We need to stand together to protect our students’ future for the long term – Take action attend the April 11 Rally to Protect Our Future
Once again the Summit has brought people together for a collaborative process to address extreme budget cuts in the district. The Summit was hugely successful in recommending $20 million in cuts for 2012-2013 that puts students first and continues to keep most cuts out of the classroom.
“We are glad that we were able to put off drastic position cuts and elimination of programs like library and music,” said Kerrie Dallman, summit participant and JCEA President, “however this process and the future projections underscore the urgency we have in our state of finding a statewide fix to education funding in Colorado. We owe it to our children to invest in our school system so that they have the skills necessary to compete in the global economy and we owe it to our communities to provide the resources necessary for successful public schools.”
Our members have demonstrated over and over again that when we come together to take action, we can help make the change necessary to protect our students and improve our schools. We are 21st Century teachers who understand that the paradigm has changed and we need to be activists and advocates at every level of government where important decisions about our students’ future are being made.
We know that our members’ collective action helped to make our priorities a reality in these cuts. Over the past several months, members participated in building meetings, the bargaining survey, school board meetings and letter writing to help the community and school board understand how projected cuts would impact our students.
Through our bargaining survey our members made it clear that their priorities were to keep cuts as far from the classroom for as long as possible, protect salaries and classroom positions above all else. Our members also overwhelmingly supported going for a mill levy override in 2012 to offset the cuts for 2013-2014.
The majority of the reductions for the 2012-2013 school year are coming out of central administration and other support functions with the loss of 31 positions, some which are already vacant. Outdoor Lab will remain open for the coming school year under a sustainability plan supported by the Outdoor Lab Foundation and the district.
The school board also agreed to put an additional $5 million from their savings account towards next year’s budget, which helped offset the cuts.
The challenge will come next year, when cuts are expected to be much deeper, but the Summit participants have agreed to seriously explore a mill override this November in order to offset the costs next year.
If we don’t successfully pass a mill levy override, we will need to make a projected $40 million in cuts which could include nearly 600 position cuts including classroom teachers, instructional coaches, teacher-librarians, counselors, elementary music programs and the elimination of funding to Outdoor Lab.
However, even with a successful mill override, close to $20 million in cuts will still need to be made for the 2013-2014 school year, further demonstrating the need for a statewide funding fix.
Next Steps:
We will need to continue to build on the momentum we have created over the past several months to encourage our school board to go for a mill levy override in 2012 and even more importantly we need to take a stand at the state level to demonstrate the importance of fixing our statewide funding crisis.
“I invite all Jeffco staff and their families and friends to join with colleagues from across the state on our Jeffco furlough day of
April 11 to a rally at the capital to protect our students’ future,” said Stephi Rossi, JCEA Treasurer and bargaining chair.
All recommendations are tentative and subject to approval by the Jeffco School board and employee associations.
JCEA will continue to negotiate with the district for several non-economic items and we anticipate ratification will take place sometime in May.
To see the full list of recommended cuts
click here.