Douglas Co. School Board Election: Anti-Voucher Slate Leads

DOUGLAS COUNTY, CO -- First voting results appear to show the Elevate Douglas County slate of candidates for Douglas Co. School Board was routed in the Nov. 7 election with all four candidates appearing to be losing to CommUnity Matters slate candidates Anthony Graziano, Chris Schor, Kevin Leung, and Krista Holtzmann.

The race brought national attention to the district with heavy donations from national groups outside the district.

Four of the seven seats on the Douglas County School District Board of Education were up for reelection, as no incumbents filed to run in Districts B, D, E, and G . The race generated huge amounts of campaign donations from two competing factions. The first donor group, supporting the Elevate Douglas County slate (Ryan Abresch, Randy Mills, Grant Nelson, and Debora Scheffel) was seen as wanting to uphold the district's charter school policy and keep teacher merit pay and a voucher program for private schools. National teachers unions were supporting the CommUnity Matters slate candidates (Anthony Graziano, Chris Schor, Kevin Leung, and Krista Holtzmann).

For the open seat in District B, CommUnity candidate Graziano was ahead with 52,526 votes, or 58.63 percent, to Abresch's 41.37 percent of the votes with 37,056, according to updated unofficial updated vote tallies posted Wednesday by the Colorado Secy. of States Office,

In the race for the open seat in District D, CommUnity candidate Schor was running first with 52,150 votes, or 58.23 percent, vs. Elevate Douglas candidate Mills, who garnered 41.77 percent of the vote with 37,415 votes.

For District E, CommUnity candidate Kevin Leung had scored 57.99 percent of the vote with 51,919 tallied, beating Elevate's Grant Nelson, who had 42.01 percent of the vote with 36,607 counted.

Finally, in District G, CommUnity candidate Krista Holtzmann won 57.59 percent of the vote tally with 51,609, compared to Elevate's Debora Scheffel, who pulled in 38,000 votes for 42.41 percent.

Douglas Co. School District is the third largest school district in Colorado. The District consists of around 70 schools, around 45 of them charter or "option" schools. The Distrcit's 60,000 students largely come from the towns of Parker, Highlands Ranch and Castle Rock. In 2013, the district introduced a school voucher program that doled out $4,575 taxpayer scholarships to up to 500 students to help pay for tuition at private schools. Taxpayers for Public Education sued the district and the Colorado Supreme Court ruled the program was unconstitutional in February of this year.

District B - 4-year term

Anthony Graziano

District D (4-year term)

Chris Schor

District E (4-year term)

Kevin Leung

District E (4-year term)

Krista Holtzmann

Candidate profiles via Ballotpedia

Image via CommUnity Matters