{"id":44160,"date":"2021-10-18T12:31:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T18:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-school-board-contests-stoked-by-covid-draw-partisan-fervor-big-money\/"},"modified":"2021-10-18T18:31:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T18:31:00","slug":"colorado-school-board-contests-stoked-by-covid-draw-partisan-fervor-big-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-school-board-contests-stoked-by-covid-draw-partisan-fervor-big-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado school board contests, stoked by COVID, draw partisan fervor, big money"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A trio of signs supporting conservative candidates for the board of Mesa County Valley School District 51 in Grand Junction on Oct. 13. (Barton Glasser\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Barton Glasser\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

GRAND JUNCTION \u2013 For Paul Pitton, the turning point came the night a mob of irate parents disrupted a Mesa Valley School District 51 board meeting and sent Pitton and his colleagues fleeing through a back door, under police escort.<\/p>\n

The 42-year veteran educator later resigned from the school board, rattled by the latest in a string of increasingly volatile showdowns over school coronavirus measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just got to me,\u201d he said. \u201cKids, for me \u2013 and providing a good education for those kids \u2013 have always come first. These things have pulled us away from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the political rancor that drove Pitton from office has brought in a whole new crowd of candidates for Colorado school boards \u2013 backed by a flood of cash contributions and major political endorsements, and energized by the same issues that divide voters in hotly contested state and national political races.<\/p>\n

The high interest comes as the coronavirus delta variant continues to shake up schools and disrupt learning with quarantines. More than 1,100 COVID-19 outbreaks with more than 11,400 cases have been reported in Colorado since the pandemic began in March 2020, according to state data.<\/p>\n

While school boards are technically nonpartisan, the lines in many contests are clear.<\/p>\n

Teachers unions, church groups and other special interests have joined the Democratic and Republican parties in endorsing candidates. Mask and vaccine mandates, critical race theory and even the 2020 election results are among topics up for debate, according to the groups\u2019 candidate questionnaires.<\/p>\n

And big money is flowing in. In Douglas County, a center of anti-mask fervor, four school board candidates are leading the state in political contributions after raking in at least $66,000 each, eight times the statewide average.<\/p>\n

The phenomenon echoes a nationwide trend of contentious, well-funded school board contests \u2013 mired in policy disputes around the coronavirus pandemic and the social justice movement \u2013 and comes after frequently disruptive school board meetings where community members complained about mask rules and vaccine requirements. \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d even parodied a raucous school board meeting in its season-opening show earlier this month. Many of those criticizing mask and vaccine rules are parents, some of whom are stepping up to run for open board seats, seeking to repeal coronavirus rules from within.<\/p>\n

Kevin Vick, vice president of the Colorado Education Association, a statewide federation of teachers and educational workers unions, has sensed escalating tensions surrounding local school board races this year, reflecting the vitriol spouted in nationally watched races.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve certainly seen more anger and conflict in terms of people showing up at school board meetings,\u201d Vick said. \u201cThere seems to be more conflict involved in races this year, more confrontation.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has also picked up on a trend of candidates banding together to run as a slate driven by \u201cvery extremist views.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re offering a lot of instability, a lot of disruption, a lot of extremist views toward education,\u201d Vick said, and he fears that victories of those candidates will lead to \u201cdestructive, long-lasting effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amid the unrest, as many as four school board members across the state have recently stepped down citing personal threats and the toll of managing angry dissent over pandemic precautions and other issues, according to published reports.<\/p>\n

Coronavirus, critical race theory drive some candidates<\/div>\n

Pitton, 65, of Grand Junction was a high school teacher for most of his more than 40 years in education and still works as a football coach and part-time teacher. In 2015, he decided he wanted to do even more. So, he successfully ran for a seat on the Mesa Valley School District 51 Board.<\/p>\n

He resigned from the board not long after the crowd of angry parents turned menacing at an August board meeting. The parents, aligned with local conservative groups, were angry over a board discussion about possible incentives for vaccinated staff members. There were shouts for the superintendent of schools to resign or be arrested \u2013 and the crowd shouted down officers who tried to quiet them.<\/p>\n

When the board cut off the comment period early, the audience grew even more irate. That\u2019s when police officers had to intervene and escort board members out of the meeting.<\/p>\n

It was a final straw for Pitton, who suspects the loudest critics haven\u2019t been in a classroom in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still see really good things happening in the classrooms,\u201d he said. \u201cI see teachers who are amazing. I see students doing amazing things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The disruptions come from those trying to inject incendiary politics into education, Pitton said, blaming his side of the political divide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been a conservative my whole life, but some of the things I see that side doing, I am ashamed of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Chris
Chris Flaherty is sworn in as a new school board member by Phyllis Lockhart, executive administrative assistant for the Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1, in this photo from January 2020.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In Cortez, two school board members resigned after increasingly chaotic meetings, where conservative factions jeered and heckled speakers who didn\u2019t agree with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a real toxic environment,\u201d said Chris Flaherty, who had been on the board less than two years when it was plunged into withering scrutiny. \u201cAll of a sudden it was like a switch was flipped. People were coming to us and barking at us about (critical race theory) and telling us we weren\u2019t doing our jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was growing concerned for the safety of me and my family,\u201d Flaherty said.<\/p>\n

