Denver's 2024 Ballot Issues

This year there are 14 state ballot issues and 11 Denver ballot issues. This post addresses the Denver ballot issues with brief summaries and my recommendations. A previous separate post will addressed the 14 Colorado ballot issues.

While I am a Democratic Party precinct organizer, these opinions are purely my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Democratic Party of Colorado or of Denver.

* Referred Denver ballot issue 2Q - increases sales taxes by 0.34 percentage points to raise $70 million a year for Denver Health.

Yes. Denver health is a critical cornerstone of our health care system and a Level One trauma center that needs more funding to function.

* Referred Denver ballot issue 2R - increases sales taxes by 0.5 percentage points to raise $100 million a year for affordable housing for low and middle class families with rental assistance and first time home buyer assistance.

Weak yes. Unaffordable housing is a huge problem in Denver. Subsidies are probably not the optimal solution (relaxing land use regulation is the most important step that can be taken), but it would still make a big difference to many people who are struggling right now.

* Referred Denver Ballot Issue 2S - creates a Mayoral cabinet agency of Human Rights and Community Partnerships.

Yes. This shouldn't require a vote of the people, and the Mayor and City Council want it. This housekeeping measure should be approved.

* Referred Denver Ballot Issue 2T - allows lawful permanent residents who aren't U.S. citizens to be police officers and firefighters.

Yes. There is no legitimate reason to exclude people from these positions simply because they are immigrants. The U.S. has a long and storied history of immigrant law enforcement officers and firefighters.

* Referred Denver Ballot Issue 2U - Allows most non-managerial Denver employees to unionize, bargain collectively, and strike (but prohibits strikes by police officers, sheriffs, and firefighters who already have collective bargaining rights and are prohibited from striking, and prohibits strikes by certain county court and Denver Water employees).

Yes. These employees should not be prohibited from having unions because they work for a local government instead of a private sector firm.

* Referred Denver Ballot Issue 2V - Allows for binding arbitration in lieu of an advisory fact-finding process when an impasse occurs between the City and Firefighters during collective bargaining.

No. Arbitration is a horribly bad way to resolve disputes, and is even worse in a situation like this one where it is entirely unprincipled.

* Referred Denver Ballot Issue 2W - Replaces salary setting for elected officials in the City and County by the city council for the post-election set of elected officials with a one time set of salaries adjusted for inflation over time.

No. Salaries for elected officials should not run on autopilot. The existing system works fine.

* Initiated Denver Ordinance 308 -  prohibiting the manufacture, distribution, display, sale, or trade of certain animal fur products in the City beginning July 1, 2025.

No. Animal fur products are no worse than eating meat. They should not be banned.

* Initiated Denver Ordinance 309 - Prohibiting slaughter houses in the City.

No. There is nothing wrong with eating meat and slaughter houses are a necessary part of a society that eats meat.

* Referred Denver School Board Issue 4A - Allows the school board to borrow up to $975 million financed with existing property taxes for capital improvements to school buildings.

Yes. Denver's K-12 students deserve to go to buildings that are modern and don't need major deferred maintenance, particularly to the extent that this can be achieved without raising taxes.

* Referred Regional Transportation District Ballot Issue 7A - Debruces RTD sales tax reveues.

Yes. This measure simply allows RTD to keep all of its existing sales tax revenues, even if they increase.

Denver and Colorado 2021 Election Results

It is early yet, but most of the Denver School Board and ballot issue results aren't close.

Denver Public Schools Board Seats

In the Denver School Board race Scott Esserman, the teacher's union supported candidate, will easily win first place in the "at large" race, Carrie A. Olsen, the incumbent Board President, will easily win re-election in District 3, and Michelle Quattlebaum, also supported by the teacher's union, will have a secure win in District 4. I endorsed both the District 3 and District 4 winners, and as it happens, ended up voting for Esserman in the end for the "at large" race as well although I was torn between the two front runners in that race.

But, District 2 between teacher's union supported Xochitl "Sochi" Gaytan and reformer supported Karolina Villagrana is down to the wire: 41 votes out of 7,009 favor Gaytan right now, with many more votes to be counted. I endorsed Villagrana in that race, but it will hardly be a tragedy for the Denver Public Schools if Gaytan wins instead and there are still votes left to count.

Denver Ballot Issues

On Denver specific ballot issues, voters are lining up perfectly with my recommendations.

Five municipal bond authorizations were on the ballot (2A, 2B, 2C, 2D and 2E). Four of them 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D are passing by large margins. But 2E to finance a $190 million overhaul of the National Western Stock Show complex faces an overwhelming defeat.

2F which would have repealed a group housing ordinance passed by the city to allow more unrelated people to live together and open more zones to nursing homes, group homes, and homeless shelters is trailing by 2-1 margins. Issue 303 which would have allowed private citizens to quickly evict homeless people from city property (in a manner contrary to a binding court order) and would have limited the city's ability to establish homeless camps, was defeated.

2G which would give the Independent Police Monitor more authority, and 2H which would push the municipal election date from May to April since the current date violated state and federal law are passing easily.

Issue 300 which would tax marijuana for non-medical COVID prevent measure research was defeated.

Issues 301 and 302 pertained to the Park Hill Golf Course. Issue 301 honored a conservation easement for the property despite a loophole in it, and kept the Park Hill Golf Course as a park or open space. Issue 302 which would have allowed housing developments there was defeated. 

Issue 304 which would have cut $50 million a year of sale tax revenue each year without replacing it, forcibly denting the City budget was also soundly defeated.

