Jeffco schools face budget cuts after voters reject 5A and 5B

In a message to the Jeffco community dated Nov. 4, interim Superintendent Dr. Rob Stein and Board of Education President Michelle Applegate said the district accepts the verdict the early results point to: neither 5A nor 5B passed. The final results have not yet been certified, they noted, but a majority of votes had been tallied and reported, and the district is preparing to move forward on the results now available.

The larger of the two measures, Ballot Issue 5A, asked for a $73 million operating mill levy override. In the Board of Education's resolution supporting the measures, adopted on Oct. 15, the district cast 5A chiefly as a pay measure: salaries for teachers, support staff and school leaders would move nearer to what comparable districts in the region pay, in an effort to keep staff and hire new ones, and the district's career and technical classes would grow. Under state law, a share of voter-approved mill levy revenue goes to the district's charter schools, and the district's information page put the charter share of 5A at about $8.5 million.

Ballot Issue 5B asked for a $60 million special purpose mill levy for buildings and systems. The board's resolution directed the money to the building stock: roofs, heating and cooling equipment and parking lots in need of repair, stronger safety and security systems, newer classroom technology, and a share of facility funding for the district's charter schools on equal terms. Together, the district's information page said, the two measures would have raised $133 million a year.

The needs the measures were meant to address have not changed with the vote. Stein and Applegate told families the district must keep working to retain and attract talented educators and still faces more than $500 million in critical repairs and improvements across its schools. Those needs, they said, affect learning environments, the programs the district can offer and its ability to prepare students for the future.

Without the added funding, the district says, additional budget reductions will be necessary. Over the coming months, the board and district leadership will work through the budget development process for the 2027-28 school year, analyzing options and assessing impacts before deciding how to balance the district's priorities against the resources it has. The district said it will share timelines and opportunities for staff and community input as that process moves forward.

The Jeffco budget will also take shape alongside the statewide results. Stein and Applegate said the district will begin reviewing the outcomes of the statewide ballot initiatives that affect its students and schools, identifying what it is responsible for implementing and updating policy and guidance as needed. Where a statewide measure carries money with it, Jeffco plans to watch the legislature's follow-up decisions before counting on any of it in the 2027-28 budget.

The board's Oct. 15 resolution expressed the board's formal support for both measures and described them as its answer to the district's compensation and facilities needs. Voters' answer, as the district itself recorded it on Wednesday, was no on both, and the work of closing the gap now moves from the ballot box to the board's budget table.