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The state of Lewis-Palmer School District 38, headquartered in Monument, just north of Colorado Springs, seems unfortunately typical for a local district these days. Lewis-Palmer is facing serious budget problems, writes the Colorado Springs Gazette, including fewer state education dollars. As such, the district could cut about 50 teaching positions in an effort to slash as much as $3.5 million from its 2010-11 year budget.
In the Boulder Valley School District, 221 elementary school teachers and 159 secondary teachers could lose their jobs, according to a worst-case scenario provided to the teachers’ union (via the Daily Camera). Should cuts come there, teachers with one-year contracts and newer teachers with probationary contracts would be the first on the chopping block.
Administrators in the Springs’ urban District 11, however, are hoping to save jobs by cutting supplies, according to the Gazette, although the school board has not yet weighed in on the proposal. In perhaps the most extreme savings maneuver, The Wall Street Journal points to a national trend of districts adopting four-day school weeks, including Pueblo’s District 70.
Meanwhile, despite recent protests by students at the Capitol to bring attention to the rising costs of higher education, University of Colorado’s regents are meeting to discuss and perhaps vote upon on a nine percent tuition hike for students on the Boulder campus, reports the Camera. In Fort Collins, Colorado State University is pondering a fee hike for renovations at Morgan Library and the construction of a new engineering building, writes the Coloradoan. –