Education |

Douglas County’s new school board majority fires superintendent day after teacher protest shut down schools

Douglas County’s school board fired the district’s superintendent Friday night in a tense meeting that exposed deep mistrust among its members and capped a week of drama and protest over the leadership of one of metro Denver’s largest school systems.

Corey Wise’s term as superintendent will end two years before it was set to expire in 2024. He was fired without cause by the board’s new conservative majority in a 4-3 vote, and the district’s two deputy superintendents — Andy Abner and Danelle Hiatt — will share the role of acting superintendent, board president Mike Peterson said.

“It’s more about finding someone who better aligns,” Kaylee Winegar, a member of the board majority, said during the meeting. “It’s just what we want with this district is different.”

As she cast her vote against Wise’s firing, board member Elizabeth Hanson called the superintendent’s ouster “an attack on public education.”

The vote came at the end of a meeting that had been scheduled to include an executive session during which the board would discuss Wise’s future behind closed doors. But the superintendent called for that discussion to be held in public.

“I believe we have been doing a phenomenal job leading this district,” Wise told the board. “I believe in this district. I believe in our people. We have an opportunity to come together.”

Friday’s meeting was scheduled hastily after three board members alleged at the beginning of the week that the school board’s president and vice president — Peterson and Christy Williams — privately told Wise to resign or be voted out.

At a board meeting Monday, the three members of the minority — Hanson, Susan Meek and David Ray — revealed that they had learned Jan. 28 about the ultimatum presented to Wise and that there had been no vote, meeting or notice. This, they said, violated Colorado’s open-meeting laws because school board members are not authorized to take such actions on their own without informing the rest of the board.

The allegations sparked outrage among Douglas County School District employees and parents — many of whom were already upset at the board’s plans to alter the district’s equity policy. On Thursday, approximately 1,000 teachers, employees and parents protested in Castle Rock to support Wise and demand transparency from the board.

The district canceled classes for the day because so many teachers and other employees called out as part of the protest.

November’s election shook up the school board when four new conservative members were elected. They now hold the majority and have wasted little time implementing changes, including lifting the district’s mask mandate for schools.

Most board members expressed the need to reach common ground during Friday’s meeting, but they struggled to do so when it came to how Peterson and Williams handled the discussion with Wise regarding his performance. They went back and forth over whether it violated open-meeting laws and if an ultimatum was delivered.

And by the end of the three-hour meeting, two board members had shed tears.

It’s not entirely clear if board members violated public records law in their conversation with Wise as alleged in that meeting.

Under state law, if at least three (or fewer if it means a quorum) school board members meet to discuss public business, such as deciding whether to keep a superintendent, then the public and other board members must be notified and the meeting. This includes if such a meeting occurs in person or by phone, email or text messages, said Jeff Roberts, executive director of Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition.

The frustration among board members was most evident Friday night when they voted on the motion to fire the superintendent and board member Becky Myers initially voted against terminating Wise. Then, when pressed by Peterson if that actually was her vote, Myers reversed herself.

This drew the ire of Hanson who said, “You do not get to come in and coerce her into changing her vote. And if she cannot follow what is happening, it is not your responsibility to bring her up to speed. Her vote is no.”

Myers, in frustration, eventually said, “Oh, can I go home!”

Wise served as interim superintendent for six months before he was chosen from among 100 applicants to take on the job full-time in April. Wise has worked in the Douglas County School District for about 26 years, including as a teacher and principal.

His contract was expected to run until June 30, 2024, said Ray, one of the school board members, in an email.

Before his firing, Wise made an appeal to the board to give him another chance.

“I love this district, and I believe in myself. And I believe our people, and I believe in all of you,” he told the school board. “We can do this. Give us a chance. Give me a chance — a real chance.”

The four majority members expressed concerns about Wise implementing policies set by the previous school board, such as the now-ended mask mandate, and for his lack of response or knowledge of actions by others in the district, such as employees calling out this week in protest.

“I don’t think he does a good job representing the board to staff,” Williams said. “I’ve heard from leadership there are times he misrepresents our intentions, and I don’t feel that’s the kind of superintendent that we need.”

Ray, noting the comment was broad, asked for specifics. Williams replied that it was around the equity policy and that Wise made a comment that he was surprised the policy wasn’t rescinded by the new board. (They voted to direct the superintendent to recommend possible changes to the policy by September.)

“It came from several people — they felt the intentions were being misrepresented,” Williams said.

Meek said she felt the conversation about Wise’s performance was about “retaliation.”

“So far I haven’t seen one single (piece of) evidence that shows undermining behavior that’s been shared tonight,” Ray said. “I would just encourage us to find a place where we could move forward to show our community we are unified when it comes to doing what’s best for our school district.”

But Peterson said he felt “completely betrayed” by the three members of the board’s minority during their meeting Monday.

“I sat there absolutely amazed at what was being done to this district and to this board,” he said. “This is not retaliation at all. This is my ability to trust that we’re not going to get sucker-punched by (the) other three folks that are going to come in when we are trying to work through an issue.”