Schools have certainty on funding for this year

Polis signs bills on financing, as well as restructuring to CMAS testing

Colorado schools now have clarity on funding for the current year and how the state plans to move forward with standardized testing — federal approval notwithstanding.

On Monday, Democratic Gov.

Jared Polis signed a bill that ensures districts receive the funding they were allocated last spring, despite drops in enrollment and other circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The law, which took effect immediately, also directed an extra $25 million to rural schools, which can be used to fit their specific needs.

And on Tuesday, the Colorado Senate followed the House’s footsteps in passing a bill to restructure how Colorado Measures of Academic Success (or CMAS) tests could be administered this year. Polis, whose office had a hand in crafting the bill, signed it Tuesday afternoon, bill sponsor Sen. Rachel Zenzinger told The Post.

The State Board of Education also supports the measure, but the state still needs to obtain a waiver from federal education officials. If Colorado does, then standardized testing will be limited to one subject per grade level: students in grades fourth, sixth and eighth would take math exams; those in third, fifth and seventh would take

English language arts exams. Science and social studies tests would be canceled.

Additionally, CMAS results could not be used for accountability purposes this school year. The Department of Education intends to send a waiver to the federal government as soon as possible, as schools can begin testing on March 22.

Joyce Zurkowski, the state education department’s chief assessment officer, called the measure “a reasonable compromise that addresses both the need for statewide data on Colorado student learning during the pandemic to inform the targeting of supports and resources, as well as acknowledges the many competing interests that schools have to meet the academic, emotional and social needs of their students and educators.”

As of last week, the feds had not responded to any of the state waivers that they received so far, Zurkowski added.

Rural schools’ windfall

The school funding bill is typically a routine annual adjustment to money that’s allocated based on enrollment projections and other factors. But because of the pandemic and an unexpected 3.3% drop in statewide public school enrollment, the funding equation was more complex.

“There’s been nothing routine about the last year that we’ve been in and we know schools are doing more than ever to make sure that our kids stay on track,” Democratic Sen. Dominick Moreno said during a broadcast Monday of the bill’s signing. “This was a difficult bill to get right from a policy perspective and it reminded me how messed up our School Finance Act is.”

The millions provided for rural schools comes with no guidelines for how it should be used, though districts must provide an accounting of how it was spent to the state Department of Education.

East Grand School District — which serves about 1,300 students who reside in or near Granby, Grand Lake, Winter Park and Hot Sulphur Springs — received more than $187,000.

Superintendent Frank Reeves said the district has yet to make a formal decision about how to spend the money, but will prioritize salary and hourly wage increases for teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, custodians, food service staff and more. About 77% of the district’s annual budget goes toward personnel, he said.

The district may also put money toward replenishing reserves it had to dip into because of previous cuts to school funding and extra expenditures due to COVID19.

“I wouldn’t call it extra money because of cuts we endured last year, but right now any money we can get to help out is huge,” Reeves said.

In the southwest part of the state, Durango School District 9-R received $762,276. The district is on spring break this week, so spokesperson Julie Popp said district officials have yet to decide where it’ll go.