During the August 24th Board of Education meeting the D11 board unanimously approved introducing a ballot motion for the November election proposing that Colorado Springs Citizens living within the D11 school district see an income tax increase for D11 funding. The ballot measure is what is known as a Mill Levy Override (MLO), which adjusts the factors which assess property value to give funding to local commodities such as schools, parks, and local services, and re-appropriates or adds funds to a particular expense.

The D11 plan has been in the works for nearly 18 months, and was developed through community outreach from teachers and citizens to come to the conclusion that D11 “has lost significant ground in terms of its operational needs, and [they] desperately need [an income tax increase] improve our delivery of quality education.” If passed, the MLO would result in a $32.6 Million budget increase. The increased funding would go towards “efforts to reduce class size, attract and retain superior teachers and educational support staff (not to include administrators) by offering competitive salaries and benefits, focus on academic core subjects like math, reading, writing and science… increase teacher training, expand student assessment and intervention support, increase library support, increase school safety and security, improve school day start times, [and to] support technology integration in the classroom.”

Beyond the MLO, the School Board also unanimously approved a motion to put forth a ballot measure in November to allow D11 to take out a bond providing $235 million to the district, which would cost the district up to $390 million after interest. The bond has been developed in conjunction with the MLO plan over the same 18 months and states that “ District 11 has lost significant ground in terms of maintaining its infrastructure and  desperately needs a bond election to improve the safety, security, and physical condition of our facilities.” When in the planning stages, the citizens committee in charge of designing the plan assessed the physical condition of each school campus and decided the most urgent and critical projects and improvements to be made, which have been displayed to the community on graphic boards rating each of the school’s facilities. Coronado’s facility rating is displayed just inside the front door. If passed, the bond will fund building repairs to “roofs, boilers, HVAC and plumbing, electrical systems, and asphalt” on existing campuses and will acquire new technology to improve educational experience. The board also plans to make “capital improvements – enlarging, improving, remodeling, repairing, and making additions to existing facilities to improve safety and security.”

When combined, both the MLO and the Bond will cost the average taxpayer in D11 an additional $10 a month in their income tax, and provide much needed improvements to D11’s facilities and operations.