By Joe Vigil

The Jeffco Public Schools Board of Education has been turning heads among Jeffco teachers, parents and residents ever since a new conservative majority was swept into office in the November elections.

Many speculated that the new board members would follow the lead of Douglas County’s conservative board by increasing vouchers for charter schools and making the salaries of teachers nearly exclusively performance based.

These speculations were strengthened when the Board voted on party lines to hire Brad Miller, an attorney, to exclusively represent the school Board. “I did not and do not support the hiring of an attorney that just represents the Board,” said Board minority member Jill Fellman, the only Board member that could be reached for comment. “This is a very complex issue and I believe the Board majority defined their own truth in this case.” The hiring of the attorney has left many Jeffco employees, especially teachers, concerned over the Board’s transparency.

There has been no attempt by the Board thus far to increase funding to charter schools, an issue which Board President and majority leader Ken Witt has previously denied having interest in pursuing with the Board’s resources. However, there have been attempts to re-allocate funds for the current school year. In a meeting in early January, Witt stated his intention to take $7 million out of the $9 million in reserves in the budget for the 2013-14 school year.

“We have gotten repeated advice from financial experts stating the importance of building reserves,” said Fellman. “Taking money out of reserves is a mistake in my opinion.”

The board finalized in their Jan. 30 study session the plans to send out a budget survey in early February, but the budget issue has been tabled in the wake of recent events.

The school board has made their most significant moves thus far in February. In a meeting on the morning of Feb. 8, longtime Jeffco superintendent Cindy Stevenson announced her decision to step down, citing differences with the board majority as her reason for resigning. She did go on to state, however, that she was not forced out by the Board. The move came as somewhat of a surprise considering the superintendent had stated her plans, following the board election, to retire at the end of the school year and has been a source of disagreement between the minority and majority board members.

It was speculated on the morning of Stevenson’s announcement by Connie Jones, Board Director of the Jefferson County Education Association, that the superintendent was forced out in February to make sure that she was not present for the teacher bargaining negotiations in March. “The (Board’s) biggest internal conflict centers around the dismissal of the superintendent,” said Fellman. Teachers came out in force to oppose the decision at the Feb. 8 meeting, and the crowd played a factor in the meeting’s early ending which caused a budget issue to be pushed onto the agenda of the next meeting on Feb. 18.

The Feb. 18 study session was much more highly attended than the Jan. 30 study session, with late attendees being filed into a spillover room due to lack of seats in the main board room. The school board selected the firm Ray & Associates over PROACT to conduct a national search for a permanent superintendent. Additionally, after some debate, the date for the opening negotiations with the JCEA was set for March 6.  Budget review was also set to be discussed during the first week of March. In regards to the recently resigned and now vacated office of the superintendent, Board minority member Lesley Dahlkemper proposed that an interim be appointed until the search for a replacement is completed. Witt was responsive to the suggestion, but it is not clear whether the Board will decide to appoint an interim superintendent or to have the five top executives for Jeffco report directly to the Board.

The bargaining meeting with the educators union is approaching on March 6. The validity of speculations of the new Board’s ties to Douglas County remains to be seen.