FYI ... Poudre school board authorizes potential teacher layoffs - Coloradoan
Thomas Clayton
Poudre school board authorizes potential teacher layoffs
Kelly Lyell
- The Poudre school board authorized potential teacher layoffs to address a projected budget shortfall of $8 million to $17 million.
- The district faces funding cuts due to declining student enrollment and possible reductions in state funding.
- Officials said layoffs are a last resort after exhausting other options.
Poudre School District’s Board of Education voted unanimously Feb. 24 to authorize a reduction in force of its licensed teaching staff, should that be necessary, to address budget reductions for the 2026-27 school year.
Emphasizing that the district must explore all other options to meet its funding challenges, board members approved the move by a 7-0 vote.
The vote “does not mean layoffs will occur,” Board of Education President Jessica Zamora said.
“It ensures the district has the flexibility to make the staffing decisions necessary to balance a budget that could be reduced by as much as $17 million next year,” Zamora said. “We expect the district to exhaust every alternative before a RIF is implemented and to follow the school district’s employee agreement at every step. Our focus remains on students and on supporting the staff who serve them every day.”
The known loss in funding for PSD next year is $8 million because of reductions in per-pupil funding from the state based on the district’s declining enrollment, Chief Finance Officer Dave Montoya said at the school board’s previous meeting Feb. 10. Options being discussed by the state legislature as it works to eliminate its own funding shortfall of about $1 billion could cut PSD’s funding by $9 million more. More than 85% of PSD’s annual operating budget of nearly $438 million goes toward employee compensation, Montoya said.
A reduction in force allows the district to lay off teachers, counselors and other licensed staff on continuing contracts. Those employees generally gain continuing-contract status after they have worked in the district for three years as probationary employees on one-year contracts. A reduction in force is not needed to eliminate the positions of probationary employees.
Acknowledging that a reduction in force “represents people — educators, support staff, counselors and specialists — individuals who show up every day for students,” board member Coronda Ziegler teared up at times as she spoke about the difficulty of the vote just before it was taken.
“No community wants to lose educators,” Ziegler said. “And yet the financial reality facing our district is not hypothetical. Declining enrollment reduces revenues, rising costs increase expenditures, and state and federal uncertainties compound that pressure. When over 85% of our budget is tied to staffing, reductions of this magnitude cannot occur without affecting personnel.”
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Ziegler went on to say that “support of this resolution does not mean that any of us are comfortable with it; it means that we believe failing to act would be less responsible in our role of stewardship. And that means that the district remains financially solvent, sustainable and able to serve students, not just this year, but in the years ahead.”
The authorization is necessary to provide impacted employees with the advance notice required in the district’s employment agreement with the Poudre Education Association, the union that represents PSD’s teachers, counselors and other licensed nonadministrative staff, Lauren Hooten, the superintendent’s chief of staff, told the school board during its Feb. 10 meeting. Hooten was put in charge of the district’s human resources and communications departments as part of a 2024 reorganization of Superintendent Brian Kingsley’s cabinet.
It’s possible, Hooten said, that the district can make the necessary staffing cuts it needs to balance its budget through attrition from resignations and retirements and the nonrenewal of teachers and other licensed staff on probationary status. The reduction in force process would only become necessary if additional staffing cuts are needed, she said.
Any employees on continuing contracts who are displaced by downsizing at their respective schools or in curriculum development or other positions at the district’s central office will be offered available positions, as their licenses and certifications permit, elsewhere in the district through an “overage” process. Those employees will have the right to displace probationary employees at those schools, Hooten said.
PSD’s human resources department has been verifying the seniority, licenses and endorsements of all licensed staff in the district since Feb. 11.
Here are the next steps in the reduction in force, or RIF, process, as outlined in the employee agreement:
- Feb. 25-March 4: A reduction in force, or RIF, committee consisting of three administrators selected by the superintendent and three licensed staff members chosen by the Poudre Education Association will be formed to review data and recommend reductions.
- March 5-12: Superintendent finalizes decisions on reduction areas and number of positions to be reduced.
- March 24-30: Impacted staff are notified of inclusion in the overage process.
- April 14: School board formally receives recommendation for contract cancelations. Individual appeals hearings are scheduled as needed.
- April 15-25: Appeal hearings are held.
- April 29-May 12: Final RIF notifications are issued to affected employees.
- June 1: Per the employee agreement, all RIF notifications must be completed.
 | Tom Clayton Communication and Media Specialist, Public Affairs |
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