Critical race theory \u2013 which holds in part that racism is threaded through legal systems and government policies \u2013 seized the public\u2019s attention in the wake of the social justice protests arising from the George Floyd killing. It\u2019s become a fixture of political campaigns across the state, and a focus of conservative media, even as education experts say the theory plays a negligible role in public school lesson plans.<\/p>\n

In Rifle, Katie Mackley resigned from the Garfield RE-2 District board during its Oct. 13 meeting, saying board members had been stalked and that her child had been targeted with retaliation, according to The Glenwood Springs Post Independent<\/em>. Mackley also was the target of a citizens\u2019 petition attempting to pursue a lawsuit against her.<\/p>\n

Her resignation came after the district recently mandated mask-wearing in all schools in response to more than 350 students having to quarantine, the Post Independent<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n

Serving as a school board member has long come with challenges, but now they are compounded by sharp divisions over quarantines, school closings and COVID-19 protocols, said Cheri Wrench, executive director of the Colorado Association of School Boards.<\/p>\n

But people have also come to understand the importance of a school board member\u2019s job, Wrench said, as schools have proven to be one of the driving forces behind the economy. She suspects that\u2019s why school board elections have garnered \u201crenewed interest\u201d and why more candidates are running in Colorado districts this year.<\/p>\n

Schools \u201care the heart of keeping our economic prosperity going,\u201d Wrench said.<\/p>\n

Critics of school practices around COVID-19 say there\u2019s nothing irrational about their criticisms of school policies, nor their interest in the upcoming races.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are upset because these are our children we\u2019re talking about and people are concerned about them,\u201d said Brandon Leuallen, a 34-year-old ice cream delivery man who has spearheaded protests about school policies, vaccines, masks and election fraud through his social-media platform, the Mesa County Liberty Report.<\/p>\n

Mesa County schools are likewise being challenged by the local right-wing Stand for the Constitution and Mesa County Concerned Citizen and the national Parents Defending Education groups. The latter recently sent a warning to members: \u201cWe need your help to make a stand against this attack on parents!\u201d<\/p>\n

Leuallen is supporting a conservative bloc of candidates that includes a real estate agent and former charter school board member; the owner of a cosmetology school; and a coach who also works as a bouncer at a strip club. The Mesa County Republican Party and the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce have also endorsed this conservative bloc whose faces have popped up across town in large campaign signs planted along heavily used roads.<\/p>\n

Partisanship enters the school board contests<\/div>\n

Despite being nonpartisan, school board races have long had a partisan tilt. But this year\u2019s school board campaigns are shaping up to be the state\u2019s most closely contested in a decade, said Tim Kubik, a Loveland education consultant and chairman of the Colorado Democratic Party\u2019s education initiative, which helps train party members who want to run in school board contests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last time we saw a push this hard from the GOP was around 10 years ago, right around redistricting,\u201d Kubik said.<\/p>\n

\"A
A trio of signs supporting conservative candidates for the board of Mesa County Valley School District 51 Will Jones, Angel Lema and Andrea Haitz have all been endorsed by the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce and the political action group Stand for the Constitution. (Barton Glasser\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Barton Glasser\/Special to The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A couple of issues are feeding into the increase, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the folks we\u2019re seeing run on the GOP side this time are picked because they\u2019ve been willing to make a lot of noise about masks or critical race theory.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s led various groups to take sides.<\/p>\n

In Colorado Springs, Church Voter Guides didn\u2019t endorse candidates, which would violate its nonprofit status, but published candidate responses to a series of questions, including queries about critical race theory, sex education and coronavirus protocols.<\/p>\n

Conservative radio host Kim Monson published a voter guide for \u201cWe the People,\u201d which endorsed school board candidates in 16 districts.<\/p>\n

Democratic Party Chairwoman Morgan Carroll\u2019s weekly email newsletter endorsed school board candidates in at least half a dozen districts. The Douglas County Republican Party endorsed a slate of four school board candidates, while the El Paso County Republican Party sent a questionnaire to board candidates in that county that included questions about critical race theory, mask and vaccine mandates, and false allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 elections.<\/p>\n

Republican Party Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown sent an email last week encouraging party members to help get out the vote for the Douglas County GOP slate. Other emails from Burton Brown encouraged voting for specific candidates in Aurora, Cherry Creek, Littleton and Jefferson County school board contests.<\/p>\n

