D-12 survey reaches out to residents to tackle budget cuts

A community survey that Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 is asking its residents to complete for a long-range plan is coming in handy for another purpose: figuring out budget cuts.

“It’s one piece of data among many that we’ll use as we develop the budget,” Superintendent Walt Cooper said last week. “We know we can’t keep doing business as usual, but we want to make changes that are consistent with the values and priorities of our community.”

School districts throughout Colorado are bracing for a couple of tough budget years – next year because of proposed state budget cuts, and the following year when stimulus money dries up.

Cooper estimates that D-12 could take a $900,000 hit, but emphasized that precise numbers won’t be available until the Legislature weighs in on the governor’s budget. Gov. Bill Ritter recently proposed cutting $260 million from the state’s K-12 education budget.

D-12’s general fund budget for this year is about $31 million.

The district also is facing declining enrollment, and Cooper said he expects that trend to continue.  Its 2008 pupil count was 4,643 and it’s down about 40 students this year, he said.

Cañon Elementary School was closed in May as a cost-saving measure because of the decline.

But more cuts are coming, and that’s where the community survey comes in.

The district sent e-mails to parents and mailed 10,000 post cards to district residents to ask them to fill out the online survey. It asks respondents to assign priorities to such things as competitive teacher pay and repairing school facilities. It also breaks down programs at the school level and asks whether the respondent believes programs such as art and drama should be cut or reduced, or if a the district should seek a tax increase to maintain them.

Cooper said about 1,400 people have responded to the survey so far. It will close at the end of November.

The results will be compiled and analyzed, and the district will use the information during the budget process and the drafting of the long-range plan, he said.

Other districts have talked about getting community input through committees and public hearings as they tackle budget cuts, but D-12 appears to be the first to attempt to gather opinions from the entire community.

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Call the writer at 636-0251.