Colorado had itself an election yesterday. The big-ticket items, to my mind, were the Denver school board, and a very complicated tax bill called Proposition HH. I was going to write about both, but ran out of time, so, here’s your round-up of the school board election.
All three ‘status quo’ candidates lost yesterday by fairly resounding margins. Chalkbeat: Voters signal they want change by electing three new members
In a year of rising gun violence in and around Denver schools, and persistent allegations of dysfunction on the school board, Denver voters signaled Tuesday that they want change by electing three new board members.
In the citywide at-large race, former East High School Principal John Youngquist beat Tattered Cover bookstores co-owner Kwame Spearman by a wide margin. Youngquist will replace the board’s most high-profile member, Vice President Auon’tai Anderson.
The candidates who lost were all backed by the teachers’ union, but this election wasn’t really about that, if you ask me. Denver generally has a pro-charter streak, so being pro-school choice/curriculum autonomy doesn’t ding a candidate much. One example issue–a recent regulation says that you cannot start classes before 8:20am for middle school students and older. Okay, that sounds fine. However, due to bus schedules, this means that a particular high-performing charter can’t start until 9:30, and has had to cut an hour of education from their curriculum. Replacing this with voluntary enrichment courses has proven quite expensive, and Colorado schools are already famously underfunded. The school board could have waived this regulation for this school, but chose not to. The parents are understandably upset.
But, mostly, this was about school safety. The current board’s policies have failed here. There were a number of school shootings in the last year. Some were clearly caused by existing policy. Specifically, it is extremely difficult to expel or suspend a student, which has led to students known to be safety risks remaining in schools. I say ‘known to be safety risks’ because they have often been accused of violent crimes, and must be searched for weapons every morning. The board removed police from schools in 2020, so these checks are performed by school staffers. This policy combination resulted in the shooting of two deans earlier this year, during a weapons search–the third shooting at that school in the last school year. A principal who spoke out about this was fired. The board claims this was due to “sharing information related to confidential personnel matters”. You can decide for yourself; the voters certainly did:
In the interview, Dennis shared that he’d been notified that one of his school’s students had been charged with attempted murder. As a result, Dennis sought an extended suspension as well as a remote learning option for the student. DPS denied both requests. Denver police had also discouraged a return to in-person learning for the student.
In the termination letter, DPS said Dennis had also been fired for allegedly violating the student’s privacy by partaking in the interview. Dennis told CPR that, while he told 9News a student had been charged with attempted murder, he did not provide any information he was prohibited from sharing nor did he reveal the student’s identity or offer recognizable characteristics.
David Lane, Dennis’ lawyer, said he confirmed with Chris Vanderveen of 9News that Vanderveen was never shown confidential information.
So, every candidate associated with these policies (all incumbents up for re-election retired) was rejected by voters. The closest of these elections had a ten-point margin. Changing three members of the seven-member board won’t change which bloc controls the majority, but I do hope it makes them question some of these decisions they’re making. The board vote to fire the principal was 6-1, so that would have gone the other way.