Jason Glass and Jeffco Schools promised transparency when they put a $567M Bond to the vote of taxpayers in 2018.
To great fanfare, Glass rolled out what was called a Flipbook that explained sources of revenue for the District’s 6 year Capital Improvement Program and exactly how much would be spent at each school.
There was one big problem though. The Flipbook did NOT show where nearly $17M in bond proceeds would be used. I even wrote about it in October 2018 – http://improvejeffcoschools.org/index.php/2018/10/ A year and a half later, through CORA requests, I’ve been able to piece together the uses of that $17M, now blossomed to over $19M, in spending:
| Project | Est. Cost |
| North Transportation-Joyce Renovation | $349,400 |
| Trailblazer Stadium | $4,415,250.00 |
| 581 Conference Place Reopen | $518,877.00 |
| Mount Evans OELS Efficiency | $3,210,190 |
| Windy Peaks OELS Efficiency | $3,340,982 |
| Anderson Preschool Efficiency | $117,794 |
| Irwin Preschool Efficiency | $48,935 |
| Free Horizon Montessori | $174,682 |
| Litz Preschool Efficiency | $77,479 |
| North Transportation-Site Acquisition | $7,000,600 |
| Total | $19,254,189 |
In looking at this list, one can only guess at why these projects were not shown to taxpayers – most are not directly related to schools. Trailblazer stadium, North Transportation Site, 581 Conference Place – these are not projects that would have encouraged me to vote Yes on the Bond.
Even when asked a question on his much touted Jeffco Generations Facebook page, Glass failed to answer a question regarding the missing projects.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1236337263132884/permalink/1614849428614997
And, the most egregious thing was that shortly after the Bond was approved by taxpayers the Flipbook was quietly updated. Cost estimates increased from $563M to $594M, an increase of $31M in cost estimates.
Here are several examples of how project costs changed (you can see the complete list here):
| School | Original Flipbook | Revised Flipbook | Difference |
| Alameda HS | $18,003,098 | $19,434,000 | $1,430,902 |
| Patterson International ES | $463,102 | $2,232,000 | $1,768,898 |
| West Jefferson Middle School | $2,323,535 | $3,700,000 | $1,376,465 |
| Powderhorn Elementary | $5,756,358 | $6,100,000 | $343,642 |
Not only is there not a corresponding increase in revenue to fund these increases, but the impact of the changes turns out to be extremely important in the on-going deception of hiding the degree of cost overruns, which I will discuss in a future post.
The deception to taxpayers regarding 5B funding and projects started early and appears to be well thought out – not something that should be done if Jeffco wants to get another Bond approved in the future.