Jeffco Public Schools employees received a voicemail from Superintendent Tracy Dorland Monday morning warning them of potential job cuts in the next year.

“My holiday message this year is a more somber and serious one,” Dorland said in a voicemail obtained by The Denver Gazette. “Some of our colleagues in central services will receive notifications this week about changes to their positions at the end of the 2025-2026 school year.”

The district expects to eliminate between 150 and 160 full-time positions as part of its new Budget Reduction Blueprint — or overall plan to whittle $60 million from the district’s budget in the 2026-2027 school year, according to a Nov. 13 presentation to the district’s board of education by Chief Financial Officer Brenna Copeland.

Central services refers to employees who work in non-instructional roles like IT, human resources and finance.

“The initial steps toward a financially stable future are not easy, but they are necessary,” Dorland said.

In the November presentation, Copeland noted that a point of focus will be showing affected employees other positions that they could apply for. Dorland echoed this in the voicemail by saying she hopes cut employees are able to find other roles within the district.

The plan, as of November, would be to reduce 8-11% of budgets that support staff and schools more indirectly — like salaries for general administration, materials and supplies for school administration and capital outlay. This includes the cut positions announced later this week.

There would be a 2-4% reduction in budgets that directly serve students — like general instructor salaries, supplies for operational maintenance and service accounts for transportation.

The goal would be to reduce $45 million overall of the over $1 billion budget, with the other $15 million being made up in new revenue.

“By no means is our work done on any of this,” Copeland said during the presentation, adding that the budget plan is still being ironed out.

The school board is set to meet on Thursday, but the agenda has yet to be released.