NewsCovering Colorado

Actions

Pueblo D-60 Cutting some Kindergarten Staff

Posted at 8:00 PM, May 23, 2019
and last updated 2019-05-24 18:13:04-04

PUEBLO – Pueblo City Schools plans to cut 36 education assistant positions from its kindergarten program after a bill funding free full-day kindergarten was signed into law.

D-60 spokesman Dalton Sprouse told News5 that the district currently uses grant money to pay for those positions and since free, full-day kindergarten is now Colorado law, it changes the rules for that money and how it is used.

“We are no longer allowed to pay our education assistants from the specific funds that we’ve used in the past,” Sprouse said.

So we asked, shouldn’t full-day kindergarten help save those positions? The district told us that between declining enrollment and the number of at-risk kids dropping, there isn’t enough money available to pay for all those positions.

However, they say that the district is trying to figure out a way to fill that personnel gap when the new school year begins in the fall.