Douglas County Schools Board Watch

Education, Inc. : A Stunning Documentary about the Dark Money Behind “Reform”

Brian Malone, documentary film-maker, has self-funded a film about the corporate assault on public education. His film is a MUST-SEE. It is titled EDUCATION, INC.Malone is a parent of two children in the public schools of Douglas County, Colorado. He documents the well-funded effort to take control of the local school board. Grassroots activists running for school board raised $40,000. Corporate reform privatizers received over $1 million in funding, which they used for a slick propaganda campaign.

2009

  • Conservative bloc sweeps Dougco races | Chalkbeat
    • All four Republican Party-endorsed candidates easily won victories over their teachers’ union-endorsed opponents in the Douglas County school board election. With just over 43,000 ballots cast, the four – John Carson, Dan Gerken, Doug Benevento and Meghann Silverthorn – each won with between 56 and 60 percent of the vote.
  • GOP outspends AFT in Dougco races | Chalkbeat
    • The Douglas County Republican Party has given about $13,000 of in-kind services for mailings by four candidates, while $7,500 in contributions to opposing candidates has come from sources connected to the American Federation of Teachers. (District teachers are represented by an AFT affiliate.)
    • But the biggest single contributor is Denver investor and artist Ralph Nagel, who’s made a total of $15,000 in contributions to three conservative candidates. Nagel is a regular contributor to GOP candidates, a trustee of the University of Denver and board chair of the Alliance for Choice in Education.
  • Douglas County school board races bring record turnout | Denver Post
    • Although traditionally nonpartisan, the routine race became heated when the Douglas County Republican Party announced its endorsement of John Carson, Dan Gerken, Doug Benevento and Meghann Silverthorn.

2013

  • Bloomberg, Jeb Bush among donors to Denver, Douglas school races | Denver Post
    • Bush, a Republican and potential 2016 presidential candidate, gave $1,000 each to four conservative candidates for the Douglas County school board. He also publicly backed the district’s voucher efforts and market-based pay system in a piece for National Review Online on Friday.
    • In the Douglas County race, candidates collected about $23,000 during the reporting period for a total of more than $225,000.
    • In all, the slate of conservative candidates — Doug Benevento, Meghann Silverthorn, and newcomers Jim Geddes and Judith Reynolds — has received more than $165,000. Additionally, the Colorado chapter of Americans for Prosperity has spent more than $300,000 on television ads and campaign fliers supporting the conservative slate, according to state director Dustin Zvonek.
  • The last word on Douglas County election money | Chalkbeat
    • The Dougco school board election drew national attention, including funding from the national teachers’ union and conservative politicians.
    • The successful slate of candidates, who supported the current board actions, received considerable donations from voucher proponents Alex Cranberg and Ralph Nagel. They also received smaller donations from former Florida governor and potential 2016 presidential hopeful Jeb Bush.
  • DougCo school board election gets national attention
    • The Colorado chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group, launched a series of TV ads supporting the school board and condemning its critics. They state that Douglas County schools are “an incredible asset,” and that “the unions are fighting Douglas County’s plan to pay teachers based on performance.”
    • Susan Meek, with the group Douglas County Parents, is concerned about the outside ads, but she’s even more disturbed that the school district’s own non-profit fundraising foundation paid Secretary Bennett $50,000 for his Lone Tree appearance.

2014

  • Conservatives control future of Jeffco Schools | 9 News
    • The question is, do hints to Jeffco’s future lie within the past Douglas County Schools?
    • Over the past few years, hundreds of experienced educators left Douglas County because of frustrations with the school board. “I don’t want to see that happen here. We have some incredible, incredibly-dedicated principals and teachers,” Patterson said. “I don’t want to see this district lose its best and brightest to surrounding school districts.”
    • School vouchers are program that surfaced in Douglas County after a conservative majority there was elected in 2008. The district started the program, but had to suspend it after lawsuits were filed challenging the constitutionality of the program. It is still pending court decision.
    • In Douglas County, the conservative school board dissolved any relations with the Douglas County Federation including the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The teachers union still exists, but it is weakened.

