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The latest election results posted by Adams County over the weekend showed that two tax measures for the Adams 14 school district have pulled ahead, despite earlier results showing both measures failing.
The votes for and against 4A and 4B had narrowed Friday to nearly a dead heat when more than 30,000 ballots were left to be counted, according to unofficial election results and Adams County officials.
A $10 million mill levy override to raise teacher pay was failing by a single vote. And a $113.9 million bond question to build a new school was failing by 124 votes.
By Saturday night’s last update, the mill levy override was ahead by 225 votes and the bond was ahead by 90.
On Wednesday, when the vote spread was wider, the district had released a statement saying leaders were disappointed in the outcome but found solace because the measures were only about 300 votes short of passing.
“While we were hopeful for the passage of these measures to support facility improvements and teacher salaries, we respect the outcome and will continue to seek ways to address the district’s critical needs,” said Superintendent Karla Loria in the released statement. “The fact that we were just shy of 300 votes on both measures shows that the community is beginning to rebuild trust in the District. This is a clear sign that we’re moving in the right direction and working toward uniting our community for the benefit of our students.”
The district has previously struggled to increase local funding. Voters haven’t approved a tax measure in more than 10 years. For about as long, Adams 14 has struggled to increase student achievement on state tests but did successfully rally against state orders for reorganization which could have dissolved the district. Still, Adams 14 has one of the highest rates of students choosing to enroll in other school districts. It is also home to many low-income families that may be more wary of raising taxes.
If approved, Adams County’s 4A and 4B ballot questions would cost Adams 14 homeowners approximately $6.52 a month per $100,000 of home value. For a home valued at $400,000, that would be about $26.08 per month.
Measure 4A is the district’s request for a mill levy override to produce about $10 million per year to help pay for salary increases for teachers and classified staff.
Measure 4B is the district’s bond request to raise $113.9 million that the district wants to use to build a new middle school to house seventh and eighth graders from Kearney Middle School and Adams City Middle school. The district is planning to merge the schools but would like to build a new building instead of having to make costly repairs on one of the schools.
The district estimates it will take $77 million out of the $113.9 million bond request to build the new school building. That’s nearly as much as this year’s total general fund budget for the district, which is just over $99 million.
If approved, the rest of the bond money would help pay for security upgrades, HVAC system upgrades, and other maintenance as well as new furniture for classrooms.
The last time the district asked voters for a tax measure was in 2014 and 2013, and the measures failed both years.
The district enrolled about 5,484 students last school year. A majority of students come from low-income families, and about half of students are learning English as a new language.
Adams 14 has been the focus of state accountability measures for several years as it has struggled to raise student achievement enough to earn higher state ratings. But State Board members have stopped escalating state orders and are putting more trust in the district’s plans for improvement.
We’ll continue to update this story with election results.
Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at [email protected].
