Two more school districts buy, literally, into lawsuit - despite budget woes of their own

Roman Snytsar / Dreamstime

There's a reason it's called the Colorado Association of School Boards; in recent months, the lobby has been proving just how much sway it has over the state's 178 school districts.

CASB is spearheading a controversial lawsuit against the state, which demands more funding for cash-strapped school districts all across Colorado. And in recent weeks, the effort has raised another $40,000 to cover legal fees and has recruited yet another school district into the ranks of plaintiffs.

Poudre School District in Fort Collins voted May 11 to become a plaintiff, and it has thrown in $25,000. Just eight days later, the Thompson School District in Loveland approved a resolution supporting the case and donated $15,000. Both districts donated what equates to $1 per student.

That raises the number of plaintiffs to at least 18 school districts, and brings CASB's war chest to at least $285,000.

Neither number is exact because CASB communications director Brad Stauffer didn't have specific numbers on hand, but as of April, there were 17 districts on board. So far, the biggest financial supporters of the case have been Denver Public Schools, which gave $78,000, and Colorado Springs District 11, which chipped in $50,000.

Not all the school board members in the Poudre and Thompson districts supported the suit, though. In Poudre, the vote was 4-2 to join in, with one member absent, and in Thompson, it was 6-1.

One of the opposing votes, Poudre board director Patrick Albright, called the Lobato suit the "Lobotomy Lawsuit" and criticized his district for spending additional money when the district had just finished cutting 139 staff positions because of a $12 million budget shortfall.

"In light of letting these employees go, this was a serious misappropriation of taxpayer money," Albright seethed.

Thomas Balchack, another board director, countered that the cuts are precisely why the lawsuit is important.

"This is a last resort," Balchack said. "We're looking down the barrel of a gun."

Albright also complained that the district was being "hypocritical" because the Coalition of Uniform and Thorough Public Education System, of which the Poudre district is a member, paid lobbyist Fofi Mendez to push this year's School Finance Act at the State Capitol. The bill cut $260 million from public education across the state. So, taken together, Albright charged, the district has spent tens of thousands of dollars to officially contradict itself.

And now, with the Lobato suit, Albright said, "We're essentially suing ourselves. It's ridiculous."

Poudre Assistant Superintendent Jim Sarchet said the reason the coalition pushed the bill was because they were making the best of a bad situation. At the Capitol, there was talk of cutting as much as $350 million from public education, and so driving that down to $260 million was a real victory, he said.

"That's about as good as we could get. We were actually lucky to not get additional cuts," Sarchet said.

Balchack added that the $25,000 contributed to CASB was completely justified, as an investment in a case that needs to be forced through the courts.

"It's almost a civil-rights issue. In instances where legislatures did not address some of those issues, it needed a separate branch of government to intervene," Balchak said.

At least one school district, however, has said no thanks. Douglas County Schools, the state's third-largest district, has sided with Attorney General John Suthers in concluding that the General Assembly, not the courts, is the proper venue for deciding how much to spend on the state's public schools.