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Board signals support to continue tobacco-tax funding for school-based mental health; Roaring Fork seeks $120,000
Summary
Roaring Fork School District and the Aspen Hope Center outlined how tobacco-tax funds support school-based mental health providers; superintendent and the board signaled informal support for a $120,000 allocation while asking staff to return with budget details and distribution options for other nonprofits.
Superintendent Anna Cole and representatives from the Roaring Fork School District and the Aspen Hope Center briefed the Board of Trustees on how the town’s tobacco-tax funds have been used to support school-based mental health services across Carbondale-area schools.
“We have been using blended funding to make sure that we have a school based mental health provider in every public school. We're hitting a cliff with that,” Cole said, describing the district’s reliance on a mix of funding sources and the recent loss of a Colorado Department of Education grant. She said that the district and nonprofit partners aim to prioritize services at the high school and middle school level while seeking additional grants.
Cole and other presenters highlighted several points: the long-running local investment in school-based mental health, expanded service usage where providers have been in place longer, and the Aspen Hope Center’s role in fundraising and delivering services. Cole said that a full-time Aspen Hope Center provider is roughly $80,000 per year and that the district would prioritize a high-school provider if additional town funds are available.
Trustees expressed general, informal support for continuing town funding and for a request amount of $120,000 that the district presented as its near-term ask. Board members asked staff to follow up with an account of tobacco- and marijuana-tax revenues, fund balances and possible approaches to distributing funds to other community nonprofits (Stepping Stones, YouthZone, Family Resource Center) that historically received tobacco-tax support.
No formal vote was taken at the Oct. 14 meeting; Mayor Pro Tem presided over the item while one trustee recused as a district staff member. Staff committed to return with a detailed breakdown of tobacco-tax receipts, any fund balance, and options for allocation during the upcoming budget process.