State Ballot Issues 

City and County of Denver voters also rejected all three state ballot issues (in line with my endorsements): 78 requiring legislative approval of non-tax revenue spending otherwise allocated to the Governor, 119 raising marijuana taxes for after school program vouchers, and 120 permanently reducing property taxes that the legislature mostly reduced temporarily already, were all disfavored in Denver, but we'll have to see the statewide counts to know if these measures pass overall or not.

So far, all three measures are heading to defeat statewide by substantial margins as well. Amendment 78, as a state constitutional amendment, required a 55% majority to pass.

Denver Public Schools (DPS) School Board Elections 2021

"Denver Public Schools is Colorado’s largest school district, serving about 90,000 students. A little more than half of students are Hispanic, 26% are white, and 14% are Black. Its school board has seven members — five regional and two districtwide." 

The Denver School Board has an "at large" seat and seats for Districts 2, 3 and 4 up for election this year. School board directors serve four year terms with roughly half elected every two years, on a non-partisan single member plurality district basis. 

My district's election was in 2019, so I only have the "at large" seat to consider myself. See also this Axios voter guide.

According to this helpful voter guide:

Five candidates are vying for the at-large seat. Two candidates are competing to represent District 2 in southwest Denver. The District 3 race in central-east Denver also has two candidates. The District 4 race in northeast Denver has four candidates, one of whom, Andrea Mosby, has withdrawn, though her name will still appear on the ballot.

The Denver Classroom Teachers Association has endorsed four candidates: Scott Esserman for the at-large seat, Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán in District 2, current board President Carrie Olson in District 3, and Michelle Quattlebaum in District 4. Olson is the only incumbent in the election.

Meanwhile, the education reform advocacy group Stand for Children Colorado has endorsed Vernon Jones Jr. for the at-large seat, Karolina Villagrana in District 2, and Olson in District 3. Stand has not yet endorsed a candidate for the District 4 seat.

Another education advocacy group, TEN Collective Impact, endorsed Jones for the at-large seat, Villagrana in District 2, and Gene Fashaw in District 4. It did not endorse a candidate in District 3. TEN co-founder Nicholas Martinez is married to Villagrana, who said TEN’s endorsements were made by Denver parents involved in the organization, not its staff.

Your options and my thoughts on them are as follows:

At-large

Esserman and Jones, the two front runners in the race and backed by Denver's main opposing factions in school board politics, Esserman by the teacher's union and Jones by the "reformers", are clearly the best two candidates in the five way race. Unlike many prior years where the factions have advanced relatively extreme candidates with starkly different perspectives on key issues, these two are moderates with a lot of common ground and similar perspectives that are mostly on target. I'm still not decided on which of the two I prefer.

Marla Benavides Hard No.

The eight words of her linked profile immediately ruled her out in my opinion: "A Denver mother who home-schools her son[.]" I get that home schooling can make sense. My brother and my sister-in-law have both home schooled their children at times. But if you are opting out of the system for your own children, you have no business running for the school board.

Scott Esserman He would be fine.

Scott Esserman is probably the front runner in the "at large" race and is a more credible and more even handed and moderate candidate than many that the teacher's union has endorsed in the past.

He was a teacher for twelve years at Cherry Creek High School, "was on the founding staff of Denver’s Northfield High School, which opened in 2015 in northeast Denver", has been a private school teachers. 

Esserman is now an independent consultant specializing in diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. He is the volunteer chairperson of the Denver Public Schools accountability committee, an advisory group of parents and community members. He has also served on school-level advisory committees at four district-run schools. . . . Esserman, 55, has two children, one of whom graduated last year from Denver’s Manual High School. His other child is an eighth grader at a charter school, DSST: Montview Middle School. 

He is endorsed by the teacher's union and by controversial sitting DPS Board Member Tay Anderson who did $5,000 of IT contract work for Esserman.

"Esserman said his primary focus would be improving student outcomes and erasing disparities. He believes strongly in the concept of “community schools.” He describes them as having several attributes, including culturally relevant curriculum, discipline practices focused on repairing harm rather than punishing students, and partnerships between schools and community organizations. Esserman helped a struggling middle school called Denver Discovery School write an innovation plan incorporating those elements. . . . Esserman said he would not consider closing or consolidating schools without talking with impacted communities first. But instead of simply asking for community members’ opinions on a potential closure, Esserman said the district should lay out all the facts and ask communities to come up with possible solutions that may or may not involve closing schools. . . . Esserman is more interested in whether a school is serving students well than in whether it’s a traditional district school, an independent charter school, a semi-autonomous innovation school, or part of a larger innovation zone, he said.

Vernon Jones Jr. He would be fine.

Vernon Jones Jr. is the runner up in the "at large" race with endorsements from both of the other major groups other than the teacher's union that function as quasi-political parties in DPS races.

Update: Vernon Jones Jr. resigned as the executive director of the Northeast Denver Innovation Zone on Oct. 8.

A Christian pastor who has worked in Denver schools for years and currently leads a district innovation zone is running for an at-large seat on the school board.

Vernon Jones Jr. is the executive director of the Northeast Denver Innovation Zone, a group of six semi-autonomous schools in the northeast part of the city.

He’s also a father of five, two of them Denver Public Schools graduates and two current students, one in elementary and another in high school. Another of his children graduated from neighboring Aurora Public Schools, as did Jones himself.

Jones, 43, previously ran for the board in 2009 but did not win. He lives in the Green Valley Ranch neighborhood in far northeast Denver but is running to represent the entire city.

