Politics and the Douglas County School Board Election

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by: madmike

It appears that politics is afoot bigtime in the race for seats on the Douglas County Board of Education this year. Four seats are up for grabs in this year’s election. And it appears that the Republican party has its busy little hands all over this one. Sources who wish to remain anonymous report that there are four candidates running who have the active support of both the Colorado Republican Party as well as the Colorado League of Charter Schools.

Word has it that the four candidates, John Carson, Dan Gerken, Doug Benevento, and Megan Silverthorne, are working as a team to win a voting majority on the school board. If their effort is successful, their plan is to convert Douglas County School District to an all charter school district, thus eliminating things like state mandates and teacher contracts. Under state law, charter schools are exempt from honoring traditional contracts negotiated with local teacher unions and are free to set teacher salaries, benefits and working conditions as local boards see fit.

Needless to say the local teachers’ union, the Douglas County Federation is extremely nervous about the outcome of this November’s election. Traditionally, the Douglas County Federation has been the lapdog of the superintendent and school board or this rapidly growing, affluent district. In recent years, their cozy relationship was taken to new heights under Superintendent Jim Christensen. He promoted the president of the teachers’ union to be his chief of staff, encouraged the unionization of all classified (non-teaching) employees, and made the new union president’s husband an elementary principal. Give Christensen credit for knowing how to keep his ducks in a row.

But last month Jim Christensen announced he was leaving to take a position in Texas. He’ll be gone in less than a month, well ahead of the school board election. Veteran educator, Steve Herzog, has been name as his interim successor. Many people hope he gets the job permanently. But the emphasis here needs to be on “interim.” The last tidbit I have to report has to do with who could become the new superintendent of Douglas County School District Re.1. Once again, my reliable but anonymous sources say that if all four challengers win the election and take control of the school board, they plan on appointing former Congressman Bob Schaeffer to that post. That’s right. You heard it here first. Big Oil Bob.

It’s no wonder that the teachers in Douglas County are nervous. With Big Oil Bob in charge, it won’t be long before biology teachers will be required to show “The Flintstones” movie as part of the curriculum on evolution. I hope that anybody living in Douglas County who reads this post will immediately start looking into their local school board election. Douglas County Schools right now need excellence, not ignorance.

9 thoughts on “Politics and the Douglas County School Board Election”

Car 31 says:

September 16, 2009 at 7:17 am

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Libertad says:

September 16, 2009 at 8:07 am

Students, teachers, parents, & taxpayers — in pursuit of avoiding the DPS debacle of a 52% dropout rate.

What on earth is next …. higher graduation requirements for English, Math, Sciences?

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1. RedGreen says:
  
  September 16, 2009 at 8:28 am
  
  the God is My Co-Pilot School of Aviation Training? The Loaves and Fishes Hospitality Management Certification?
  
  What’s the background on these elections — do they run by district, at-large, nonpartisan? And are there any credible opponents, or are these four taking on incumbents?
  
  Thanks for the post.
  
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  1. Phoenix Rising says:
    
    September 16, 2009 at 8:45 am
    
    Normally they’re non-district and non-partisan. Of course, “non-partisan” means no letter after their names, not no party support behind the scenes. Most of our local board members’ political affiliations are known, as are their beliefs in the school system itself…
    
    If the system in Douglas works as it does in Gilpin, everyone’s name goes on the ballot; each voter can vote for X candidates, where X is the number of open seats, and the top X vote-getters are elected to the Board. In Douglas County, with its high Republican registration, that could spell trouble, especially if they can effectively team up to support each other.
    
    I look forward to a number of years of flip-flopping control of the Douglas School Board, kind of like that in some Kansas districts. Every other 2 year cycle, the fringe right gains control, and Bad Things are done to the system; in the opposite 2 years, moderates gain control and try to undo the damage; when things start looking better, the radical right regains control. NOT an effective way to run your school system, but then, this isn’t about running a school system – it’s about scoring points for your political ideology.
    
