In Rifle at Garfied Re-2, a 2.5% raise has been approved for all district staff which is also increasing Superintendent Birdsey's salary from $135,000 to $138,375.

A 3.5% raise has also been approved by the Roaring Fork School Board. It is also expected that the new superintendent will see a higher salary as well. "It's the first wage increase our staff have seen since 2008," Pelland said.

Montrose and Mesa counties, meantime, are currently negotiating with teacher unions. It is expected that both unions will see a raise for 2012.

In Delta, district leaders have allocated $203,000 to offer its teachers a one-time bonus next year.

But none of the superintendents for these three districts are expected to see any of that money.

"This is three years in a row without an increase for them, so far," Dr. Doss said. "It impacts morale; it impacts everything we do."

Even with raises likely in all six of these school districts, administrators are cautioning the public to refrain from thinking the budget cuts are over.

With uncertainty at the state level, district leaders say it's almost impossible to accurately project what kinds of cuts they will be facing this time next year. No one could defiantly tell us how long these raises would last.

"We're in trouble," Pearson said of Garfield Re-2. "I mean, the entire state is in trouble. It's not just our communities."

Every school district profiled in this article provided the information requested, but because of busy schedules our requests for timely interviews with district leaders from the Garfield Number 16, Garfield Re-2, and Mesa County school districts were declined.