Budget cuts causing discord - PCSD, community tense meeting

Tensions ran high last week as the Platte Canyon school board continued discussing its financial challenges and associated budget cuts — many of which have drawn intense criticism from the community.

Addressing the school board, director of business services Kelly Varney outlined that forecasts from the state legislature show significant K-12 education funding gaps, including an overall $400 million shortfall in funding across the state next year and a weighty increase to the negative factor.

In preparation for funding shortfalls, Platte Canyon has initiated a number of cost-saving measures — largely without input from the community.

Platte Canyon’s budget cuts have largely been divisive — eliciting sharp words last week from parents and students, many of whom only found themselves the target of board members who accused the Bailey community of being out of touch with reality.

Austin Sherriff, a 10th-grader at Platte Canyon, went so far as to tell the school board that it was responsible for his transfer to Conifer High School next year in a lengthy missive that criticized everything from the school district’s removal of Rim Watson as the principal at Fitzsimmons Middle School last year to poor school performance and a lack of new textbooks. Sherriff also accused the district of promoting bullying of “even the teachers,” and reckless budgeting with “money being put toward facilities that are useless” such as the pool before telling board members they were rude, condescending and “have no business being in charge of my education or that of my siblings.”

In response, some board members said the community had no right to criticize the budget cuts proffered by Krage and Varney on the grounds that the financial challenges have been known for years.

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By Sal Christ
Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at 5:14 pm
Contact reporter Sal Christ at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or at 303-350-1035