“The message that I have is a message for the city, not just one part of it,” Jones said. “We have to do right by Black students across the city. We have to do right by brown students across the city. And you need somebody who can champion that message.”

Jones has worked at all types of schools in Denver. Before leading the innovation zone, he was a teacher and assistant principal at northeast Denver’s storied Manual High School and executive director of Omar D. Blair Charter School in Green Valley Ranch. Jones said he’s prepared to leave his job as innovation zone director if he’s elected.

He’s running to ensure the district is focused on four things, he said: equity, wellness, achievement, and responsibility. With regard to responsibility, Jones wants the city and community organizations to partner with the district to support students.

“When I hear some of the struggles my mother went through as a Black student in DPS, and the struggles that my own kids went through … they are some of the same struggles,” said Jones, whose mother graduated in 1978. “And for me, that’s not okay

“We need boldness on our board that will ensure that the influence of structural and systemic racism and white supremacy is no longer driving that in DPS.”

He said he’s also running to ensure there is Black representation on the board. There are currently two Black board members, one of whom, Jennifer Bacon, is not running for reelection. The other member, Tay Anderson, has two years left of his four-year term. . . . 

The district shouldn’t villainize small schools, Jones said, noting that each of his five children learns differently and some thrived at smaller schools. But in a district where schools are funded per student, he said Denver needs to figure out how to support schools with lower enrollment. . . . 

School closures, he said, should be a last resort and only considered if “the neighbors tell you, ‘Oh yeah, we’re all good over here. Take that building,’” and perhaps repurpose it as a community center, Jones said. He added that Denver needs to “set a clear vision for what we want to be as a city for our kids and then that will dictate to you what we do with the small schools. Right now it’s going to be hit or miss because we don’t have a clear vision.” 

Jones said he likes charter and innovation schools because as public schools with autonomy from some state and district rules, they can “blow up the box of traditional education,” which hasn’t served students of color well.

Jane Shirley Not bad, but not as promising as either Esserman or Jones in my view. Lacking in vision.

Jane Shirley was a middle school math and science teacher in Aurora Public Schools before becoming a district administrator and then principal of Aurora’s William Smith High School, where students demonstrate their learning through projects. She also worked for an organization that provided leadership training to principals, and now does executive coaching for a consulting firm.

Shirley, 61, lives in east Denver near the Aurora border. Her son attended a Denver charter school from kindergarten through eighth grade, but graduated from high school in Aurora. . . .

“I haven’t seen ‘effective’ from the board,” she said, noting that a school board’s biggest responsibility is to manage the superintendent. “They either don’t hold them accountable or they hold them too accountable, or they don’t tie the goals to the actual strategy.”

In addition to her work in Aurora Public Schools, Shirley worked at the Catapult Inc. leadership program, which has since closed, with outgoing school board member Barbara O’Brien. Catapult coached principals at both district-run and charter schools, including in Denver.

Currently, Shirley is an independent contractor, working with companies to improve their culture. She also volunteers as president of the governing board of High Point Academy, a charter school in Aurora authorized by the state Charter School Institute. Shirley formerly sat on the board of RiseUp Community School, a charter authorized by Denver Public Schools.

Shirley is also an improv actor who has written and produced several shows. She and her husband Dave opened a cabaret theater that’s now known as The Clocktower Cabaret.

“We’re killing our kids’ souls with this over-emphasis on competition and test scores and getting into good colleges,” Shirley said. “And we’re killing off the creativity in our educators. .... Nobody goes into this business to raise third-grade test scores. That’s a byproduct of good teaching.”

The way districts hold schools and teachers accountable is defeating, she said. Shirley was on a district committee that recommended getting rid of Denver Public Schools’ controversial color-coded school ratings in favor of using the state’s rating system instead. . . .

In deciding whether to close or consolidate some small schools, Shirley said the district should start with a few essential questions: What school attributes do parents want? And what school size is optimal?

Once the district knows those answers, she said it should look at its roster of schools. If parents say they want racially diverse schools, she said, is there a place where two small racially homogenous schools could be combined to make that happen? . . .

Shirley questions the need for so many independent charter schools and semi-autonomous innovation schools. The original idea that these schools could innovate and share best practices with other schools was good, Shirley said. But she said it hasn’t played out that way. Instead, she said, charter schools are often at odds with the district and are “in many ways less progressive” than district-run schools.

Shirley also has concerns with school choice, which allows families to send their children to a school outside their neighborhood. School choice is a state law but Denver heavily promotes it. Shirley said she doesn’t like that it presumes that some schools are good and others are bad.

“We’re putting all of the burden on the families to make a choice because we haven’t done our job of making all the schools good,” she said.

Nicky Yollick Well intentioned, but not effectual enough or experienced enough to serve well. Somewhat aimless and unfocused without a real sense of what is necessary to effectuate change in the District. He'd be nice to have a discussion over a beer with, but needs a stronger command of the system and more leadership experience and a track record of solid accomplishments to be ready to serve on the school board.

A former state legislative candidate and avowed progressive political activist is running for an at-large seat on the Denver school board.

Nicky Yollick did not attend Denver Public Schools, nor is he a current parent. But he said he was inspired to run for the board because he hopes to be a parent soon. He and his partner, Nicki, plan to start a family once she graduates from nursing school, he said. . . . 

Yollick, 35, lives in northeast Denver but said he’s running to represent the entire city in part because he believes the seat in northeast Denver, which is also up for grabs, should be held by a person of color given the demographic makeup of that region.

