Jeffco board adopts 2026-27 deficit budget, reserve draw and teacher deal on 4-1 votes

Jeffco Public Schools’ board on June 11 approved the district’s 2026-27 budget, separately authorized use of beginning fund balance and approved a tentative agreement with the teachers union, each on a 4-1 vote. Director Denine Echevarria cast the lone no vote each time.

The adopted budget keeps Jeffco on a deficit-spending path for another year. In a separate fund-balance resolution, the district authorized use of $13,107,842 from the General Fund for “compensation increases for 2026-27 and from prior years,” part of a broader $48.3 million authorization across several funds, including capital reserve and property management.

The adopted budget appropriates about $1.058 billion from the General Fund, including $990.5 million in spending and transfers and $67.3 million in reserves. Across all funds, the district adopted a total appropriation of about $1.408 billion.

The board’s action also formalized a strategy district leaders had outlined in earlier budget discussions: use reserves to avoid deeper immediate cuts while counting on either new voter-approved revenue or another round of reductions. In the adopted resolution, the district says any voter-approved general-purpose mill levy override revenue would first offset the budgeted General Fund draw. If voters do not approve that revenue, the resolution says Jeffco would work with staff and stakeholders on reductions that could include changes to staff workday calendars, district-funded benefits, staffing levels, school consolidations, programming and contracted costs.

During debate, Echevarria said in the June 11 meeting she could not support “another deficit budget,” arguing the district was “choosing to spend money that we do not yet have” and putting schools at risk if a November mill levy override fails. She said Jeffco had already reduced “approximately $40 million in expenditures” but that she was “not yet convinced” every possible reduction option had been exhausted.

Board President Paula Applegate, by contrast, said in the same meeting she was comfortable supporting one more year of deficit spending because the district would “still have about a hundred million left in our reserves,” adding that she was not willing to go below that level. Director Erin Kenworthy said the district had already worked to cut about $40 million and argued the adopted budget was what students and staff need for the coming school year.

The labor vote mattered to the budget because it locked in compensation costs for licensed educators. According to the board’s June 11 agenda materials, the Jeffco-JCEA tentative agreement provides steps and lanes for eligible educators; a one-time 1.25% increase for educators who had reached step 22 by or during 2025-26; a 0.5% ongoing increase for educators who move into lane 6 by the end of 2025-26; a 2.5% increase for educators who move into lane 6 during 2026-27; and the third year of a salary schedule restructuring for coaches and activity sponsors. The materials also say the bargaining teams agreed to contract-language changes across several articles and added a new Article 26 on post-incident response.

The draft agreement attached to the agenda also says the district and union agreed to reopen salary and compensation negotiations within 30 calendar work days if voters approve a ballot measure that brings in additional General Fund revenue.

For families and employees, the immediate takeaway is that Jeffco’s board has now formally adopted the budget framework district leaders previewed earlier this month: one more year of using reserves to sustain pay and operations after roughly $40 million in cuts already made, with the next major budget decisions likely to hinge on whether voters approve new local tax revenue in November.