Announcements

Despite continued state cuts to public education, Denver Public Schools announced today that it intends to increase funding to schools next year to support English-Language Learners (ELLs) and to make funding available to support a school-based proposal to extend the school day.  The proposed budget includes an additional $400 in per-pupil funding for each beginning and intermediate ELL student along with increases in ELL student support, totaling a roughly $8.5 million funding increase.
 
This comes even as the district anticipates another reduction in state funding. Over the past three years, state funding has been cut by nearly $1,000 per student. For Denver, the state cuts have totaled nearly $80 million over that time.  The District will be able to increase spending in classrooms next year partly as a result of plans to spend $20 million of district reserves, which were built up in recent years.
 
“We’ve worked very hard to reduce and control operational and personnel costs in order to protect our classrooms from the effects of the economic crisis. We continue to focus on maximizing the dollars going directly to schools to best serve the needs of our students,” DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg said at today’s announcement at Grant Middle School. “One of our key priorities for the district is improving instruction and supports for our English-Language Learners, and our budget plan includes a significant investment in that work.”
 
Schools will benefit from additional funding to support English-Language Learners by being able to hire more English Language Acquisition (ELA) teachers to provide intervention, remediation and acceleration to ELL students.
 
DPS is also focused on meeting schools’ needs for more time.  Extending the school day allows schools to offer more instructional and enrichment programs to their students. The proposed budget includes $2.5 million that would be directed to schools that submit the best extended-day proposals. Teachers at these schools who volunteer to extend their days will be paid for that additional time according to the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.  The funding could support a dozen or more schools that wish to pilot extended time programs.  
 
“Our teachers and school leaders understand the importance of increasing time in school, especially in the critical middle grades, when we’re starting to prepare our students for the rigors of high school and college,” Boasberg added. “We’re very pleased that—even as the state cuts continue—we’re able to take advantage of savings from our cost controls and make funding available to schools that want to stay open longer to serve their kids and families.”
 
An extended school day offers teachers additional academic instructional time, which benefits students who need targeted support in areas such as literacy or math.  Additionally, a longer school day will offer more time for schools to include elective courses that better connect students to school as well as to implement additional tutoring programs.
 
Offsetting the funding increases to schools from the district in part is a decrease in federal Title I funding for high-poverty schools.  The reduction is a result of the expiration of the federal stimulus funding.
 
“We’ve been fortunate to be able to deal with the state funding cuts without teacher layoffs or furloughs or increased class sizes,” Boasberg said. “We spend 95% of our budget at schools and in direct support of schools – tied for the highest percentage of any large school district in the nation, according to a recent benchmarking study. We were able to increase money going to our schools this year, and we’re proposing another increase again for next year.
 
“We cannot, however, maintain our progress with a continuing cycle of cuts on top of cuts every year. We have very pressing needs in continuing to support our schools and raising student achievement. There are still unacceptable achievement gaps in our city, and we need to invest more resources in the programs that will eliminate those gaps—early childhood education, extended time, enrichment opportunities, new technology, and more teachers to lower class sizes. We look forward to discussing with the community how we can end this cycle of cuts and make these vital investments in our kids.”