By Joy Overbeck | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
As soon as they were elected in 2021, the four new Conservative Douglas County School District (DCSD) directors were faced with the major issues of the time: the Covid pandemic, and the twisted woke movement to reduce parents’ influence by infecting students with leftist political ideologies.
They began honoring their campaign promises on day one by keeping the Douglas County schools open, knowing that in-person classes instead of ineffective online lessons would lead to solid improvements in student achievement.
They also ended the useless Covid masking and vaccines dictated by the previous leftist board, who had sued the health department to keep kids masked and schools closed.
Since then, many of the 11 Front Range school districts showed significant learning loss from the first COVID year 2019 compared to 2024. But not in the Conservative-led Douglas County School District, where after the pandemic, students benefited from over five-point achievement test gains in English, Math and Science.
These successes achieve the Conservative board’s campaign promise to “Refocus on academics…on getting back to basics by teaching reading, writing and arithmetic.”
Removing Wokeness
The Conservatives speedily fulfilled another campaign pledge to remove “adult politics from our schools” and stopped the attempts of the previous left board to push woke propaganda on the children.
The former board had passed an “Equity Policy” dividing students on racial “privilege” and gender grounds. Then they spent $37,000 of taxpayer money to hire the “Gemini Group” that created a Zoom video peddling their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and racially divisive Critical Race Theory to an online audience of 900 DCSD teachers and staff, training them how to train the children.
The Gemini video also urged teachers to sideline parents, calling them “dissidents” and preventing them from learning what’s happening in their children’s classes.
When an anonymous staff member leaked the secret video, public backlash was swift and angry.
The community outrage became an important factor in electing the Conservative board.
The Conservatives took a strong stand on the other side, firing Superintendent Corey Wise who hired the Gemini Group. They boosted the importance of parents’ involvement with changes in the Fundamental Rights of Parents and Guardians Policy (Policy KB.).
Part of it states, “To build trust with families and maintain their ability to make appropriate decisions regarding their children, the Board supports open communication and disclosure of information concerning their children’s health, identity, and education, to include parent access to educational materials when requested. The District will honor parental decisions to opt their children from selected instructional materials or activities…”
This policy creates the basis for the school district disclosing their children’s health information to the parents, including gender dysphoria – if the child comes to school expressing confusion about his or her gender or asking to be called by a pronoun that doesn’t match the child’s biology.
The board’s stance on parental rights hasn’t changed. “I will always support parents’ involvement in any issue that may arise at school. Parents are absolutely in charge of their child’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being.” says Board President Christy Williams.
Restoring parent power
The liberal board members, along with their allies at district meetings, vigorously grandstanded against these moves by the Conservative directors to restore parents rightful power.
Another policy (IMBB-R) gives parents control of their children’s health education by requiring parental notification and opt-out opportunities for all health-education curriculum or units concerning human sexuality.
Now the district also requires signed parental consent for any sessions between their child and a school counselor. Parents are also empowered to object to any material introduced to their children in class.
When the Biden administration attempted to expand Title IX to include biological boys in girls’ sports, conservative board members intervened. They blocked the change, raising concerns over the physical risk of forcing female athletes to compete against biologically stronger males.
Many of these new common-sense policies were passed with all four of the Conservative directors voting yes and all three leftist members voting no.
With the Conservative majority hanging by a slender thread, parents’ ability to direct their children’s education will be in serious jeopardy if the liberals win just one more seat to flip the board in the November election.
Return of the union
Increasing the stakes, the teachers union could well regain its power over Douglas County schools if the board loses its Conservative majority.
Over a decade ago, a previous Conservative DCSD board removed the union from its seat at the bargaining table and any influence over the board. But the union is eager to get its mojo back and has been agitating at board meetings for a collective bargaining agreement.
If we lose our Conservative majority this November, the new liberal majority will welcome the union back with open arms. Hundreds of thousands in union dues—carved out from teacher salaries funded by DougCo taxpayers—will again be funneled into helping Democrats win elections.
The Conservative directors have done us proud in the years they’ve dominated the board.
DCSD is now the # 1 performing district in the metro area for the first time since 2012, and the district’s scores are now at or better than pre-pandemic scores across every subject, every grade, and every group.
Douglas County residents voted their overwhelming approval of their school district by approving increased school funding in the 2020 and 2024 elections. Now every district middle school and high school have their own fulltime police officers (School Resource Officers) protecting the children, and the elementary schools share officers on a rotating basis.
Teachers’ salaries were raised too, making DougCo more competitive in hiring the best educators. The 5a bond, passed in 2024 by a solid 62% of voters, was an extension of an existing bond, not new taxes. It provides for much-needed maintenance, repairs, and technology upgrades for the 92 district schools, and will build two schools in new communities with hundreds of homes but no place for children to learn.
As the Denver Gazette reported, Colorado school districts such as DPS maintained a top-heavy administrative workforce compared to their rate of teacher layoffs. DougCo forged a different path. With fewer administrators than DPS and many other districts at a 1:450 admin/student ratio, DPSD can spend more money for classroom instruction, not bureaucracy.
A focus on the foundational pillars of learning is getting the attention it deserves, and by extension, DougCo children’s academic potential. The Conservative board initiated a new reading curriculum that greatly improved middle schoolers reading scores. They also plan to start a program identifying dyslexia as soon as kindergarten.
In our large district with over 4,000 teachers, 92 schools and 62,000 students, it’s impossible for the school board to monitor every class, every day. And that’s not their job. Realistically, there will always be some rogue actors seeking to impose their political views.
Parents and grandparents can help by keeping close to their students and asking about their school day, then following up with the school administration if there’s a problem.
The Conservative board directors deserve thanks and praise for leading Douglas County School District students to significantly higher achievement, and enabling their parents to have greater control over their children’s education experience.
Joy Overbeck is a Colorado journalist and longtime Conservative activist whose work has appeared at Townhall.com, Complete Colorado, Rocky Mountain Voice, American Thinker, The Washington Times, The Federalist and elsewhere. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter (X) @joyoverbeck1
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