Principal’s Update — April 13, 2026

Posted April 13, 2026

Dear McKinley-Thatcher Families –

We are thrilled to share incredible news: our annual Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) auction in March raised an astounding $180,000! Combined with other PTA initiatives and savings from previous years, we’re proud to announce that the PTA is contributing $210,000 to support our school’s budget for the upcoming school year. This remarkable achievement would not have been possible without the unwavering generosity and support of our families, local businesses, and dedicated volunteers.

Positions Funded by Auction Support

The funds raised at our auction directly support critical roles that enhance our students’ educational experience. This coming school year, our PTA will be paying for these positions:

School Nurse (3 days a week)
Health Office Paraprofessional (2.5 days a week)
Librarian (2 days a week)
Social Worker (3 days a week)
Instructional Paraprofessional (5 days a week)
Special Education Teacher (2.5 days a week)

These staff members will have an incredible impact on all of our students’ learning, support, and overall experience at McT. Thank you so much!

Our Auction Committee & PTA Leadership

We extend our deepest gratitude to the incredible volunteers who made this year’s auction a success:

Auction Committee Co-Chairs: Ilyse Niland, Adam Ziccardi, and Jessica Zeidman
Auction Volunteers: Maren Safran, Jessica Kibble, Shannon Carson, Kristen Palmer, Steve Blackband, Krissy Blackband, and Jill Simonitis
PTA Officers: Erin Hoffman (President), Colin Sturm (Vice President), Adam Levy (Treasurer), and Dan Droller (Secretary)

Understanding Our Budget: Why PTA Support Matters

You may wonder why a well-established school relies on PTA fundraising, and why we needed such an increase in financial support from our community for next school year. We’ve done our best to lay out an explanation below!

School Funding Information:

State and federal funding formulas provide a base amount of funds per student to Denver Public Schools (DPS). These funds are intended to cover essential school operating costs like transportation, utilities, food services, building repairs, etc.
DPS allocates most of the available state and federal funds to schools for their staffing and operational budgets based on a per pupil funding model. Schools receive their budget every January with funding based on the number of students predicted to be enrolled the following school year. DPS allocates around $8,600 per student to every school.
In DPS, schools also receive ‘weighted’ amounts for students with unique educational needs. This means we get a little extra money to support students who are homeless or living in transitional housing, those living in poverty and in foster care, and those who are learning English as their second language.

McT Factors for the Upcoming School Year:

For the 2026-2027 school year, DPS predicted that we will have about 20 fewer students than we currently do – this has a huge impact on our budget.
Losing funding for 20 students means our total budget allocation was roughly $180,000 less than this current school year.
In order to maintain our staffing model and all of the great service we provide to students and families, we needed more money from our PTA to close that financial gap.
We also are in a unique position this year due to the transition of our special education program from the Cross-Categorical model to the Multi-Intensive Autism model. This transition impacts the teaching assignments of our special education teachers, which would leave us with fewer teachers to support the same amount of students with unique needs.
Ideally, in the years to come, our enrollment will stabilize and have fewer fluctuations since we have now completed our expansion to two classes per grade level.
The reduction of one of our specials classes (drama) will also help to align our expenditures with our resources and make for more consistent budgeting year over year.
The grim truth is that almost every school in Colorado has to depend on fundraising efforts to sustain quality school programs. I wish this weren’t the case, but it is the reality we are living in.

Our budgeting and fundraising efforts this year were critically important for maximizing our budget, as well as continuing the programming we know our students need. Your auction contributions and donations throughout the year ensure that every student at our school has access to a comprehensive, vibrant educational experience.