– Hi, I’m Isabella Janney with the Colorado Springs Daily and today is July 7th, 2020. Our first segment today, we’ll talk about budget cuts and how they’re affecting El Paso County schools. Our second story today is about the line of hundreds of cars at the drive-thru COVID testing here in Colorado Springs after the holiday weekend. And, our last story of the day is about the Pikes Peak Summit house construction and potential opening.
– [Our](https://www.kktv.com/content/news/El-Paso-County-school-districts-feel-the-pain-as-pandemic-shrinks-state-funding-571651811.html) first story today is about the State budget cuts, resulting in $621.4 million in cuts to public schools here in Colorado. The budget cuts aren’t as bad as some officials originally thought they might be, but they are still presenting a challenge to schools, who were aready underfunded. Because the COVID-19 outbreak shut down businesses and restricted people from normal activity for months, Colorado has a $3.3 billion revenue deficit, which led to lwamakers postponing their finalization of the 2020-21 budget. School districts here in Colorado were warned in April that funding cuts as steep as 15% could happen. However, lawmakers used multiple one-time federal funds to help make these budget cuts as small as possible, leaving districts with about 5% less, on average, in appropriations from the general fund. Pikes Peak region school districts have been using trying to cut their expenses by laying employees off, furloughing other employees, enacting pay freezes and program cuts and dipping into reserve funds to balance out the rest of the deficit.
– [Our](https://krdo.com/news/local-news/2020/07/06/hundreds-wait-in-line-for-covid-19-testing-in-colorado-springs-following-holiday-weekend/) second segment today takes us to the drive-thru COVID-19 testing site at UCHealth where hundreds of cars were lined up, waiting for tests, following the July 4th holiday weekend. 365 cars in total went through the testing tent on Monday. Bill Plauth, the chief medical officer for Penrose-St. Francis, says hospitalizations are also going up. El Paso County reported 120 new coronavirus cases today. Before the holiday weekend on June 27th, Colorado reported its lowest coronavirus hospitalizations since March on with 126 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 that day. On Sunday, July 5, the state reported 171 COVID-19 hospitalizations.
– [Our](https://www.kktv.com/content/news/Pikes-Peak-construction-halfway-done-571658821.html) last story today takes us to the Summit House on Pikes Peak. It is now halfway complete, and expected to be opened next spring. Construction on this project started two summers ago, and it is currently still on track to open in the spring despite the coronavirus pandemic. The extensive project at 14,000 feet up will have views all throughout Colorado, and on clear days, viewers can even see Denver.
– Thank you so much for listening today. I’m Isabella Janney with the Colorado Springs Daily.
