This is the time of year to be thankful, and all of us in the Douglas County School District are so thankful for our Douglas County voters!
Our community recognized the value of our Douglas County School District (DCSD) teachers and staff by voting to pass 5A, a $66 million Mill Levy Override (MLO), and the impact a quality school district has on a community. This is a HUGE celebration for our school district, our staff, our students, and our communities!
We are so grateful for your support. Passing 5A helps us narrow the pay gap our teachers and staff have experienced for a number of years. We already have inquiries from teachers and staff that left us for other districts, because now they can now afford to come home. While we have not fully addressed our salary challenges, this is a big step in the right direction!
Of course, the fact that 5B (our $484 million Bond) did not pass means we do have some challenges to overcome. However, we are committed to continuing to educate our community about the need for Bond funding. In the meantime, DCSD will use reserves and available resources for emergency capital needs and will do everything possible to provide our students and staff with comfortable and safe buildings to learn and work. We will partner with our community to find creative solutions to overcrowded schools in areas where neighborhoods are quickly growing (such as analyzing potential boundary changes, deploying mobiles, etc). We have work to do and we are thankful for our engaged community and will be coming to you for feedback on solutions in the coming year.
The efforts around these ballot measures unified our county and I believe that we set an important example for our students regarding perseverance and setting aside differences to fight together for our students, staff, and schools. There is nothing we cannot accomplish when we work together. For that, I am thankful.
Erin Kane is the Superintendent of the Douglas County School District
P.S. Many of our staff members have recorded thank you videos for our community. I hope you will take some time to watch them:https://bit.ly/ dcsdthankyou.