I mostly lurk here, but today's story out of Jefferson County, Colorado has pushed me to post, because today one of the most amazing educators anywhere felt forced to leave Jefferson County Schools as Superintendent.
Our last school board election was a travesty. We lost our Democratic majority on this board and picked up three new, right-wing, anti-union, anti-public education board members.
Dr Cindy Stevenson announced shortly after the election that she would be leaving after this school year, knowing even back then that a long term relationship with these new board members was not realistic.
Others can probably do a better job than I with reasons we lost the last election and ended up in this mess. I'm posting because we know Dr Cindy Stevenson, we've met her in person a few times, and as someone with a child in the JeffCo schools system, we see the benefits of her work every day. My family has a stake in this -- and we are not happy.
Someone put up a video of today's school board meeting. This is what travesty looks like, up close. This is what it looks like when right-wing agenda-pushing people take over. It's not pretty.
The local TV station, 9news, covered the story this way.
In the end, we lost our nationally recognized, wonderful educator today, for no logical reason. The new board members (apparently) wanted Dr Stevenson out of their way. It won't be because she hasn't excelled in education or making the JeffCo school system one of the best in the nation.