Breaking Down the 2019 Election

Dear Jeffco Families & Community, As expected, this November’s election was a relatively low-turnout affair, with no major state or national political offices being determined at the polls. There were three issues that will impact Jeffco Public Schools on the ballot this year. School board races (there were two contested seats open on Jeffco’s five […]

Our Own Worst Enemies

Imagine Apple CEO Tim Cook taking the stage at a major tech conference and delivering the following: Here at Apple, our engineers and designers are overworked and underpaid. They are stressed out nearly to the point of being unable to do their jobs. The very best ones are leaving the company and going elsewhere – […]

A Statement on Pride Month

A group came to the Board of Education meeting this month, asking that Jeffco revisit our employee policies to ensure support for LGBTQ+ staff members. You can read more on that here. In response to the reporter’s question on this matter, I had this to say, “Jeffco public schools wishes to be an inclusive place […]

The Education Reform We Have Versus the Education Reform We Need

Note: A version of this posting appeared in Colorado Politics on January 22, 2019. For over three decades, the debate over education policy in our state and nation has been primarily waged on three fronts: accountability, school choice, and funding. Colorado created an elaborate accountability system of tests and ranking systems in step with federal […]

A Challenge for the New Year

At the first district all-leadership meeting for 2019, we discussed what is on a lot of people’s minds in our schools right now – budget and construction! While these topics are definitely of great importance, I also wanted to draw the attention of our leaders back to what we call “the main thing” in Jeffco, […]