Metro Denver school districts — flush with COVID-19 relief money — doled out larger teacher raises after students returned to classrooms during the pandemic amid widespread staff shortages.

Now that money is gone and K-12 enrollment is in a years-long decline. Colorado lawmakers plan to give schools less money next fiscal year than they initially promised because legislators were tasked with filling a $1.2 billion state budget shortfall.

All of this is placing pressure on school districts’ balance sheets. As a result, their ability or willingness to give teachers and support staff significant raises may be coming to an end.

“I have concerns that our resources will be very different from years past,” said Rob Anderson, superintendent of the Boulder Valley School District.

“…The sands are shifting underneath our feet as we’re trying to manage, in many cases, the largest employer in our community.”

The Boulder district, which employs about 4,000 people, reopened negotiations with its union last week — a year before its contract expires — to discuss what Anderson called the “sustainability” of the district’s salaries.

Meanwhile, other metro districts have met their teacher unions at the bargaining table this year with proposals that include smaller salary increases than in previous years.

Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest district, gave teachers partial raises last year and now has proposed a $400 pay increase for the next academic year, which averages out to a 0.47% cost-of-living raise. Neighboring Jeffco Public Schools has offered teachers no cost-of-living raise for the 2025-26 academic year. “There’s quite a bit of fear” about the budget, said Brooke Williams, president of the Jefferson County Education Association.

Even with the raises given by districts in recent years, educators have said wages aren’t keeping up with rising housing costs. Teachers are struggling to both buy and rent homes.

“At the end of the day, what matters in your paycheck is how much money you have to live on,” said Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association. “That continues to be a real challenge here in Colorado for educators to be able to stay in the profession.”

Budget pressures

Colorado lawmakers created a new funding formula last year that was supposed to put $500 million more toward K-12 education during a six-year period starting next fiscal year.

Now, districts are poised to receive less money than promised because legislators had to fill their billion-dollar budget hole. The House passed a bill this week that will give schools $256.7 million more than they received last year and bring Colorado’s total K-12 funding to just over $10 billion.

But while overall funding for public schools will rise under the bill, not every district will see the amount of money they receive increase next fiscal year.

This is where districts are feeling the budget crunch as costs, including health insurance and technology, are also growing at a faster rate than K-12 funding, said Tracie Rainey, executive director of the Colorado School Finance Project.

A majority of a district’s budget goes to paying employees, and when you have less money, that means you have to pay people less, said Anderson, the Boulder superintendent. “The trick is we’re all in the same boat,” he said. “…I just don’t know what will happen to the profession altogether.”

The Boulder Valley School District is expecting to receive less money from the state because the new funding formula doesn’t prioritize high-cost-of-living areas like it used to, Anderson said. He declined to estimate what the financial impact will be until legislators have passed the new school finance act.

“It’s unfortunate that in a time of declining enrollment that the state is pushing ahead with changes to an underfunded system because, while they have good intentions, it’s a time that’s going to be very painful for districts,” said David Stewart, president of the Boulder Valley Education Association.

Adding to districts’ budget concerns is uncertainty about what will happen with tens of millions in federal K-12 public school funding the state receives as the Trump administration has threatened to pull money from districts that don’t eliminate what it calls illegal diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

“At this point, there are reasons we’re (more) cautious about that funding than we ever have been,” said Chuck Carpenter, DPS chief financial officer.

K-12 enrollment is also falling across the state as Coloradans have fewer babies — and schools receive less funding when there are fewer children in their classrooms.

As a result, districts are also cutting jobs and closing schools.

Adams 12 Five Star Schools slashed 150 positions last month. DPS eliminated 38 positions in the district’s central office.

DPS will also close or restructure 10 schools at the end of the current academic year because of falling enrollment.

The Douglas County school board is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to close three Highlands Ranch elementary schools because of low enrollment.

‘Raises are going to get tighter’

At DPS, the shift in teacher raises began last year when the district and the teachers union began fighting over how big of a raise educators should have received for the current academic year.

DPS gave educators a 5.2% pay increase in the fall, but the Denver Classroom Teachers Association expected an 8.34% raise.

The contract dispute between the district and union went on for months, with DCTA President Rob Gould accusing the district of “union busting.” The case went before an arbitrator, who sided with DPS in February.

Now, the district and union are negotiating a new contract and there’s a large gap between their raise proposals.

DCTA has asked for a 7.67% raise, which Gould said is needed to keep up with the cost of living and for educators to have the same buying power as they did in 2019 when the union last went on strike.

The district countered with the $400 cost-of-living increase. The raise proposal, which averages out to a 0.47% raise, doesn’t include the pay increase teachers will receive by moving up in the district’s salary schedule.