Yollick moved to Colorado in 2008 to attend graduate school at the University of Denver, where he studied international relations. He became active in progressive politics, working on several federal campaigns and a push to turn out Latino voters.

He ran for a state House seat in 2018 but did not win. That same year, he helped pass a measure at the Colorado Democratic state assembly critical of education reform, a philosophy supportive of independent charter schools that is often at odds with teachers unions. The platform amendment, a symbolic step with no real-world impact, called on Democrats for Education Reform to stop using the term Democrats in their name.

Yollick has also been involved with Denver school board politics, having worked on the campaigns of at least three past board candidates. Two did not win and one withdrew before the election. Yollick helped found a coalition of community groups in 2019 to endorse board candidates, but the group failed to come to consensus. He is currently unemployed. . . . 

“Denver communities know I’m solidly in the progressive camp, and I don’t plan on budging one bit as a candidate or as a director on the board,” Yollick said.

If elected, he said he’d focus on cutting the district administration to funnel more money directly to schools, and giving teachers and community members more power over district decisions. He floated the idea of a community committee that would come up with recommendations for the board every three months. The board would be required to vote them up or down. . . .

If the district has to close a school because of low enrollment, he said he wants it “to have this long-term view so we can give communities at least two full years where we say, ‘I’m sorry, this school is slated for closure, but we want to work with you.’ … We’re not just going to sneak up on the community and close schools.” . . . 

While charters “generally do a good job for students,” Yollick said, he still has some concerns that they encourage competition between schools by asking families to choose them and that, along with many innovation schools, charters don’t provide job protections for teachers.

“I don’t want us to go around vilifying the school model,” Yollick said. “We need to get into the details of, what are our concerns with charter and innovation schools as far as potentially exacerbating inequality in the district among students and staff.” . . . 

The district should cut spending on central administration and marketing, among other things, to redirect resources toward carrying out the Black Excellence resolution and improving programming for students learning English as a second language, he said.

District 2

Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán She is sincerely devoted to trying to do the right thing but too rigid in her outlook formed primarily from her own personal experience alone, and doesn't have enough background with education policymaking. We could do far worse than her on the DPS Board but she is not the better choice for this position.

A real estate agent who grew up in southwest Denver, graduated from a neighborhood high school, and raised her own family in the region is running to represent it on the school board.

Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said she was motivated by a desire to change some of the education reform policies adopted by previous boards that she believes were detrimental, such as closing schools with low test scores. If elected, she said one of her priorities would be “strengthening our neighborhood schools so we strengthen our communities.”

Gaytán, 46, has two sons — one who graduated from Denver Center for International Studies high school and another who is in eighth grade at a district-run school. She previously ran for school board in 2017 but lost to current board member Angela Cobián, who is not seeking re-election. In Gaytán’s bid for the seat, she is once again emphasizing her decades-long connection to southwest Denver, which is home to a large Hispanic community. . . .

Gaytán was born in Mexico, came to the United States as a child, and became a citizen as a young adult. . . . “My mother always said the major reason — the main reason — why we ended up in the United States and in Denver is because I wanted you to have a public education,” Gaytán said.

Gaytán attended seven public schools as her family moved around the city in search of affordable housing. She graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School in southwest Denver and earned a business degree from Metropolitan State University of Denver. After she and her husband bought their first home in southwest Denver as a young couple, Gaytán said she was inspired to become a real estate agent to help other Latino families do the same.

When her oldest son was getting ready to go into kindergarten, the family moved to the Harvey Park neighborhood in part because the local elementary school had a good reputation, she said. They still live there, and Gaytán volunteered for years as president of the Harvey Park Community Organization. She is co-chair of the Colorado Latino Forum, a nonprofit whose mission is to increase the political and social strength of the Latino community.

In that capacity, she has weighed in on Denver Public Schools matters, including rebuffing accusations by Denver Mayor Michael Hancock that a dysfunctional school board pushed out former superintendent Susana Cordova. In an op-ed in the Colorado Sun, Gaytán and co-author Arturo Jiménez called that claim “a far-fetched racist and sexist conspiracy theory.”

If elected to the school board, Gaytán said she would focus on reallocating funding to classrooms, reducing class sizes, increasing access to arts, music, and sports programming, and strengthening relationships between schools and nonprofit organizations.

Southwest Denver has been particularly hard hit by declining enrollment, in part because of gentrification. Gaytán said she wants to be “a voice for one of the communities that has been pushed out of our city — a community specifically of Latino, Mexicano, Chicano [families].”

To deal with declining enrollment, the Denver school board is considering closing some schools. But Gaytán strongly opposes school closure because of her family’s experience. She and her husband had to rearrange their work schedules so they could leave the house at 6:45 in the morning to drive their oldest son to a middle school across town and then pick him up after school because two middle schools in their own region were facing closure. The arrangement left her son feeling disconnected from his home and sent a disheartening message to families and students in southwest Denver, Gaytán said.

“That was the message: ‘You’re failing. Your community is failing. Your students are failing,’” she said. “The negative connotation of a school closure impacted not only me, my husband, my children, but entire neighborhoods in southwest Denver. To put families and teachers through something like that and retraumatize our community is a ‘no’ vote.”

If existing charter schools and innovation schools are working well for students and families, Gaytán said she’d support them. But if a new publicly funded but independently run charter school asks for approval to open, she said she’d “have to seriously consider whether or not that would be a better option. It’s important to me to protect public education and to ensure that we are wisely using tax dollars … so that we’re reallocating funding to our neighborhood schools to make them successful.”

