The Moffat County School District Board meeting on Feb. 24 featured discussions surrounding an inherited and difficult financial reality, which is in turn forcing current leadership to make tough decisions to ensure long-term sustainability.

Declining enrollment, increasing operating costs and financial mismanagement in previous years has left the district with few options to correct course. As a result, an effort to align staffing with the district’s financial realities while minimizing the impact on students and classrooms is being launched. 

A budget built on unstable ground

A primary factor in the district’s financial predicament is a significant drop in student enrollment. Over the past five years, enrollment is down 16%, which equates to 356 students. As state funding is tied directly to pupil count, fewer students has meant fewer dollars for the Moffat County School District. 

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When asked during the meeting about students enrolling in other districts, Superintendent Mathew Neal noted that Meeker, Hayden, Rangely, Steamboat Springs and home schools have had fairly stable enrollment numbers of Moffat County students over time.

“With the exception of maybe GOAL Academy,” Neal added, noting that over the last two years, GOAL Academy has had a “high enrollment” of MCSD students.

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Staffing levels at MCSD, however, were not adjusted accordingly as enrollment decreased. As the amount of students fell, staffing was only reduced by 4.92%, leaving the district with an unbalanced and unsustainable payroll deficit.

The numbers paint a stark picture. 

During a January presentation, Executive Director of Human Resources Christie Haas presented a bleak outlook to the board, outlining figures showing that payroll alone accounted for 88% of the district’s per-pupil funding. During Monday’s meeting, she noted that when benefits were added to that figure, total compensation costs for staff equaled 113% of per-pupil funding, which left little room for other aspects of the district operations.

Now, the district’s goal is to bring that figure down to a manageable 79% through strategic staffing reductions through what Superintendent Neal has been calling a “right-sizing” initiative. 

Personnel costs are, however, only part of the story.

Financial oversight was described during the meeting, and during subsequent interviews, as severely lacking. Bank reconciliations have been left unattended for eight months prior to Monday’s meeting, and credit card expenses have gone unreconciled for nearly two years.

In a Feb. 27 email to the Craig Press, Heather Cannon, president of the MCSD Board of Education, conceded that the district is facing a “big problem.”

“Thinking that we had received accurate financial information, the board made good decisions with the information we had received from our finance department and superintendents,” Cannon said.

However, it has since become apparent to the board of education that the information provided was not accurate.

Additionally, there was a breakdown in the movement of Title I funds from the appropriate accounts.

“You’ll hear more about this next month from the auditors, but this is just me being transparent to the board. Our Title I funds last year were not pulled out as a district and that’s just a matter of accounting,” Superintendent Neal said at the meeting. “It was a total of $373,378. So, dollars were not pulled out from the state, were not utilized for funding Title expenses, and that was a miss by the accounting team this last year to do that. It is the chief financial officer’s job to pull those title funds down.”

Other financial burdens inherited by the new superintendent include:

• A $97,000 expense in legal fees related to a lawsuit filed by the Moffat County Education Association
• The Moffat County High School gym renovation, which saw costs balloon from an estimated $800,000 to $1.2 million due to unforeseen infrastructure needs that arose during the project
• Increasing health care costs, with district insurance expenses rising 16.4% over five years, nearly doubling from $3.5 million to close to $8 million
• The addition of special education staff, growing from 9 to 18 teachers, despite the number of special education students remaining relatively stable

The MCEA lawsuit is scheduled to go to oral arguments on May 7. 

Regarding the increase in special education staff, Superintendent Neal noted that it was “absolutely the right decision to make,” while also noting the past investments have led to “credit” in the form of better outcomes for students with academic and behavioral uniqueness. 

“That SPED caseload was entirely too high … I feel like we’re really in a good place with our special education staff,” said Neal. “I’m not suggesting cutting, reducing special education teachers. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that is a factor as we’re a declining enrollment district, and one that we’ve made an investment in.”

Tough choices: The right-sizing plan

To address these challenges, the district is implementing a top to bottom, phased approach to staffing reductions. Relying heavily on natural attrition through retirement, resignation and position reallocation, the district hopes that it will minimize the possibility of direct layoffs through a reduction in force. 

Neal noted, when discussing projections of possible savings through attrition at the board meeting, that “this is messy business.” 

District-level leadership has also been working with principals to ensure the cuts have as little impact as possible on students and educational programs. The approach will begin with cuts to administration, followed by a careful evaluation of classroom and student needs.

The financial impact of these reductions is expected to save the district approximately $2.388 million.

The reductions could possibly come from the following departments and schools.

• Administration: $557,450 in savings, affecting 4.84 full-time equivalent positions
• Early Childhood Center: $202,403 in savings, impacting 5.225 FTEs
• Ridgeview Elementary: $255,157 in savings, affecting 4.5 FTEs
• Maybell Elementary: $30,000 in savings, with a reduction level of 0.5 FTE
• Sunset Elementary $274,780 in savings, affecting 4.25 FTEs
• Sandrock Elementary: $259,800, equaling 2.875 FTEs
• Craig Middle School: $372,544 in savings, impacting 5.125 FTEs
• Moffat County High School: $435,881 in savings, with 7 FTEs affected

The total amount of impacted staff, as measured by FTE, is 34.315.

