Prelude To A Requiem

A Brief History of JeffCo’s Bad Board and Why It Could Happen Again

In 2013, three seats were up for election for  the school board for Jefferson County Schools. School board elections had always been fairly uneventful, sleepy affairs. I don’t ever remember school board elections being all that eventful or interesting- either as a student in JeffCo during the 1980s or when I was hired as a teacher in JeffCo in 1998. Certainly there were preferred candidates but even if your candidate did not win a seat on the school board, there was not a lot of concern that policies or the direction of the district would radically change, so not a lot of energy or attention was paid to school board elections. 

Then came the 2013 election. It was a perfect storm of ballot initiatives, a struggling economy, and three candidates who were not in any way mainstream or conventional. Ken Witt, John Newkirk, and Julie Williams ran as a slate for the school board. They were bold, boisterous, and had a lot to say while never really saying anything. They claimed that JeffCo had for years been failing the students of the county, they promised to be good stewards of the JeffCo budget which they said was woefully mismanaged and designed to obfuscate where and how money was spent. I was then, as I am now, very involved in JCEA and the district and I remember we were all concerned about the prospect of these three obstreperous firebrands being elected and taking control of the school board. But, while we were worried, I don’t think any of us were that worried. Certainly they were too controversial and too radical, and just too much to truly be elected…. And then, they were.

This fall, those same three seats are up for election; representing the majority of the school board. And again, we stand at a crossroads for Jefferson County Schools, with two very different paths for the future of JeffCo Schools. And again, it is not unfathomable that similar candidates again take control of the school board. And again, I fear if this happens, the tumultuousness, the rancor, and the tempestuousness of the past will return.

Over half of the educators currently in JeffCo were not here during the so-called Bad Board years (2013-2015). This is a very brief- although it may not seem like it at first glance, but I assure you it is- history of that time in hopes that if you were  not here at that time why it is imperative that we cannot allow it to happen again. And if you were here during that time, I hope this serves as a reminder that we must never go back.

 The Perfect Storm 

In the Fall of 2013, the economy was slowly staggering, attempting to recover from the bruising, devastating economic downturn now known as the “Great Recession”. While things were not great economically, they were improving- albeit, very gradually. For whatever reason, a group of well-meaning education advocates placed Amendment 66 on the Colorado ballot. Amendment 66 asked voters to increase schools funding by $1 Billion by increasing income taxes in Colorado. Voters in general are very resistant to increasing their taxes, but are especially so during an economic downturn. The measure failed miserably.

To add to the growing discontinent, JeffCo had begun rolling out a new data collection program it was calling “Dashboard” which many parents feared would jeopardize their students' identities and  information. It also didn’t help that JeffCo had spent a very large sum of money on a program that was backed and being pushed by Bill Gates. 

Using the public dislike of Amendment 66, the frustration of the new data collection program, as well as seizing on the voter mistrust of JeffCo Schools  due to the narrative that too few tax dollars were spent in schools and classrooms (a narrative that, at that time as is now, is not unfounded), three school board candidates placed their names on the ballot. Ken Witt, John Newkirk, and Julie Williams ran as a slate of pro-student and pro-parent candidates promising to cut wasteful spending in JeffCo, spend more money in the classrooms, be faithful, transparent stewards of tax dollars, and to improve student achievement.

JCEA endorsed three other candidates and the campaign for these candidates was spirited and well organized but it was plagued with complacency. I think there was an attitude that assumed we chose a candidate, we have a few door knocking events and the candidate that we wanted wins, and if they don’t, well, it’s usually a little more difficult but overall it will be okay. But this time was different. Witt, Newkirk, and Williams buoyed by the general distaste for Amendment 66, a staggering economy, and a gnawing dislike and mistrust of JeffCo Schools won the election by large margins. And the execrable ride began.

A Mega Preview of MAGA

None of us could have known at the time, but what we were about to experience in JeffCo was simply a sneak preview of coming attractions of the rise of MAGA and Trumpism in the Fall of 2016.

