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November 04, 2021 02:30 PM UTC

How Badly Did The "Charterizers" Want JeffCo Schools?

  • 4 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
New Jeffco school board members-elect Danielle Varda, Mary Parker, and Paula Reed.

One of the bright spots for liberals in last Tuesday’s elections in Colorado was another sweeping victory by a teacher-supported slate of school board candidates in bellwether suburban Jefferson County–a win that firms up a trend toward progressive control of this major school district that made headlines a few years ago with the recall of an aberrant right-wing majority.

Although all three leftward-leaning school board candidates in JeffCo won handily, that certainly doesn’t mean that conservatives went down without a fight. In addition to the big money spent on the three losing candidates, an email we were forwarded that was reportedly sent from a board member to every staff member at a Jefferson County charter school suggests that more than the average amount of electioneering pressure was being applied down through the charter school food chain:

Sent: Monday, November 1, 2021
To: [A JEFFCO CHARTER SCHOOL] – All <xxx@xxx.xxx>

Subject: Our Kids Need Your Vote!

All,

Reminder to vet your candidates and vote this week. The Jeffco School Board is [THIS CHARTER SCHOOL’S] authorizing agent and sadly politics do play heavily into decisions that should simply be made more at a level regarding what is good for the child.

Having charter friendly Jeffco school board members is beneficial for all choice education options and charter schools in Jeffco. Please vote! More information below on candidates from your local Jeffco Charter School Consortium.

Small bits of info to share (PLEASE do your own research and VOTE your own way):

Jeff Wilhite volunteers and runs the Jeffco Charter School Consortium
Theresa Shelton choices her kids into a choice school to meet their education needs.
Kathy Miks choiced her HS students into a different school to meet their education needs.

Translation: we’re not telling you how to vote, but here’s a reminder of who signs your checks and how they’d like you to vote! The email tells school staff to “do your own research,” but then only lists the three pro-charter school candidates to research. It’s electioneering in every respect short of the utterance of the “magic words” to vote for or against this or that candidate, and certainly doesn’t cast the author in a favorable light now that their favored slate of candidates lost the election.

But don’t worry, unlike Donald Trump, victorious progressive school board candidates don’t tend to hold grudges. For good measure we anonymized everything we could in this email in hope that it will prove more of a cautionary tale than a liability for the school in question, whose staff is guilty only (so far as we know) of getting the strong arm.

Also, if you’re trying to swing a mail ballot election in Colorado, never wait until the Sunday before.

Comments

4 thoughts on “How Badly Did The “Charterizers” Want JeffCo Schools?

  1. "But don’t worry, unlike Donald Trump, victorious progressive school board candidates don’t tend to hold grudges. For good measure we anonymized everything we could in this email in hope that it will prove more of a cautionary tale than a liability for the school in question, whose staff is guilty only (so far as we know) of getting the strong arm."

    And this folks is why when you play nice in the end these republicans/fascists will win. You need to out the person that wrote the email and shine a light on this abuse of authority. This person needs to be fired or at least demoted, so that crap like this will not happen again.

    1. CoGator,

      And this folks is why when you play nice in the end these republicans/fascists will win

      The fascists didn’t win, this time. Jeffco voters overwhelmingly voted for the teacher-supported slate. The new Board members understand that the Steve Bannon- backed insurgency will be showing up in force at school board meetings- demanding an end to masking, vaccination and testing requirements for Jeffco students, as well as an end to teaching that emphasizes inclusion and diversity, which they label as “Critical Race Theory”.

      The Bannon / Citizens Renewing America tactics explicitly call for threats and intimidation to force school board compliance with their demands. For example, incumbent member Stephanie Schooley had her child’s picture, taken in front of her home, sent to her along with a demand to stop the mask mandate. ( testimony at 1:49 in video)

      I hope that school board meetings will be virtual, so that these well-funded and organized domestic terrorists don’t get more than their 3 minute say at meetings, and that there is security present in-person  to keep order. If you want to have your say and support sensible science-based policies, show up yourself and help quell the rioters. Support these brave women warriors who are fighting for our kids. 
       

      So CoGator, save your righteous wrath for the terrorists who want to threaten and bully their policies into existence. Don’t aim your fire at journalists who play by the rules of journalism. 
       

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