From left, Durango School District board members Andrea Parmenter, Erika Brown, Kristin Smith, Rick Petersen and Katie Stewart at Monday's special meeting at the Impact Career Innovation Center to certify November's election results and swear in Parmenter, Brown and Petersen for their second terms. (Courtesy of Durango School District)
From left, Durango School District board members Andrea Parmenter, Erika Brown, Kristin Smith, Rick Petersen and Katie Stewart at Monday's special meeting at the Impact Career Innovation Center to certify November's election results and swear in Parmenter, Brown and Petersen for their second terms. (Courtesy of Durango School District)cca

Finance, funding accountability and the success and safety of students and staff are top of mind this legislative session for the Durango School District Board of Education.

The list of priorities was released this month on the Durango School District website.

Finance

According to the list of priorities, the board wants to ensure there are no funding reductions during the 2026-27 school year, which includes efforts to prevent reinstatement of the Budget Stabilization Factor – a Colorado legislative mechanism created to reduce public school funding from mandated levels – or any other defunding mechanisms.

Specific funding goals and intentions include:

Developing a financial blueprint using adequacy study recommendations to foster sustainable and adequate funding. Providing resources, flexibility and support for staff housing in areas most impacted by high costs or constrained availability.Fully funding and prioritizing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and aligning it with mandatory spending portions of the federal budget. Inputting permanent contribution toward rural funding – including recruitment and retention – to accommodate for increased costs to rural and remote districts.Opposing mandates that require districts to cover compliance or unfunded mandate costs.Raising the Mill Levy Override cap in an effort to offset recruitment and retainment issues.

The Mill Levy Override is a voter-approved property tax increase for local school districts that allows for extra funds to be collected beyond the state-mandated base to cover operating costs like teacher salaries, programs and technology.

Student and staff safety and success

The board described an intention to raise performance level and align standards and assessments in a way that better reflects student learning.

“Currently, even the highest-performing districts are only reaching 60% proficiency,” the list of priorities reads. Specific tactics for achieving higher performance rates were not detailed in the agenda.

Accountability

The board described wanting to increase accountability in the district by:

Ensuring that all publicly funded school options serve all students fairly and equitably.Placing restrictions on the state Board of Education’s ability to reverse a school district’s denial of a charter school (the state may only reverse the board’s denial if the board’s decision was unreasonable or made without a fair basis – which follows the same standard that’s normally used by courts and agencies when reviewing government decisions). Ensuring that no public funds – through any methods, including vouchers – are put toward K-12 private schools.Ensuring that consistent accountability and transparency surround all publicly funded school options in an effort to guarantee a learning environment that results in positive student outcomes.

The board is also joining Great Education Colorado’s “Get It Done” campaign to help build statewide momentum for adequate, sustainable school funding, said Board Vice President Erika Brown.

“The priorities in our 2026-27 Legislative Platform focus on the issues that most directly affect our students and staff right now,” Brown told The Durango Herald. “We chose these bullet points because they speak to the most critical challenge we face as a district: Colorado’s long-standing underfunding of public education. Recent statewide adequacy studies have confirmed what we experience every day – schools across Colorado, especially in rural areas like ours, are being asked to do more with less.”

The board wants residents to know it is committed to fostering strong and thriving public schools, Brown said.

“We are focused on what is best for students, and we believe that by working together – locally and statewide – we can ensure every Durango student has the resources, opportunities and support they need to receive a world-class, equitable education,” she said.

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