After years of mounting maintenance needs, district-wide upgrades are on the way for two of El Paso County’s oldest school districts.

Last week, voters in Manitou Springs District 14, established in 1872, and Widefield D-3, founded in 1874, both approved new bond proposals for their aging schools in the 2025 coordinated elections. In Widefield, $88 million ballot measure marks the first successful vote since 2017, while Manitou’s $37.6 million bond is the first since 2000.

D-14’s bond will increase taxes on homes valued at $500,000, the average home price in Manitou Springs, by $35.20 per month and $423 per year over the 25 years. The D-3 bond has a 30-year lifespan and will increase taxes by $5.40 monthly for every $100,000.

The two new bonds continue a recent trend of new investments into local public schools. Last November, voters in Harrison D-2 approved a mill levy override for teacher raises and student scholarships, while Academy D-20 received approval for its own district-wide upgrades that include a complete rebuild of one of its high schools, Air Academy.

Recent ‘no’ votes

On the contrary, bond proposals for D-14 and Colorado Springs D-11 both failed to pass in 2021, with the former garnering 42% approval. D-14 Superintendent Sean Dorsey acknowledged that going to taxpayers is always a tough ask, and that they kept this year’s package “as realistic as we could” to address many of these same needs pragmatically.

“Nothing in this world is getting cheaper, whether it’s trips to the grocery store, buying a new vehicle, sending your kid off to college, to other daily expenses,” he said. “So, anytime we do go to the community, it’s something we need to take seriously.”

The latest proposals are the result of both districts identifying and focusing on the most crucial infrastructure needs in their schools and facilities that can only be addressed through new local tax funding.

In Manitou Springs, talks of a bond began after the school district was chosen for an audit on its current ADA accessibility in 2020. A $43 million proposal was subsequently rejected by voters in 2021 and D-14 would then shift monies from other capital projects to close the audit this year.

Dorsey said that, while they addressed the audit’s findings, accessibility challenges remained in other district facilities like Manitou Springs Elementary School and Manitou Springs High School, while its track and football fields have gone beyond their end-of-life cycles, posing safety and accessibility issues.

He also noted that the newest building in the district is 25 years old and that the buildings, on average, are 60 years old.

A multi-phase proposal with a much higher overall price tag featuring an additional story for its middle school and new gyms was surveyed earlier this year and met with mixed feedback. Once the proposal was condensed to a single bond focusing on safety, security and ADA accessibility, Dorsey said the favorability was much higher.

“What resonated with voters was that we are not asking for anything that is fancy or extravagant or over the top. It really does just address those three buckets,” he said. “That’s what I really think helped put our bond over the top. We’re not asking for fancy glass or metal. We’re asking for items that will make a difference in the schools.”

In Widefield, the school district’s own audit identified $311 million in needs. When narrowed down to only the critical needs, the $88 million was presented to voters to address aging infrastructure, asbestos removal, air conditioning installations and expansions to its most eastern school to account for projected population growth.

D-3 Superintendent Aaron Hoffman said that most of the public wasn’t adamantly against the bond proposal, but that some were concerned about their own economic situation and the greater burden they would bear.

“We didn’t feel compelled to try and convince them,” he said. “Once we provided the evidence on what was needed, we left it up to them to make the best decision for them.”

Hoffman added that the district initially considered a bond vote in 2024, but opted to wait a year for local property tax increases to stabilize and to not compete with other votes like the U.S. presidential election.

“We do have a compelling story to tell that we didn’t want to get lost,” he said.

Beyond relying on new and existing bonds to fund capital projects, Widefield, Manitou Springs and other local school districts have explored alternatives like Colorado’s Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) grant which covers construction costs with funding from the Colorado State Land Board, Colorado Lottery and the marijuana excise tax.

With its bond now approved, D-3 will get an additional $5.7 million in funding through a successful BEST grant application for health and safety upgrades to North Preschool. Hoffman said that some of the lesser needs the bond will not address include repaving parking lots.

With district needs becoming more defined and overall proposals scaling back, will taxpayers in other Pikes Peak region see similar ballot measures in the years ahead? During a Nov. 4 meeting with Colorado Springs’ Downtown Review Board, a spokesperson for D-11 said that a bond vote would be needed to fully fund the next phase of rebuilding Palmer High School.

With the new funding now official, Dorsey said he’s looking forward to beginning the process of maintaining the viability and functionality of the district.

“I think we’re going to be able to do some good work for the kids here,” he said.