COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado – The Colorado Springs School District 11 has been in the midst of a financial crisis for several years, with a budget deficit recently reported as high as $8.6 million.

School board member Bob Null seemed to appreciate that fact during the budget process last summer when he told a local reporter, “To be honest, every dollar counts again this year, but it’s even worse this year.”

But for a district where “every dollar counts,” there has been quite a bit of money spent on nice hotels, airline travel and restaurants.

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EAGnews took a close look at the district’s credit card statements and check register for 2010-11 and found about $300,000 spent on hotel accommodations, about $100,000 on airline expenses and another $77,000 on restaurant tabs.

That may not seem like a great deal of money for a district with an annual budget of more than $200 million. But less than a year ago the district was talking about laying off as many as 54 employees, imposing furlough days for employees and raising fees for high school athletes.

Colorado Springs school officials defended the transactions, pointing out that the majority of money spent on travel came in the form of grants from the federal or state government.

The district also acknowledged spending a lesser, but still significant, amount of money from its general fund on travel. It reported spending a grand total of $870,624 in grant money for travel in 2010-11 and $413,941 in general fund money for the same purpose that year.

The grant argument is weak and symbolic of a larger problem. Instead of giving schools big dollars for travel in the midst of a financial crisis, perhaps it should make teacher training less expensive so tax dollars are not wasted at such an alarming rate.

Conferences here, there and everywhere

Overall we found $302,028 in school district charges at various hotels, or hotel reservations services, in 2010 and 2011.

There were a total of 29 credit card charges at Hyatt Hotels Sacramento on April 21, 2011, for a grand total of $21,838.00.

The district says that trip involved certification training that’s required for teachers who participate in the “Advancement via Individual Determination” (AVID) program, “a college readiness system for elementary through higher education that is designed to increase schoolwide learning and performance.” AVID program activities are paid for with general fund money from the district.

Twenty-five charges were made at the Hyatt Hotels Regency Center on March 9, 2011 for a total of $14,267.94. The district says “this is teacher training for the TAP Grant (Teacher Advancement Program). All teachers were required to attend and there are 10 schools including two high schools involved.”

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Forty-four charges were made with “Keystone Reservation” in June, 2011 (most of them on June 9) for a total of $11,792.97. In May of the same year the district made 41 charges with the same reservation service for a total of $6,394.19. We assume the reservations were made at one of several resorts in Keystone, Colorado.

The district says this was for the “Cambrium Learning – Rocky Mountain Best Practices training,” funded with a federal ARRA-IDEA grant.

Only seven charges were made at the Marriott Charleston Riverview Hotel in Charleston, South Carolina on April 4, 2011, but they added up to $5,693.35.

The district said “These charges are from the Teaching American History grant – we pay to send teachers who excel in that professional development program to present at the National Council of History Educators conference each year. They stayed in the hotel where the conference was hosted.”

Eight charges were made at the Sheraton City Centre Hotel in Indianapolis on May 19, 2011 for a total of $9,547.76. Nine charges were made at a hotel simply listed on school records as the “Sheraton” on July 12, 2010 for a total of $7,986.69.

The district said, “This was training for the Race to Indy National Magnet Schools,” funded by a federal grant. The other charges, at the “Sheraton,” were for the AVID teacher training program mentioned above, with travel funded by the district.

Seven charges were made to “Rosen Plaza online” on Jan. 29, 2011 for a total of $4,900. We assume the charges were for the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Florida. The district says this was for the Florida Education Technology Conference paid for with money from a federal math-science grant. The expensive Rosen Plaza was the “conference hotel,” the district added.

Traveling close to home

Several expensive trips were to destinations close to Colorado Springs.

Only two charges were made at the Cheyenne Mountain Conference Resort in Colorado Springs between May 27-29, 2011, but the tab came to a cool $14,848.41. The district said “The only items we could find are charges for the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (our local zoo). These were all field trips to the zoo for our local students. We do not show any charges to the conference center.”

Four charges were made at the Antlers Hilton in Colorado Springs in March, April and May of 2011 for a total of $8,593.94. The district said “we pay travel for the speakers who come in to do professional development during the summer session. We get the government rate at the Antlers and it is NOT higher than the government threshold in Colorado Springs.”

