2025-26 Budget Update and Reductions

Dear Five Star Community,

Earlier today we began notifying staff members throughout the district regarding budget reductions for the 2025-26 school year totaling more than $27 million and resulting in the elimination of approximately 150 positions. 

I am angry and sad that we have to make these decisions because for decades our state has failed to prioritize education funding. We are losing outstanding educators, administrators and support staff who all contribute to student success. Their expertise and contributions will be greatly missed. 

Why does the district need to make these cuts?

As I've explained over the past months, these significant reductions are prompted by:

• Anticipated enrollment reductions for next year
• A change in the state's funding formula that negatively impacts districts with declining enrollment. (Roughly 80 percent of Colorado's school districts have declining enrollment.)
• Cost increases for utilities, health insurance and technology
• The district's status as the 14th-lowest funded school district out of the 15 school districts in the metro area. We badly trail most school districts in the region in supplemental revenues authorized by voters in mill levy overrides.

What’s changing 

Our budget plan includes a variety of components. You can find more information on the district’s website. I'll highlight some of the reductions that I anticipate will be felt most broadly throughout the district.

• Elimination of our teacher librarian roles (digital literacy partners) at all of our elementary, K-8s and middle schools. We will take steps to keep libraries open for most of the school day, but recognize we'll be without the expertise these staff provide in the use of library materials and technology.
• Elimination of gifted and talented advocates at all levels. We will set aside a modest pool of money to support student enrichment and growth opportunities for gifted and talented students. 
• Reduction of the number of academic interventionists supporting young students who are behind in meeting literacy and math benchmarks. 
• Reduction of the number of social emotional specialists who address student mental health and behavioral needs in our Title I elementary schools.
• Reduction of some art, music and physical education staffing in eight of our smaller elementary schools. Students will still have these specials, but their teachers will be shared with another school.
• Fewer teachers, meaning some classes will be larger. More details will emerge as principals complete their school-based budgets for next year. Plans will be completed after spring break, and principals will communicate with affected staff at that time. 
• Elimination of 22 positions at our Educational Support Center. This includes staff who support schools in a variety of ways, including professional learning, curriculum development and more.

There has been a good deal of messaging in recent months about "waste and inefficiency" in government at all levels. That's not the Adams 12 Five Star Schools story. In my 16 years in this role, I've developed deep knowledge of the resources we have, how we spend them, and the resources and spending decisions in school districts nearby and throughout the country. 

I know that we spend just 6.3 percent on school and district administration each year — one of the lowest rates in Colorado and the country. I know that we’re lagging behind neighboring school districts like Boulder Valley and Westminster by $60 to $90 million per year in supplemental override revenue. And I know that as a state we are substantially behind most of the country in K-12 funding. Two recent studies determined that Colorado is $3.5 to $4.1 billion behind the funding level needed to provide an "adequate" education to all students. If we had that funding, our budget would be 70 percent larger than it currently is — and I wouldn't be sending this letter.

The positions and services that we're cutting are far removed from the "waste and inefficiency" rhetoric. We will be without 150 outstanding administrators, educators and support staff colleagues next year — and it doesn't have to be that way. Our state does not have the money currently to fund schools adequately, but we can get there if we begin to have honest conversations, starting at the state level, about the unmet needs and gross inequalities in resource allocation caused by our current school funding system.
 

Respectfully, 

Chris Gdowski
Superintendent