12 teachers lose their jobs after Colorado Springs school district declares fiscal exigency
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Colorado Springs District 49 Board of Education eliminated 12 teaching positions Feb. 12, one month after the district declared fiscal exigency. Many of the fired teachers worked for the district for more than a decade.
“We don't think we're cutting anything that isn't valuable,” said Peter Hilts, D49’s superintendent, in a school board meeting last January.
In order to stabilize the budget for the school year 2026-2027, the school board planned to reduce approximately $1,800,000 in teacher salary and benefits. Declining enrollment and the defunding of a state education tax caused a decline in the district’s revenue, while inflation and increasing healthcare costs increased the district’s expenses, Hilt said.
Across the country, public schools are facing financial crises exacerbated by inflation, rising health care costs and state funding issues. Additionally, many COVID-related federal relief programs for public schools expired in 2025. These financial crises directly impact teachers, despite a nationwide teacher shortage.
Marie LeVere-Wright, D49’s school board president, said during last night’s meeting that she knows of at least two other school districts in Colorado who will declare a fiscal exigency for the next school year, and anticipate more to follow suit. Hilt and other D49 board members said they wanted to announce their fiscal exigency earlier in the year so that the teachers impacted by budget cuts have time to find new jobs in other school districts before next school year.
The amount of teachers laid off in D49 is significantly lower than the anticipated 100 positions — teachers, administrators, support staff — when the board first announced the exigency in January. The school board said during Thursday's meeting that they worked over the past few weeks to find other areas to cut in the budget, but did not specify which areas took the cuts. Additionally, the district was able to offer open positions — caused by retirement or teachers moving, for example — to teachers who would have been impacted.
Even though the position cuts were fewer than expected, the loss rang deep in the community. At the school board meeting, more than 15 Sand Creek High School students showed up wearing black computer science t-shirts in support of their teacher, Stephen Swanson, whose position was eliminated.
Swanson, who teaches computer science and engineering at Sand Creek High School, has taught at D49 for nearly 11 years. Prior to working for D49, he taught computer science and social studies in Colorado Springs District 11 for nearly 7 years.
Before the cut was finalized in a 3-2 vote from the board, students and members of the community pleaded for the district to reconsider during the public comment portion of the meeting.
“He [Swanson] has been the most sweetest and caring teacher I’ve ever known,” said Brianna Evans, 17, a junior at Sand Creek High School enrolled in Swanson’s computer science program this semester, who showed up at the school board meeting.
“I just wanted to fight for him,” she said.
When the vote was finalized, a crowd of students, teachers, and parents stood up and walked out, shouting and booing at the school board. Swanson’s students cried outside of the school board building, hugged Swanson and talked to each other in disbelief about the decision.
The teachers whose positions the school board eliminated will finish out the 2025-2026 school year. The classes and programs that affected teachers run will either be eliminated next school year, or consolidated under another teacher.
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