FORT COLLINS, Colo. — For much of the past year, the Poudre School District has been considering different plans to consolidate and close schools.
Those plans were brought to a halt in May after community pushback to seeing schools shut down. Now the school board is asking parents to weigh in on a plan that would pay to improve and keep open the schools that parents fought hard to save.
"We heard from our constituents that they really wanted to try and keep small schools as much as we are able to," said Kristen Draper, president of the Poudre School District Board of Education.
Draper said the district's budget shortfalls aren't going away. To keep open the schools that the community fought to save, the board is asking the community to consider a mill levy on the ballot in November that would raise property taxes to help cover the cost.
"Yes, it is really needed. Since we've avoided that, we've been supplementing the schools for quite some time, and so, we'll need to continue to do that without the consolidations," Draper said. "And it will help us. We now have a $750 million deficit as far as keeping our buildings up to date. And so we are desperately in need of that."
Kristin Heineman, whose children attend Lopez Elementary School, said raising property taxes to fund schools is an idea she can get behind.
"For me, the alternative is shutting schools down, which I don't think is necessarily a good idea," Heineman said. "And so, for me, I'm happy to pay a little bit of extra so my kids can have a good school."
The district is weighing a mill levy that would raise property taxes $25.40 a year for every $100,000 in home value.
"What we're asking for hopefully isn't too much for families," Draper said. "When you're thinking about a $500,000 house, it's an extra $125+ a year. So hopefully, for a great education for our students here, that would be something that would be worth paying for."
Draper said if the community can't get behind this funding solution, school closure talks might need to return.
Heineman said parents proposed the idea of a mill levy in the spring to avoid shutdowns. She hopes they remember that at the ballot box.
"And hopefully, we put our money where our mouth is in November because I don't want to go back to where we were earlier this year," Heineman said.
In just a few weeks, Poudre Schools said they've gotten about 3,000 survey responses back, many with many people supporting the plan. There's still time to fill out that survey, but they're also taking emails and feedback for the next month.
The school board is expected to vote on the mill levy plan, if it moves forward during their meeting Aug. 27. If approved, the plan would go before voters in November.