Rep. John Buckner,
D-Aurora
State Rep. John Buckner, an educator for 40 years and the former principal at Overland High, will be marked down as absent due to illness for the rest of the legislative session.
House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst of Boulder County read a letter from Buckner Tuesday morning on the House floor notifying colleagues he was stepping aside for the last week of the session. He has a short-term illness from which he’s expected to recover. He had missed several days over the past week.
“I am sure by now many of you have noticed that I have been absent from the legislature this past week,” the 67-year-old Aurora Democrat stated in his letter. “While I am sure some of you are relieved to get a break from me, don’t think for a moment that you’ve run me off!
“I want everyone to know that I am doing well, however, at the recommendation of my physician, I’ll need to extend my leave from the legislature through the end of the session. As much as it disappoints me not to be there to represent House District 40, this time away is helping to keep me from taking a step backwards.”
Buckner chairs the House Education Committee. Rep. Brittany Pettersen, D-Lakewood, will act as chairwoman until the session ends on May 6.
Hullinghorst added Rep. Millie Hamner, D-Dillon, to the Education Committee, which preserves the Democrats’ majority. Rep. KC Becker, D-Boulder, will take Buckner’s seat on the House Judiciary Committee.
Buckner was elected to the House in 2012. He worked for 40 years in the Cherry Creek School District at Laredo Middle School, Smoky Hill High School or Overland High School.The gym at Overland High is named in his honor.
Absences due to illness among the 100 House and Senate members during the four-month session are not that unusual. Rep. at the beginning of the legislative session after sustaining a badly broken leg and complications from it after a skiing accident at Beaver Creek on Jan. 3.
