Polaris students conduct snow studies at Rocky Mountain National Park
Students in a Polaris Expeditionary School hydrology class take field trip to Rocky Mountain National Park to conduct snow studies.
- Poudre School District’s Board of Education will vote on a potential reduction in force of licensed teachers for the 2026-27 school year.
- The district faces a potential budget cut of up to $17 million due to declining enrollment and reduced state funding.
- The district is seeking authorization for layoffs to provide advance notice to employees, even if the cuts are not ultimately needed.
Poudre School District’s Board of Education has scheduled a vote on the district’s request to approve a reduction in force of its licensed teaching staff for the 2026-27 school year in response to cuts in state funding.
The district doesn’t yet know if it will need to actually implement a reduction in force of teachers on continuing contracts but wants the flexibility to do so, if necessary, Lauren Hooten, the superintendent’s chief of staff told the school board at its Feb. 6 meeting.
The authorization is necessary to provide impacted employees with the advance notice required in the district’s employment agreement with the Poudre Education Association, the union that represents PSD’s teachers, counselors and other licensed nonadministrative staff, Hooten said.
Teachers and other licensed staff on continuing contracts are generally those who have worked in the district for more than three years, as opposed to probationary employees who are hired on one-year contracts, said Hooten, who oversees the district’s human resources department as part of a restructuring of Superintendent Brian Kingsley’s cabinet in 2024.
The district is usually able to adjust its workforce as needed through retirements, voluntary resignations and the nonrenewal of probationary employees but fears deeper cuts will be necessary in this budget cycle.
PSD will lose about $8 million in per-pupil state funding for the 2026-27 school year because of declining enrollment, the district’s chief finance officer, Dave Montoya, told the school board during a budget update Feb. 6. The district could lose as much as $9 million more — for a total cut of $17 million — for the 2026-27 school year based on options being discussed in the state legislature as it addresses a budget shortfall of about $1 billion.
Individual schools in PSD are already determining their staffing and budgets for the 2026-27 school year, Hooten and Montoya said, and can’t wait on the state legislature’s deliberations on education funding, which are usually completed in early May.
The district has to make decisions sooner, they said.
So, if the reduction in force is approved by the school board, as expected, at the Feb. 24 meeting, a committee will begin reviewing data the following day that will be used to make recommendations. PSD’s human resources department has been preparing seniority lists and verifying endorsements, certifications and years of service records since Feb. 11 to inform a reduction in force process, Hooten said.
Here’s the timeline for what would follow:
- Feb. 25-March 4: A reduction in force, or RIF, committee consisting of three administrators selected by the superintendent and three licensed staff members chosen by the Poudre Education Association will be formed to review data and recommend reductions.
- March 5-12: Superintendent finalizes decisions on reductions areas and number of positions to be reduced.
- March 24-30: Impacted staff are notified of inclusion in the overage process.
- April 14: School board formally receives recommendation for contract cancellations. Individual appeals hearings are scheduled as needed
- April 15-25: Appeal hearings are held.
- April 29-May 12: Final RIF notifications are issued to affected employees
- June 1: Per the employee agreement, all RIF notifications must be completed.
Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, x.com/KellyLyell, threads.net/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.