Denver Among School Districts Watching Closely As Lawmakers Plan Budget Cuts
DENVER (CBS4) - School districts across the state are watching closely as lawmakers begin the grim process of cutting more than $3 billion out of the state budget. Many have already started to plan for the impact to their own funding.
The largest school district in Colorado, Denver Public Schools is laying the ground work in order to be ready for the new fiscal year on July 1.
"I think that the thing that characterizes it is just a lot of uncertainty," Jim Carpenter, Chief Financial Officer for DPS said.
Carpenter is now tasked with tackling what will undoubtedly be a significant budget reduction.
"There's a lot of work to do between the forecast and what that will actually mean for us in school districts," he said.
While districts across the state wait for a clear picture, DPS is zeroing in on ways to trim their own budget. To do that they formed a new advisory committee made up of students, teachers, union members, administrators and board members well also accepting input from the community.
"A school district has a wide range of stake holders, and it's really important we have all those voices in the room," Carpenter said.
Online they've posted a variety of scenarios where cuts could be made, including from changes to the school year, furlough days, pay freezes and reductions to possible school merges that would be done only with community input.
"In terms of things like merging schools that's on our list of options. That's something we have looked at for many years, it's also something we wouldn't do lightly and we wouldn't do quickly," Carpenter said.
Something they will also have to consider is the longevity of those cuts beyond the first year, something he says veteran DPS officials have seen before.
"The first year was challenging but years two and three were even more challenging no one knows what this is going to look like everybody is taking their best guess," he said.
If you'd like to take a look at some of the considerations the budget committee is considering for DPS you can visit the link below.
LINK: DPS 2020-21 Budget
