The Roaring Fork School District has been stranded in the dark in relation to financial uncertainties throughout the 2024-25 fiscal year, but Superintendent Anna Cole can see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

“We are turning a corner out of a financial crisis and into a series of challenges,” Cole said during Wednesday’s RFSD board meeting. 

After approving supplemental changes to their 2024-25 budget during the Jan. 29 board meeting, the board is now shifting its focus to the 2025-26 budget forecast. 

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The approved supplemental budget was able to revise the 2024-25 budget while still aligning with the district’s strategic priorities: minimizing impacts to students, teachers and staff; avoiding staffing cuts; and preserving the district’s “rainy-day” funds. 

A healthy chunk of Wednesday’s board meeting was spent on updating the public on the state of the school district’s financial situation. As part of her superintendent report, Cole laid out a “final assessment” of the internal and external issues that affected the budget and the steps the board is taking to make sure it doesn’t happen again. 

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The district’s previous budget struggles stemmed from several self-inflicted issues, including a rushed development process, underqualified budget managers, inflated enrollment projections, underestimation of self-insurance costs, and a lack of quarterly financial statements.

Many of these issues can be addressed by filling the district’s budget analyst position, which would provide additional support for Chief Financial Officer Christie Chicoine’s team.

“When I was hired, I heard a very unified message from the board and superintendent,” Chicoine said. “This cannot happen again. We need to make sure that nothing major slips through the cracks like last time. So when I look at the holes we have all across the board and the coding issues we have, and knowing how important that everyone is trained in their budgets — that’s where the need for the budget analyst is. That’s what we didn’t have last time.”

While budgeting missteps played a role in the district’s financial troubles, external factors also contributed. Inflation remains a constant challenge, and the district was already uncertain about the level of federal funding it would receive. A recent executive freeze has only added to that uncertainty. Additionally, RFSD, like many districts across the country, is experiencing declining enrollment.

“We are going to have a very conservative approach to solving these problems,” Cole said. “We are going to try to underestimate enrollment as much as possible. We are going to have to ask the question ‘Are we the right size as a school district seeing declining enrollment?’ We are really going to have to grapple with that, those conversations will be necessary.”

The board meeting followed a lengthy and successful work session, led by Chicoine as she went through the 2025 second-quarterfinancials line by line with the board. Chicoine joined the RFSD staff in late August and has been leading the financial savior mission since jumping on board. 

One major issue with the previous budget was the board’s inability to get their eyes on the error-riddled budgets. They didn’t see the budget until late April when the deadline for schools to receive their budgets is June 30th. That left practically no time to make revisions or find any glaring mistakes, which had massive contributions to the hole the school district found itself in. 

Since Chicoine joined the team, the financial information the board consistently receives has skyrocketed. They joked during the work session that under previous leadership, they saw maybe one graph, and now they are spending multiple hours per week digging through every line and code the budget holds. 

“I love working with the public,” Chicoine said after the work session. “I really enjoy putting it into layman’s terms, because at the end of the day, if the financials are not understandable, who is going to read it?”

Before digging into all of the wounds, self-inflicted or not, Cole spoke frankly to the board about the pitfalls the district has seen under her leadership. 

“This occurred under my leadership,” Cole said. “Ultimately, it is my responsibility to bring an appropriate budget to the board, and we did not. I want the community to know that isn’t what you should expect from your superintendent, and I fell short, and I am so sorry for that. I’m really grateful for all the staff, the board, and chief Chicoine for rolling up their sleeves and trying to fix this.”

The school district isn’t nearly out of the woods of their financial situation yet — but after two consecutive successful board meetings in which the board approved a supplemental budget, and received a 2025-26 budget forecast — the district has taken two massive strides in the right direction. 

The next regularly scheduled board meeting will take place on Feb. 19 at the Carbondale District Office, 400 Sopris Ave.