11 06 25 Jimmy Sengenberger discusses the DougCo and JeffCo School District election

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Gina Gondeck and David Cale on Colorado's Morning News. Teachers
unions statewide are celebrating many of Tuesday election results for
school board candidates in a number of districts.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Union back to candidates won many races, including in the
Denver Public School District, where they swept all four races
and ousted two incumbents. Joining us now on the KOA
Common Spirit Health Hotline. Jimmy Sangenberger, investigative columnist at the
Denver Gazette and a fill in host here on KOA, Jimmy,
did it surprise you? Candidates backed by teachers unions did

(00:34):
well in this election, and for example, DPS board candidates
endorsed by Mayor Mike Johnston did not win.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Good morning, guys, No, I have to say I wasn't surprised.
Denver Public Schools is a district that is and long
has been heavily dominated by the teachers union. They are
very effective at their campaigns. The thing that's more striking
to me is the act that they had abandoned two

(01:02):
candidates that the union backed and gave significant money to
when they ran four years ago, and that would be
Scott Asserman and Michelle Quadlebaum, the two incumbents that were
ousted from the board out of three that are currently there.
To me, that's significant because they have been so quite

(01:23):
frankly bad. They've been distracting, they've had so kind of
so many antics that they've been engaged in. When former
school board member Auntay Anderson was on the board, they
were in league with him and doing things that distracted
from any progress on safety in educational achievement. He left
the board and they continued a lot of those antics,

(01:45):
and I think that this is a sign that they
were so bad that even the union said, you know what,
we're going to move on to different candidates from you guys.
And that, to me is the real story that the
union decided to abandon than two candidates that they supported
four years ago and said let's make a change, and

(02:06):
as a result, they were able to sweep for seats
when they might have lost eser Men and quad Obam
if they had back.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
When this down, Jimmy, I want to take a step
back here because you probably know better than I do
of how teachers' unions decide who they will endorse if
they did endorse them in the past. Do they base
it off principles, Do they base it off certain factors
of deciding or how does the entire process go of
whether you're endorsed by the mayor endorsed by a teachers union.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
Well, in terms of any organization, and like the unions,
they have committees that are formed to decide which candidates
to support and how to fund them. The Denver Classroom
Teachers Association has a couple of different committees locally that
handle those responsibilities, but they also work very closely with

(02:55):
the State Colorado Education Association, which has a number of
different entities that will back candidates with money, whether it's
directly or indirectly. A lot of times you'll get mailers
that say paid for by such and such organization, and
they're really at outfit or a front for one of

(03:16):
the teachers' unions. In terms of the mayor, I wasn't
surprised that Mayor Johnston decided to endorse the four candidates
that he did. We saw that happen two years ago
when he endorsed free challengers that managed to get on
the board and defeat the union candidates. But at that
time two things were the case. One, he was fairly fresh,

(03:38):
he wasn't unpopular like now, although I would say I
don't think his endorsement had much of an impact this time.
But the thing that was big two years ago is
we have the tragic shootings at East High School that
galvanized parents to make change. And when you have that
kind of a motivating force, it can bring about an

(04:00):
election victory that we didn't quite have this time with
some of the dynamics being different.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Jimmy, this may be a bit of a leading question.
I don't know, like your opinion, what in a given
districts population in your experience with regard to political demographics,
plays a role in the makeup of a school board.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
It's an interesting question because and the Denver Gazette reported
on this. There's a report released recently that said seventy
percent of all races that have union backed candidates, those
union backed candidates win. And I think it's not necessarily
as much about demographics. I mean, look at Douglas County

(04:46):
where the Teachers' Union they are also swept all four seats.
That is known as a much more conservative county than
say Denver or now Jefferson County, But at the same time,
the union remains a force where parents and voters will
often look and say, Okay, I think that the union

(05:07):
is representing the teacher's voice. Now I would contend they're
not representing the teacher's voice. In fact, in Douglas County
only about twenty percent of teachers are in the union.
In Jefferson County only thirty percent of teachers are in
the union in the top district. It's our official actually
confirmed that percentage. So it's not like teachers are all

(05:30):
banded together in the union, but there is a sense
among a lot of voters sort of naturally to be
inclined to believe that, and so that has a big
impact whether it's a more conservative county or more of
a liberal county.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Jimmy, and wrapping up with you at the minute we
have left, you mentioned both Doug Coe and Jeff co
I'll let you choose which one out of those two
races really stood out for you of maybe a significance
in the change that we saw at the school board makeup.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
Yeah, I'll go with Jefferson County, where the Union lost
a race. Well, technically they would say they didn't because
they withdrew their endorsement of candidate Michael Yoakam after revelations
were made public that he had a juvenile sexual offense.
Jeffco has been dogged by all kinds of sexual misconduct stories,

(06:20):
dozens of them when you look at the tally from
the organization, Jeffco Kids first, and that includes the former
chief of Schools, David Wise, who had taken his own
life after a child pornography investigation that happened around New
Years and so that has dogged the district. The union said, okay,

(06:43):
we're pulling back our support and Yoakum ended up being defeated,
and I think that sends a message that the district
and the new board needs to take seriously these issues
of sexual misconduct, relationships between teachers and students, and the
so called crusted adult policies that they have in the district.

(07:04):
And that is definitely a loss for the union. Whether
they withdrew their support or not. They did not, by
the way, to my knowledge, withdraw their donation that they
had given to you. Open.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Jimmy Sandeberger, you know him as his voice here on
KOA as a fill in host but also investigative columnist
at the Denver Gazette. Jimmy and wrapping up with you.
You said that you'll have an article posted with more
details on this correct.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
Yes, tomorrow, I will have it on the Denver Gazette
dot Comdenver Gazette dot com with my new column, and
then I'll also be in for Mandy at noon and
I'll be discussing it as well tomorrow. Great.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Thank you so much, Jimmy,