The day after the election the Superintendent of JeffCo Schools, Cindy Stevenson, announced that she would step down as Superintendent at the end of the school year in June of 2014. Witt, Newkirk, and Williams had no interest in waiting until June. On a cold Saturday in February of 2014 the school board called a “special session” to review Cindy Stevenson’s employment. Before a raucous, packed, standing room only Board Room at the Ed. Center the board majority began to list the ways that, in their view, Cindy Stevenson had failed the district. Some of the criticisms were about her management style and the direction she had taken the school district. Other criticisms were more personal. In the end, by a 3-2 vote (which, over the next two years, would become the predictable voting outcome) Cindy Stevenson was publicly fired. I will never forget the chaos that ensued following that vote; there were shouts and chants of anger directed at the board majority as they were castigated by the angry mob they had created, crude names and scurrilous insults were hurled at Witt, Newkirk, and Williams. John Newkirk and Julie Williams stood behind their chairs as if they were using them as shields against the pejoratives being leveled at them. Ken Witt nervously paced back and forth behind dais until he finally quickly fled out the side door into the secured hallway behind the boardroom where he was quickly followed by Newkirk and Williams. Soon after the chaotic exit of the board majority, Cindy Stevenson, tearfully addressed the now silent crowd thanking them for their support and hard work during her time as Superintendent. She was silently supported on the stage by the two dissenting school board members, Leslie Dahlkemper and Jill Fellman.

Soon after the dismissal of Cindy Stevenson, the board majority began an avalanche of “reforms”. They hired their own attorney, anti-public school champion Brad Miller, despite the fact that the school district has an entire department of lawyers to advise and assist the school district. When JCEA and other community groups demanded that the school board provide the records showing what they and Brad Miller discussed as well as how much public tax payer money was being spent on Brad Miller, they released heavily- and I mean HEAVILY- redacted records. So much for the accountability and transparency that was promised.

The Board Majority decided that instead of holding board meetings in the board room at the Ed. Center, the meetings should be held in the auditoriums of local high schools. This way, they argued, instead of the community coming to the meetings, the meetings would come to the community. The February 2014 meeting was held at Bear Creek High School, the March meeting was held at Golden High School. Both were shocking and chaotic. First it appeared that two different times were given as to when the audience could enter; one time was given to supporters of the board majority and a different time was given to everyone else. Because when educators and other community members arrived into the auditoriums we were shocked to find that a large portion of the seats, and all of the seats closest to the stage were already occupied! Things only got worse when JeffCo security would decide, seemingly almost arbitrarily, when the meeting had reached capacity and they would then shut the doors, barring anyone else from entering. At both meetings the hallway outside of the auditoriums were filled with educators and other community members who were being denied entrance. In anger and frustration, the locked out crowd would begin to pound on the doors and loudly chant denouncing the board majority to the point that it drowned out whatever was taking place inside of the auditorium. Soon after this, the school board decided it would probably be best if the meetings returned to the Ed. Center.

Throughout the entirety of their time as the school board majority there were a number of very bizarre and off-putting events. Julie Williams would show up at graduation ceremonies wearing a Master’s robe despite only having a high school diploma. John Newkirk, while lamenting at a school board meeting that charter schools do not receive the same amount of funding that regular public schools do, compared the plight of charter schools to that of the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 60s. Ken Witt would routinely criticize and attempt to belittle fellow school board members Jill Fellman and Leslie Dahlkemper during meetings. Everything just seemed so erratic and confusing. However, soon the erraticness which was almost fatalistically comical, became gravely serious. May of 2014 changed everything.

The Storm

Napkingate

Throughout the Spring of 2014 the JCEA Bargaining Team was furiously and feverishly working to secure some sort of agreement with the district. Since the election of Witt, Newkirk, and Williams JCEA/District negotiations, which had never been simple and easy to begin with, became exponentially more difficult. The Board Majority demanded several concessions and significantly reduced the size of the contract by removing language, articles and with it protections and guarantees for educators. Finally the JCEA Bargaining Team reached what they believed was the best possible agreement. While the size of the contract was reduced and weakened they did achieve some language around controlling class size as well as a 2.5% COLA for all educators. The District Management Bargaining Team- of whom it must be said was just as nonplussed as were the JCEA Bargaining Team- assured JCEA that the school board would approve the agreement. JCEA quickly organized a Council meeting at the JCEA office to introduce and explain the agreement so that a quick ratification could take place and be sent to the school board for final approval. JCEA believed it was imperative to get this done as quickly as possible given the capriciousness of the Board Majority.  

