A tumultuous year of Board of Education infighting, rising teen gun violence and two high-profile shootings at Denver Public Schools’ largest high school culminated in voters sending a resounding message to their local school board this week: they want change.
Tuesday’s election saw Denverites eschew a slate of union-backed candidates for the first time in four years and unseat incumbents Scott Baldermann and Charmaine Lindsay in a school board race that drew close to $2 million in political spending and saw a group of parents rally to swing the board in a new direction.
Voters elected three reform-backed candidates – John Youngquist, Kimberlee Sia and Marlene De La Rosa – over those endorsed by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association — Baldermann, Lindsay and ex-Tattered Cover CEO Kwame Spearman — by wide margins, ranging from 10 to 34 percentage points.
The trio’s wins in the DPS races were not only notable by how definitive their results were, but also because Denver was one of the anomalies in an election year that saw many other union-backed candidates prevail in school board races across Colorado.
“It was pretty divisive,” said pollster Floyd Ciruli of the results, adding, “What you could feel was the momentum and the passion was on the side of change.”
Union-backed members will retain their majority on DPS’s board after the election, but the newcomers will have an edge when it comes to establishing board leadership, priorities and potential future policies because Tuesday’s election made it very clear that a significant portion of the electorate supports a shakeup of the status quo, Ciruli said.
“We are looking at giving ourselves a fresh new start with a set of new interpersonal dynamics,” board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said, adding, “It became obvious and evident to me that’s important to our community. Community members who voted in these new board members, they want to see a change in the interpersonal dynamics of the board.”
How the addition of three new school board members will change the dynamics of the school board, which has become known for infighting among members, won’t be determined until after the new directors are sworn in later this month.
Tuesday’s election drew heightened interest from parents and community members following a shooting inside East High School in March in which a student wounded two administrators.
In the months that followed the shooting, parents, educators and others criticized the district for having discipline policies that are too lenient and for the board’s 2020 decision to remove police from schools. (The school board voted earlier this year to reinstate school resource officers.)
Current members said they are waiting to talk with their new colleagues before setting priorities, but they expect the new board will have more conversations about safety, including policing in schools, in the future.
Youngquist will hold the at-large seat being vacated by board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, who opted not to seek reelection, while Sia and De La Rosa will represent District 1 in southeast Denver and District 5 in northwest Denver, respectively.
“Whenever we get new board members, it changes how the board operates, the knowledge and the skills coming on,” board member Carrie Olson said, adding, “I’m excited to get to know our new board colleagues and get to work.”
DCTA President Rob Gould said educators are concerned that the election could mark a return to the controversial reform policies of the district’s past, such as merit pay policies for employees.
Such policies weren’t often talked about this election, though, as school safety dominated conversations. But the three candidates joining the school board were backed by Denver Families Action, a deep-pocketed political group with charter school ties.
The union also will be keeping an eye on how the board moves forward with addressing declining enrollment, including whether neighborhood schools will be more affected by any potential school closures than charter schools, Gould said.
“What DCTA will continue to do, we will continue to collaborate with the school board members that are willing to collaborate with us,” he said. “We want to make sure we don’t go to the reform-era policies.”
Get more Colorado news by signing up for our Mile High Roundup email newsletter.
Updated 9:50 a.m. Nov. 9, 2023: Due to an editor’s error, this story originally misspelled John Youngquist’s name in one reference.
