Clear Creek School District RE-1 property tax increases for maintenance, technology and staff pay

Clear Creek School District RE-1 proposes to pay for upkeep from a new property tax so that money now spent on upkeep can go to salaries. Issue 4A would raise district taxes by up to $4,000,000 a year, beginning in 2026 for collection in 2027, and that amount would rise each year by the rate of inflation in the Denver/Aurora/Lakewood consumer price index. The levy is authorized under the state's Debt Free Schools Act, and its revenue is for capital construction, new instructional technology, technology upgrades and maintenance. The uses the question names include increasing capital reserves for future maintenance, maintaining classroom technology, student and staff devices and instructional equipment, and upgrading software. A review of the district's schools and properties by Capital AE, a construction management firm, found about $20 million in deferred maintenance needs, the district says.

The question's opening clause states the purpose: to make more general fund revenue available "FOR ATTRACTING AND RETAINING QUALITY TEACHERS AND STAFF, AND PROVIDING CAREER, TECHNOLOGY, AND SKILLED TRADES CLASSES." The district's ballot page says the general fund dollars freed this way would go to staff recruitment and retention and to career and technical education. The question restricts the levy's revenue to capital, technology and maintenance; it does not require the district to spend the general fund money it frees on salaries or career classes. Spending from the levy would be subject to an annual audit and review by a citizens oversight committee the school board selects.

Voters in the district, which serves students across Clear Creek County, decide the question on the county's November 3, 2026, mail ballot. The school board approved a resolution to seek the $4 million levy on August 20, 2026, the district says.

The same question carries a second tax increase of not more than $80,000 in its first full fiscal year. In later years it would raise whatever amount, added to the district's earlier voter-approved overrides, brings override revenue to the most state law allows: 31% of the district's total program funding, the amount the state school finance formula provides it. The district says this increase would bring it up to that 31% cap and would pay for staff and teacher compensation. The district also says the Debt Free Schools levy is exempt from the cap and gives it a separate funding stream.

The district's posted plan for override revenue, board Resolution 5, effective from the 2019-20 fiscal year under state law, shares 95% of the district's per-pupil override receipts for each student enrolled in its charter school, Georgetown Community School, and says future override revenue will be shared the same way.

The TABOR notice puts the district's estimate of the maximum increase from both parts at $4,080,000 in fiscal year 2026-27, the first full fiscal year. The question sets amounts of revenue rather than a mill rate, so the levy would be set at whatever rate produces those amounts. The district's ballot page says it used the 2025 certified assessed valuation and lists yearly estimates of $174, $349 and $523 for table entries labeled 'Home Value' of $250,000, $500,000 and $750,000. Its prose calls the example values 'assessed home value'; the saved explanation does not clarify whether the table uses market values or taxable assessed values. The same page twice calls $29.05 the yearly cost for every $500,000 of assessed home value, while its cost table and one of its answers give $29.05 as the monthly cost.

The question sets no end date for either increase. The first's ceiling rises each year by the Denver-area inflation rate; the second follows the state's school funding formula. Revenue from both, with any investment earnings on it, would be collected and spent as a voter-approved revenue change under Article X, Section 20 of the Colorado Constitution, the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, and any other law, so the district keeps it even where TABOR's limits would otherwise require a refund.

The TABOR notice reports district fiscal year spending of $15,221,338 in 2022-23, $16,441,611 in 2023-24, $16,299,541 in 2024-25 and $16,505,170 (unaudited) in 2025-26, and estimates $17,877,508 for 2026-27 without the increases. The Colorado Department of Education's financial transparency figures for 2024-25 show 634 students, 556 of them in district-run schools, and operating (current) spending of $21,905 per student, against a state average of $16,845.