Miner's Minutes - March/April 2025

Telluride School Community,

Recently David Lavender and I had the opportunity to attend the CASB Legislative Conference. We met with other School Board members, heard talks about important achievements within individual districts, listened to and asked questions of members of the State Board of Education and perhaps most importantly met with our legislative representatives.

Our representatives, Senator Cleave Simpson and Representative Larry Don Suckla were generous with their time which was greatly appreciated. We talked mainly about the potential harm to Telluride and other districts through proposed changes to the Educational Funding Formula. After David connected with Rep. Suckla on a personal level (Rep. Suckla happens to live on a ranch David’s grandfather used to own so there’s a shared history) we got down to some hard numbers.

Using the table John created and presented at District Accountability as well as on Parent Square we showed the harm many of these proposals would cause Telluride. There are a lot of political pieces being moved around with conflicting needs. There biggest being a $7 million to $1.2 billion revenue short fall in the overall state budget, depending on the March economic forecast, caused by unplanned increases in Medicaid and other factors.

We tried to convey that to change Formula Funding by abruptly removing the possibility of Student Count averaging (which is intended to level out abrupt declines in enrollment year to year) is severe, inequitable and creates an inaccurate sense that schools are overfunded. While we don't want this, if cuts need to be made it would be better to bring back the Budget Stabilization (or Negative) Factor which is an honest way to acknowledge that cuts are due to lack of State Funding and doesn’t impact any one district severely.

Our representatives understood and were sympathetic but given the political climate overall it is hard to know how much they can do. Numbers matter, let our representatives know that you, their constituents, care by contacting them yourselves through the below suggested letters.

Please help us fight for our schools and our students future.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Carstens Miller

Telluride Community,

Today, I want to send a message of reassurance to all of you. I know that we face many challenges every day. I know that I have shared a lot regarding state budget deficits that may impact our educational funding, I know that we have issues around student well-being and mental health. And I know that national issues on education and other matters can weigh heavily on us. With all of these challenges, I still feel proud of the teaching and learning that is happening in our classrooms. We have talented and dedicated educators and support staff, we have students who are eager to learn, and we have a community that helps us to strive to meet our mission that Each and every student will achieve personal success through quality education.

 

While my optimism is cautious, I understand the Speaker of the Colorado House is planning to propose a funding bill that would maintain the hold harmless provision of last year’s new School Finance Formula, maintain 4-year averaging as written into that formula, and spread the phase-in of the new formula to from 6 years to 7 years. This would save the state money in this current year. More importantly for our school district specifically, this would avoid some of the largest reductions we have feared, for next year at least. While I will not feel at ease until if and when the bill is proposed and signed into law, and we still have federal and state grant cuts which will impact us negatively, this gives me reason for hope. To those of you who have advocated on our students behalf, I truly believe you actions have made a difference, so thank you!

As part of monitoring our Ends Policy goal of fostering a safe and healthy community through “consistent student and staff culture across buildings which supports achieving our ends”, we will have students in grades 3-12, staff, and parents complete the School Climate Assessment Instruments (SCAI) developed and administered by the Alliance for the Study of School Climate (ASSC) in the month of March. The SCAI surveys, which are scientifically developed and third-party administered and analyzed, are rated as one of the most effective school climate tools. Below are the links to the parent survey in both English and Spanish. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to complete the survey, as it provides valuable data on areas of strength and improvement. This survey will be open through the month of March.

 

Parent Survey - English

 

Parent Survey - Spanish

 

Parents and Guardians of Telluride Students,

 

We are able to offer the opportunity for low cost/no cost vaccines for your child. The CDPHE mobile clinic will be coming to our school (location will be determined but at the middle high school) on Tuesday April 1st. No identification or insurance is required, but we can bill your insurance at no cost to you.  

 

Having submitted our state immunization report - we know that many children are not fully vaccinated or even not at all. With news of outbreaks of infectious diseases like Measles in the US increasing, we encourage you to be sure your child is protected from preventable diseases.  

 

Please use the QR to register your child. Middle and High school students may pre-register and come to their appointment right after school is out for early release!  

 

Get Your ACT together! 

Cash Prizes. 

Auditions March 24th & 25! 

Show March 28th.