District 60 overestimates student enrollment, misses out on $1 million

The Pueblo City School District (D60) will miss out on more than $1 million after overestimating how many students would enroll in the district. This comes as D60 continues to lose students to the Pueblo County School District (D70).

“Our district is shrinking in size and I think that’s because not only are people going out for school choice, but people are moving out of the district for whatever reason,” said D60 school board president Dr. Kathy DeNiro.

D60 estimated it would have 229 more students enrolled in the district this year than actually are. Additionally, the district’s projection of students for which it receives funding was over by 142 students, which results in a loss of more than $1 million.

KRDO NewsChannel 13 asked DeNiro who’s held accountable for the mistake concerning the budget projection.

“Well, I’m not sure if anybody’s held accountable,” DeNiro said. “I would say that we really need to look at the budgeting process.”

“We’re always making projections, and keep in mind it is just a projected budget, so any business is going to make a projected budget. We work very hard to be as conservative as we can,” said Dalton Sprouse, D60 director of communications.

D60 said it had a $2 million surplus last year, so it won’t have to make any cuts to make up for the loss.

D60 school board candidates were asked about the challenges facing the district during a debate Wednesday night. DeNiro was in the audience, watching.

“One of the things I was really surprised that no one brought up was the whole idea and concept of consolidating both District 60 and 70 together,” DeNiro said.

It’s an idea she plans to bring up to the D60 school board, but it could be a hard sell. The district is in priority improvement status and could be taken over by the state in two years if student performance doesn’t improve.

KRDO NewsChannel 13 asked DeNiro what D70 would gain by consolidating districts.

“Well, I certainly can’t speak for Mr. Smith but from my point of view — you could gain, we have great students too. We have great programs. We have great athletics also. So the whole idea of coming together and looking at what’s best for the community and stop the turf war,” DeNiro said.

Additionally, DeNiro said both districts would save money on transportation, assessments, as well as in the central office.