Karolina Villagrana Villagrana is the better choice in District 2. She balances personal experience with a lot of hard won understanding of what works and doesn't at the classroom and school level, and is willing to look beyond her personal experience when making policy.

A former Denver teacher who held bilingual outdoor read-alouds for neighborhood kids during the pandemic is running to represent southwest Denver on the school board.

Karolina Villagrana grew up in Denver attending parochial schools and then the University of Colorado Denver. She said her run for school board was inspired in part by an experience she had in college sitting on a panel for a visiting group of high school students. The high schoolers had written down questions, and one stood out to Villagrana.

“It said, in Spanish, ‘A veces siento que no merezco ir a la universidad,’ which translates to, ‘At times I feel as if I don’t deserve to go to college,’” said Villagrana, 33. “For me, that statement left me broken. … I believe our kids, and our southwest Denver kids, deserve the best.”

Villagrana’s parents are Denver Public Schools graduates, but they did not send her to public school because of her oldest brother’s experience, she said. He was placed in a bilingual classroom without their mother’s consent, and Villagrana said the school did nothing to address their mother’s concerns when she saw stark differences in the educational quality between the bilingual and English-speaking classrooms. After that, the family opted for parochial schools.

“That had a forever impact because it really led me to view the value of advocacy and the roles that loved ones can have on a child’s life,” Villagrana said.

Villagrana holds two master’s degrees in education. She began her teaching career at a charter school in Kansas City through Teach for America, a program that trains educators on the job.

Villagrana was on the founding staff of a charter elementary school in San Jose, California, that is part of the Rocketship Public Schools network, later serving as the school’s assistant principal. She has also worked for several charter networks in Denver, most recently as the director of elementary literacy and K-8 language acquisition for KIPP Colorado Schools.

Villagrana was set to be the founding principal of a new KIPP school in the neighboring Adams 14 district, but the Adams 14 school board blocked the school from opening.

Not all of Villagrana’s experience is in charter schools. She also worked as an instructional coach and second grade teacher at district-run Knapp Elementary School in southwest Denver. She currently works for an organization called Camelback Ventures that provides funding and mentorship to women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color in education and other fields.

Villagrana grew up mostly in northeast Denver but now lives in the southwest Athmar Park neighborhood with her husband Nicholas Martinez, who is co-founder of the advocacy group Transform Education Now. During the pandemic, she started a weekly outdoor event called “libros en el parque,” where she read a book aloud in both English and Spanish and then led kids in a craft related to the story or season, like carving pumpkins.

“It was really joyful,” she said.

If elected, Villagrana said she’d focus on pushing the district to improve literacy instruction for young students. She’d also advocate for setting academic benchmarks for students, monitoring to see if they reach them, and communicating to parents their progress.

Villagrana said she’d advocate for doing two things: Asking families what they see as the best pathway forward, and analyzing what’s working and what’s not working at each school. The district needs both types of information before making decisions about consolidating or closing schools, she said.

“It comes down to community voice and then really utilizing data to help create the pathway forward,” Villagrana said. She said she believes in the potential for a “third way” of solving the problem of declining enrollment that isn’t closing small schools or keeping them open, but she doesn’t yet have specific ideas for what that could look like.

Charter and innovation schools: What matters most to her is not the type of school but whether students are learning and families are treated well, Villagrana said.

“When I was having conversations with loved ones, it was more so that they wanted to find a school that was best for their kids, where their kids are learning and being successful,” she said. “And at the end of the day, that’s really my focus point.”

District 3

Mike DeGuire He doesn't bring anything essential or helpful to the Board.

76, former principal and teacher

Believes more infrastructure, such as air flow and ventilation, is needed to mitigate the coronavirus.

Supports spending federal pandemic relief dollars on mental and social needs of students and staff.

He says the current school choice system does not work and needs an overhaul.

Carrie Olson Give Olson another term. She's done a good job. Both factions endorse her.

58, incumbent board member and adjunct professor

She says more needs to be done to address financial and staffing shortages at neighborhood schools.

Touted the current board's work to follow public health guidelines and upgrade equipment.

She supported removing police officers from schools.

District 4

Gene Fashaw Not bad. But, Quattlebaum is better.

37, math teacher

Believes the district's biggest concern is equity and more attention is needed on improving outcomes.

He says the key to improving student achievement is prioritizing their mental health.

Criticized the district for looking to armed security guards to replace police officers, saying more counselors are most needed.

Andrea Mosby - withdrawn

Michelle Quattlebaum Not bad. Deserves the post since she has concrete workable ideas to address the problems the district faces.

51, school community liaison

She says the district's top concern is recruiting and retaining non-white teachers.

Supports educational choice but wants to see more accountability in innovation schools.

Wants ongoing cultural competency training and certification for staff.

José Silva If you don't know what's wrong in advance, without an audit, you aren't ready.

41, nonprofit leader

He says the budget is his top concern and pledged to lead a fiscal audit, saying the district spent millions "on frivolous partnerships."

Wants the district to partner with organizations like his, the Colorado Association for Infant Mental Health, to better focus on mental wellbeing.

Argues his expertise in diversity and inclusion will allow him to lead a re-evaluation of the districts equity policies.

Denver Ballot Issues For 2020 In A Nutshell

Here are thumbnail summarizes of the ballot issues in the City and County of Denver in 2020 with my recommendations.

DENVER BALLOT ISSUES

No. 2A - increase sales tax by 0.25% for climate change and jobs programs. Good idea but mushy, with regressive funding source.

