Don't give Jeffco more of your money until it proves it deserves your trust.
Jeffco Public Schools is asking voters for two permanent, inflation-indexed property tax increases — 5A and 5B — while enrollment falls, a $900 million capital plan was riddled with cost overruns and undisclosed spending, and the district is still fighting to keep its own house in order. Not yet.
Here's what these two measures would actually cost you.
Jeffco estimates the combined cost of 5A and 5B at about $42 a year — roughly $3.50 a month — per $100,000 of your home's actual value. Both measures are permanent and indexed to CPI inflation, meaning this isn't a one-time ask: the bill grows every year, for as long as the overrides are in effect. Enter your home value to see today's number.
Your home's actual value
Estimated combined cost: $231/yr ($19/mo)
Estimate based on Jeffco's own combined rate of $42/yr per $100,000 of actual home value. The district's figures don't break this out separately by measure (5A vs. 5B), and the ballot language doesn't specify the statutory mill rate applied to assessed value.
Jeffco already had $900 million. Here's what happened to it.
5B is a permanent, CPI-indexed mill levy override that would raise $60 million a year for capital projects — sold in part as a way to avoid a future bond and its interest costs. But it promises voters a new, independent citizens' committee for accountability, and Jeffco made that same promise for its 2018 bond. Its own hired auditor found the promise wasn't kept.
- When Superintendent Tracy Dorland took office in 2021, she hired Moss Adams to audit Jeffco's 2018–2025 Capital Plan, which spent roughly $900 million, including $35 million on schools that have since closed from low enrollment.
- 89% of projects in the bond "Flipbook" ran over their publicly disclosed budgets — nearly a third by more than $500,000.
- 14 projects worth over $22 million were funded but never disclosed to voters in the Flipbook at all.
- Bid records used to select contractors were often unavailable, and 527 of 921 change orders reviewed listed no reason for the change.
- Nearly $5 million went to undefined "administrative" costs, and Jeffco never completed the annual independent bond audit its own bond language required.
Who's supposed to be watching?
The Capital Asset Advisory Committee exists to demand accountability for exactly this kind of spending. Of its 12 current members, only 4 served during the capital program the audit covers. The other 8 joined after the money was already spent — and none appear to have pushed for action on the audit's findings.
That same committee raised no objection when the Board spent $25 million in capital funds on a 50,000-square-foot Olympic natatorium essentially gifted to the City of Arvada — instead of fixing HVAC systems in Jeffco's own schools.
5B asks for a $60 million annual tax increase without ever showing voters the "Options Strategies" from Jeffco's own Strategic Capital Master Plan — the plan the district is paying Perkins Eastman consultants $1,091,930 to produce. With 23 Jeffco schools at 65% capacity or below, school closures are coming. Voters deserve to know what's planned before approving more money for it.
23 Jeffco schools at 65% utilization or below
Based on Jeffco's own 2024/2025 Facilities Condition Assessment. Utilization shown as a percentage of building capacity.
- Arvada HS — 53%
- Bear Creek HS — 58%
- Evergreen HS — 57%
- Green Mountain HS — 57%
- Standley Lake HS — 60%
- Wheat Ridge HS — 51%
- Jefferson Jr/Sr — 53%
- Pomona Jr/Sr — 59%
- Deer Creek MS — 51%
- Everitt MS — 62%
- North Arvada MS — 61%
- Wayne Carle MS — 62%
- Adams ES — 62%
- Blue Heron ES — 63%
- Dutch Creek ES — 51%
- Eiber ES — 64%
- Leawood ES — 62%
- Mortensen ES — 48%
- Normandy ES — 49%
- Semper ES — 61%
- Swanson ES — 55%
- Weber ES — 60%
- Westgate ES — 52%
Higher pay, without higher results.
About 75% of the new tax revenue from 5A — roughly $55 million — goes to still-higher teacher pay, with no requirement that student outcomes improve at all.
Money up. Results flat or down.
FY2022–FY2025 pay/revenue/inflation figures; 2019–2026 CMAS proficiency figures.
In 2019, 51% of Jeffco 8th graders met or exceeded state reading standards. By 2026, that had fallen to 48%. Math scores stayed essentially flat, 42% versus 41%. Meanwhile, between FY2022 and FY2025, Jeffco teacher compensation rose 40%, while district revenue grew 22% and inflation rose 20%.
Jeffco teachers are not poorly paid. Median full-time income in Jefferson County overall (U.S. Census, 240-workday year) is $79,160. A new Jeffco teacher with a BA earns $56,025 for 185 days — equivalent to $72,681 on a 240-day basis. And 1,530 teachers — 31% of the workforce — sit at the top of the district's 22-step pay scale with a Master's plus 90 credits, earning $112,995 a year ($146,893 on a 240-day basis) before any cost-of-living increase. Retiring at 60 after a 35-year career, they collect a pension of $98,871 a year — $8,239 a month — for life.
The 1999 model Jeffco has forgotten
Jeffco voters have approved a smarter deal before. The district's 1999 "Performance Mill Levy" won a national award by tying teacher pay increases to a 25-percentage-point improvement in the share of students proficient on state tests. Raises were a reward for results — not an entitlement.
Alberta, Canada — whose students now rank near the top of the world on international tests — built its own teacher-pay system the same way: raises tied to results, and voters who trust the system enough to fund it. Jeffco has done the opposite.
