NOVEMBER 9, 2017
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Voters make sweeping declaration After anti-reform candidates’ victories, school district expected to shift direction BY ALEX DEWIND ADEWIND@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Loud chatter and laughter rang through a sports bar near Lone Tree the night of Nov. 7. Dozens of people occupied the intimate space, some sat at high-top tables, others stood in small circles. They hugged and smiled. Some of them raised their arms into the air and cheered. Cindy Malone, a parent from Castle Rock, stood in the corner, watching excitement permeate through the room. “I’ve seen a lot of changes in the past years and I don’t think they’ve been good,” she said, “but this is good. This is going to be a change for the better.” After eight years of an often-controversial majority of reform-minded members, the Douglas County School Board is shifting direction: Antireform candidates known as “commUNITY” triumphed in the Douglas County School Board election. Now, all seven members of the board oppose the majority of the district’s reforms implemented since 2009. Krista Holtzmann, Anthony Graziano, Kevin Leung and Chris Schor each won at least 57.6 percent of the vote, according to unofficial returns posted at 9:20 a.m. on Nov. 8. The nearly 90,000 ballots counted represented the vast majority of votes cast. The four candidates ran against
The four “commUNITY” candidates, from left, Kevin Leung, Anthony Graziano, Chris Schor and Krista Holtzmann, celebrate their victory in the Douglas County School Board election at a viewing party on Nov. 7 at On the Rox near Lincoln Avenue and I-25. ALEX DEWIND reform-minded hopefuls known as Elevate Douglas County, made up of Grant Nelson, Debora Scheffel, Ryan Abresch and Randy Mills. At a viewing party at a restaurant near I-25 and Lincoln Avenue, where Malone was in attendance, “commUNITY” candidates celebrated with a
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Parker, took 57.6 percent of the vote against Scheffel in the race for District G, which encompasses northeastern Douglas County. “All of our Douglas County public school students are the winners
crowd of enthusiastic parents, teachers and community members. “Nobody expected this,” said Jen Shocker, a parent of a charter school student. “It just shows you how much the community wants this.” Holtzmann, a former preschool teacher and attorney who lives in
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