Yes. 2B - increase sales tax by 0.25% for homelessness programs. Urgently needed.

Yes 2C - allows city council to hire lawyers for itself without mayor's approval. Denver has a very strong mayor and very weak city council. 2C, 2E and 2G are a package that levels the playing field to a more typical balance.

Yes. 2D - creates advisory board for a new city department like other city departments have. Basically just updates the City org chart consistently with a detail overlooked in forming a new city department last year.

Yes. 2E - requires city council to approve top level appointments by the Mayor. See 2C.

Yes. 2F - housekeeping cleanup of city charter language. No brainer.

Yes. 2G - allows city council to propose spending not initiated by Mayor. See 2C.

Yes. 2H - repeals obsolete ban on city provided WiFi and telecom services previously required by state law. Doesn't actually provide those services without further action. No brainer.

Yes 2I - gives elected county clerk one or two more political appoints outside civil service system than he has now. If we're going to have an elected city clerk he ought to be able to hire and fire his chief deputy and his three department heads.

No. 2J - legalizes pit bulls with regulation. Pit bulls disproportionately kill kids and harm people.

DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS BALLOT ISSUES

Yes. 4A - authorizes $51 per year for median priced home in Denver in property taxes to provide $32 million for Denver Public Schools to invest in mental health services, special education, and nursing support amid the pandemic, and $15 million designated for employee pay (including raising the minimum wage for support staff to $14.77 an hour and cost of living increases for teachers). Colorado ranks 50th in the nation in teacher pay relative to cost of living and Denver doesn't have recommended number of counselors and school nurses despite having much higher than average need.

Yes. 4B - authorizes Denver Public Schools to issue new bonds for repairs and capital improvements, serviced by existing mill levies, to replace old bonds that have been paid off. Just continues the status quo.

2017 Denver Election Results

All of the ballot issues facing Denver voters in 2017, including Issue 300, the Green Roofs initiative, a long list of bond measures, and a name change for a Denver government department all passed.

Issue 300, an initiated ordinance won 52% of the vote. Referenda 2A to 2H each got more than two-thirds of the vote.

In the four Denver school board races the outcomes were as follows:

"Reformer" Barbara O'Brian won re-election in the at large race with 42% of the vote in a three way contest against a teacher's union backed candidate, Robert Speth, and another challenger, Julie Banuelos.

In District 2, incumbent "reformer" Angela Cobian defeated Xochitl "Sochi" Gaytan with 54% of the vote.

In District 3,  Carrie A. Olson, backed by the teacher's union, defeated incumbent "reformer" Mike Johnson with 52% of the vote.

In District 4, Jennifer Bacon, backed by the teacher's union, defeated incumbent "reformer" Rachele Espiritu and Tay Anderson, a teenager who just graduated from high school, with 43% of the vote in the three way race.

I Voted!!!!!!!!

My Colorado mail in ballot arrived in the mail this afternoon after being sent out yesterday. I completed it and turned it in at the drop box at the Washington Park Recreation Center this evening.

It is three weeks before the ordinary election day of old.

Metro Denver School Board Election Recap

In Denver, three incumbent school board members were all re-elected in the face of teacher's union sponsored challenges emphasizing "neighborhood schools" as opposed to charter schools and magnet programs.  But, Board President Happy Haynes won by only about 800 votes out of well over 100,000 votes cast, just enough to avoid an automatic recount.

In first ring western suburb Jefferson County, in a race that captured national attention, all five far right conservative members of the school board were ousted in one decisive fell sweep - three in recall elections and two to challengers in the ordinary general election.

In exurban Douglas County, there was no recall election, but all three of the seven school board members facing regular election challenges were replaced.  Ideological conservatives sponsored by the Republican party controlled all seven seats on the school board prior to the election (whose energies among other things supported a religious school voucher program held to violate the state constitution and state education funding statutes).  Now, the ideological Republicans have a 4-3 majority on the board.

Friday Tidbits

* The producers of the TV series Homeland, were duped by their own paid graffiti artists, but rightly took the slight in good humor with a humble press release, rather than starting a lawsuit.

* I have replaced my stolen laptop with a Mac Air.  So far, so good when it comes to being compatible with other IT hardware and software in our PC dominated office.

* My mail in ballot for the 2015 general election has arrived and for once I have no clue yet.  I have two school board seats to vote up (one at-large and one for my district), there is a state TABOR ballot issue, and there are gobs of local ballot issues in Denver.  I aspire to figure these races out and write about them soon, but have been so busy that I have only a dim idea about the candidates and the issues so far.

* My roof is being replaced due to hail damage early this summer.  Life is noisy at the moment.

2011 Election Results In Denver and Colorado

Colorado Proposition 103 to raise taxes to pay for education was defeated in Denver and has no chance statewide if it doesn't win in Denver. Denver issue 300, which would have mandates sick leave, was also defeated.

Happy Haynes has won the Denver Public Schools at large race, and Anne Rowe has won the District 1 school board race in Denver.

The District 5 school board race, and issue 2A regarding the deputy auditor, are still too close to call.

Vote in Colorado and in particular in Denver.

You can still hand deliver your ballots in the 2011 general election in Colorado today and tomorrow at designated elections offices open until 6 p.m. today and from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. tomorrow.

