Denver college board election: Kwame Spearman vs. John Youngquist

Join Chalkbeat Colorado’s free each day e-newsletter to get the most recent reporting from us, plus curated information from different Colorado shops, delivered to your inbox.

One candidate is a longtime educator who supporters say is aware of Denver Public Colleges inside and outside and might be able to make adjustments on day one. The opposite is a enterprise chief who grew up in a household of educators and who backers say will carry contemporary concepts to the district. 

That’s the selection voters face for an at-large seat on the Denver college board.

John Youngquist, 57, was a trainer, principal, and faculty district administrator for 35 years, with a lot of that point in Denver. He taught or led at 4 totally different DPS elementary and excessive colleges, together with two stints because the principal of East Excessive Faculty.

Youngquist’s two daughters are college students at East, and he’s a graduate of Denver’s Thomas Jefferson Excessive Faculty. He now works with a youth-focused group referred to as GRASP, which stands for Gang Rescue and Assist Challenge.

Kwame Spearman, 39, is co-owner of the storied but financially troubled Tattered Cowl bookstores. His mom is a longtime DPS educator, and Spearman graduated from East Excessive. 

Spearman labored within the non-public sector, together with at Bain & Firm, earlier than shifting again to Denver in 2020 to run the Tattered Cowl. He ran for Denver mayor earlier this 12 months however dropped out earlier than Election Day. He stepped down as CEO of Tattered Cowl earlier than operating for college board.

Two different candidates are additionally on the poll for the at-large seat, which represents the complete metropolis.

Brittni Johnson hasn’t campaigned a lot resulting from sickness and didn’t reply to a number of requests for interviews. Paul Ballenger dropped out of the race in September however will nonetheless seem on the poll. Votes for Ballenger gained’t rely.

Three of the seven Denver college board seats are up for grabs Nov. 7. The winner within the at-large race will exchange board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, who’s not operating for re-election.

The present board members had been backed by the lecturers union, however they’ve break up on whether or not police belong in colleges and how a lot autonomy principals ought to have. They’ve additionally struggled at instances to get alongside. The election gained’t change the stability of energy on the board, however new members will change the interpersonal dynamic and doubtlessly the political one as effectively. 

The college board hires and evaluates the superintendent, units coverage, and votes on controversial points, comparable to whether or not to open new colleges or shut present ones. The board voted this 12 months to shut three colleges with low enrollment, a call it can possible face once more because the variety of kids dwelling in Denver continues to lower.

The place the candidates stand on the problems

The at-large candidates have emphasised totally different points on the marketing campaign path. Spearman has talked about constructing reasonably priced housing for educators on DPS-owned land. Youngquist has mentioned he desires to triple the variety of pupil well being clinics inside colleges.

Spearman additionally mentioned he’d wish to ask Denver voters to boost taxes to pay for pupil transportation. Youngquist mentioned DPS ought to create a public, on-line dashboard with knowledge on pupil attendance, security, and lecturers.

Youngquist and Spearman each need extra psychological well being help for college kids and good pay for lecturers. They each worth college alternative. 

And so they each need law enforcement officials generally known as college sources officers, or SROs, in DPS colleges proper now — however Spearman has pledged to take away SROs by the top of his first time period. 

“More often than not an SRO is in a faculty, they’re not doing what we consider as police exercise,” Spearman mentioned in an interview. “They’re actually simply sitting.”

He mentioned he understands why SROs are in colleges proper now, following a deadly capturing exterior East Excessive and a capturing inside the varsity this 12 months — “persons are on edge, and we now have to respect and perceive that” — however he mentioned it’s objectively “a transparent waste of sources.” 

The important thing to eradicating SROs is to supply separate different colleges, with smaller lessons and extra psychological well being help, for college kids with habits points, Spearman mentioned.

“The scholars most certainly to make us suppose we want SROs shouldn’t be in these environments,” he mentioned of massive excessive colleges like East. Spearman mentioned he’d like to switch SROs with neighborhood officers, although he hasn’t outlined what that may appear to be.

Youngquist agrees that some college students can be higher served in different colleges, and he mentioned he’s seen these choices dwindle in DPS over time.

“For me, as a principal, what I want are choices when I’ve a pupil who has demonstrated violent behaviors,” Youngquist mentioned in an interview. “The district has taken away all of the choices and never supplied seek the advice of. The district has basically mentioned, ‘Good luck.’”

As principal of East Excessive in 2020, he opposed the earlier board’s determination to eliminate SROs — and he supported the board’s latest determination to carry them again after the March capturing inside East. After the capturing, DPS employed Youngquist as a guide to interview highschool principals and lecturers about security; all mentioned they needed SROs to return.

“Over time, we have to guarantee we develop an understanding of how [SROs] greatest slot in our colleges and the place it’s that we’re gaining worth from them,” Youngquist mentioned at a latest debate.

Who has endorsed them

Spearman is endorsed by the Denver Classroom Academics Affiliation, the lecturers union. Progressive former Denver mayoral candidate Lisa Calderón additionally endorsed him.

Youngquist is endorsed by Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and by Denver Households Motion, the political arm of a corporation referred to as Denver Households for Public Colleges, fashioned in 2021 with the backing of a number of native constitution college networks. 

Charters are funded with public {dollars} however run by impartial nonprofit boards, not by DPS. Supporters say constitution colleges’ autonomy permits them to be modern. Critics say charters “privatize” public training and siphon college students from conventional colleges. 

