JESPA Elections

For more than 30 years, Colorado’s outdated revenue cap has limited how much our state can invest in public schools. Even when Colorado already collects the revenue, the cap blocks those dollars from reaching classrooms. That underfunding makes it harder to pay educators livable wages, keep experienced teachers and ESPs in the profession, lower class sizes, and expand career and technical education programs students need.

Prop NN gives voters the chance to update the 1992 cap and allow Colorado to invest the revenue it already collects in K-12 public education, without raising taxes or changing anyone’s tax bracket. It also requires an independent public audit each year so Coloradans can see how new dollars are spent.

Colorado students deserve public schools with enough qualified educators, manageable class sizes, and opportunities that prepare them for college, careers, and life. Our schools cannot provide that without the education support professionals who keep students safe, fed, transported, supported, and ready to learn.

That is why we are supporting Proposition NN.

Prop NN would allow Colorado to invest more of the revenue it already collects in K–12 public education, without raising taxes or changing anyone’s tax bracket. The funding could help districts:

• Improve wages so education support professionals can afford to stay in their jobs
• Recruit and retain paraprofessionals, bus drivers, food service workers, custodians, office staff, health aides, security staff, maintenance workers, and other essential school employees
• Reduce vacancies, turnover, and workload pressures
• Stabilize staffing so students have the qualified, caring adults they rely on every day

Prop NN also requires an independent public audit each year so Coloradans can see how the new funding is spent.

Here in Jefferson County, Prop NN could provide an estimated $8,634,978 in 2027, $42,796,920 in 2030, and $255,864,960 in 2037. 

As ESPs, we see the effects of underfunding every day. Prop NN is an important step toward giving us the resources we need to support our students and keep our schools running.

Learn more and get involved: coloradoea.org/YESonPropNN 

Vote yes for our students. Vote yes on Prop NN.

Support for 5A and 5B

On August 20th, the Jeffco School Board authorized two Mill Levy Overrides, which you can read about here. JESPA leaders, JCEA leaders, and parent organizations attended public comment to warn the board that ESPs, teachers, and students are the ones who have felt the impact of the recent budget reductions and that these groups need accountability for the leadership who brought the district to this point. You can listen to their comments here. 

JESPA and JCEA had been bargaining an MOU to ensure any funds secured through a MLO goes to where the community has been saying the funds should go; staffing and student programs. We centered bargaining around a commitment from the district to ensure that these funds won’t go towards central administrators. You can sign the petition here to show support for your fellow coworkers who have felt and seen the impact of these budget reductions and to ensure that any future money should be spent wisely and with students and the staff who directly serve those students in mind. 

On September 10th, JESPA President, Zander Kaschub, and JCEA President, Ang Anderson, announced that JESPA and JCEA would no longer meet with JEFFCO to negotiate the MLO MOU that began as a condition of contract Tentative Agreements in summer 2025. 

Watch Here – JESPA and JCEA comment starts at 1:49:15

“At this point, every additional hour we spend sitting around a table is an hour we aren’t spending organizing our members, talking to voters, and working to pass this MLO.

So tonight, we are officially walking away from the MOU negotiations.” Kaschub said. 

This marks an important point in the Mill Levy Override process. While JEFFCO has refused to negotiate guardrails around administrative spending, JESPA has taken a position of support for the MLO because we understand how dire the financial situation is for our community. Budget cuts have hindered our ability to provide students with the support they need to be successful and passing an MLO is a strong strategy to fill the gap. 

We will support the MLO while continuing to demand accountability from district leadership. The MOU negotiations might be over but that doesn’t mean we are walking away from the fight. Central district administrators don’t need more money.

“The most recent salary data available to us is from February. At that time, 102 central district administrators collectively received $15.7 million a year in salary alone. That doesn’t include benefits. It doesn’t include PERA contributions.” Kaschub said. 

“Central administration doesn’t need more. Our schools do. Our students do. Teachers and ESPs do.”