We are former Douglas County Board of Education directors who served our school district prior to 2009. We represent 91 years of public service in public education.
In 2009, 2011 and 2013, slates of “reformers” (12 directors in all) were elected or appointed to our school board, resulting in unanimous reform boards. In 2015, reformers maintained a four-seat majority.
The priorities, practices and policies over the last eight years of reform boards represent a sharp break with those of previous boards. Examples include:
- Partisan school board candidate campaigns which attract enormous amounts of money from outside interests who focus on fear and misinformation about our district.
- Budgets that prioritize expensive IT initiatives, the public relations department, and bonuses to administrators over funding schools.
- Refusal to create a plan for addressing the districtap $312 million in capital needs and to provide an opportunity for voters to support maintenance of publicly owned property.
- Governance that ignores public comment, the advice of teachers and the counsel of citizen accountability committees.
Here are the results:
- Reduced academic achievement. Douglas County is no longer a top achieving district in the south metro area.
- Massive and unacceptable levels of teacher and principal turnover. Costly and academically consequential teacher turnover has doubled under the reform boards.
- Unheard of before the reforms began, there are now 11 schools on the Colorado Department of Education “improvement plans.” That means students are not attaining high levels of achievement compared to other students in the state.
- Loss of Accreditation with Distinction, the state’s highest-ranking designation for public schools.
- Widespread distrust of the school board. According to the districtap most recent survey, only 1 percent of teachers completely trust the Douglas County school board.
Douglas County School Districtap reputation as a destination district where families, students, teachers and businesses relocated to in large part because of its public schools has seriously eroded over the last eight years of reform.
Twelve “reform” board members have had eight years to implement policies to improve the education of Douglas County students. The promises of increased student achievement, fiscal accountability and public participation in dialogue related to our public schools, which serve all children, have failed. Itap time to stop experimenting with the education of 68,000 Douglas County students.
Given the track record of reform in Douglas County, it is surprising that the “reform” slate of candidates in our election. Supporting reformers who have failed miserably based on the implied argument that Douglas County public tax dollars should support private schools (vouchers) is a mistake. Private schools are not publicly accountable to taxpayers and can legally discriminate.
We encourage voters in the 2017 Douglas County school board election to vote for candidates who will embrace the legacy of priorities, practices and policies that built our once-great district. Nonpartisan elections, budgets that put students and classrooms first, and governance that values the counsel of parents, teachers and citizens are essential to the future of Douglas County schools.
As former school board members, we understand the importance of building trust with the entire community. Trust is built through one’s actions. Actions either work to build trust or erode it. The current caustic state of the district is a direct result of the actions of reformers taken over the past eight years.
This is a crucial election for public education in Douglas County, and we urge you to vote for Anthony Graziano, Krista Holtzmann, Kevin Leung and Chris Schor. They have demonstrated through their extensive experience in our public schools to be the candidates best qualified to lead our district forward.
Clare Leonard, of Parker, is a former Douglas County school board director. This commentary was also signed by Herman Anderson, Ken Buckius, Bob Clearwater, Sue Fink, Emily Hansen, Pieter Kallemeyn, Jacqueline Killian, Gail Schoettler, Joan Sjostrom, Kristine Turner and Kathie Zahorik.
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