The locations in Denver, Colorado are:

Denver Elections Division, 200 W. 14th Ave.
Christ Community Church, 8085 E. Hampden Ave.
Harvey Park Recreation Center, 2120 S. Tennyson Way
Hiawatha Davis Jr. Recreation Center, 3334 N. Holly St.
Montbello Recreation Center, 15555 E. 53rd Ave.
Montclair Recreation Center, 729 N. Ulster Way
Scheitler Recreation Center, 5031 W. 46th Ave.
Washington Park Recreation Center, 701 S. Franklin St.

At the state level the only issue is Proposition 103 which would increase the state income tax rate from 4.63% to 5.0% and the state sales tax rate from 2.9% to 3.0% for a number of years, and in exchange increase funding for K-12 and higher education combined (the division of funds is up to the Colorado General Assembly) by about 15%.

Colorado has one of the least well funded higher education systems relative to median state income in the nation, and its funding of K-12 is lackluster.  Due to the mechanics of various federal law, state constitutional, and practical considerations that go into the Colorado state budget, in recessions, higher education almost always takes the lion's share of shortfalls in state revenues and this measure proposes a medium term fix to that problem.  I recommend that you vote for Proposition 103.

In Denver, voters will cast ballots in one five way at large school board race and two school board district races, each with two contenders.  I profiled the candidates here. At stake in the race is the ongoing division in the school board between members favorably inclined to charter schools and other reforms backed by well heeled area business people, and candidates strongly committed to neighborhood schools and concerned that new options undermine these schools backed by the teacher's union.

Denver voters also cast ballots on citizen initiated issue 300, which would mandate that workers in Denver at establishments with 10 or more employees would earn 1 hour of paid sick time/family sick time/domestic violence victim time off for each 30 hours worked up to 75 hours a year (40 hours a year for businesses in their first year).  The Mayor and City Council are against it, fearing an undue burden on businesses.  I'm not convinced and think that it is the right thing to do, and that the additional administrative burden would be modest given the many payroll obligations that businesses this size must already meet.  It works out to less than a 3% pay raise for hourly workers in the city, as not everyone would use the new benefit. Vote yes on issue 300.

Finally, Denver voters decide if the City Auditor should be permitted to appoint his deputy, a referred charter amendment that would slightly reduce the scope of the city's civil service system for one senior position in the auditor's office, rather than requiring the auditor to pick from three civil service board screened candidates for this post.  I think that this is a reasonable change and recommend that you vote in favor of it.

2009 Election Redux

So, there was an election yesterday. What happened in Colorado?

Denver voters rejected (by an almost 7-3 margin) an initiative proposing mandatory car impoundment for driver's without licenses. It was opposed by almost the entire political establishment and was a loophole closing follow up to a prior impoundment initiative that has proven to be most invalid or unenforceable. Both impoundment initiatives were not so veiled anti-immigrant measures. Turnout of 81,553 voters in Denver's all mail ballot election was lower than any comparable recent election in Denver since 1999 when turnout was 81,489 in the November school board election.

Voters in Breckenridge, Colorado, home of a popular ski resort, voted to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana under town ordinances, with 73% of voters favoring decriminalization. State law remains in effect, so this measure, like a similar one that passed in Denver, is largely symbolic.

In Colorado Springs, Doug Bruce, the lead sponsor of TABOR (which limits the authority of Colorado governments to impose taxes without voter approval and imposes revenue limitations) prevailed at the ballot box where he had failed in local government and the courts. He was battling a stormwater user's fees that he called (without court agreement) a tax. TABOR also required Colorado Springs to seek voter approval to increase property taxes so it could avoid steep cuts in city services, and voters yesterday refused to go along. Most municipal governments in Colorado have "deBruced" with voter approval, but not Colorado Springs, so its revenues are strictly limited.

Had it been approved by voters, the permanent property tax increase would have generated an estimated $27.6 million in additional revenue next year and allowed the government to maintain services at 2009 levels.

Without it, city officials warned of having to close recreational and cultural facilities, slash 63,000 hours of bus service and lay off dozens of employees, including police officers and firefighters, among a host of cuts.

The 2-1 defeat of the property tax proposal in hard pressed Colorado Springs may presage how Colorado Springs would vote if state government put a tax increase or TABOR relief on the ballot to avoid further budget cuts. This means that any revenue increase proposal on the ballot in 2010 would need solid support outside this conservative anti-tax stronghold.

Teacher's union backed candidates will now hold four of the seven seats on the Denver Public School board, despite the fact that these candidates were less well funded in their campaigns. They won the two districts on Denver's West side. Mary Seawell, on the other slate, won the at large seat. The big issue was support for charter schools. Teacher's union candidates are lukewarm about charter schools without rejecting them out of hand. The other board members are more enthusiastic about the possibilities that charter schools offer.

Meanwhile, in Douglas County, Colorado, a conservative Southern Denver suburb, four school board candidates backed by the Republican party in the officially non-partisan race, defeated four candidates backed by the teacher's union there.

The voters in the City of Aurora (a large first ring suburb to the East of Denver) nixed a proposal to create a library district with its own property tax base. As a result (well publicized in advance), four of Aurora's seven libraries will close and the library system will lay off 40 people. I sympathize for an Auroran friend of mine who is in a library science graduate program right now.

While Aurora is shutting down libraries, Mayor Hickenlooper spared a branch library that was to have been shut down and Sunday hours at the Central Branch from this year's budget cuts. A replacement Colorado History museum is under construction half a block away from its current site (and in sight of the Central Branch library), which is being torn down to make way for a replacement to the structurally unsound state appellate courts building that shares the block with it. The appellate courts will move into the Denver Post Building across Civic Center Park from its current site in the interim. A new art museum is ready to break ground in December as a new addition to the Denver Art Museum complex, after a cost saving redesign and falling construction costs have reduced the estimated construction costs by $4 million dollars. Both the history and art museums receive major funding from the appointed Scientific and Cultural Facilities District in metropolitan Denver, a funding source that reflects the regional draw of these attractions.

