Last night, the Jeffco Schools Board approved the JCEA contract prior to hearing its full financial consequences and without giving a large component of its constituents, parents and taxpayers, a chance to publicly comment on how bad that contract is.
That was flat-out wrong! Was that intentional? Was the Board afraid of what it might hear?
Let’s take a look at some of the things that should have been heard:
First, the size of the increase, 5% COLA, 2% one-time (bonus) along with Steps and Lanes, seems massive in comparison to inflation and private sector increases. This is on top of recent large JCEA increases as shown in ths image from Board Docs.
In total, JCEA has seen around 40% in increases over the past 5 years. That’s a pretty big number in anyone’s book.
However, what is more concerning is the lack of value that kids and taxpayers are getting from these large increases. Let’s take a look at the recent Spring ELA MAP results in comparison to last year’s. Keep in mind that one of the Superintendent’s evaluation goals was
The percentage of students who meet/exceed literacy standards and show evidence of being on or above grade level will increase at least 2-5% during the 23-24 school year
| MAP Reading | Spring 2022-23 | Spring 2023-24 | |
| Grade | Met or Exceeded 2022-2023 | Met or Exceeded 2023-2024 | Difference between 2023 – 2024 |
| 2 | 49.2 | 47.1 | -2.1 |
| 3 | 51.2 | 50 | -1.2 |
| 4 | 54.7 | 53.3 | -1.4 |
| 5 | 54.5 | 53.3 | -1.2 |
| 6 | 49.1 | 45.9 | -3.2 |
| 7 | 49.7 | 51 | 1.3 |
| 8 | 49.6 | 47.7 | -1.9 |
These are not the promised 2% – 5% increases, these are decreases! How does that even happen when Jeffco had $61M in ESSER III funding to address academic issues? Did the Board just reward teachers for these horrendous results? Why should teachers even care what happens in the classroom if they are going to be rewarded no matter how bad the results are? Did the Board even consider the message it just sent to the teachers and community?
In case you’re wondering, while Math scores were a bit better than Reading, they too didn’t get close to the goals the Board set for Dorland.
| MAP Math | Spring 2022-23 | Spring 2023-24 | |
| Grade | Met or Exceeded 2022-23 | Met or Exceeded 2023-24 | Difference between 2023 – 2024 |
| 2 | 40.9 | 39.8 | -1.1 |
| 3 | 41.4 | 42.1 | 0.7 |
| 4 | 32.3 | 33.4 | 1.1 |
| 5 | 32.8 | 33.7 | 0.9 |
| 6 | 29.1 | 29 | -0.1 |
| 7 | 28.4 | 30.5 | 2.1 |
| 8 | 31.8 | 36 | 4.2 |
What’s even worse, if that is even possible, is that the Board approved the contract prior to a complete discussion on its financial implications. Was it paying attention when CFO Copland told it what the contract does to the budget? There’s a $33M budget deficit this year and a $40M deficit in FY 27, which is bad enough. But, to keep the deficit at only $40M in FY 27 Copland already had to cut expenses and limited COLA increases to just .5% in FY26 and .9% in FY 27. Think about that in the context of the 5% COLA this year. There is no way the COLA increases will be that limited. The deficits she showed the Board are not going to be even close to reality. They are going to be much, much worse. In essence, the district is headed toward a financial disaster and this contract is a large contributor to that. But, but, but… Jeffco is going to go out for a Mill. The Board might want to think long and hard about exactly how much it can get from a Mill and whether it will be successful. It is going to be a very hard sell given the tax environment and the current public perception of Jeffco schools.
Unfortunately, the Board didn’t hear any of this before it approved the contract last night. There is something very, very wrong with that.