More money for career credentials that employers don't actually value.
Some 5A funds are earmarked to expand K-12 Career and Technical Education credential programs. Independent research raises real doubts about whether that spending pays off for students.
- A Carnegie-funded national study found that only 18% of credentials earned by K-12 students are actually in demand by employers — and no state that tracks this data shows consistent alignment between the credentials students earn and the jobs they get.
- A 2025 peer-reviewed study surveying 257 employers across 14 career clusters found the two credential categories many CTE programs push hardest — business/marketing and skilled-technical/STEM — did not rank in employers' top 20% of valued credentials. Widely offered credentials like Microsoft Office Specialist and OSHA General Industry ranked 54th and 66th out of over 130 options.
- Jeffco has already shown it can let this money sit idle: as of June 2020, $4.7 million of $6 million in Prop 5A funds specifically earmarked for CTE and STEM programming remained unspent — despite promises made to parents, employers, and voters during the 2018 campaign.
- Nationally, districts spend an average of nearly $18,000 per teacher per year on professional development with no measurable return, according to TNTP's "The Mirage" study. Applied to Jeffco's roughly 4,700 teachers, that is a potential $85 million a year — spending Jeffco's own achievement scores don't show is paying off either.
To be fair: a 2026 Texas study did find modest early-career wage gains for students who earn industry credentials tied to their actual course of study. The honest question for Jeffco voters isn't whether credentials can ever have value — it's whether Jeffco's expanded CTE dollars will go toward the specific, high-value credentials employers say they want, or toward more of the low-ranked, easy-to-offer ones the district has funded so far.
Before we give Jeffco more money, we need answers on child safety.
Independent watchdog group Jeffco Kids First has documented more than 40 cases of criminal sexual abuse, grooming, or serious boundary-crossing by Jeffco employees, most since 2024 — and the Board has never held a public hearing on the pattern.
- A former Jeffco security officer, Tim Martinez, was charged and convicted in 2024 of a prior sexual assault on a child.
- A former Jeffco social worker, Chloe Castro, was arrested for sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and sentenced to 20 years' probation. Jeffco's own records show it did not open a district-level investigation and left the matter to law enforcement until pressed.
- A former Jeffco high school psychologist, James Chevrier, was arrested on multiple felony charges including sexual assault on a child and soliciting for child prostitution, and was sentenced to at least 5 years to life.
- A high school English teacher hired by Jeffco, Patricio Illanes, faces 40 felony counts of child exploitation. Jeffco hired him despite documented reference-check flags from a prior district and three prior DUI charges.
- In multiple other documented cases, Jeffco's own legal department has denied public records requests for investigation reports, citing state law — even in cases involving a principal named in a Title IX lawsuit.
Read the full case-by-case documentation from Jeffco Kids First →
We're not against funding good schools. We're against funding this district, this way, right now.
Here's what would have to change before Jeffco earns a "yes" from us:
Bring back a real performance mill levy
As Jeffco's own 1999 Performance Mill Levy proved, raises should follow a real, publicly reported improvement in CMAS proficiency — not just show up automatically every year.
Hold public hearings on child safety failures
The Board owes parents a public accounting of every documented abuse and grooming case since 2024, and why the employees involved weren't removed sooner.
Publish the Strategic Capital Master Plan in full
Voters should see the $1,091,930 Perkins Eastman plan — including every "Options Strategy" for school closures — before being asked to fund another dollar of construction.
Prove the Moss Adams fixes actually happened
An independent, public confirmation that every recommendation from the 2021 capital-program audit has been implemented — not just discussed.
The honest questions undecided voters are asking
"Isn't 5B smarter than a bond, since it avoids interest payments?"
That's the district's pitch: 5B is a mill levy override, not a bond, so Jeffco pays no interest to bondholders. But a bond has a fixed payoff date — once it's retired, that piece of your tax bill goes away. 5B doesn't. It's permanent and indexed to inflation, so it never sunsets and it grows every year on its own. Before trading a bond's interest cost for a tax that never ends and never shrinks, ask what a full cost comparison over 20–30 years actually looks like — that math hasn't been made public.
"Doesn't Jeffco genuinely need this money for repairs?"
Some buildings do need work — that's real. But Jeffco already spent roughly $900 million on capital projects since 2018, and its own hired auditor found 89% of those projects ran over budget with millions never disclosed to voters. The problem isn't that Jeffco has too little money for repairs; it's that voters have no way to trust how the last round was spent. Fix that first.
"Won't teachers leave if this doesn't pass?"
Jeffco already pays competitively, and few nearby districts credit anywhere near Jeffco's years of service — Cherry Creek caps salary credit at six years. A veteran Jeffco teacher who left for a "better-paying" district would likely take a pay cut once that credit reset. The retention argument doesn't hold up to the numbers.
"Isn't voting no just hurting kids?"
We don't think so. Voting no doesn't cut a single existing program — it withholds new money until the district shows it can be trusted with what it already has. A "not yet" is a demand for accountability, not a vote against children.
"If I vote no, what happens next?"
Jeffco can bring these measures back to voters in a future election — with real answers on the Moss Adams audit, a published capital plan, and public hearings on the abuse cases. A "no" this November isn't a permanent "no." It's "not yet."
Vote No on 5A. Vote No on 5B.
Ballots are due November 3. We want Jeffco kids to have great, well-funded schools — just not funded this way, and not yet.