“In November, four seats on Douglas County’s school board in Colorado were up for grabs in an election, and a quartet of conservative candidates raised hundreds of thousands of dollars more than their competition. The four individuals — Mike Peterson, Becky Meyers, Christy Williams, and Kaylee Winegar — all now sit on the seven-person board.
The Douglas County Federation spokesperson told Insider that one particular grievance the union had with the new school board members was the decision made by the conservative-majority in late January to weaken the district’s educational equity policy.
The spokesperson also said that two new conservative school board members tried to fire the district’s superintendent Corey Wise, and they along with the two other new conservative members decided they would give Wise an ultimatum to either resign or be fired.
The school board also struck down a COVID-19 mask mandate late last year, the spokesperson said.
Fundraising for Douglas County’s 2021 elections shattered contributions made during the district’s 2017 elections.
In last year’s elections, the quartet was supported by the conservative 1776 Project PAC, a national group that launched in May that says it’s actively trying to stop critical race theory from being taught in classrooms.
All the Colorado school board candidates backed by the PAC swept their races in local elections in November.
The election in Douglas County came at the heels of a heated school board meeting that saw parents lash out against the board over COVID-19 safety policies and the supposed teaching of critical race theory.
It’s a microcosm of a general trend, where school boards and districts have become battlegrounds for culture war topics.”