For a few years, pro-reform Denver college board members inspired new charters to open in DPS, hopeful they might enhance tutorial achievement. Union-backed board members took energy in 2019 and stopped that trajectory by rejecting new charters and even closing one for low efficiency. Declining enrollment has led many charters to shut voluntarily and made it extraordinarily difficult to open new colleges. 

Spearman has criticized Youngquist for accepting the endorsement of Denver Households Motion, which he mentioned at a latest debate is “funded by two folks, Reed Hastings and John Arnold” who “are dedicated to the privatization of our colleges.”

Hastings is the co-founder of Netflix and Arnold is a former Enron government. Each are on the board of The Metropolis Fund, a nationwide group in favor of constitution colleges and faculty autonomy. Denver Households for Public Colleges will get cash — $1.75 million within the final fiscal 12 months — from The Metropolis Fund, in keeping with federal tax information.

“The most important factor that separates me from John is that the tutorial neighborhood has determined to help me,” Spearman mentioned in an interview. 

Youngquist has identified that he spent his profession working primarily with conventional colleges, not constitution colleges. Neither candidate has referred to as for closing constitution colleges, and each have mentioned they help permitting households to decide on the varsity that most closely fits their little one’s wants. 

“We are able to’t get into the standard fights between reform and neighborhood colleges,” Youngquist mentioned at a latest debate. “We’ve been there earlier than. It hasn’t served our kids effectively…It’s time to return collectively, sit on the desk, [and] design the DPS that our college students want.”

Each candidates sat for endorsement interviews with Denver Households Motion and the union. Youngquist additionally took a Denver Households candidate coaching referred to as Lead 101. He mentioned he did the coaching to study what a marketing campaign was like earlier than he determined to run.

Endorsements typically include cash. Professional-reform organizations have deeper pockets than the lecturers union and their spending is usually extra opaque.

An impartial expenditure committee related to Denver Households Motion has been spending huge within the final month on digital promoting and a flurry of mailers, together with an assault advert that Spearman decried as racist. The committee additionally spent $250,000 on TV adverts — a primary in Denver college board races.

What supporters say

In endorsing Spearman, the Denver lecturers union famous that he’s a DPS graduate who comes from an extended line of educators. In an interview, union President Rob Gould mentioned Spearman’s advocacy for trainer housing stood out among the many candidates, as did his outreach to lecturers. 

“He met with quite a lot of people to seek out out: What do educators want? What’s the present standing?” Gould mentioned. “What we discovered is that he was working arduous to grasp.”

He mentioned Spearman’s method “may be very juxtaposed” with different candidates, whom he declined to call, who act like “they already know the solutions.” 

Former Denver college board President Nate Easley endorsed Spearman early within the race, earlier than Youngquist jumped in. Easley was additionally endorsed by the lecturers union in his race, however ended up voting with the pro-reform members on the board. Easley mentioned he discovered Spearman to be a mature, impartial thinker who was raised by a powerful DPS educator. 

Easley mentioned he additionally likes that Spearman has been a CEO, which to him means Spearman might be modern. Spearman purchased Tattered Cowl as a part of an funding group when the corporate was already on rocky monetary footing and labored to revive it. 

However simply this month, after he had stepped down as CEO, the corporate filed for chapter and is making an attempt to restructure. As CEO, Spearman additionally confronted accusations of office bullying and ageism. In an interview, he mentioned, “If you’re an precise chief, you recognize management is difficult.”

Easley mentioned his endorsement of Spearman will not be a rebuke of Youngquist.

“I feel each of them are grown ups,” Easley mentioned. “I like the thought of a DPS graduate whose mother taught within the district and might be in his ear.”

In endorsing Youngquist, Denver Households Motion cited his expertise as a DPS educator and guardian. CEO Clarence Burton mentioned the group was in search of “essentially the most credible candidates who can converse to a background in training … not simply the values they’d carry to the board however can say, ‘We’ve been exhibiting up and doing that work, not only for years however for many years.’”

Educators, mother and father, and DPS graduates helped interview the candidates for the Denver Households Motion endorsement, Burton mentioned, however the closing determination was made by the group’s workers and board chair.

Completely satisfied Haynes, one other former college board president, additionally endorsed Youngquist. Haynes usually voted with the pro-reform members in her time on the board.

“As an educator, they don’t come higher,” she mentioned of Youngquist.

Spearman has criticized Youngquist for the yawning gaps in check scores between white college students, who rating excessive, and Black and Latino college students, who rating decrease. Haynes mentioned she admires Youngquist’s efforts to shut these gaps. She cited an effort at East to enroll all freshmen into honors programs and supply additional tutorial help to those that wanted it.

In 2022, the final 12 months Youngquist was at East, the variety of white eleventh graders who met expectations in literacy on the SAT was 47 proportion factors increased than the variety of Black eleventh graders who met expectations. That hole was somewhat worse than the hole at Northfield Excessive, the town’s second-largest highschool behind East, and somewhat higher than the hole at third-largest South Excessive.

For extra in regards to the candidates, learn our profiles right here:

Kwame Spearman

John Youngquist

Watch Spearman and Youngquist debate right here.

And browse — in their very own phrases — how they answered six questions on DPS right here.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, masking Denver Public Colleges. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.