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What's on my mind this week: When a district is pushed to defend a decision, it’s forced to show its work to justify how it got there. Showing the work is the part the public doesn't usually see.

Jeffco posted a public document this week stating that about $7 million of what appeared to be a year-over-year increase in General Administration spending was, in the district's words, miscoded in the audited financial report.

Adams 12 told a community webinar what its "thriving school" threshold is, why schools below it struggle to sustain a full program, and why the district plans to close five to seven schools at once instead of two or three.

Westminster Public Schools heard from a student that her classmates don't always know what mental health support is available, and announced it would expand its student advisory committee model to the high school to give students a voice at the table on mental health.

Three districts. Three pieces of work shown. The grading is up to readers. How’d they do?

Jeffco's recurring budget shortfall is $68 million and growing, and the volunteer committee that reviews Jeffco's finances told the school board this week that the district can no longer keep covering the gap by drawing down its savings.

Jeffco collects roughly $2,000 less per student each year than comparable Front Range districts, the committee told the board. Devin Mills, a member of the committee, described the full gap, including building maintenance and teacher pay, as more than $100 million a year.

The district has already made the cuts it could. Its $40 million plan to reduce spending this year hit its target. The district eliminated 350 positions, 249 of them in schools. Central office departments came down by $27 million. Schools themselves came down by $13.5 million. The shortfall grew anyway, because while expenses were falling, revenue was falling faster.

To balance next year's $990 million budget, Jeffco plans to spend $12 million from its reserves. CFO Brenna Copeland presented the proposed 2026-27 budget to the school board Wednesday night. Superintendent Tracy Dorland told the board the proposed budget "further erodes our fund balance" and "introduces financial risk," but presented it as the option that allows the district to continue paying employees a moderate compensation increase.

A separate volunteer committee that’s been studying how Jeffco could raise new revenue brings its formal recommendation to the school board Monday. The recommendation will shape two property tax questions Jeffco voters are likely to see this November. One would fund the district's day-to-day operations. The other would help fix its school buildings.

The committee's earlier guidance emphasized the second of the two, the measure to maintain school buildings. The district says it needs $108 million a year for that work.

Between the lines: Jeffco's use of reserves to balance its budget isn't new this year. Last June, the board adopted a budget that drew down $39 million in reserves. By January, that figure had grown to $49 million. Colorado law requires the board to pass a resolution every time it draws on fund balance, describing the steps the district will take to avoid making the draw recurring. The proposed FY27 budget makes a smaller draw of $12 million, but Devin Mills told the board this week the district has run out of room to keep doing it at all.

Why it matters: Dorland told the board the district has been making deliberate choices for years to invest in employee compensation "well beyond what recurring revenue would support." Those choices, she said, were always understood to be unsustainable in the long term. The November ballot measures are the district's plan for making them sustainable. If voters approve them, the use of reserves stops. If voters don’t, the district is left with a structural gap that cuts alone haven’t closed and a fund balance that continues to gravitate closer to $0.

Watch for Monday's full coverage of the Partnership recommendation, plus an interactive tool that lets you see what the proposed measures would cost your household.

What's next:

📌 Adams 12 plans to close five to seven schools, not the two or three it had been discussing. Superintendent Chris Gdowski announced the larger range at an April 30 community webinar, the district's first public forum on consolidations. The board is expected to finalize closure criteria in May or June; named schools come in September. Read the full breakdown, including a search-your-school table →

📌 Jeffco's phone policy vote moves from Monday to June. The board was set to adopt the district's first standardized cellphone policy May 11, but board members split sharply on whether high schools should keep flexibility or face a uniform "away all day" rule. Staff will revise the draft before June. Read the original draft story →

📌 27J could ask voters to fund a $30 million replacement of its 54-year-old swimming pool. The pool, located on the Brighton High School campus, serves the district's combined boys and girls swim team. It’s also used by local Boy Scouts a few times each year for merit badge qualifications and by the Brighton Bullfrogs club swim team. A group of 27J employees also use the pool a few times each week. COO Terry Lucero told the board April 22 a replacement would likely require a bond election, which the district has never put before voters for the pool. Read more →

📌 Westminster Public Schools, after three student deaths this year, is launching a student mental health advisory committee. Senior Fernanda Galvin told the board April 28 that students don't always know what mental health support is available. The district says it has 13 mental health providers serving Westminster High School and is finalizing a postvention protocol this school year. Read the full story →

Jeffco produced the consultant contracts I asked for

On May 4, three days after I published a decade-long analysis of Jeffco's audited financial reports, the district posted a public document titled "Jeffco Did Not Increase General Admin Spending by $17M Last Year." The document attributes the FY24-to-FY25 jump in General Administration to two factors: about $9 million reclassified from transfers due to the fund consolidation that a reader flagged in last week's correction, and about $7 million the district describes as miscoded during the preparation of the audited Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.

The financial report received a clean opinion from the district's external auditor in December 2025. The district has not said whether the report will be restated. The auditor declined to comment, citing client confidentiality.

I've sent the district written questions and asked for responses by Monday, May 11. The follow-up will run after.

📍 Jeffco's contracts with Education Resource Strategies. I'm working through how the district has procured services from the outside consultant hired to help develop the Budget Reduction Blueprint. Additional records are pending.

📍 What 27J's swim coach and pool families say about replacement. I'm following up on this week's pool story with the people whose programs depend on it. The district's swim coach and parents are among them.

📍 Why some of Westminster High School's most popular classes are being cut. International Baccalaureate electives, including IB History of the Americas and IB World Languages, are being eliminated heading into 2026-27, alongside schedule changes that students say make it harder to take both IB and Westminster's new Ranum Innovation Campus pathways.

📍 What Jeffco's Partnership for Fiscal Sustainability will recommend Monday. I'm reporting on the size of the November ballot measures the volunteer committee will recommend, what the district's own polling shows about voter support, and questions about how the district calculated the funding gap it has cited to make the case for the measures.

$2,000 — the per-student revenue gap between Jeffco and its peer Front Range districts, as reported by the district's Financial Advisory Committee Wednesday night.

Scaled to Jeffco's roughly 75,000-student general-fund population, the figure translates to a revenue gap of roughly $150 million annually. That figure includes capital maintenance, employee compensation and operating shortfalls combined.

The figure is the answer to a question voters will face in November. Not whether the district has spent its money well, but whether the district has enough of it to begin with. Both questions matter. Both can be true at once.

May 11, 5 p.m.: Jeffco Board of Education regular meeting. Partnership for Fiscal Sustainability presents a formal November ballot recommendation. Education Center, 1829 Denver West Drive, Building 27, Golden.

May 12, 5 p.m.: Westminster Public Schools Board of Education regular meeting. Westminster High School Lecture Hall.

Second May or first June meeting: Adams 12 board expected to finalize closure policy. Education Support Center, 1500 E. 128th Ave., Thornton.

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" →

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.

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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.

WHY CLASS NOTES? Class Notes is your guide to the schools that matter to you, covering education across Jefferson, Adams and Weld counties. I don't just recap board meetings — I dig into budgets, policies and the decisions that affect your kids, your taxes and your community. The best part? It's FREE.

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