with these modifications introduced within the spring.