Denver school board’s budget more than doubles as more members get paid, travel spending rises

The Denver school board’s annual budget more than doubled over the past three fiscal years to $472,327 as more members have chosen to be paid for their official duties and compensation for new directors increased after a vote by the elected body last year.

The Denver Public Schools Board of Education’s spending on travel and conferences also jumped 62% to nearly $65,000 in the past year, despite directors previously calling for changes in how the governing body of Colorado’s largest school district uses taxpayer dollars, according to expense transactions reviewed by The Denver Post.

The board’s growing expenses stand in contrast to the financial pressures public school districts across the U.S. — including DPS — are facing as the end of pandemic-era aid collides with falling K-12 enrollment.

They also come as DPS is planning to close schools, is asking Denver voters to approve a record $975 million bond, and is locked in a months-long pay dispute with the district’s teachers union.

“I would be worried if I was a DPS board member,” said Van Schoales, senior policy director at Keystone Policy Center, a nonprofit that conducts education research. “Their costs are going up faster than their income.”

The board’s seven members are crafting a new budget policy, which, if approved, would set aside a minimum of $35,000 in the budget for travel to conferences and other training, according to the latest draft.

“We have more school board members who are taking advantage of conferences,” board President Carrie Olson said. “We are working on a policy in how we think through that (expense).”

Board members are creating a budget policy because directors need to make sure they are “being judicious in how we are spending money” in the era of declining enrollment, Olson added.

The board’s overall budget increased in large part because directors voted in 2021 to pay members for their official duties. Last year, the board voted to raise incoming members’ compensation to as much as $33,000 a year per person, a move they argued would broaden the field of future candidates for the board by making the job more financially accessible.

Denver’s seven school board members are not automatically paid, but must request compensation based on the hours they’ve worked on board business. All but two DPS board members — Olson and Marlene De La Rosa — asked to be paid in the past year. De La Rosa said she plans to request compensation in the future.

Overall, the district paid $77,752 to six board members for performing official duties, including more than $19,000 to Kimberlee Sia and more than $20,000 to John Youngquist, between August 2023 and July, according to transactions reviewed by The Post.

(The period reviewed by The Post overlapped with the 2023 election and included more than $11,000 paid to former board member Charmaine Lindsay before her term ended last year.)

Despite his concerns about the growing budget, Schoales said he is a proponent of DPS members receiving both compensation for their duties and money to travel to conferences, noting that other school board directors are paid across the U.S., including the Board of Education in Los Angeles. 

“Those things are really important for folks to be treated as professionals and part of that is going to conferences,” he said.

Board sees overall budget increase

The board’s overall budget jumped 78% from $232,975 to $415,592 between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 fiscal years, which run from July to June.

For the 2024-25 fiscal year, the budget rose another 14% to $472,327. Almost half of the budget goes toward staff salaries, including board members’ compensation, which more than doubled since the last fiscal year to $223,038 as more directors are being paid and the board increased the amount of money they receive.

Overall, DPS has a $1.4 billion budget, but long-term declining enrollment could place financial pressure on the district in the incoming years as it means less per-pupil funding from the state.

Federal pandemic aid, which provided almost $2 billion for Colorado’s school districts, also has stopped and could cause budget constraints — as could a tightening of the state budget, which seems possible according to recent forecasts by legislative economists, Schoales said.

“There’s more constraints that are placed on schools — schools are taking on more — and the resources aren’t following,” he said.

In June, DPS officials forecasted a $2.6 million deficit — meaning the district will spend more money then it brings in — for the 2024-25 fiscal year, but that could change depending on what happens with student enrollment. DPS leaders are also estimating K-12 enrollment jumped 2% to 85,313 pupils this year because of of an influx of migrant students, according to preliminary data presented earlier this month. (Enrollment numbers won’t be final until the state’s October count is completed.)

If approved next month, the bond money would not go to the board but would instead be used for maintenance projects, such as putting air conditioning in classrooms without cooling, safety measures and other projects.

Other than travel, the board’s budget pays for expenses such as mileage, cellphones and staff members.

Other notable expenses by the board during the period examined by The Post include:

• $100,458 on membership dues and fees to organizations that directors and district staff are a part of, including more then $45,000 to the Colorado Association of School Boards and more than $53,000 to the Council of the Great City Schools, a Washington, D.C.-based coalition of the largest urban public school systems in the U.S.
• $28,000 in legal fees to Steve Zansberg, who represented a coalition of news organizations, including The Post, when it sued the school district last year alleging the board violated the Colorado Open Meetings Law when members met behind closed doors a day after a shooting inside East High School. A judge ruled in the news organizations’ favor, finding the board violated state law and ordered the district to pay Zansberg’s legal fees. 
• $10,950 for facilitators to lead retreats and board development

Board’s spending on travel, conferences

All seven members traveled to conferences, both in- and out-of-state, in the past year, with the board spending $64,981 between August 2023 and July on airfare, registration fees and other related costs — up from the $40,094 the board expensed for professional development the previous year, according to transactions reviewed by The Post.

Former board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán declined to comment on the increase in the board’s travel and conference spending, but last year she said the level of expenses was “exorbitant.” She was also the lone “no” vote when the board decided to increase members’ compensation.

Board members who spoke to The Post — Olson, Sia and Michelle Quattlebaum — all said the travel to conferences is part of their professional development and work to serve the district better.

At the conferences, they said, directors learn about issues affecting other public school systems, such as declining enrollment and teacher housing.

Olson and Sia both said the spending on conferences increased because more board members are taking advantage of the opportunities for professional development compared to former directors.

“It’s not just the board that benefits… but the district staff and district alltogether,” Olson said, adding, “We do need board members who are educated in the work of the board.”

The board will become more aware of members’ spending by passing a budget policy and setting up a structure to monitor spending, added Sia, the board’s treasurer.

“We do want board members to be seeking out knowledge and professional development as board members because that is going to allow them to have higher quality governing,” said Alexis Menocal Harrigan, a member of Educate Denver, a coalition of former school board members, politicians and more.

“But as taxpayers we also need to have transparency on what they are using those dollars for,” said Menocal Harrigan, who is a DPS parent and ran for the school board in 2019. “It’s more of a question of what was the travel used for and how did the district benefit from that travel?”

A new budget policy

Previously, DPS boards had a $5,000 cap per-person on expenses. The limit wasn’t in writing, but former members faced scrutiny for exceeding the cap and not repaying the district.

Last year, directors said the $5,000 limit wasn’t enforced, with some even saying the cap was no longer in place as several members exceeded that amount in travel expenses alone.

The new budget policy crafted by Sia would not cap spending on conferences or training. Instead, every member would have access to at least $5,000. In doing so, the board is moving away from capping spending and creating a $35,000 minimum that can be divvied up among members — and even exceeded.

The reason for this is that the board wants to equitably distribute the money, Sia said, adding that different board members have different training needs and conference costs aren’t the same.

“We wanted a minimum so that everyone has something budgeted for them,” she said, adding, “If there’s a need to cut back on what was put in the policy, we might have to come back and change the minimum.”

Of the current sitting board members, all but one — Sia — spent more than $5,000 traveling to conferences during the past year.

Scott Esserman spent $10,299; Quattlebaum spent $9,453; Gaytán spent $8,162; De La Rosa spent $6,722; Olson spent $6,359; Youngquist spent $5,094; Sia spent $2,321, transactions reviewed by The Post showed.