Literally hours before the special Council meeting, the district informed the JCEA Bargaining Team that the Board Majority had changed its mind and would not support the agreement because of concerns about the salary schedule. An exasperated JCEA Bargaining Team explained what had transpired just hours before and recommended that an impasse be declared. During fact finding the mediator ruled in favor of JCEA. On the now very familiar vote of 3-2 the JeffCo School Board rejected the fact-finder's ruling. Then things got even more peculiar.

At a school board meeting during the 2014/2015 school year Ken Witt produced an entire new salary system for the licensed educators in JeffCo that he had drawn up on a napkin while at dinner in a restaurant… Yes, you read that correctly. Ken Witt developed the new salary system on a restaurant napkin while out to dinner. I. Kid. You. Not. This new system would increase the starting pay from $33,000 to $38,000 a year and would base salary increases on evaluation ratings. Those who were rated “Highly Effective” would receive a 4.25% salary increase while those educators who were rated “Effective” would receive a 2.43% salary increase. Soon after the introduction of the napkin salary schedule, rumors began to circulate that building principals were being given a limit of how many teachers could be rated “Highly Effective”. The Napkin Salary Schedule was adopted by the school board by a, you guessed it, 3-2 vote. And the educators roiled while the discontent grew.

Students Stand Up

While Napkingate was unfolding- pun intended- a new, equally controversial action was beginning in JeffCo, this one revolving around Julie Williams. In 2012 the College Board revamped the AP US History curriculum so that more diverse and under-represented perspectives would be included. As an AP US History teacher, this new curriculum required some extra work but it wasn’t particularly onerous, nor did it seem to detract or degrade the history of our nation. It essentially was a framework for the class; there were certain ideas and perspectives you had to teach but how you taught them and other topics or voices you included were up to the individual teacher. Not a big deal at all. Julie Williams saw it otherwise.

Julie Williams claimed that the new AP US History curriculum was UnAmerican and taught a negative history of the nation, teaching our students to dislike or even outright hate America. Sound familiar??? Williams proposed either teaching AP US History without the required expansion of more diverse and under-represented perspectives, or completely ban AP US History in JeffCo Schools. The backlash against the proposal was swift and loud. And best of all, it didn’t really come from educators, it came from students.

High school students across the district began to stage massive walkouts during school. They marched up and down major streets near their school chanting and holding signs protesting Williams and her proposal. The students organized themselves into a student advocacy group and began to speak at board meetings, Ken Witt would just as frequently treat them dismissively and rudely questioning their integrity and commitment while cutting them off during public comment. Students would randomly sit in the audience during school board meetings and suddenly rise out of their seat to read aloud from an AP US History textbook until they were removed by security only to have a different student in another part of the audience rise to continue reading from the textbook. It was so great, entertaining and fun. There is even an exhibit featuring these students in the Smithsonian Museum of American History…unless it has recently been removed, but that’s a different story.

These students really irritated the Board Majority, especially Ken Witt. It all came to a head in May of 2015. School Board meetings under the Witt, Newkirk, Williams regime were notoriously long. I mean really long. As in if the meeting ended before 1:00 in the morning it was considered a “short” meeting. At one of the meetings one of the student leaders, Ashlyn Maher, posted on her social media commenting on the length of the meeting and how she would really appreciate a burrito to help sustain her through the meeting. At the May school board meeting, Witt seemingly went off script- WAY off script- and began ranting about how disrespectful and insulting the students protesting were. He then demanded that the post from Ashlyn be publicly displayed at the board meeting. On the video screen Ashlyn’s post along with her picture and name were displayed, Witt read the post and then insinuated that Ashlyn was racist for wanting a burrito. Very bizarre. But then again, everything that was happening at this time seemed to be taking place in some bizarro universe. This only helped stoke the simmering rage that was about to boil over.

