Aspen School District discusses funding, chronic absences 

Aspen School District’s Board of Education held its first public meeting of the month on Wednesday with a particular focus on an annual report for student learning at the Aspen Community School, district-level attendance trends involving chronic absenteeism and capital allocation following the recently approved mill levy override.  

Impacts of new school year

Wednesday’s meeting began with a presentation by student liaisons from Aspen High School, highlighting the impacts of the new August-May school year. Sentiments were shared by both the student body and faculty. 

The students presented data from several surveys they conducted, indicating a strong student approval for having final exams before the winter break. However, feedback from faculty noted this change could have added additional workload for teachers due to grading finals, as well as preparing for a new semester.

“The lack of a fall break for teachers and the finals schedule created more stress as relates to the calendar than anything. It is unreasonable to ask teachers to score approximately 150 essays during finals week prior to break,” one faculty member was quoted in a slide shared. “It would also be great to have time to plan for the second semester … I had to switch gears to a course that I haven’t taught in two years. I ended up having to do that over break.”

Annual report on student learning

An annual report on student learning for the Aspen Community School was also presented. Casey White, ACS principal, noted some of the key successes and goals for the year, including staff retention — with teachers averaging 17 years of experience — and an annual attrition rate between zero and three percent. 

“Each year, we set one goal. Our goal as teachers, collectively, is to lift the level of student learning by focusing on teacher clarity,” White said. “Student’s should know what they’re learning — why is it relevant? Why is it important?”

White presented data illustrating a consistent and high achievement level in English Language Arts, with 71% of students meeting or exceeding standards on testing in 2025. 

Math skills at ACS showed notably high growth over the past two years as well. 

“Math has been a problem for us over the years,” White said. “We were not investing the (same) time in math instruction as we were in literacy. We were super tough on this problem, so over the last two years, we had pretty incredible growth. As a school, we really focused on math fluency and have also allocated more time to math.”

Data presented showed math scores at ACS improving by over 20 points from 2023 through 2025, with 68% of students meeting or exceeding math standards last year. 

Bond funding request

Ellie Hahn, Compass for Lifelong Discovery executive director, presented a request for a bond funding allocation of $2.6 million for the Aspen Community School, citing the need to address deferred maintenance and critical infrastructure, expanding campus functionality and addressing the district’s teacher housing challenge. 

“I think of the Community School as kids that are going to come to our high school … that are extensions of the Aspen community,” Aspen School District President Sarah Daniels said in support of the request. 

The board voted in favor of the measure to approve $2.65 million from Aspen School District’s bond for the Aspen Community School’s funding request. 

School attendance trends

Following the vote, Aspen School District Superintendent Tharyn Mulberry presented findings on school attendance trends. Chronic absenteeism, meaning students missing 10% or more of days enrolled, was of particular concern. 

“If we’re using a district percentage, Aspen School District right now (has a) chronic absentee rate (of) 36.4%. The next closest to us is Summit County at 34 … Steamboat is at 17.9.” Mulberry said. 

The unique characteristics of Aspen as a town, with a large number of traveling families, was cited as a reason for why absences are a more prominent issue here than in other districts.

“You look at our attendance the days before a holiday, for example, that is an Aspen issue … I just think there’s a vacation mentality here that will count against us,” Aspen High School Principal Sarah Strassburger said.

Aspen Elementary School Principal Ashley Bodkins added, “We’ve had a real focus on that, though, which is why our chronic absenteeism is decreasing, and hopefully, that number will be even lower by the end of the year. We’re really reiterating that the inconsistency is challenging for students and has an impact on their achievement.”

While Aspen School District has some of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism, it has made significant progress from previous years, as highlighted by Bodkins and data shared. Aspen High School’s rate had fallen to 37.4% as of March 20, compared to 47.7% during the 2024-25 school year. Similar trends were apparent in elementary and middle schools. 

Budget outlook

The last action item for the meeting was a budget outlook by Interim CFO Max Marolt, with an emphasis on deciding how to allocate funds from the recently approved mill levy override ballot measure. 

The override, which was proposed and approved in order to counteract losses from a new state funding formula, will bring in $5 million annually for the district. 

Marolt’s key proposal was to take advantage of the overlap of the recent ballot measure funds before the funding formula changes, as a way to replenish balances and establish a more robust capital reserve fund. 

“We don’t have much of a capital reserve fund at all right now, just because our budget has been so strained … so all our maintenance has been coming out of bond funds, but it’s not really sustainable long-term,” Marolt said. “If we can establish this capital reserve fund, we would have more in the bank for those deferred maintenance projects, and I think that gives the board more options.” 

Current economic instability played a large part in influencing the desire for more robust cash reserves and conservative fund management. 

“I just think it would be prudent for this board, given the options that we have here, just to be fiscally conservative at this point … even if the sales tax projections come in more on the bull side, we’re anticipating … with the increase in fuel prices that we’re already seeing, it’s eating up much of our budget based on increases to every piece of our facilities operation because of fuel expenses,” Mulberry said. 

There was a general consensus among the board to follow Marolt’s recommendations over a longer timeline to establish and shore up their reserves, with agreement to look further into the process. 

 Aspen School District’s next Board of Education meeting will be on April 22.