DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — The timeline to find and hire a new superintendent for the Douglas County School District (DCSD) was the main topic up for discussion at a special meeting of the Board of Education Wednesday evening.
The meeting was held virtually due to Wednesday night's snowfall.
The board approved an amended version of the job description and decided the job will be posted Feb. 17-25.
After hours of discussion, the board essentially agreed to put continuing discussion of the timeline and amendments on the agenda for next week's meeting, which is set for Tuesday.
A document posted online indicates that the newly elected conservative majority board plans to move swiftly to find a replacement for Corey Wise, who was fired earlier this month.
“As a bystander, it almost feels like this has been planned. Like this has been mapped out already ahead of time. Usually, it takes weeks if not months to find a new superintendent," parent Kaci Nice said.
Nice was pleased that public comment would be allowed at the meeting, but was worried about how much the board would listen.
"To me, as a leader, Mike Peterson should say, 'Hey, this is not okay that our community is divided like this.' And I’m so thankful for him to finally allow public comment for the first time in the last few meetings. For us to come out and speak. And I hope that he listens," she said.
Nice also started the Change.org petition protesting the board members' actions. That petition has gotten more than 25,000 signatures as of Wednesday evening.
Teachers and parents are worried the right superintendent may not be chosen if they aren't allowed to give input as a community.
“How are you going to ensure you are picking someone who is best fit for this position? How can you ensure that you are picking someone that’s going to start putting teachers just at the same point as kids?" Legend High School English teacher Meg Gray said.
The proposed plan
The board on Wednesday night approved an amended version of the job description and decided the job will be posted Feb. 17-25.
The remaining timeline would be determined based on the number of finalists.
At a later date, after voting on the finalists, there would be opportunities for community feedback, including scheduling forums for staff, parents and students.
The previous hiring process, which last occurred when now-former superintendent Corey Wise was hired, was spread out over five months and into five phases.
The phases included requests for proposals, surveys of staff, meetings with focus groups that included administration, students and more -- all before the recruitment of candidates and selection of finalists.
During public comment Wednesday night, several people explained their thoughts on the timeline.
"As a recruiter, I can say this is not a job that would be an easy sell right now, and some long, drawn-out candidate search would likely not yield very fruitful results," one person said, explaining their support for a quicker timeline.
"Slow down. You need to go slow to go fast. Your CEO job requires you to take time to do it right and search for the best candidate you can," another person said in opposition to the quicker timeline.
In comparison, Denver Public Schools hired their superintendent, Dr. Alex Marrero, last June, after separating out their hiring process over three phases and eight months.
In phase two, community engagement occurred, with 7,000 people responding to a survey. Candidates were interviewed in phase three.
Corey Wise firing
Wise was named superintendent in April 2021. He had, however, been with the district for 25 years and was serving as the district's interim superintendent when he was formally named to the post.
In the November election, the seven-member school board underwent a shakeup when more than half of its members were replaced by a group of four conservative candidates. It's the first time conservatives have had control of the board since 2017.
Mike Peterson, Becky Myers, Kaylee Winegar and Christy Williams all won their seats in November. They ran together on a "Kids First" platform.
Ahead of the Feb. 4 meeting where Wise was fired, the three minority members of the board-- Elizabeth Hanson, Susan Meek, and David Ray -- said they were approached privately and told that the board president and vice president asked Wise to resign. If he didn't, they were told that the other four members were prepared to fire and replace Wise.
The minority board members said they were concerned about the private nature of the moves, which they felt could violate Colorado's open meetings laws.
Ultimately the board met in a special meeting on Feb. 4, and in a 4-3 vote, Wise was fired.
“When we found out the news that they decided to fire Corey, we were all heartbroken and devastated as a community. And we’ve really tried over the last few weeks to band together and show each other love and support," Nice said.
Request to release names of teachers absent on day of protest
A day before Wise was fired, on Feb. 3, more than 1,000 teachers called out sick in protest. That prompted the district to cancel all preschool to high school classes.
On Tuesday, the school district sent a letter that alerted staff members that someone requested information about the employees who did not work on Feb. 3.
RELATED: Responding to records request, Dougco will release names of teachers absent on day of protest
The letter said the names of staff members who requested an absence on that day would be made public Wednesday in response to an open records request.
The letter did not say who requested the information. Some critics of teachers who did not work that day have publicly called for those staff members to be named.
School Board President Mike Peterson said at the start of Wednesday's meeting that the names would not be made public Wednesday as the letter indicated. He did not explain why. A district spokesperson told 9NEWS the open records request for the teachers' names was withdrawn. It's unclear why that request was withdrawn.
It's also unclear whether there are other pending requests for the staff members' names. Another records request for this information could be filed at any time.
9NEWS asked a district spokeswoman Thursday if the district had made a decision not to fulfill the now-withdrawn open records request or future requests for teachers' names. The spokeswoman said she couldn't say how future CORA requests would be handled.
Gray expected her name to be on that list after she called in sick that day to protest. She said it's her right to use her personal and sick time.
“There are so many reasons that other people could’ve called out," Gray said. "So I feel kind of disgusted with that. It feels violating in a way, but you know, whatever, go for it. Post my name."
She said she's at a point where she's already considering leaving the district after six years.
"It’s all about your support system and it’s about your support network," she said. "And if you’re not getting that support and if you do not have the support system that puts you at the forefront of your practice, then you are going to lose the good ones."
In 2016, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled the Jefferson County School District had to release the names of teachers who called in sick in 2014, protesting conservative school board policies. By that time, the board members had been recalled.
“Our community feels as though it’s trying to be intentionally broken down," Nice said. "It feels like someone is trying to light our department on fire and drive apart our community altogether."
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