The Estes Park School District Board approved a preliminary budget for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year in the amount of $25,836,639. This represents $696,971 more than the final 2024-2025 budget, yet the school projects it will have 44 fewer students, for an estimated student census of 917 students.
According to data from the Colorado Department of Education, the EPSD student census was 961 in fiscal year 2024-2025 and 1,015 in fiscal year 2023-2024.
Brian Lund, director of business services for the EPSD, presented the details Monday night at the June board meeting.
Several days before the meeting, Lund met with the Estes Valley Voice in his office to review some of the factors that go into establishing the school budget, including the state’s new school budget formula, HB25-1320, signed into law on May 23 by Gov. Jared Poliss, which includes the local property tax basis and a mill levy override approved by area voters in November 2017 that supplements the District’s general fund. The vote passed by a margin of 52.3 to 47.7 percent with 4,198 votes cast.
For the upcoming fiscal year, the district anticipates receiving $3.5 million from the additional mill levy and $11.5 million from property taxes.
The preliminary 2025-2026 budget includes $19.3 million in general fund revenue, an increase of $1,525,196 million from the 2024-2025 budget. Expenditures are budgeted at $19.3 million for the 2025-2026 fiscal year before fund transfers, an increase of $1,021,194.
The EPSD will receive $13,380 in per-pupil funding, a $666.52 increase per student from this past year’s allocation of $12,713.54. The district will also receive $11,502,504 in program funding from property taxes.
However, the EPSD is uncertain about the total assessed valuation of properties, as Colorado’s new school funding formulas take effect. This is also a year for property reassessment. Lund said the EPSD is being conservative and only budgeting 70% of this number, $1,137,030, as revenue.
Expenses include $1,678,867 for capital projects and $1,350,000 in outstanding principal on debt set to expire in December 2031. The cost of food for the school’s lunch program is $747,264.
In an internal monitoring report submitted by Superintendent Ruby Bode to the Board on Monday night regarding the preliminary budget, Bode wrote, “Despite declining enrollment and the loss of over $1 million in per-pupil revenue, the district has maintained fiscal discipline. All salaries previously supported by ESSER funds have now been absorbed into the general fund through strategic staffing adjustments and thoughtful reallocation of resources. The district continues to project and manage revenues and expenses conservatively. All funds budgeted for FY2025–26 are expected to be received within the fiscal year, and no expenditures are planned beyond projected revenues and beginning fund balances unless explicitly approved by the Board in accordance with state law.”