Garfield Re-2 Board Votes to Put Mill Levy and Bond on November Ballot

Glenwood Springs —Highland Elementary’s gymnasium hums with the specific, chaotic energy of a back-to-school night. Nearly 690 people are packed into the space, navigating between booths and conversations. It is a sea of parents and staff, a tangible measure of engagement that no spreadsheet can capture.

In the Post Independent, Garfield Re-2 Superintendent Mike Yost wrote that he and Assistant Superintendent Jenny Nipper visited every school during the first week. He noted that while classrooms are busy and buses are rolling, what struck him most was seeing "thousands of individual pieces come together to create a school district."

Yost’s column, published this week, marks the start of the 2026-27 school year. The district’s theme is "Aspire." It is a word that sounds polished, perhaps even corporate. But Yost defines it with a gritty realism: to look ahead with purpose and do the work required. He argues that this aspiration is grounded in what he saw during those first week visits, not just in strategic plans.

The evidence he cites is small but specific. At Graham Mesa, a parent watched a new student sitting alone on the playground until another child walked over and simply asked her to play. At Rifle Middle School, new teachers described their onboarding experience as one of the best they had ever faced. These are not state assessment scores. They are signs, Yost writes, of a healthy district where students are known and supported.

And that matters because the "Aspire" theme is a direct response to a set of very real, very expensive problems.

For nearly two years, the district has studied its long-term challenges. They have evaluated facilities and finances, surveyed registered voters, and held meetings across Rifle, Silt, and New Castle. The feedback was clear: families want career-connected learning and skilled trades opportunities. Early childhood classrooms have waitlists. But the biggest hurdle is money. Garfield Re-2 is competing with neighboring districts that offer higher salaries, and housing costs continue to affect the district’s ability to recruit and retain employees.

This is the part everyone skips past when they hear "strong start." A strong start requires a stable workforce. You cannot build relationships with students if you are constantly replacing the staff who built them.

On Wednesday, August 26, the Board of Education approved placing two questions before voters this November. One is a mill levy override to support competitive compensation for employees. The other is a bond proposal to invest in school and learning spaces.

Yost frames the mill levy override as essential to keeping the talent that makes those playground moments possible. He notes that the community wants strong teachers, but "strong" means paid enough to stay in a high-cost housing market. The bond question addresses the physical spaces where that learning happens, aiming to modernize facilities that have aged alongside the district’s growth.

The November ballot will be a test of whether the community is willing to fund the "Aspire" vision. It is a direct ask for resources to solve the retention and facility issues that have plagued the district for years.

Yost closes his column by looking back at those first week visits. He sees a district that is working, where families are partners and students are challenged. But he knows the work continues. The next chapter of that story will be written in November, when neighbors decide if they can afford to keep the teachers who are currently building those relationships.

The buses are rolling again in Rifle, Silt, and New Castle. The classrooms are full. But the question of who will be standing in those rooms next year depends on what happens at the ballot box.