And a national conservative political group, the 1776 Project PAC, formed earlier this year to support candidates who oppose critical race theory, recently sent a fundraising email with the subject line \u201cResign, Recall, Replace\u201d referring to its strategy of taking over school boards.<\/p>\n

Since August, 1776 endorsed the GOP-backed candidates in Douglas County, as well as candidates in Falcon 49 and Academy 20 in El Paso County, and District 51 in Grand Junction. It doesn\u2019t appear the group has donated to any of the Colorado candidates, however.<\/p>\n

Kubik said the focus on critical race theory and masks is unfortunate when school districts face major issues about finances and overall curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be some really important decisions that get made in the next five years or so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Cash pours into heated metro contests<\/div>\n

And campaigns that steep themselves in hot-button issues are in some cases flush with cash.<\/p>\n

Four Douglas County contests led fundraising statewide through Sept. 29, according to filings with the Secretary of State\u2019s Office, with each raising more than $66,000. That\u2019s compared with the average of about $8,200 for the 170-plus candidates who\u2019ve reported receiving contributions this year.<\/p>\n

School board candidates are allowed to take unlimited amounts of money from individual donors, after efforts to place limits on such contributions failed in the state Legislature in recent years. And two major donors are helping out the conservative Doug County candidates, Mike Peterson, Christy Williams, Becky Myers and Kaylee Winegar.<\/p>\n

Eric Garrett, a Lone Tree man who owns a real estate company, donated $25,000 each to those four candidates through Sept. 29. Garrett\u2019s $100,000 made him the top donor to school board contests through Sept. 29. Mike Slattery, a Sedalia rancher, donated $20,000 each to the same four Douglas County candidates in September and early October, while his wife, Andrea, gave $10,000 through the end of September.<\/p>\n

The opposing slate of incumbents Krista Holtzmann and Kevin Leung and candidates Juli Watkins and Ruby Martinez raised a total of $59,000 for all four candidates through the end of September.<\/p>\n

Through midday Friday, seven outside groups spent nearly $654,000 on mailings, digital ads and more supporting or opposing candidates in 13 districts, mostly on the Front Range. About 53% of that was aimed at Denver Public Schools contests. Little is aimed at the Doug County contests.<\/p>\n

A \u2018wave election of parent power\u2019<\/div>\n

School districts are in the middle of a \u201cparent revolution,\u201d said Tyler Sandberg, vice president of conservative education organization Ready Colorado. He predicts school board elections this year could result in a \u201cwave election of parent power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kim
Kim Langley, a candidate for a seat on the Summit School District Board of Education, on Oct. 12 in Frisco. (Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Hugh Carey\/The Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThe spark that lit the fire was school closures,\u201d Sandberg said, arguing the closures frustrated parents and set back women in the workplace. Mask rules, vaccines and critical race theory poured \u201cgasoline\u201d on the fire, he said.<\/p>\n

Kim Langley is one parent running for a board seat in Summit School District as part of several women \u2013 mostly mothers \u2013 who call themselves the \u201c4 For the Kids\u201d slate. She said parents are \u201cwaking up\u201d to a liberal influence in the schools, citing what she called left-leaning books being promoted in her eighth-grade son\u2019s school library.<\/p>\n

A retired U.S. Air Force major, Langley also has concerns over how social justice and gender identity are incorporated into schoolwork, insisting it\u2019s \u201cthe job of the parents\u201d to teach kids about those issues at home.<\/p>\n

Teachers think they have the right to \u201calmost raise our kids for us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Kyle Bentley, a parent running for an open school board seat in Greeley-Evans School District 6, said remote learning gave parents a deeper look into what their students were learning, and that many didn\u2019t like what they saw.<\/p>\n

\"Kyle
Kyle Bentley, school board candidate in Greeley-Evans School District 6, sits for a portrait outside Greeley-Evans School District 6 Administration Office in Greeley on Oct. 13. (Jeremy Sparig\/Special to The Colorado Sun)<\/span>Jeremy Sparig\/Special for the Colorado Sun<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI think it was a turning point for a lot of parents,\u201d said Bentley, who owns Bentley Welding Inc. in Greeley and has two sons who attend district schools.<\/p>\n

Those parents feel ignored and fed up, and it\u2019s driving the surge in school board candidates, he said. Bentley, a registered Republican, said many of those people are conservative like him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a whole group of people who feel like their opinions or their voices aren\u2019t being heard, their wants and wishes for their children are being ignored,\u201d said Bentley, 35, who said the school district shouldn\u2019t push families toward vaccines or require them to wear masks.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s watched school board races take on a more partisan tone this year. That partisanship took a personal toll on Bentley last week, when one of his campaign signs was stolen from a private residence in Greeley along with the signs of at least two other school board candidates.<\/p>\n

Those politics have no place in the classroom, Bentley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids are going to be exposed to that for the rest of their lives,\u201d he said. \u201cMake it a little bit more wholesome of a learning environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more at The Colorado Sun<\/div>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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