RECALL

I’ll never forget it. It was at the annual JCEA Board Retreat. We were having our board retreat at the CEA offices in downtown Denver and then-JCEA President John Ford called the meeting to order. He looked around the room and then told us that some JeffCo community members were filing papers to initiate a recall against John Newkirk, Julie Williams, and Ken Witt. We were simultaneously stunned and excited. John Ford asked if we wanted to support the recall effort, cautioning us that if it failed it would probably be the end of JCEA. That supporting the recall and having it fail would be the end of JCEA was a real possibility, not an idle threat. Our entire contract with the district expired in August of 2016. If the recall effort failed, the Board Majority would simply allow the entire contract to expire which would then allow the school board to do as it pleased without any input or discussion with JCEA. Teachers could be fired without recourse- this was happening in Douglas County to educators who were deemed to be “troublemakers”. The Board Majority could institute any salary schedule they pleased, set class size as they saw fit, and complete revamping and restructuring of Jefferson County Public Schools. John Ford also cautioned that all of the Board of Directors would probably be at the top of the firing list if we supported the recall and it failed. We later found out this warning was in fact true. Despite the enormous risks and potential pitfalls of supporting the recall, the JCEA unanimously voted to support and work for the recall. Finally, there was some light at the far end of this long black tunnel we had been in since November of 2013.

Throughout the summer JCEA and the various community organizations involved worked tirelessly to collect signatures so that the recall question would be included on the November ballot. What we feared initially would be a difficult task to meet the threshold of minimum signatures needed to get the recall initiative on the ballot proved to be fairly easy as far more signatures that were needed were collected. The issue was on the ballot for the 2015 election. 

As the recall campaign unfolded that fall, I found it very inspiring and energizing. Every Saturday we would meet at three different parks in JeffCo to get a list of doors to knock on and literature to hand out. Every Saturday, the number of people at each of these walk, knock, and talk events grew. We were knocking on thousands of doors all across JeffCo every Saturday. In addition volunteers were organizing their own walk, knock, and talk events during the week. We were personally making hundreds of phone calls each week to talk to voters about the Recall. As the momentum grew over the weeks and months leading up election day, the desperation and fear from the other side also grew.

John Ford and some of the staff who worked at JCEA noticed strange cars parking outside of their homes with people just sitting in the cars. They were followed from time to time. Some supporters of the Board Majority began to negatively post on social media about leaders in the Recall movement and/or contact them directly with all sorts of vague threats and insults. I personally received several emails from various email addresses calling me all sorts of names and accusing me of all kinds of ridiculousness. There was one individual who posted on Facebook that I- he called me out by name- and my wife should be arrested and publicly executed in front of our children for being UnAmerican and supporting the recall. This particular individual also made several other general threats against teachers as a whole as well as other specific individuals. Police were of course contacted and they did speak with him, but there wasn’t much else that was done to this particular person.

Finally on Election Night we all gathered in the ballroom of Sheraton Hotel on 6th and Union to watch the results come in. It didn’t take long. About ten minutes after the polls had closed, all three-Witt, Newkirk and Williams- had lost in a landslide. Sanity and stability had been restored in Jefferson County Schools.

The Election of 2025

The point of history is to learn from it. To use it as a cautionary tale of what once was but could be again. I wrote this short history- I assure you what I have written above is a very condensed history of what happened in JeffCo Schools between 2013-2015- to educate those who were not here during that time as well as a reminder to those who were of what a dark and perilous time it was in JeffCo. This November we will once again have those very same seats up for election. I know it is said every year that ‘this election is the most important one ever’, but this time it truly is. This coming election will be the most consequential election for Jefferson County Schools since 2015. We don’t know who the other side will be running for these seats, they never announce their candidates until around the end of August, but rest assured they will have candidates and will be coming hard after those seats. If they could win in 2013 when it seemed unfathomable that candidates such as Witt, Newkirk and Williams would win, they can certainly win in 2025 by declaring they want to “Make JeffCo Great Again.”

It can happen again, if we allow it. We can’t allow it. Please, this fall work to protect our profession, our district, our schools, our classrooms, and our students. Give some time to walk, knock and talk for our candidates Michael Yocum, Peter Gibbins, and Tina Moeinian. This election is too important.