2015

  • Misdirection How the Koch brothers and other billionaires are staging a take over of our public schools | Boulder Weekly
    • On Sept. 16, Kerrigan announced that the school board had accepted a $150,000 donation from the Daniels Fund with the express intention to use those funds to fight their case against the TEA in court. Brad Miller solicited that donation without direction from the board. The Daniels Fund is another conservative money-giving organization, whose president is Linda Childears, a member of Colorado Concern and a former board member of ACE, which the Fund still supports. Daniels Fund also has given upwards of $500,000 to date to the Douglas County school board in their legal battle to implement a school voucher system. In Douglas County, however, the reformers are rolling. Former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett, who served under Ronald Reagan, wrote a paper called “A model for the nation?” about DougCo’s reform transition. In 2009, a crop of reform candidates swept into office, buoyed by nearly $35,000 to each candidate from Cranberg and Ralph Nagel, a Denver investor and another member of ACE, as well as TV ads from Americans for Prosperity.
  • Ties bind conservative school boards’ anti-union attacks | Colorado Independent
    • The most recent battle in the conservative attack on teachers’ unions erupted in Loveland’s Thompson School District. The fight comes in the wake of similar — and perhaps politically connected — squabbles in Jefferson County and Douglas County where conservative board members have tried to bulldoze the unions — and in JeffCo may get recalled instead.
  • Jeb Bush praises school district’s efforts | Parker Chronicle
    • Potential presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who donated to the campaigns of several Douglas County School Board members, said during a stop in Denver that he supports the district’s court-stymied voucher program.
    • Doug Benevento, school board vice president, introduced Bush during a town-hall style meeting April 7 at the Brown Palace Hotel. Benevento said he was acting on his own — not as a school board member — when he introduced the former Florida governor at the Denver event.
    • “I was doing it as a supporter of Jeb Bush,” said Benevento, one of four candidates who received a $1,000 campaign donation from Bush during the November 2013 board elections. “I’ve met him several times in the past. He’s just really impressive.”
  • Tracking the money funding conservative school boards’ anti-union lawsuits | Colorado Independent
    • The two school boards, Douglas County and the Loveland-based Thompson School District, both got their outside attorneys’ fees paid for, not by the taxpayers, but from the Daniels Fund. Two other well-known foundations, the El Pomar Foundation in Colorado Springs, and the Walton Family Foundation (think Wal-Mart), also have kicked in big bucks to the Douglas County school district to help cover legal expenses.

2016

  • How A ‘Stubborn’ Student’s Secret Recording Led To Calls For School Board Resignations
    • But during the April 19 meeting’s public comment period, Davis had called for the resignation of the board President Meghann Silverthorn and Vice President Judith Reynolds. She accused the two of bullying and harassing her in a private meeting. And she had made an audio recording of the meeting, which she sent to board members, some of whom listened to it.
    • That meant that unlike many students, she decided to take action when she discovered that about three dozen teachers at her school had left their jobs over the previous three years — 15 in last year alone. That put the turnover rate at Ponderosa High last year at 21.1 percent, up from 12.7 percent in 2013-14.

2017

  • A plea from 12 former Douglas County school board members | Denver Post
    • In 2009, 2011 and 2013, slates of “reformers” (12 directors in all) were elected or appointed to our school board, resulting in unanimous reform boards. In 2015, reformers maintained a four-seat majority.
    • The priorities, practices and policies over the last eight years of reform boards represent a sharp break with those of previous boards. Examples include:
    • Partisan school board candidate campaigns which attract enormous amounts of money from outside interests who focus on fear and misinformation about our district.
    • Budgets that prioritize expensive IT initiatives, the public relations department, and bonuses to administrators over funding schools.
    • Refusal to create a plan for addressing the district’s $312 million in capital needs and to provide an opportunity for voters to support maintenance of publicly owned property.
  • Here are the results
    • Reduced academic achievement.  Douglas County is no longer a top achieving district in the south metro area.
    • Massive and unacceptable levels of teacher and principal turnover.  Costly and academically consequential teacher turnover has doubled under the reform boards.
    • Unheard of before the reforms began, there are now 11 schools on the Colorado Department of Education “improvement plans.” That means students are not attaining high levels of achievement compared to other students in the state.
    • Loss of Accreditation with Distinction, the state’s highest-ranking designation for public schools.
    • Widespread distrust of the school board. According to the district’s most recent survey, only 1 percent of teachers completely trust the Douglas County school board.
    • Governance that ignores public comment, the advice of teachers and the counsel of citizen accountability committees.

