The Jefferson County Public Schools Board of Education is about to get a different look after three conservative candidates won in the Nov. 5 election.
Julie Williams, John Newkirk and Ken Witt banded together during the campaign against their opponents and will give the board a 3-2 conservative majority.
Lesley Dahlkemper, the board’s president, and Jill Fellman are in office until 2015.
Dahlkemper said she is looking forward to collaborating with the new board members to help the county’s students. “I think the common value is how do we ensure that the kids are college-ready and career-ready,” she said.
Hot topics during the election included school vouchers and Amendment 66, a ballot question which would have raised an additional $1 billion per year for Colorado’s K-12 schools, mostly through taxes.
The winning candidates opposed the question, which was soundly defeated in the election.
Dahlkemper said that once the new board is sworn in, they will take a retreat to get acquainted and dive into key issues.
“We are honored and humbled to have this responsibility entrusted to us by the staff and families of Jefferson County,” Witt said.
Newkirk, who was educated in Jeffco schools, said he listened to what the voters wanted.
This story has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, because of a reporting error, the days of the week for an upcoming retreat were incorrect.
