Douglas County School District Superintendent, Erin Kane.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, THANK YOU to the Castle Pines community for joining together in support of additional funding for the Douglas County School District (DCSD). While the Mill Levy Override (5A) and Bond (5B) didn’t make it over the finish line this time (we were so close!), it was very encouraging to see community support for these measures increase by more than 10 points in less than six months (when compared to polling results from May).

Thank you to the Castle Pines City Council for endorsing 5A and 5B, and to Mayor Tracy Engerman for speaking in support of our amazing teachers, staff and students at the November 15 Board of Education meeting. Leaders from every Douglas County town and city spoke at that meeting, and seeing the camaraderie was absolutely incredible. And, of course, thank you also to all of the citizens involved in the Invest in DCSD campaign committee (especially the committee chair, Christa Gilstrap), as well as staff, board members, parents and community members who volunteered countless hours to educate our residents about the need for this funding.

We are not done with our work to educate residents about how funding works for our school district and our need to pay our teachers and staff more competitively, to invest in our capital infrastructure, and to build new schools in quickly growing neighborhoods such as The Canyons. This is just a delay. In the meantime, our work to provide the brightest futures possible for our kids will continue. Here’s a glance at what’s in store for DCSD over the next year.

We will continue to care for our teachers and staff. While the loss of 5A means we will not be able to overcome the $1,000 to $2,000 per student difference in mill levy override funding between us and our neighbors to pay more competitively, we will be able to continue to maintain current staffing and pay. We will continue to use every tool available to retain our amazing teachers and staff.
We will be inviting the community into our schools. Be on the lookout for opportunities to come into our schools and see the great work our teachers and staff are doing for our kids and the future of our community. Did you know that we offer Fire Science, Biotechnology, Engineering, and Criminal Justice (to name a few) to students right here in Castle Pines?
We will keep educating our community about the need for funding. We will continue our efforts to educate residents about how funding works and our needs moving forward to ensure that we can continue to deliver on our commitment to provide our students with bright futures.
We will engage with our community to create plans to address enrollment growth and declines. We will continue to evaluate areas with enrollment growth, as well as enrollment decline, and we will engage our community in our plans to address both.
Seeing our community coming together for the kids of our amazing school district has been inspiring, and I know that together we can encourage our neighbors to invest in the students, teachers and staff of the Douglas County School District in the near future. Thank you for being a part of this amazing community.
– Erin Kane, DCSD Superintendent

Information and photo provided by Douglas County School District