The Gilpin County RE-1 school district Board of Education received a lesson in the new math for school districts at their April 2, 2024, board meeting while approving salary schedules and policies for the 2024/2025 school year. Superintendent David MacKenzie posed a math story problem: does it make more sense to pay two educators a decent salary, or one educator a good one.

The question came up during MacKenzie’s superintendent’s report, discussing the turnover in staff at the end of the current school year. MacKenzie reported that the combination of declining students and increasing starting salaries for licensed educators is creating a situation where replacing departing staff now involves tradeoffs.

RE-1 student enrollment K-12 has declined about 20% in the last ten years, from 458 in 2015 to 362 in 2024. Starting salaries for a licensed educator have gone up during the last decade. National trends show fewer people are choosing teaching as a career option, so the pool of available talent has shrunk.

MacKenzie said that these conditions are resulting in a deliberation over whether to rehire a position at the current salary or absorb the position within existing staff and pay them more. He also emphasized the need to use technology more to augment student learning.

The Board unanimously approved the salary schedules for the 2024/2025 school year and the revisions to district policies and procedures.

The Board also unanimously approved the 2024/2025 contracts for Elementary School Principal Patrick Linnehan and the Professional Learning Coordinator Sunshine Vincent. Secondary School Principal Alexis Donaldson is retiring, so a contract will be negotiated when a new principal is hired.

MacKenzie highlighted the IT move of the Student Information System from ALMA to Power School starting with the 2024/2025 school year. MacKenzie thought that the Power School product was more user-friendly for parents and synced with other systems better than ALMA.

The district has received a School Safety Disbursement grant from Homeland Security for $144,000 that will be used to fund 75% of the Bobby Jones Speaks program at the school for the next two years. Board member Kirsten Goodlet asked if Bobby Jones could provide periodic updates on his school activities.

This spring’s Open House will be held on April 24, with the elementary school starting early.

MacKenzie gave an update on the capital improvement projects and said that both the ADA and sewer line projects are on schedule. The final permits for the ADA project have been approved and construction will be starting in late April or early May.

The financing has been completed for the sewer line project and the funds are being held in a separate bank account. Board member Joe Marr asked if the district is earning interest on the funds and MacKenzie replied that it is. ESCO Construction is in the process of obtaining the CDOT permits for road closures and expects to start construction in late May. The Board is planning a public meeting to discuss the project at a time closer to the actual construction.

A video of the April 2 meeting is on the RE-1 YouTube channel, but the audio portion seems not to be working. The agenda, documents, and salary schedules for this meeting are on the RE-1 website (gilpin.k12.co.us) under the Board of Education Agendas.

The next RE-1 board meeting will be April 16, 2024, at 7 p.m. in the school boardroom.