DCSD Ballot Issue 5A: What the $54 Million Mill Levy Override Costs Your House, and Where the Money Goes

Ballot Issue 5A is the one line on your November ballot that changes a number on your January tax bill. Here is that number, and everything around it.

What it costs, by house

The district's figure is $33.70 per $100,000 of actual (market) value per year. Ignore the mill math; that is the number to multiply.

• $400,000 home: about $135 a year, or $11 a month
• $500,000 home: about $168 a year, or $14 a month
• $700,000 home: about $236 a year, or $20 a month (the district's own example)
• $1 million home: about $337 a year, or $28 a month
• $1.5 million home: about $506 a year, or $42 a month

Two things the ballot language makes clear that the yard signs do not. First, this override is written as "whatever amounts" the levy raises up to the district's statutory cap, rather than a fixed dollar figure, so it grows with valuations rather than shrinking in real terms; the district's FAQ describes it as indexed to inflation. Second, it is permanent. Overrides do not sunset unless voters repeal them. Renters pay too, indirectly, through landlords' tax bills; commercial property pays at a higher assessment rate.

Where the $54 million goes

Per the plan the district presented before the board's 7-0 vote in August, as reported by the Denver Gazette and others:

• About $22.4 million for a 4 percent raise pool for teachers and staff. This is the core of the ask.
• Specialized student services, about $5.1 million.
• Career and technical education, about $4.2 million, to expand trades and workforce programs.
• Programming, about $3.8 million, to restore elementary instrumental music, support middle school teaming and bring in emerging technology.
• Curriculum, about $3.3 million for literacy and math instructional materials.
• Security, about $2 million a year to keep school resource officers staffed and cover rising security costs.
• Athletics and activities, about $1.2 million.
• Charter schools receive a proportional 24 percent of the total, about $12 million, to spend within the same categories.

Oversight runs through the existing Mill Bond Oversight Committee of citizens and the district's fiscal oversight committee, with an annual independent audit written into the ballot question.

The pay gap, with numbers

The district's argument is that it cannot keep teachers at what it pays. The Colorado Department of Education's figures, as reported by the Highlands Ranch Herald in March, put DCSD's average teacher salary at $75,777. The neighbors: Jefferson County $82,995, Littleton $87,220, Cherry Creek $95,145. That is a gap of roughly $7,000 to $19,000 a year against the districts a Douglas County teacher can reach by driving 20 minutes. The district has raised average pay about $15,000 since 2021 without closing it. At the August board meeting, parent advocate Kelly Mayr put it this way: "we are still 2,000 per pupil behind other districts, and our teacher salaries are the lowest in the Denver metro area."

Two qualifiers. Average salary partly reflects a district's mix of veteran and new teachers, not just its pay scale, so the gap for an individual teacher may be smaller or larger. And "lowest in the metro" is the advocates' framing; the CDE table above supports "lowest of these four."

The case for

Douglas County has the lowest per-pupil revenue among its neighbors by the district's account, a structural result of a decade without a successful override before 2018. Teachers leave for Cherry Creek and Littleton over money, and the district has been covering a budget gap with one-time reserves that run out. Voters passed a $66 million override for raises in 2023, and the March 2026 salary figures above show the gap with the neighbors is still there. The 2024 bond bought buildings; it cannot legally pay salaries. If you want teachers paid closer to the metro rate, this is the only mechanism.

The case against

It is an ongoing tax at a moment when Douglas County property tax bills have already jumped with valuations. "An MLO is an ongoing tax, so we don't know exactly how much this would cost all in, and it is scary for some of us," Tiffany Baker told the board in August, and the indexed structure means she is right that the number rises. Enrollment is declining, which opponents read as a reason to consolidate schools before asking for money. Some critics tie their vote to whether the district signs a collective bargaining agreement, arguing it would lock in how raise money is spent. And it is the district's fourth funding ask in five years, after the 2022 override and bond, the 2023 override and bond, and the 2024 bond.

Our read

The tax is real but modest for most households, under $20 a month at the county's median-ish home value, and the pay gap is real and documented. The fair question is not whether teachers deserve the money; the CDE numbers settle that. It is whether you trust this district to spend $54 million a year, forever, the way the plan says, in a county where the last two board majorities have not agreed on much. The oversight committee and the audit are the district's answer. Read the ballot text, do the multiplication above with your own valuation (it is on your notice of valuation or the assessor's site), and decide.

More: every race and measure on your ballot and the full November ballot guide.