September 16, 2009 03:36 AM UTC

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.