Roaring Fork school leaders outline plan to explore $4.5 million mill-levy override to shore up teacher pay

Superintendent Dr. Anna Cole and district finance staff on Monday presented an initial plan to explore a mill-levy override (MLO) that could raise roughly $4.5 million per year to restore the district's funding and improve staff compensation.

"We have a certain number of years to be able to ask the voters for this cost-of-living increase or a mill levy override to get to that new cap," Chief (speaker 6) told the board, saying the state changed the cap from 25% to 30% of total program funding and the district has a five-year window to keep the higher cap. "It currently looks at 4 and a half, like, about 4 and a half million dollars annually that would potentially be requested."

Why it matters: district leaders said the MLO target ties directly to salary competitiveness and recruitment in a high cost-of-living region. Chief (speaker 6) also estimated taxpayer impact at about $16 per $100,000 of residential property and $57 per $100,000 of commercial property, noting commercial properties are assessed differently.

Board response and next steps: Directors pressed staff for measurable outcomes and accountability. Director Ramirez asked for clear student-outcome targets and a way to tie MLO spending to the district's strategic-plan metrics. Dr. Cole said the district would link any proposed MLO spending to existing strategic-plan indicators such as assessment growth and staff-demographic targets and pointed board members to the strategic-plan dashboard as the source of those metrics.

Dr. Cole said the MLO exploratory committee includes representatives from certified and classified bargaining teams, administrators and board representative Director de Fredes, and that the committee will continue community outreach with forums planned in March and likely a ballot-language proposal in August or September if the board chooses to advance it for the November election. She emphasized that "anything that we work on and propose in terms of a mill levy, override purpose, ballot language, intent, utilization, all comes down to board approval and will...can't move forward without your support."

Open questions: Directors requested additional detail on the revenue-comparables and the district's assumptions (enrollment sensitivity, how the $4.5 million estimate was calculated), and asked how the district would ensure state actions (for example, any changes to specific ownership tax distributions) would not negate the MLO's effect. Staff said they are preparing more detailed material and a public FAQ and website to support outreach.