  • Power over Douglas County School changes
    • When the dust settled after the 2009 school board election in Douglas County, Meghann Silverthorn and her fellow candidates on a conservative slate started a new era for the school district. That era is now over.

2021

  • Backlash stalled Douglas County School District equity plans | Colorado Community Media
    • “Finally, allowing a handful of vocal White parents out of the thousands of parents in your district to dictate how to help educators become aware of, and address, detrimental impacts on children of color in this country and in DCSD, by demanding we not talk about race, is naïve at best, or a conscious, willful attempt to maintain the status quo of ignorance, bias, and inequitable outcomes at worst,” Dante and Christina James wrote.
    • The pair said they were “disgusted and appalled at the level of misinformation and conscious misunderstanding” in comments made at a school board meeting they watched.

Nov. 2021 School Board Election

1776 Project PAC Endorsements

  • Conservative Slate of Candidates Running for Douglas County School Board | CTR
    • The conservative slate has been endorsed by the Colorado and Douglas County Republican parties and by a national political action committee called the 1776 Project PAC, promoting “pride and patriotism in American History,” and organizing around opposition to any perceived curriculum, training, teaching, or adaptation of critical race theory (CRT). The PAC was reportedly founded recently by a Trump supporter and is active in 50 races across the country.
  • Yes, Colorado’s school board races are becoming more politicized. Here’s why
    • “In a Facebook post, FEC United endorsed Douglas County School district candidate Christy Williams and Cherry Creek School board candidate Jennifer Gibbons. At a candidate forum, Gibbons responded to a question about that endorsement, stating she didn’t know what that group was,” Conservative political action groups, sometimes with religious affiliations, like “Stand for the Constitution” in Grand Junction, are also weighing in on races. The 1776 Project PAC is backing a slate of candidates in Douglas County, District 51 in Grand Junction, and Academy 20 and Falcon 49 in El Paso County. The group is dedicated to electing school board members willing to promote “patriotism and pride in American history,” and says it opposes “critical race theory.” On a question about what policies they’d push to prevent violence in schools, Kids First candidate Mike Peterson suggested, alongside continued partnership with law enforcement, partnering with community groups like Able Sheppard — a Centennial-based company that offers armed and unarmed active shooter response training — as well as Bible studies — to groups.
  • Election Results 2021: Douglas County school board challengers win
    • “In unofficial returns as of late Wednesday, partial returns showed that four candidates  who called themselves the Kids First slate — Becky Myers, Mike Peterson, Christy Williams and Kaylee Winegar — were leading the opposing CommUNITY Matters slate, which includes two incumbents, Kevin Leung and Krista Holtzmann, along with Ruby Martinez and Juli Watkins seeking their first terms.”

2022

  • DougCo school board selects Erin Kane to lead district in divided vote
    • The Douglas County school board voted 4 to 3 Tuesday night to hire charter school leader Erin Kane as the district’s next superintendent after weeks of upheaval rattled the state’s third largest school district. 
    • Kane, the executive director of schools for American Academy, a charter public school in the Douglas County School District, was one of two finalists for the district’s top job. She previously served as the district’s interim superintendent from 2016 to 2018. 

