Colorado Springs School District 11 is preparing to ask voters a very expensive question. According to reporting from The Gazette, the district’s Board of Education will decide whether to place a $775 million bond measure on the November ballot, potentially delivering D-11 its first new voter-approved capital funding since 2004.
The proposal would touch every school in the district, with major projects including air conditioning and renovations at Coronado High School, continued rebuilding at Holmes Middle School and completion of the next phase of work at Palmer High School. District officials estimate the average homeowner would pay about $252 more per year. That is not pocket change, especially for families already getting mugged at the grocery store, the gas pump and the property-tax office.
Aging schools are a legitimate problem. Buildings constructed in the 1950s and 1960s do not become younger through positive thinking. But neither does attaching the word “education” to three-quarters of a billion dollars make every question disappear. D-11 is not merely asking voters for money. It is asking for trust. That means the district owns the burden of proof.
The Bullet Point Brief
- The ask is enormous. D-11 may request authorization for a $775 million districtwide bond, its first new bond since 2004. Twenty years without a successful capital measure helps explain the backlog. It does not eliminate the need for receipts.
- Every school is supposed to benefit. District leaders say they learned from the failed 2021 bond, which lost by only 11 votes after creating what one official called “winners and losers.” This time, every campus gets something. That sounds politically smarter. Voters should still demand to know whether “something for everyone” is a facilities plan or a Christmas catalog.
- There are real infrastructure needs. Coronado High School lacks a full HVAC system, and major work remains at Palmer and Holmes. Old roofs, mechanical systems, bathrooms and safety upgrades are not imaginary. The question is whether each proposed project is necessary, properly priced and scheduled like adults are supervising it.
- The tax impact matters. The district estimates an average homeowner would pay roughly $252 more each year. Government loves translating taxes into monthly numbers because “about twenty-one bucks” sounds friendlier than “another quarter-grand every year.” Families are allowed to calculate the total bill without being accused of hating children.
- The bond also connects indirectly to teacher pay. D-11 says passage could allow existing mill-levy money now used for capital debt to be redirected toward salaries. That may be defensible, but voters deserve a plain-English explanation of the financial shuffle. When money moves between buckets, taxpayers should be shown every bucket, every hose and every hand holding the hose.
My Bottom Line
This should not become the usual school-funding melodrama where one side waves photos of crumbling buildings and the other side starts screaming “socialism” before reading page two. D-11 has aging facilities. Some require serious work. Pretending otherwise is foolish.
But $775 million is not a maintenance request. It is a generational financial commitment. The board must publish a school-by-school project list, realistic cost estimates, timelines, financing assumptions and a clear explanation of what happens when projects run over budget. It should establish independent citizen oversight with public meetings, routine audits and reports written in English rather than consultant-flavored oatmeal.
Most importantly, the district must explain how it will prevent this money from disappearing into design revisions, administrative expansion, consultant fog and construction-change-order bullshit. “Trust us” is not project management. A glossy presentation is not accountability. And putting smiling children on the mailer does not answer what a new roof costs.
Voters are not villains for demanding proof. They are the people being asked to sign the check. If D-11 puts this measure on the ballot, its case needs to be sturdy enough to survive hard questions, household arithmetic and public scrutiny. Aging schools deserve responsible investment. Taxpayers deserve competent stewardship. The board’s job is to prove Colorado Springs can get both.
Source: The Gazette
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