Now before you go all “here goes Craig playing know-it-all again” on me, take a few minutes during your potty break and play “Are you as smart as a publisher?” You might even be surprised to know I’ve shown my knowledge on this question as I’ve written on the topic before. If not, never fear. I’ll fill you in about 900 words.

So the question at hand was found buried in the fourth paragraph of, no, not a daily news propaganda article from our local paper, but rather in a weekly public relations update I receive in my inbox from our local school district’s chief cook and bottle washer known as our superintendent. And no, that’s not a knock on Dr. Brian Hill. It’s an old saying from where I grew up in Michigan used to describe people in charge. Who, by all accounts from the other chief cooks and bottle washers I voted to put in charge of the Mesa County School District 51 Board of Education, say Dr. Hill is doing a bang-up job — another colloquialism from my past — in many areas.

Frankly, I’m shocked Dr. Hill posted this question in his weekly update: Did you know the Colorado school finance formula doesn’t provide an allocation for capital needs? To which my answer was, once again: Obviously, YES. My expanded obvious answer to Dr. Hill’s  — and all the folks who’ve never posited the question before even though they knew what the deal was — query has always continued. Why are you making this a state problem? Why hasn’t District 51 ever done anything about it for the last several decades?

I normally don’t read Dr. Hill’s updates all the way through because I find them to be more of a public relations tool — as opposed to containing any information on the nuts and bolts of our education system and its performance — touting him doing his job. Again, not a knock, as all superintendents do the same thing and our previous really had to guild the lily — that’s another saying I got from the Brady Bunch when Greg was selling his lemon of a car — given how lacking in performance she was at every level and the accomplishments of some of our student population. I don’t read them simply because when it’s all good news, it tells me there’s some digging to do because there’s bad news underlying the headlines.

That’s not saying our schools aren’t doing good and great things. They have, are and will. Heck, my girls have been part of those good things. And one still is with another year of good stuff ahead. But let’s be honest. Every school district has good kids doing good things. Which in my reality also means they have bad kids doing bad things. They also have good parents of good kids doing good things and bad parents of good kids doing good things and good parents of bad kids doing bad things and yada, yada, yada. The point is, there’s always good and bad in public schools. But today, most PR merchants only tout the good even though what they should be putting out is the reality with bad included.

Which is why Dr. Hill pointing out the bad in this case is actually refreshing. Because he’s telling us what’s coming. Then again, what’s coming is what’s been done in the recent past and the reason you should have known the answer to his question. His answer to what’s coming is also shifting the blame to the state and federal government for the No. 1 reason our schools aren’t better: underfunding.

But let’s stay out of that rabbit hole and address the main point beyond Dr. Hill’s question. It’s the next sentence: Major capital needs, like the ones identified in the master plan — $561 million from the good doctor’s email — require community support through the passing of bonds. So folks, you now have the answer to how our local schools are going to finance everything outside of paying teachers (which according to many, they underpay), some painting and hole patching (practically its entire, woeful, building and maintenance “budget”)  and keeping the lights and heat on. So everything else will now become a “capital project.”   

All one needs to do is see how many times our self-proclaimed “community leaders” have crawled out from under their secluded rock formations the past two decades plus to remind us all how cheap we are, how much we hate kids and to “do it for the children” who attend the Church of Our Lady of the Perpetual Underfunded. Maybe more businesses who don’t budget properly should use one of these as their tagline? But no one cares when a business closes from poor budgeting.

Or perhaps District 51 could do as responsible businesses do. Save a few bucks. Budget for buildings and maintenance. Not overspend on one building “we deserve” for what it could have used to build three or four. The almost $600 million you need today was only a couple of hundred million dollars just a short time ago. So how long before those same “leaders” ask for a billion dollars?

Frankly, they should be asking, “Why doesn’t District 51 budget for it?” After all, District 51 has known the answer to the question for decades. And it isn’t another bond.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of the Business Times. Reach him at (970) 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com.