The spend-down has begun. If you live in one of Colorado’s hotly contested school districts, you have probably noticed by now. The banner ads attached to web pages like this one. The commercials inserted into your Facebook feed. The glossy 8x11s filling your mailbox with virtue and venom, some brightly colored and peppy, others black and gray with yellow text. After months of raising money, school board races are now in the few short weeks of spending it.
School board elections are gearing-up around the country right now, set to take center stage on an off-off-year ballot . Here in Colorado, there will be no statewide races sucking up time and attention, there will be no statewide ballot initiatives flooding the airwaves with advertisements. School board races will get top billing. And, if the past is any indicator, that means things in districts around the state are about to get…rowdy.
Colorado Springs churches aren’t the only ones getting involved in the Academy School District 20 Board of Education race. According to independent expenditure reports, the Springs Opportunity Fund spent $48,214 for a direct mail campaign supporting conservative candidates Derrick Wilburn and Amy Shandy.
During a Sept. 16 town hall event, Colorado Springs School District 11 Board Vice President Jason Jorgenson touted the district’s academic improvement.