Two charges were made at Doubletree Hotels in Colorado Springs on Aug. 5, 2010, but the total came to $4,000. The district said “We can’t find this line item, but we believe it was for a conference that (the district itself) hosted.”

Thirteen charges were made at Hyatt Regency Denver in February and March of 2011 for a total of $5,800.88. One of those charges, on Feb. 9, was for $2,380. If you include Dec. 2010, the total is $9,877.76.

The district said “This was for lodging for staff, students and chaperones for the Colorado All-State Honors Choir. The Hyatt was the event center.” The district did not mention that Colorado Springs is only a 90 minute drive from Denver.

Airline expenses and food

The district had 433 separate transactions with various airlines in 2010-11, totaling $104,476.02. There were several instances when multiple charges were made with an airline on one single day, suggesting large groups traveling to the same destination.

For instance, 26 charges were made with United Airlines on April 22, 2011 and two charges were made with the same airline one day earlier, totaling $15,302.20. Fifteen charges were made with United between May 10-13 , 2011 for a total of $5,674.60.

Twenty-three separate charges were made with Frontier Airlines on April 8, 2011 for a total of $10,925. Twenty-two charges were made with Continental Airlines on Jan. 26, 2011 for a total of $8,137.80.

There are several more examples of major airline expenditures on the credit card records.

The district said, “When staff members do need to fly, we compare rates and airlines for the lowest possible rates.”

District credit cards were also used for purchases at many different restaurants in 2010-11. The largest tabs were run up at Starbucks ($3,778), Chick-Fil-A ($5,103), Chipotle ($3,977), Domino’s Pizza ($7,665), La Casita Café ($7,389), Louie’s Pizza ($17,689) and Texas Roadhouse ($2,901).

There were also charges to Margaritaville for $212.01 on May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), 2011 and Hooters Kipling for $21.00 on May 20, 2011.

The district said that some of the transactions were actually fundraisers that produced a profit for various district programs, but also acknowledged sometimes using school funds to feed people outside of school.

“The district used gift cards at these establishments as fundraisers for school events or for staff and student appreciation,” the district statement said. “In many cases (especially Louie’s Pizza) the district would sell the coupons as a fundraiser. We buy at 50 percent and sell at 100 percent. Also, Title I funds require parent involvement activities. Schools do provide meals sometimes. This is allowable and we have a written process for using funds this way.”

We respectfully disagree with the district

Unlike officials in other districts, Colorado Springs school officials were prompt, professional and courteous when responding to our inquiry. They were particularly energetic in defending their travel budget.

They say staff travel is generally done in the most economical manner possible. They say they have a government limit of $135 per night to spend on most hotel rooms, although they acknowledge that they do allow staffers to stay at expensive hotels where conferences are held, presumably at a higher cost than the government limit.

We would argue that many far less expensive hotels are usually located in the same neighborhoods as pricey hotels, and could be utilized by school staff without running up large taxi tabs or compromising employee safety.

District officials say professional development is necessary for school staff to offer quality instruction to students.

“Education is a student focused mission, served primarily by staff,” the district said. “Staff development is our ‘research and development’ in terms of improving our product. We have seen time and again that organizations suffer and lose their competitive edge when they reduce their research and development. (The district) hopes to avoid that mistake by investing in our staff to help them become better teachers.”

We don’t buy that argument in full, particularly in these tough economic times when public schools are struggling to pay for basic needs.

Politicians argue that public schools are underfunded and our cash-strapped federal government should spend millions of extra dollars to put more teachers in classrooms, upgrade facilities and improve school technology.

Yet millions of federal dollars are spent on professional development travel for school personnel at a time when other priorities should come first.

If conferences are necessary for professional development, they could be done in a less expensive manner. A few teachers from a school could attend, instead of several dozen, and bring back the knowledge they’ve gained to share with their peers.

Technology could also be used to a greater degree. Virtual conferences could replace many destination conferences, with no travel or hotel costs involved. They may not be as much fun for the participants, but lessons could be learned and information could be shared in a much more economical manner.

But in the end, none of this debate will matter unless taxpayers get involved, learn more about how their schools spend their money, and demand greater accountability.

Ashleigh Costello contributed to this report