  • Douglas County School District board hires more lawyers in lawsuit alleging its majority violated open meetings laws
    • Douglas County resident Robert Marshall sued the board on Feb. 4 alleging directors Mike Peterson, Becky Myers, Christy Williams and Kaylee Winegar used a chain of private, one-on-one meetings to evade quorum requirements and plan the former superintendent’s removal. The engagement letter for the Greenwood Village based firm Gessler Blue Law, run by Geoff Blue and Scott Gessler, says its fees are normally $425 an hour but that it will charge DCSD $225 an hour for attorneys’ time and $150 to $175 for paralegal work. Gessler, a Republican, is a former Colorado secretary of state. Blue is a former deputy attorney general in Colorado. The board also retains that law firm of Hall and Evans, which had represented board directors in the lawsuit to date.
  • Douglas County superintendent honored at Colorado Parent Advocacy Network launch event
    • “Douglas County School District’s superintendent was honored as part of the launch event for the new organization, Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, which opposes diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in schools. The group promotes parents’ rights and school choice.”
    • “Other award winners include Deborah and Jonathan Flora, who produced the film “Whose Children Are They?;” conservative radio host Kim Monson; Alexandra Campana, director of Center for 1776; Laureen Boll, a Colorado coordinator for the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism; and Pam Benigno with the Independence Institute. Around 250 people attended the event, including Douglas County school board members Mike Peterson, Christy Williams and Becky Meyers. After the event, Kane said she hoped the award would signal to parents that the school district does not promote critical race theory, “woke curriculum or indoctrinating kids.”

2023

Nov. 2023 School Board Election

2024

Right Wing Organizations made Public Comment- Colorado Parent Action Network (CPAN), Grandparents for Kids, FAIR- Colorado Chapter, Turning Point USA– signed up but did not comment, Douglas County GOP 1st chair, Concerned Women for America/ Colorado Chapter

2025

  • Servant Leaders- A Closer Look at John Adams Academy, a Proposed DougCo Charter School Championed by Conservatives | Colorado Times Recorder
    • Reynolds herself occupies a powerful position in the community. She is a conservative lobbyist as well as the CEO of the Douglas County Economic Development Corporation, a new entity born from the merger of the Northwest Douglas County Chamber and the Douglas County Economic Development Collaborative.
    • On top of that, the school has attracted attention and support from big-name conservatives in Colorado, such as former Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, and members of Ready Colorado, which promotes school choice and educational reform but also funds local Republican candidates and has ties to conservative dark-money group Advance Colorado. Reynolds is also a board member with Ready Colorado.
    • Several prominent conservatives showed up at the meeting to champion John Adams Academy and urge the board to advance it. The school’s advocates included Ganahl, Republican Douglas County Commissioner Kevin Van Winkle, former Douglas County GOP Chair Steve Peck, and Colorado GOP Director of Special Initiatives Darcy Schoening.

  • Questions emerge over advocacy group’s visit to Douglas County elementary school | Colorado Community Media
    • “Grandparents for Kids” (G4K) in Douglas County presents itself as a group supporting schools and literacy, but it is primarily an ideological advocacy organization that has been involved in controversy over the types of books and values promoted in schools. 
    • The organization has previously sent volunteers into elementary schools to read books like Why America Matters by Ben Carson, which led to concerns from parents and an apology from one school principal who stated she was not aware the grandparents were part of a specific group with an agenda. The group is known for supporting specific viewpoints on curriculum and has been associated with advocating for book bans. 

  • Janresseger: Network for Public Education Demands Further Regulation of For-Profit Charter School Sector
    • Sweetheart real estate deals are how “the real money is made.” “The five biggest for-profit management companies—Academica, National Heritage Academy, Charter Schools U.S.A., ACCEL, and Leona—have related real estate corporations with contracts that put the EMO in charge of lease relationships.” The report abounds with examples.  Here is one: “The largest EMO is Academica, based in Miami, Florida. Academica’s owner is a real estate developer, Fernando Zulueta, who opened the first charter, Somerset, as part of a housing development he had constructed… Over 100 active corporations linked to Fernando Zulueta and his family members… include real estate corporations, holding companies, and finance corporations, as well as sub-chains both within and outside of Florida… The connection between Fernando Zulueta’s real estate holdings and his for-profit managed charter schools goes beyond the state of Florida. According to the State Public Charter School Authority, Academica Nevada pays the lease on behalf of the charter school Mater Academy Mountain Vista of Nevada to Stephanie Development L.L.C. The managing members of Stephanie Development are Fernando and Ignacio Zulueta and Robert and Clayton Howell. Robert Howell is the manager of Academica Nevada.”