Neal did note that several cuts at the administrative level have already been made.

“My chief academic officer, the executive director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, is an eliminated position and won’t be backfilled, though we’ll miss her excellent work very much,” said Neal in an email to the Craig Press on Feb. 28. “The open position of executive director of finance and operations is also being eliminated. Both of those responsibilities will fall on me.” 

The MCSD executive director of curriculum, instruction and assessment is Maggie Bruski, who began her role on July 1, 2024.

During the board meeting, Vice President Kacey Lyons noted that academic outcomes should also be factored into discussions regarding staffing decisions.

“Let’s look at test scores. Let’s make sure we’re not getting rid of people just on feelings, or this or that,” said Lyons. “I want to make sure there’s more digging into that.”

On Feb. 28, Neal was asked if testing data and other student academic measures should be a factor in decisions regarding staff reduction. He responded by saying that his first priority is to continue to foster academic growth.

“My philosophy on right-sizing is strictly related to the declining enrollment of our district and my commitment to finding a dollar-ten value on a dollar investment wherever we can,” Neal said. “My work as superintendent is to continue the excellent level of instruction that we’ve had academically, and to make sure any overstaffing due to previous enrollment numbers has been right-sized to our current needs as they relate to student levels.”

The impact: Staff and students feel the strain

While district leadership has been clear that the goal is to protect students as much as possible, the reality is that these cuts will be felt.

Some class sizes may grow, and elective courses could be impacted. Several staff members, who spoke to the Craig Press under condition of anonymity, expressed concern about their futures, even as the district is assuring them that efforts will be made to reassign them to other roles if necessary.

The financial restructuring also means that future projects, from infrastructure improvements to new technology investments, will require even more careful planning. While some cost-saving measures, such as reducing the district’s custodial contracts and finding efficiencies in other areas, are being explored, personnel remains the largest expense, and district leadership sees right-sizing as the best path to long-term stability.

Despite the financial challenges presented at the meeting, pay increases across the district, which were adopted last spring, were defended by Cannon.

“I think we just have to make sure that we’re doing what’s right for our students and our school … The 17% increase last year factors into this pretty largely,” Cannon said. “That being said, that 17% increase needed to happen … I felt like that was critical not only to draw additional staff, but to retain the staff that we have. You know, since I’ve been on the board, it’s been a constant state of transition with some very critical positions … so having stability, I think it’s probably a lot of the reason why we’re here. You know, right now, as scary as it seems, I think we’re also on some stable footing because we do have quality staff that I feel like we can trust.”

Those pay increases included a 5% raise for administration, as well as a 17% increase to the base pay for licensed staff and a 7% average increase for nonlicensed staff.

During a follow-up interview, Cannon blamed the financial crisis on the high rate of superintendent and chief financial officer turnover. Further, she stated that she felt the board had made good decisions with the information received from the finance department and from former superintendent Jill Hafey and former interim superintendent Brad Meeks.

“We are a volunteer board who doesn’t get in the weeds,” Cannon said.

Cannon expressed her confidence in Superintendent Neal for discovering the issues.

“He stepped into a world of issues left by former administration,” she said.

On Feb. 27, Cannon was asked via email if a staff reduction was going to occur. “I don’t know if there is another option,” she responded.

While the current financial challenges may not have been of its own making, the responsibility for solving them now falls squarely on current district leadership. With a balanced budget as the ultimate goal, tough decisions are being made. The next few months will determine whether this strategy is enough to right the ship.

Neal defended the right-sizing effort, noting that it will lead to more competitive compensation for employees now and in the future. 

“The reasoning behind right-sizing now is so that our staff across the board can continue to receive cost-of-living and other pay increases with our staff in this and future years, as is appropriate,” said Neal in his Feb. 28 email to the Craig Press. “Right-sizing is needed because we have too many staff relative to our current student population. There’s a direct correlation between volume of staff and the ability to give salary raises in the future.”

For now, the message from the board and administration is clear — painful as it may be, right-sizing is the best path forward.

Brad Meeks, interim superintendent in spring 2024 when the current school budget was adopted, indicated that the 17% salary/benefit increase granted last year came on the heels of the elimination of the state’s budget stabilization factor which granted rural districts additional funding. Further, he said some reductions to the budget were recommended.

When asked whether she had made recommendations regarding substantial staff reduction in light of declining enrollment, Jill Hafey, former superintendent of the MCSD, indicated that she could not recall. When asked if she could provide that information in the future, she declined.

Hafey stated that enrollment was steady during her short tenure at MCSD. However, according to state enrollment data supplied by the MCSD, 2,121 students were enrolled at MCSD in fall 2022, Hafey’s first year, with 1,916 students enrolled the following year. Hafey abruptly resigned in November 2023.