It’s official: A tax increase to fund teacher salary increases in Poudre School District will appear on the ballot this November.

At a school board meeting Tuesday, school board members unanimously approved a resolution asking voters to approve an $18 million mill levy override. That would shake out to about a $137 property tax increase on a $400,000 home.

Mill levy overrides allow school districts to collect more money than they would otherwise get from the state to support salary increases and hire additional staff. They're different than bond measures, like the one PSD voters passed in 2016, which ask voters if a district can take on debt to fund building projects and then use property tax increases to pay off that debt over a limited period of time.

Teachers sporting their “Red for Ed” shirts packed the school board meeting room Tuesday, and several spoke during public comment.

Mark Bartlett, a gym teacher at Irish Elementary School, said he’s starting his eighth year of teaching. He loves it, he said, but the Fort Collins housing market has exploded.

“Our salaries haven’t kept up, and we’re barely scraping by,” Bartlett said. “…our salary schedule is now a barrier to recruiting and retaining quality teachers.”

As school board members announced their votes, the room burst into applause.

“I look forward to the vote and the outcome,” said Christophe Febvre, school board president. “I feel very good about this.”

What will the money be used for?

According to materials provided by the board, the mill levy override funding would be allocated like this each year:

$14.7 million would go toward increasing starting salaries for teachers, restructuring the licensed staff salary schedule and maintaining competitive classified staff wages.

$2 million would go to mental health and safety/security personnel.

$1.3 million would go to PSD charter schools, as per state law.

Why does PSD say it needs more money?

PSD teacher salaries are no longer competitive, as base salaries at nearby districts have gone up with other communities voting to approve mill levy overrides.

St. Vrain Valley School District's starting teacher salary is now $43,500. Thompson School District's starting teacher salary is now $40,000. PSD’s starting teacher salary sits at $38,731 for the 2019-20 school year.

In May, as PSD finalized its annual employee negotiations, teachers pleaded with the district to consider a mill levy override.

Unlike most school districts in Colorado, PSD is a floor-funded district — that means it gets the lowest amount of per-pupil revenue allowed by law, according to a PSD news release.

Montserrat Granados, a third-grade teacher at Irish Elementary School, said she had a choice between splitting rent with several roommates in Fort Collins or buying a house outside of the area. She decided to buy a house in Ault.

That means commuting more than 40 minutes each way every day, she said. That adds up to about six hours driving back and forth each week, and it can be difficult to make it to school when the weather is bad, she said.

What about increased property valuations?

Despite property tax increases as a result of this year's increased valuations, PSD won’t see an increase to its total funding because the state's share of funding for the district drops when property taxes increase, PSD Executive Director of Finance Dave Montoya previously told the Coloradoan.

In a survey, pollsters hired by PSD took a look at how voters were feeling about property taxes, especially in light of this year's property assessment increases. Wellington, northwest Fort Collins, Laporte, Estes Park, Red Feather Lakes and Livermore were among the hardest-hit areas this time. Median home values increased 17.8% in Fort Collins, 19.7% in Loveland, 14.9% in Windsor and 23% in Estes Park.

Those increases mean most residents will pay hundreds or even thousands more in property taxes this year, but according to the poll results, that didn't seem to scare voters off of a possible mill levy override. When asked if they would support a tax increase of $16 million annually, about 73% said they would probably or definitely support such a measure. About 23% said they would probably not or definitely not support such measure.

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