Welcome to Class Notes!

What's on my mind this week: I kept coming back to the same question across three different stories: Who's actually accountable when a district makes a promise it doesn't keep?

In Jeffco, the teachers and education support professionals unions are asking: Where are the guarantees that new tax dollars will actually reach classrooms? In Jeffco, students are asking: Where is the policy that protects us beyond the school's front door? And in Adams 12, voters who approved $39 million in new funding last November are asking: If we gave you the money, why are teachers still being cut?

The answers — or the lack of them — are this week's Class Notes.

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When Jeffco's district negotiating team told union leaders in January that the school board would need to make the final call on a mill levy override agreement, JCEA and JESPA did something both say was unlike anything they'd experienced before: they sent the board a formal demand letter asking it to negotiate directly.

The trigger was a stalled Memorandum of Understanding over how a potential mill levy override would be spent. The unions agreed to smaller pay packages last summer — on the condition that the district would lock in binding guarantees that MLO revenue would go to frontline teacher and staff compensation, not to central administration. After months of back-and-forth, the district stripped the enforceable language and sent back "empty" commitments with no teeth.

So on Feb. 12, union leaders made their case publicly at a board meeting. The next day, they sent a formal demand letter — and asked the Colorado Education Association for guidance on the process. "They were shocked," JCEA negotiations chair Michelle Moehlis said. "It is unusual."

The Colorado Trust for Local News asked both the district and the board to respond to the unions' specific claims. After three days, the district said it could not meet our deadline. The board did not respond.

Between the lines: This is directly connected to what you saw in last week's Jeffco Taxpayer Receipt. A new MLO is the district's stated path to closing its budget shortfall and funding compensation increases. But the unions are pointing out that Jeffco already broke a promise to voters: the 2018 mill levy ballot language specifically said no revenue would fund senior district administration. An oversight committee required by that ballot measure was never created. Nearly $250 million later, employees are asking why they should trust another ballot promise without a legally enforceable agreement.

Why it matters: Without union support, a mill levy override campaign is almost impossible to win. Unions knock doors, talk to neighbors and turn out votes. If JCEA and JESPA can't promise their members will support the ballot measure, Jeffco's path out of its structural deficit gets significantly harder, and another round of cuts becomes more likely.

What's next: The board has not publicly committed to placing a mill levy override on the November ballot or announced a timeline. Both union leaders say they're cautiously optimistic about negotiating directly with the board. Watch for the board's next regular meeting and whether members respond publicly or privately to the unions' demand letter.

Enter your home value and see exactly how your property taxes break down across the district's operating budget — classroom instruction, special education, operations and more.

It matters right now because Adams 12 is living through a genuine paradox. Voters approved Prop 5B in November, bringing in $39.42 million in new annual funding. And the district is considering cutting approximately 11 elementary teaching positions due to seven straight years of enrollment decline. Those are two separate problems happening at the same time — new money solving a compensation crisis, enrollment decline forcing reductions regardless — and your receipt is the baseline for understanding both.

Between the lines: The receipt shows what you're paying into the system today. The cuts aren't happening because that money disappeared — they're happening because fewer students means fewer dollars flow to individual schools, no matter how much voters approve at the ballot. Superintendent Chris Gdowski has already signaled that school closures or consolidations could come as soon as fall 2026.

What's next: Salary schedule changes are expected before spring break. State funding totals, which will determine the full budget picture, won't be confirmed until April or May.

After you see your receipt, I have two quick questions for you. Your responses will help shape my coverage of Adams 12. I'll report what readers said in an upcoming issue.

I also built an interactive tool that shows what the budget means specifically for your situation, whether you're an elementary teacher, a parent, a classified employee or a taxpayer with no direct school connection.

40% — The increase in Jeffco's general administration spending between 2023-24 and 2024-25, according to CDE data cited by the unions at the Feb. 12 board meeting. Total district revenue grew by 8% over the same period.

That gap is at the heart of why JCEA and JESPA say they need binding guarantees before they'll campaign for a mill levy override. The unions want the MOU to explicitly prohibit MLO revenue from funding central administrator wage increases, a provision the district has refused to include.

📌 "Our biggest fear is ICE waiting in our parking lot." Two Jefferson Jr./Sr. High School students — 11th-grade class president Alma Moreno and eighth-grade student representative Ashley Garcia — addressed the Jeffco board Feb. 12 about what it's actually like to be a student at their predominantly Hispanic school right now.

The district says it has "clear, district-wide guidance," trains principals regularly and activates "Secure status" when law enforcement is nearby. Jeffco's 2025 resolution affirms student safety regardless of immigration status. But resolutions aren’t policy, and they aren’t enforceable.

Even so, Moreno put her finger on the gap: the policy addresses what happens inside the building, not what happens in the parking lot, on transportation routes or at the curb where parents pick up their kids. "It should not be a responsibility to stand here and ask you to protect our classmates," Garcia told the board. "But I feel it is a moral obligation."

The district did not respond to questions before publication, but added its response after the story was updated. Read the full story →

📍 Are multilingual learners losing services when their teachers sub? A mid-year academic report at Westminster's Feb. 24 board meeting quietly disclosed that CLDE interventionists, the specialists who work daily with English language learners, are being pulled into a district-wide licensed substitute teacher rotation.

When they sub in other classrooms, their multilingual learner students don't receive services that day. The district simultaneously claims that "guaranteed protected service minutes" are being maintained, which directly conflicts with what was disclosed. I've filed a CORA request for substitute coverage logs and service delivery records.

📍 In December 2023, Jeffco's monitoring report committed to investigating barriers to student participation in AP, IB, and concurrent enrollment and to proposing strategies to grow it. Last week, I filed a CORA request for the plan, any findings, and any meeting materials from groups convened to do the work. The district has since invoked a provision of Colorado's open records law that allows it to take an additional 10 days to respond. I'll report what comes back when it does.

Still time to weigh in: 27J boundary survey. So far, 102 people have responded to the 27J boundary survey, with prioritizing safety running slightly ahead of balance and alignment. I’m going to share the results with the district, so if you haven't weighed in yet, now's the time.

All three of this week's stories have one thing in common: parents and community members showing up at board meetings and making their voices heard. If you've ever wanted to give public comment but didn't know where to start, I made a free checklist for that.

Get "How to Give Public Comment That Gets Heard" →

It covers what to say, how to say it, and what to do when the board doesn't respond — with district-by-district details for Jeffco, Adams 12, Westminster, 27J and Weld RE-8.

Class Notes is free because readers like you share it with people who need it. When you refer friends, you unlock tools I've built from covering five Front Range school districts:

🔓 3 referrals — CORA Request Template Kit (fill-in-the-blank public records requests)

I can't be everywhere, but you are. If something's happening in your district or school that doesn't add up, I want to hear about it. A policy that makes no sense. A budget line that vanished. A question no one will answer.

You can stay anonymous. I protect my sources.

Class Notes is reported and written by Suzie Glassman for the Colorado Trust for Local News.

I do the homework on your schools, so you don't have to.

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