The override that couldn’t grow
The 1999 measure authorized a flat $4 million a year, in perpetuity — no inflation adjustment, no growth factor. Nobody ever voted to cut it. It simply bought less every year.
Monument · Palmer Lake · Lewis-Palmer School District 38
Our schools are funded
like it’s 1999.
D38’s voter-approved operating override has raised the same $4 million a year for more than a quarter century. It was written as a fixed dollar amount with no escalator, so as the community grew, the money didn’t. This site lays out what that has meant — using the district’s own numbers and the state’s.
An independent effort by local residents. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Lewis-Palmer School District 38.
The short version
Four numbers that explain the problem.
$4M Raised every year since 1999 A fixed-dollar authorization with no escalator and no sunset. Still in force today.
3.685 Override mills in 2025 Down from 11.934 in 2005. The rate fell as assessed value tripled to about $1.09 billion — because the dollar total was frozen.
20.1% Of the override D38 could legally collect Academy 20 collects 32.9%. Cheyenne Mountain collects 80.9%. (FY2024–25)
$57,582 Average D38 teacher salary, 2025 Academy 20: $65,098. Cheyenne Mountain: $72,066. D38 is the lowest paid of the three.
Sources: Colorado Department of Education override and staff-salary reporting; D38 budget documents. Full citations on The Numbers.
What actually happened
This isn’t a story about waste.
Three findings do most of the work. Each one is checkable against public records.
Not property-poor. Under-authorized.
One mill raises $108.79 per student in D38, against $85.47 in Academy 20. The tax base here is more productive per student than our larger neighbor’s. The difference is how many mills voters have authorized.
And the savings are spent
The district’s year-end general-fund reserve fell from $13.7 million to about $6.0 million in two years. The 2026–27 budget cuts roughly 35 positions. “Just use reserves” is no longer an available answer.
What that has cost
D38 has been the lowest-paid and highest-turnover of its two closest peers every year measured. In the 2023 reporting year teacher turnover hit 27.6% — 13.1 points above the peer average.
Side by side
How D38 compares to its neighbors.
Every Colorado district has a statutory ceiling on how much operating override it may ask voters to approve. D38 is nowhere near its ceiling — not because the district is poor, but because it has been out of the market for 27 years.
| Measure | Lewis-Palmer D38 | Academy 20 | Cheyenne Mountain 12 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Override mills levied | 4.294 | 9.621 | 18.698 |
| Share of statutory override ceiling used | 20.1% | 32.9% | 80.9% |
| Override as share of total program funding | 6.64% | 11.09% | 27.02% |
| Revenue from one mill, per student | $108.79 | $85.47 | $125.04 |
| Average teacher salary, 2025 | $57,582 | $65,098 | $72,066 |
Source: Colorado Department of Education override reporting; Lewis-Palmer D38 budget documents.
Read the fourth row again.
A mill of property tax generates more per student in D38 than in Academy 20. The gap in school funding between the two districts is not a gap in wealth. It is a gap in what voters have authorized.
Worth protecting
D38 still outperforms the state by a wide margin.
This is not an argument that our schools are failing. On the 2025 state assessments, D38 students met or exceeded expectations at 59.2% in English and 51.9% in math, against Colorado averages of 44.8% and 35.9%. The four-year graduation rate was 93.2%, more than seven points above the state.
The case for investing isn’t that something is broken. It’s that the people who deliver those results are the lowest paid in the region and are leaving at the highest rate — and that a funding decision made in 1999 is the reason why.
Colorado Department of Education, CMAS results 2025 and four-year graduation rate 2025.
Where things stand
What this site is — and what it isn’t.
Right now this is an information site. No measure has been referred to the ballot as we publish this, and we are not asking anyone to vote for or against anything yet.
What we are doing is making the funding record easy to find, in one place, with sources attached — because the last several times this came before voters, the conversation got well ahead of the facts.
If and when the Board of Education refers a measure to the ballot, this site will say so plainly, will register as required under Colorado campaign finance law, and will carry the disclosures that go with advocacy. Until then, judge what’s here on the sources.
Know before the ballot arrives.
We’ll send a short note when the district publishes something that matters — a budget decision, a board vote, a measure headed for the ballot. No noise.