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    1. RedGreen says:
      
      September 16, 2009 at 12:25 pm
      
      From the DougCo schools site:
      
      Members are elected at large and seven members on the Douglas County Board of Education represent different parts of the county. Board members serve staggered terms of four years.
      
      http://www.dcsdk12.org/portal/…
      
      So if there are four director seats up this election, it’ll take another four years to wrest back control if the all-charter coalition takes over (because in the staggered term, only three directors are up for election, a minority). By then, it could be rather difficult to undo the damage if the traditional school system is dismantled …
      
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speckledfrog says:

September 17, 2009 at 6:42 am

It seems striking that I will recognize this slate of candidates when I read through my ballot, and I will have no recognition of the more reasonable candidates because you have not named them here. Maybe you could give them some ink. I heard that a parent group holding a candidate forum at one of Douglas County’s charter schools tomorrow evening.

I think you might investigate the politics of Douglas County a bit as well, when you call the DCF union a lap dog. They may not agree with the CEA on some things, but they have effectively organized employees in a place that is not very friendly to unions.

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stacyclcs says:

September 29, 2009 at 7:25 pm

Hi MadMike, while I found your article quite interesting and entertaining I must comment. The Colorado League of Charter Schools is a 501c3 therefore we are prohibited from endorsing candidates or getting actively involved in political campaigns. This stands true in Douglas County. We have not endorsed any of the candidates for the DC school board.

Just to further set the record straight, the CO League of Charter Schools is not interested in turning Douglas County or any other school district into an all charter school district. We strongly believe in giving parents more choices when choosing their child’s public education. We believe charters are a great option. However we feel that parents should have the right to perform research and find the school that’s best for them and we are all for having multiple options from traditional public schools, to magnets, charters and even home schooling. However, when a parent chooses an option other than the traditional public school option, they should not be punished by having their child receive less funding. Each Douglas County student deserves equal funding and treatment when it comes to their education and we hope whichever candidates are elected will honor that. As for your theory about Bob Schaffer – we have no knowledge of Mr. Schaffer making a run for superintendent in Douglas County. It will be interesting to see how the school board race and superintendent selection in Douglas County pans out. If you have any questions or would like information from a real source at the CO League of Charter Schools please contact me anytime at srivera@coloradoleague.org. Sincerely, Stacy Rivera, Director of Communications, Colorado League of Charter Schools

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CastleMan says:

October 13, 2009 at 8:15 am

I am a Douglas County parent and voter, and a Democrat, and I support the reform slate.

This county’s school district is overly bureaucratic, hostile to parental choice and charter schools, and notoriously opaque in its financial dealings.

We need a school board that will change that, and which will put in place a performance pay system for teachers.

Those ideas are not Republican or Democrat. They are good, solid, common-sense notions that will make the public schools better and result in better educated kids.

And I think it is absurd in the extreme to expect that the slate, if elected, will attempt to violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution by mandating the teaching of “creationism.” The members of the reform slate might be Republicans, but they aren’t stupid.

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1. windbourne says:
  
  November 5, 2010 at 2:23 pm
  
  they are putting in vouchers. I have seen that they laid off security vetted grounds keepers and put in place, private groundskeepers. Now, I am for privatization, BUT, when I see ppl on my kids school ground wearing hoodies, with hood up, in 95F, then I am thinking that it is illegals, POSSIBLY with some real undesirables (if you are a pedophile, how could you get access to the children and not be spotted?).
  
  And in the meantime, we are looking at 100K or more going to defend these vouchers and will see more than 11M move to all 6 private Christian schools, without a change in kids. IOW, we are about to throw away 11M from the district.
  
  I know of several top-rated teachers that are now leaving the district. They said that it was going to be gutted. And here it is, they are right.
  
  We are on our way to looking JUST LIKE DENVER OR AURORA SCHOOLS.
  
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