  • Federal authorities investigating Academica | k12 Dive
    • Auditors have thus far noted some examples of potential conflicts of interest, such as public dollars being transferred from Mater Academy to the private foundation it also runs, and three of the Mater schools having leases with a development company tied to Academica’s founder.
  • State Approves Classical Charter School in Douglas County Despite Heavy Christian Influence, Low Salary & Enrollment Projections | CTR
    • Then, in December, the charter’s founding board asked the Douglas County School District to release its chartering authority, effectively waiving local review, so it could apply directly to the Colorado Charter School Institute.
    • Critics say the state-level authorizer rubber-stamped the proposal, sidestepping concerns about religious overreach and partisan ideology, citing public comments from Sterling Ranch residents with school-age children, who were overwhelmingly opposed to the application.
    • The academy’s founding board is stacked with individuals closely tied to Colorado’s conservative charter movement. Vice Chair Kim Gilmartin previously worked for Ascent Classical Academies and leads the Liberty Schools Initiative at Ready Colorado, a conservative advocacy organization with connections to the Daniels Fund and other GOP-aligned donors.
    • Ready Colorado President and CEO Brenda Dickhoner also sits on both JAA Douglas County and Charter School Institute’s board. Dickhoner didn’t vote on the charter’s approval or participate in the discussion, noting the conflict of interest. Another JAA board member, Ellie Reynolds, also sits on Dickhoner’s Ready Colorado board.
    • Lewis said Academica, the largest for-profit education management organization in the United States, with ties to GOP lawmakers and charter expansion efforts in states such as Florida and Nevada, has a vested interest in the school’s success.
  • Chartered for Profit: The Hidden World of Charter Schools Operated for Financial Gain | Network for Public Education
    • The real estate deals between Zulueta properties and the charter schools were thesubject of a 2006 report by the Miami Dade School District. The report, Investigationof Allegations of Impropriety Mater Academy Charter School(s) and Academica Corporation, focused on the related party transactions and governance structure of the Mater Charter schools.45 It also criticized Academica for real estate transactionsin which related companies owned by the Zuluetas leased buildings to two Materschools. Involved in the transaction was a Panamanian corporation, Wolfson Hutton Development Company whose directors were the Zulueta brothers.
    • By 2010, the Zulueta brothers controlled more than $115 million in Florida tax-exempt real estate, with the companies collecting about $19 million in annual lease payments.47 Many of the charter schools paid rents well above market rates. Academica not only benefited from renting real estate it owned, but it also sold payroll, employer services, construction services, equipment leasing, and other services to the schools. Despite investigations into related party transactions between its schools and real estate businesses, Academica continues to use charter schools as a means by which to acquire and pay for real estate, thus continuing to build its real estate empire.

Nov. 2025 School Board Election

Conservative PAC & IEC Colorado First Action announces support for conservative school board slate

Douglas County Right-Wing Extremists hold school board candidate forum

  • Progressive school board candidates make inroads in races across Colorado | Chalkbeat
    • Tuesday’s election will sweep aside conservative-leaning school board majorities in at least three Colorado districts. They include Douglas County, the state’s third largest district, which has been controlled by a conservative-leaning board that faced multiple lawsuits and protests over the last four years.

The Instagram Post below shares Douglas County School Board Director Brad Geiger’s comment on the proposal to ban transgender athletes from competing in Douglas County Sports teams.

2026

Jan. 2026

Feb. 2026

  • Former DCSD School Board Candidate Matt Smith, who lost his election, has created Protect Girls’ Sports DCSD, harassing teachers and students on social media and the website.
@jenniferelizabeth486

#douglascountycolorado #DCSD #schoolboard

♬ original sound – Jennifer Elizabeth

May 2026

  • DCSD looks at potential MLO uses | Parker Chronicle
    • The largest sum of funds, $22.4 million, would go towards compensation. With a nearly 4% increase for teachers and staff, Kane said the MLO would push starting pay just above Jefferson County’s school district. 
    • The district also anticipates using $3.3 million for literacy and math curricular investments, $5.6 in specialized student programming, $1.2 million for athletics and activities, which would include adding Unified programs to the elementary level, and $3.8 million in enhancing student programming, such as restoring elementary instrumental music.

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