Home

Cottonwood Elementary School (1915)

3500 WOODGATE ROAD
MONTROSE, CO 81401

Compare

Historical Data

Download Data (Excel)

394

Total Students Served

Narrative

A message from:

Emily Imus

Finance Controller

Montrose County School District RE-1J

July 01, 2026

Montrose County School District RE-1J (MCSD) is one of the largest rural school districts located in west-central Colorado. It serves approximately 5,600 students in 14 schools, that include Early Childhood Centers, a blended learning academy, an alternative high school and an alternative-program charter school. The City of Montrose and the Town of Olathe are the major communities served by these schools. Student levels range from preschool through 12th grade. MCSD ... Montrose County School District RE-1J (MCSD) is one of the largest rural school districts located in west-central Colorado. It serves approximately 5,600 students in 14 schools, that include Early Childhood Centers, a blended learning academy, an alternative high school and an alternative-program charter school. The City of Montrose and the Town of Olathe are the major communities served by these schools. Student levels range from preschool through 12th grade. MCSD provides our students with a wide variety of pathways from Career Technical Courses, College Prep Courses, STEM electives and a wide variety of other exploratory opportunities. MCSD is one of the largest employers in Montrose County with over 1,000 full – and part-time employees. The vision of MCSD is to ensure that all students have a safe and academically rigorous environment in which to learn, and that all students will graduate with life skills and knowledge required to enter the workforce, to begin a career, to attend college or other post-secondary education opportunities of their choice, without remediation. All monies that MCSD spends are dedicated toward this vision and the goals and initiatives of our Strategic Plan and Master Capital Plan. To that end, our budget is designed to (1) support this vision and the Board goals and objectives, (2) recognize that staff are our most valuable asset, and (3) promote good stewardship of our public funds. MCSD also has an objective to sustain programs implemented with one-time ESSER Federal Grant dollars beyond the four-year spending timeline that ended in September of 2024. For this reason, excess revenues in the General Fund were assigned to the Program Sustainability Reserve in Fund Balance. These funds are available to be released from Assigned Fund Balance as needed for use in periods after September 2024 to maintain established programs.

Spending

$14,261
Current Spending per Student

View Per Student Spending Calculation

$16,845

State Average

School Level Spending per Student

Federal

$365
State/Local

$7,678
Total

$8,043

School Share of Central Spending per Student

Federal

$564
State/Local

$5,654
Total

$6,218

Download Report (Excel)

Current School Spending

Learning Environment

91%
Operations

9%

Learning Environment
$2,872,834

View Learning Environment Breakdown

Operations
$296,143

View Operations Breakdown

$3,168,977

Total

Long-Term Spending

Construction, Debt, Refinancing & Other

View Construction Funds Breakdown

These expenditures are those not associated with day-to-day operation of school activities and, therefore, are not included in the per-student spending calculation. They are comprised of major construction projects, debt payments, acquisition of land, and other programs.

$4,370

Total

Total School-Allocated Spending

$3,173,347

Totals may not sum due to rounding

EXPLORE MORE

Current School Share of Central Spending

Learning Environment

41%
Operations

59%

Learning
Environment
$1,014,134

Operations
$1,435,919

$2,450,053

Total

$5,623,399

Grand Total of Spending at this school