Difference between revisions of "Douglas County RE-1"

Revision as of 00:13, 29 August 2017

Douglas County RE-1 district info

Douglas County RE-1 superintendent

• Erin Kane was previously Executive Director of a Charter School called American Academy.
• Predecessor, Liz Fagan, had a salary of $280k plus retirement even after massive cuts.

Douglas County RE-1 school board

• No compensation
• Terms are 4 years
• 2 term limit

• Despite 2015 incumbent defeats, still extremely conservative

• Fractured board and district, despite GOP control.
• Meghann Silverthorn (District G) appointed Steve Peck (District E) without Board knowledge, inciting controversy.

The following were endorsed by the Douglas County Teacher's Union for 2013:

• Barbra Chase
• Bill Hodges
• Julie Keim
• Ronda Scholting

All lost their races to candidates who were endorsed by the Douglas County GOP.

Local Special Interest Groups

• Douglas County Parents
• Elevate Douglas County (pro-reform)
• Renew Douglas County (pro-reform)
• DCSD Charter Parent Coalition (pro-reform)

Local Blogs

• Ed is Watching, a pro-education reform blog written from the prospective of a fictional 5 year-old, maintained by the staff of the libertarian Independence Institute’s Education Policy Center, a self described "action tank" (versus a "think tank"). The Institute is based in Denver. The name Ron Izard is singled out for recognition of the blog, who serves as Education Policy Analyst of that organization, specializing in "school choice policy, accountability, and education labor issues" with a focus on education reform. The Independence Institute supported the reform candidates who took over the majority in 2013, and since worked against teacher unions and teacher tenure, and shored up charter schools.

Election 2017

Districts B, D, E, and G are up for vote, with Meghann Silverthorn in District G termed out.

Candidates

Endorsements

Douglas County Parents vs. Elevate Douglas County and Douglas County GOP

Douglas County Parents

Douglas County Parents is a local group consisting of parents and educators, with concerns for the increasing privatization of education and erosion of teacher's unions.

These are their candidates of choice in 2017:

• Anthony Graziano
• Krista Holtzmann
• Kevin Leung
• Chris Schor

Elevate Douglas County

Elevate Douglas County is a pro-education reform local group focused on the political concept of School Choice and fiscal responsibility, with making a broad mention of being "competitive" although barely addressing the questions of taxes and mill levies clearly. Their Q&As with the Castle Rock News-Press came with vague answers, with a couple candidates citing the reason why they are running is because of the current division.

However, the current division on DougCo School Board is 4-3. 4 Reformers, and 3 pro-Union. The Elevate Slate are running for the 4 Reformer seats that are currently up. Should they all be elected, the 4-3 division would remain and not be resolved.

The efforts of Elevate Douglas County are paid equally between the committees to elect of all four endorsed candidates.

These are their candidates of choice (known as the "Elevate Slate"):

• Randy Mills
• Ryan Abresch
• Debora Scheffel
• Grant Nelson

They appear to not have any individual campaign pages (plus have Elevate email addresses on their Tracer filings--Abresch, ) and not only are running as a "slate", but in essence as a voting bloc.

Joy Overbeck, a right-wing Colorado-based journalist and author, had written an editorial in the local Castle Rock News-Press in support of the Elevate Slate, which made brief mention of support for charter schools. Overbeck had also written several articles published in the conservative Washington Times, including an article strongly advocating for conceal-carry of guns in schools, making mention of the libertarian Denver-based Independence Institute. She is also a member of the pro-reform Facebook group Renew Douglas County and a is a Trump apologist.

Ross Izard (Independence Institute) wrote an article as an Opinion Contributor titled "How a Colorado school board race has national implications for education and religious liberty" for popular online publication The Hill.

Incidents

8/19/17 - Douglas County GOP Annual Picnic

• Kevin Leung was not only kicked out, but the DCGOP posted about it on their Facebook page. In the post, they specified him as a school board candidate (in a non-partisan race) and as part of the "Dream Team". A few were left wondering why it warranted a Facebook post.
• Their claim was he was recording. Others claim other people were recording and were not kicked out.
• The DCGOP comments were defensive and confrontational ("Were you there today? We don't recall your name on the RSVP list.").
• Ross Izard (of the Independence Institute) jumped on, purporting that a person who replied has no right to due to her connections, yet despite his own, he has the right to himself.

8/24/17 - Back to School Night

• There was complaint that Douglas County Parents were handing out literature for their candidates of choice, despite Elevate doing much the same with theirs (though said they only did it because "the other side was doing it").
• Elevate's account of the evening implied that Douglas County Parents were uncivil, by calling to "restore civility" and further stating that their own slate will do so.
• Elevate claims that Douglas County Parents threatened a principal.
• Complete Colorado wrote an article making Elevate look good and DCP look bad. Complete Colorado is owned and operated by the Independence Institute.
• The original Elevate Facebook post became a "sponsored" post, meaning they paid to have it show up in the timelines of a targeted audience, effectively becoming an advertisement.

Connections to Special Interests

Marge Klein

• Registering agent for all 4 Elevate candidates. (Abresch, Mills, Scheffel, Nelson)
• Graduate of Leadership Program of the Rockies (Source)
• President of SWS Polifi, which is focused on compliance of rules and regulations for political campaigns. (Source)
• Klein registered their campaigns using her SWS Polifi email address.
• Registered agent for Clarice PAC, whose stated purpose is "to raise funds for Republicans to get elected to local and state offices and to build a bench of Republican candidates." (TRACER)
• Registered agent for Sias Political Committee, whose stated purpose is "to raise funds for Republicans to get elected to local and state offices." (TRACER)
• Registered Agent of the Arapahoe County Republican Party, whose stated purpose is "to support Republican candidates." (TRACER)
• Registered agent, with SWS Polifi account, for Bob Beauprez's unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2014. (TRACER)
• Registered agent for an issues committee called Colorado Citizens for Fair Elections, whose stated purpose is "CCFE will support any ballot issue or referendum that advocates for a 29 day deadline for voter registrations that are not accompanied by a Colorado DOR ID card or drivers license. (TRACER) (NOTE: Marge Klein put herself as both Registered Agent and Designated Filing Agent, despite for the latter using Tammy Scott's SWS Polifi email address.)
• Klein has active connections to Douglas, Arapahoe, El Paso, and Weld counties. (TRACER)

Tammy Scott

• Tammy Scott, who has a SWS Polifi email address, also serves as Designated Filing Agent for most of the above.

Campaign Finance