I am writing as a paraeducator at Riverview Elementary School. I work in the Significant Support Needs program, assisting students with some of the highest needs and modifications requirements in our community including students on the autism spectrum, students with Down syndrome, seizure disorders and students who have experienced trauma.
And I love my work.
That’s why it’s profoundly disheartening to see our district plead poverty and stoke fears about the future – all while its lowest paid workers, like myself, struggle for basic survival and the district sits on over $26 million in reserves. While we might share some of their long-term worries about the future, we don’t share others, like their fear of “overspending on staff,” where it is often unclear if these figures disproportionately include high-end executive salaries, a crucial detail that is frequently omitted from the narrative – especially when our immediate concerns are far more pressing. Our district is solving for a multitude of what-ifs we aren’t sure will even happen.
Let’s start with a hard fact that often gets lost in discussions of fiscal responsibility: Last year, I made less than $25,000 doing this important work. This stands in stark contrast to our superintendent who made more than $200,000, and many administrators making well over $100,000. The district and its administrators expressing these worries and stoking fears about overspending on staff can’t be wholly blamed. Their problems, worries and fears are not the same as the problems, worries and fears that people like me and my underpaid co-workers face.
Our worries and fears as workers revolve around forced choices and survival. Should we be late on the water bill or the electric bill this time? How will we afford groceries? Should we apply for food stamps? Should we use the food bank? How many other jobs can I take to make up the difference? Questions we ask in between telling each other stories of our unattainable dreams like owning a home or having children. This constant financial pressure doesn’t just affect us; it impacts the stability and energy we bring to the students who depend on us daily.
When I took this job, one of my first choices was to ride my bike year round. Not because I thought it was a good idea, or that it would be a healthy choice, but because I could no longer afford car insurance, gas or repairs. Luckily, we live in a place where that is possible.
I depend on my fellow community members outside the school to work odd jobs, babysitting and whatever I can find to pay for my daily life. Building relationships with those around me, people who would find value in my work at public schools and help my cause, was the only viable option, and can provide things like housing and more work. It is an exhausting, degrading and sometimes embarrassing lifestyle, asking for help on a regular basis, but apparently one deemed appropriate for educators.
The district’s own audits reveal a 25% budget increase since 2019. Our district has $26 million in reserves. The state education budget is at an all-time high. Colorado's 2025-26 education budget allocates over $10 billion to schools, representing an increase of approximately $256 million compared with the previous year.
The money is there.
It is time for Durango School District 9-R to stop preaching fiscal austerity to its poorest workers and start practicing fiscal justice. We call on the school board and administration to immediately prioritize raising educator wages to a living wage, ensuring that those who support our most vulnerable students can afford to live in the community they serve.
Jake Richmond is a special education paraeducator at Riverview Elementary School living in Durango.
