Angelika Schroeder was selected with unanimous support Wednesday to serve as chair of the State Board of Education, the first action taken by a newly constituted board under Democratic control for the first time in nearly 50 years.
Joyce Rankin, a Republican, was unanimously chosen to be the board’s vice chair.
The shift in partisan control comes after a November election that saw Rebecca McClellan narrowly beat Republican incumbent Debora Scheffel. McClellan, a former Centennial City council member, ran on a promise of respecting local control of school boards and listening to classroom teachers and principals.
McClellan raised thousands of dollars more than Scheffel and was backed by both the state’s teachers union and Democrats for Education Reform, two significant players in education politics that usually don’t see eye to eye.
The shift of partisan control comes at a critical juncture. The board is set to begin addressing how to fix the state’s lowest performing schools and review the state’s academic standards that include the politically controversial Common Core State Standards.
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