Faced with a looming $60 million structural deficit, the Jefferson County school board reviewed the district’s proposed 2025-26 budget on June 4 and began a sobering discussion about what comes next.
In the upcoming school year, Jeffco is projected to spend more money than it brings in, relying on savings to bridge the gap.
The proposed budget relies on $39 million in one-time spending from the district’s fund balance, and Chief Financial Officer Brenna Copeland warned that without significant changes, reserves could dip to unmanageable levels by the 2027-28 school year.
The district has already shuttered 21 schools since 2021, resulting in $20 million in recurring cost savings. Yet, Copeland said the overall budget continues to grow due to inflation, compensation increases and special education needs.
“This is not a proposal. This is a hypothetical illustration,” Copeland said as she walked board members through a series of bleak multi-year forecasts. “If we just keep doing what we’re doing, we do not right the ship.”
Accountability and long-term planning
The district is statutorily required to adopt a high-level plan to address ongoing shortfalls when using reserves to fund recurring costs.
This year’s budget plan, presented in May and reiterated at the June 4 meeting, outlines a phased approach: reduce expenditures through program changes and staffing cuts, avoid future cost increases where possible and consider asking voters for additional funding through a mill levy override.
The new forecasts assume modest revenue increases and enrollment declines over the next three years. The district anticipates losing 800 students in both the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years.
At the same time, it projects rising costs for salaries, benefits, utilities and mandated services, such as special education. Copeland said the forecasts already include staff reductions aligned to enrollment loss.
“We are recognizing that when we lose 800 students, we do staff for fewer positions,” she said. “I get frustrated when people suggest that we’re not including reductions. We are.”
Still, the projected gap persists. By 2027-28, Jeffco’s unassigned reserves and its designated fund balance for future use are expected to fall to zero, leaving no cushion for emergencies or midyear adjustments.
That, Copeland said, poses operational risks.
“I don’t know how schools would navigate a negative October adjustment without carryforward,” she said, referring to the reserve balances schools typically rely on when enrollment numbers change.
Board confronts painful choices: job cuts likely
At the board’s request, Copeland presented three models showing how the district could close a $60 million shortfall.
Each hypothetical model involved significant cuts to staffing, showing that even steep cuts to software, supplies and other discretionary spending don’t go far enough.
One proposed a flat 6% cut across all spending categories, totaling about $60 million. Another suggested a 6% cut to full-time staff, resulting in the elimination of approximately 564 positions. A third option varied the approach, cutting 5% to 10% in targeted areas while attempting to shield general instruction and school-based staffing.
Board Member Danielle Varda asked why staff appeared to be the main target of cuts when some families might assume administrative or central expenses could be trimmed instead.
Varda said that if cuts to school-based staff are on the table, the district has a responsibility to explain why central services aren’t absorbing more of the burden.
Copeland explained that 84% of the general fund budget is tied to salaries and benefits. That includes not only teachers, but paraprofessionals, counselors, custodians, transportation staff and others.
“Of the $60 million target, $49 million would come from reductions to salary and benefit accounts,” Copeland said. “That’s where the money is.”
Board responds with urgency
“We’ve got to prepare our community for the fact that there are going to be significant reductions in force,” said Board Member Paula Reed. “That’s going to be unavoidable.”
Director Michelle Applegate somberly agreed.
“Even small gestures to demonstrate we are tightening our own belts are important. We need to show our community we are taking this seriously.”
Applegate suggested implementing cost-saving policies now, such as travel limits, caps on consultant contracts and leaving vacancies unfilled.
Deputy Superintendent Kym LeBlanc-Esparza said stakeholder input will be critical to shaping district priorities and understanding what families value most.
“In three decades of education, I’ve been through downturns before,” she said. “We have to establish criteria, involve stakeholders, educate people on what’s in each category and identify what’s undesirable versus what’s impossible.”
The board agreed to form a working group, likely comprising at least two board members and district leaders, to develop that framework this summer.
Applegate and others said the district should begin community conversations about asking voters to approve a mill levy override. Without one, they said, the kinds of cuts needed in 2026 and beyond could reshape Jeffco schools.
“If we are going to ask the community to support a mill, we need to be specific,” Varda said. “We need to be clear about what we’re protecting, what we’re cutting and what we’re asking the money to do.”
This year’s resolution will include that required plan, she said, and will outline broader strategies for reducing expenditures and possibly going to voters with a tax request.
The board will vote on the 2025-26 proposed budget on June 12.
Looking ahead, board members acknowledged that decisions must come soon. School budgets are typically built in November for the following year, meaning discussions about staffing, programming and potential tax requests can’t wait.
“We have to start talking now about what we will do,” Reed said. “Not just what we won’t.”