Welcome to Class Notes! If you're new here, I'm Suzie Glassman, and I cover K-12 schools across Jefferson, Adams and Weld counties for the Colorado Trust for Local News. If you got this from a friend, subscribe at the link below.

What's on my mind this week: After using the taxpayer receipt tool in February, a reader sent me a note that's been hard to shake. She said, "When my property taxes go up, the state contribution goes down... and the pot stays the same size?? What!?! That is incredibly illuminating."

She figured out in about 60 seconds what took Jeffco's finance team years to communicate: the state's school funding formula is designed so that rising property values don't actually mean more money for your schools. The state just pays less. The pot stays the same size.

That mechanism sits underneath everything happening in Jeffco right now — the building repair fund running dry, the unions and the district at an impasse over the ballot measure, and a budget-cut investigation that is about to get more specific. This week, start with your own tax bill — then I'll show you where the money isn't going.

This week, I'm re-introducing two tools and connecting them in a new way for everyone.

Step 1: See your receipt.

The taxpayer receipt shows exactly what your Jeffco property taxes buy, broken down by classroom instruction, special education, counselors, facilities and more. Enter your home value and see your personal share of a $985 million budget.

Step 2: Try spending it.

At the end of the receipt, you'll find a new link: "Now try spending it." That takes you to a budget simulation I built using real numbers from Jeffco's FY 2025-26 Adopted Budget. Use the + and - buttons to adjust each category. Balance the budget. Watch what happens to class sizes, counselor ratios and the building fund backlog when you do.

A few things you'll notice when you try:

When you're done, I want to hear what surprised you. Hit reply.

Jeffco Public Schools has $45 million in deferred building repairs and no clear plan to pay for them.

The district transfers $15 million per year into its Capital Reserve fund — the account that pays for major building repairs, roof replacements and aging infrastructure across 155 schools. The problem: the district's own data shows it needs $105 million per year to keep up. At the current rate, the building fund will be depleted beyond fiscal year 2027.

That gap, $90 million per year between what's needed and what's funded, doesn't disappear. It compounds. Deferred repairs become emergency repairs. Emergency repairs cost more. And the schools that tend to fall behind first are the oldest ones, often in lower-income communities.

Where does this leave us?

The district is already drawing down its General Fund reserves to balance its $985 million budget this year, reducing savings from $175 million to $135.6 million. If that continues at the projected pace, reserves will hit zero by fiscal year 2027-28, the same year the building fund runs dry.

This isn't a future problem. It's arriving on schedule.

Between the lines: The $15 million transfer to the Capital Reserve is a board decision, not a legal requirement. It can be increased, but only by cutting something else, asking voters for more money or drawing down reserves faster. There is no option that doesn't cost something.

Why it matters: Forty-five million dollars in deferred repairs means leaking roofs, outdated HVAC systems and crumbling infrastructure at schools your kids attend and your taxes fund. The longer repairs are deferred, the more expensive they become.

What's next:

When Class Notes asked readers which budget category they'd shield from a 10% cut, classroom instruction came out on top by a wide margin. Special education was the second-most common answer, with one reader noting that PTA fundraisers will never make up the difference. Another pushed back on the whole framing: "Technology. Kids don't need 1:1 devices as early as 1st grade."

But the most pointed response wasn't about what to protect — it was about what to cut. Several readers said administration, unprompted. That instinct is now at the center of the MLO dispute: the unions' proposed MOU language would have barred mill levy override funds from going to central office administrator salaries or to new central office positions. The district rejected it.

If you haven't taken the survey yet, it's still open.

📌 Fort Lupton families get after-school care this fall. After the Boys and Girls Club left last spring with little warning, Weld Re-8 is launching programs at all three elementary schools through a new partnership with Right At School, with subsidized monthly rates starting at $50. Registration opens April 1. Read more →

📌 You said: " Report threats faster. Last week's Class Notes poll asked whether Colorado should require social media platforms to report threatening content to local police within 24 hours. Every respondent said yes — public safety comes first. The question comes as Colorado lawmakers consider legislation in the wake of the Evergreen High School shooting. Read more →

📌 Adams 12 announces school consolidations. The district announced March 18 it will consolidate schools after enrollment fell 1,365 students this year, three times the projected decline. No schools have been named yet. More to come.

📌 Fairview K-8 English learner update. The district now says the teachers providing English learner services at Fairview were supplemental support working under a licensed specialist's supervision — not filling a vacancy. I'm still reporting this one. If you have a child at Fairview, I'd like to hear from you.

📍 Westminster substitute shortage. District records show Westminster Public Schools deployed substitutes an average of 26 times per school day over 147 school days, including 14 positions that went unfilled by permanent staff for most or all of the first semester. Specialists serving English learners and students with disabilities are being pulled to cover classrooms when the pool runs short. More soon.

📍 Where did Jeffco's budget cuts actually land? The district promised cuts would fall "as far from students as possible" — central administration first, classrooms last. But the district is on record saying its systems cannot distinguish Blueprint-driven cuts from enrollment-driven reductions. The planning documents are on their way. When they arrive, I'll report exactly where the cuts landed and whether the promise held.

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)

Need to speak at a board meeting? Get "How to Give Public Comment That Gets Heard" →

If you follow Jeffco schools through Class Notes, you'll want the bigger picture too. The Jeffco Transcript covers government, business, and community news across Jefferson County — the context that surrounds everything I report on here. Their weekly newsletter lands on Thursdays. Subscribe to the Jeffco Transcript →

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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