The Daily Churn: Friday

What’s churning:

Education Commissioner Dwight Jones is still on the job in Colorado, but chatter already has started about who might be next to fill the corner office at 201 E. Colfax Ave.

We’re at the early, “mentioning” stage of the speculation game. It’s that time when possible candidates are mentioned by “folks other than the ‘named,’ so I have no idea how reliable they are,” as one state official put it.

With that in mind, here are names being mentioned, in no order but alphabetical:

  • Elliott Asp, Cherry Creek assistant superintendent
  • Ken DeLay, executive director of the Colorado Association of School Boards. (DeLay wrote to us this afternoon saying “I do not desire” to be commissioner.)
  • Former Littleton Superintendent Stan Scheer, who now heads a school district in Southern California
  • Diana Sirko, the Aspen superintendent recently plucked to be a CDE deputy commissioner
  • Sandra Smyser, Eagle superintendent and a member of the State Council for Educator Effectiveness and the Legacy Foundation board
  • Jeffco Superintendent Cindy Stevenson

(Sirko and the other deputy commissioner, Robert Hammond, also are mentioned as possibilities for interim commissioner.)

Previously mentioned, of course, is outgoing Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien. Superintendents John Barry (Aurora), Tom Boasberg (Denver) and Mike Miles (Harrison) have said they aren’t interested.

If he does leave, Jones will be the shortest-serving Colorado commissioner in nearly 40 years (not counting one interim). Cal Frazier served from 1973-87, and William Randall was in the job for nine. Jones’ immediate predecessor, Bill Moloney, served for 10.

What’s on tap:

The State Council on Educator Effectiveness meets from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Department of Education boardroom, 201 E. Colfax Ave. (agenda).

Today’s the day that colleges and universities are supposed to file proposals with the Department of Higher Education if they want to increase tuition more than 9 percent a year (see background story).

Good reads from elsewhere: