Check back this evening as returns start to be reported — we’ll be updating the post all night with results and responses from the campaigns and other stakeholders.
10:55 p.m. With no new results from the Douglas County elections office, we are ending for the night. The tally:
Jim Geddes: 46,511 votes
Barbra Chase: 42,417 votes
Julie Keim: 42,729 votes
Judi Reynolds: 45,957 votes
Doug Benevento: 45,840 votes
Bill Hodges: 42,900 votes
Ronda Scholting: 41,428 votes
Meghann Silverthorn: 47,212 votes
No candidates who oppose the current board are in the lead tonight.
9:55 p.m. Jeb Bush follows up his money and his editorial with another statement in favor of Dougco’s current board.
9:40 p.m. “At this point in time, I don’t think anyone in this room is ready to call it, ” said Dougco candidate Ronda Scholting, who opposes current board actions. “There are always those notorious late voters.”
Asked if she’ll continue to fight the board if she loses, she said a lot of people were very angry about the current direction. As for her investment in a new direction, “I don’t have a kid in the district,” she said. “What I have is property values, if I want to sell my house.”
UPDATE at 7:43 p.m.: Preliminary results show that the four candidates who support the reform efforts of the current Dougco board are all up in the polls. Incumbent Doug Benevento says many issues were litigated in the campaign, and their apparent success is a mandate to move forward.
With four seats on Douglas County’s seven-member board up for grabs, the direction of the district’s schools hangs in the balance.
Douglas County School District and its board have attracted national attention for taking an aggressive “market-driven” approach to reforms. The reforms have prompted a variety of changes in the district. Whether those changes are good or bad is a matter of deep contention in the county.
Those in favor of reforms point to an increase in TCAP scores and in high school graduation rates. The critics, however, point to Dougco’s loss of its distinguished status under the state ranking system and the lowering of graduation requirements. Those reforms include:
- Choice Scholarship Pilot Program: the district implemented a controversial voucher program for private and parochial schools that is currently in legal limbo.
- Merit-based pay: a pay system for teachers based on a new evaluation system and on what subjects they teach. It is also in the midst of a legal challenge.
- Union talks: the district allowed its collective bargaining agreement to lapse, after talks with the union broke down last summer.
- Charter schools: Dougco has supported and encouraged the proliferation of charter schools, a position which has been praised by both sides in the school board race. The pace of that proliferation, however, has come into question.
National attention
Dougco’s school board race has become a rallying point for national conservatives who would like to see that style of reforms implemented elsewhere. The district drew acclaim from conservative figures like former Florida governor and potential 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush. Bush also donated to the campaigns of candidates supporting current reforms to the tune of $1000 for each candidate.
The Koch brothers’ advocacy group Americans for Prosperity will spend more than $350,000 on the race, according to Politico. Voucher supporters Ralph Nagel and Alex Cranberg provided most of pro-board candidates’ funding, a total of $140,000.
“If you vote for them, you will lose control of your district,” said Barbra Chase, one of the slate of candidates critical of the current reforms. “Voting for [that slate] is saying,’yes, I want to be silenced. Yes, I support groupthink.'”
Chase and the three other opposition candidates, who would like to see the district’s direction altered, cite low growth in student performance and low teacher morale as markers of the reforms’ failure. They bill themselves as a slate for change.
Despite accusations of union backing, the opposition candidates have so far refused to accept any money from teachers’ unions. Instead, the national and local branches of the American Federation of Teachers contributed, which represents Douglas County teachers, over $100,000 to a local interest committee.
“The money that came in from AFT is there to give the teachers a voice, and that’s what it did in this campaign,” the head of Dougco’s teachers’ union told Our Colorado News.