The Summit School District’s board of education discussed present and future financials at a Nov. 7 meeting after voters rejected the district’s $195 million bond proposal. 

The bond would have funded critical maintenance projects, helped bolster occupational training opportunities for students, demolished and rebuilt Breckenridge Elementary School, relocated Snowy Peaks Jr./Sr. High School and built workforce housing for teachers and district staff.

Chief financial officer Kara Drake shared comments at the meeting from a key member on the district’s finance committee, former board of education member Stan Katz.

Katz provided comments via email and said the bond failure will make the budget “tighter” this year. 

“We’re going to need to make sure that we carefully consider the critical maintenance items that really need to be done and how we fund them,” Drake said while relaying Katz’s sentiment. 

She said maintenance funding could come from the supplemental capital fund, or the district could use some of its operating dollars.

She also relayed input from the finance committee regarding the 2024-25 budget at-large and said they are “concerned” about the amount of reserves used in the 2024-25 budget. She said they recommend the board of education monitor spending closely and identify areas where reductions could be made. 

When reviewing the first quarter of the fiscal calendar, which includes finances from July to September, many expenditures were similar to last year, Drake said. Health benefits were one of the only areas that saw increases, which were due to higher claims. She said staffers are currently working on decreasing those expenses.

She said the building fund is closed for now because it was fully spent in the 2022 fiscal year. According to her presentation, the district will tap back into that fund when new bonds are issued. 

When it comes to grant funding for 2024-25, revenue is currently flat, Drake said, but that could change. 

“Our team has actually written several grants this fall, and so we’ll see if we get those,” she said, noting they should know by midway through the fiscal year. 

She reminded the board that because the district made a payment in December on bonds which were refinanced in 2021 at the approval of voters, the mill levy would be lowered for taxpayers this year. 

The estimated mill levy for the district’s 2024-25 general fund is 12.828 mills. The 2023-24 mill levy was 12.929 mills. 

District officials anticipated an increase in funding of $965.46 per student from the state for the 2024-25 school year. Potential changes in state funding for future years sparked a conversation among board members.

Board members shared concerns about Gov. Jared Polis’s recently unveiled 2025-26 budget proposal, which could change how schools are funded.

“There is a lot to be concerned about in that,” board member Lisa Webster said, noting communicating with legislators will be important to advocate for rural school funding.

“Even though our governor needs to deal with the shortfall, we still need to educate our kids,” she added.

According to the proposal, districts would no longer be funded on a four-year enrollment average. Instead, the governor proposed that districts receive funding based on a current-year estimation of students enrollment. Districts with declining enrollment, including Summit, could receive less funding if the proposal doesn’t change. 

Drake said it could have “negative impacts” for Summit. 

“We are seeing (declining enrollment) across the state due to lower birth rate,” she said. “We’re going to have a little bit of that here.” 

She added a trend of slight decreases in enrollment year after year can be identified by shrinking class sizes for younger grades.

While the governor released his proposed budget, it isn’t set in stone. The state’s Joint Budget Committee, which wields a lot of power when it comes to statewide spending, will release its budget proposal likely in March or April.