Aspen School District to use reduced staff to increase salaries

The Aspen School District will not be replacing some of its departing employees in order to boost existing salaries.

The district confirmed in a Wednesday board meeting that they will not rehire for seven of the 20 positions left by this year’s departing employees. Though the turnover is similar to the district’s attrition in recent years, the cuts are new.

“It was a deliberate effort this year to be able to afford raises,” Human Resources Director Amy Littlejohn told The Aspen Times on Thursday. 

Exact numbers for staff raises have not yet been agreed upon. The current average teacher salary at the Aspen School District is $76,000, not including benefits or additional pay that is offered to most certified employees. The Aspen Education Association, the local educator’s union, hopes to settle on a new salary contract in its ongoing negotiations this spring with the district. Littlejohn expects the two groups will come to an agreement in their next meeting on May 12.

The cuts through attrition will constitute about 4% of the school district’s 183 teaching staff, between Cottage Pre-School, Aspen elementary, middle, and high schools.

Each Aspen school will lose two full-time positions without replacement. The Cottage will lose four positions, although three of the four departing employees will transfer to other jobs within the district.

Littlejohn said the attrition cuts will increase the class sizes from the lower to the upper limit set by the Aspen School Board. The school district operates with a 16-18 class-size range for grades kindergarten through second, an 18-20 range for grades three and four, and a 20-22 range for grades five through 12.

“We are staffing on the higher end next year,” Littlejohn said. 

These numbers are still less than the state, which abides by a 25-student cap for elementary schools, a 27-student cap for middle schools, and a 30-student cap for high schools.

District programming will not be affected by the class size change despite the attrition cuts, Littlejohn said. 

“We feel like attrition cuts are doable,” she said. “We feel OK about them because of the declining enrollment.”

The district’s average enrollment has declined by 6% in recent years, from an average of 1,665 students between 2014 and 2020 to 1,570 between 2020 and 2025. Littlejohn said the district could see further attrition cuts in the future if enrollment continues to decline.

Most resigning employees did not give reasons for their departures, she added. But Aspen School District Superintendent Tharyn Mulberry previously said the lack of local affordable housing makes it difficult to retain employees.

“It’s important to note that we remain woefully short on year-round housing, which continues to impact both enrollment and our ability to recruit and retain world-class educators,” Mulberry said.

The district identified a need for nearly 100 employee housing units in the next 15 years to adequately meet the needs of staff. It currently houses 36% to 40% of its teachers, administrators, and hard-to-fill positions, according to Joe Waneka, school district director of facilities and housing.

Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or email him at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.