The front range Regional Transportation District (RTD), in Colorado, in contrast, is far short of funds to complete its voter approved FasTracks rail expansion plan, but did win approval from a labor arbitrator of its contract proposal for its unionized workers while a more generous worker sponsored proposal was rejected. The arbitrator cited tough economic times for the district. Despite the FasTracks shortfall, RTD did not ask voters for additional funds in this election (nor did Denver).

No state level or federal offices or issues were on the ballot this year in Colorado.

Outside Colorado

Voters in Virginia and New Jersey elected Republican Governors. Both elections focused on personalities and local issues. Democrats kept a majority in the state legislature in New Jersey, while Republicans retained control in Virginia's legislature.

In Maine, a narrow majority of voters vetoed a gay marriage law enacted by the state legislature and signed by the Governor. Meanwhile, in Washington State were returns are always slow because ballots can be postmarked on election day, "Referendum 71, which sought to confer the same rights on domestic partnerships as civil marriages, was narrowly ahead in the latest returns."

Ohio voters authorized casino gambling in Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and Toledo.

Maine and Washington State voters rejected proposed TABOR amendments similar to the one in place in Colorado.

Pro-streetcar candidates did well in local elections across the nation, including Cincinnati.

In New York State's special election to fill a Congressional vacancy:

Democrat Bill Owens defeated Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in New York's 23rd congressional district special election, 49%-45% (with 92% of the voting in), becoming the first Democrat to control the district since at least the 1890s. . . . It was something of an upset after it was widely considered a likely victory for Hoffman after the Republican pick, Dede Scozzafava, dropped out of the race over the weekend. Scozzafava did, however, endorse Owens -- though it was unclear what effect that would have. . . . Republicans now control just two of 29 districts in New York State -- one Upstate and one in Long Island. They have lost six districts Upstate just since 2006. They control zero seats in all of New England.

NY-23 is in rural northern New York State, north of Albany and Syracuse. Parts of the district have not been represented by Democrats since the 1850s, when the Whig party was the main party opposed to the Democrats. Democratic Congressman Bill Owens of New York is no relation to former Republican Governor Bill Owens of Colorado, despite the Today Show's screwup on that point.

Republican Mayor Bloomberg of New York City won a third term against a low profile Democratic party challenger, after a massively expensive campaign and the repeal of a term limits law. Bloomberg (like most Northeastern Republicans who hold elective office) is a moderate Republican in overwhelmingly Democratic New York City.

Last Day To Vote!

Denver voters have until today to vote. You must hand deliver the ballot you received because it is too late to mail your ballot. When and where?

Your voted ballot must be received by the Denver Elections Division by 7 p.m. on Election Day in order to be counted. An Election Day postmark will not be honored if your ballot is received after Election Day. Please remember to sign your mail ballot before you return it.

You can return your voted ballot to a Voter Service Center located at the Denver Elections Division, 3888 E. Mexico Ave. or the Wellington Webb Building, Atrium, 201 W. Colfax Ave. from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, October 31 and Monday, November 2. Voter Service Centers will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day. Drive-through ballot drop-off is also available in front of the Elections Division during the same hours.

The drop off is easy. You can drive by and hand it to someone without getting out of your car and you don't even need a stamp. The Mexico Avenue location is just West of Colorado Boulevard and just North of I-25.

There are school board races and Denver municipal ballot issue 300. The right answer to the municipal ballot issue is "No." It is an anti-immigrant measures that would also inflict considerable collateral damage on the city's finances, our city's capacity to police itself without having resources diverted to car impoundents, and innocent people swept into a zero tolerance policy. If you aren't sure how to vote, my prior post on the topic, and the links and comments there, can help.

In 2007, the most recent comparable election, 93,644 people voted.

In 2005, the next most recent comparable election, 117,212 people voted.

In 2003, 100,632 people voted.

In 2001, 95,251 people voted.

As of the end of the day yesterday, 63,885 people had voted. In order to meet historical levels another 30,000 votes need to come in either by mail from yesterday and before, or by being dropped off. It is safe to expect that at more than 12,000 ballots will be received today (the number received yesterday which was the highest so far in the election). But, with 243,002 ballots not yet returned as of yesterday, turnout could vary greatly based upon today's results.

Conventional wisdom is that lower turnout produces a more conservative electorate.

Vote This Week!

If you want to vote in Denver this year, and you don't want to hand deliver your mail in ballot, you need to get it in the mail this week!

Denver's 2009 General Election Update

There are two decisions that Denver voters make on this year's mail in ballot. School board races and Issue 300 (an anti-immigrant measure dealing with car impoundments). I previously covered the issue here. Ballots arrive at voter's doors this week and must make their way back to election officials by November 3.

The candidates for the school board race were profiled by the Denver Post here. Every Internet news source you could possibly want in the race can be found here.

The two biggest players in the race are a group of men connected to a trucking company on one side (supporting Seawell, Garcia and Jones) and the Denver Classroom Teachers Union on the other (supporting Scott, Merida and Easley).

A candidate's attitude towards charter schools is probably the key issue driving decisions to support particular candidates. While none of the candidates outright oppose charter schools or favor radical change in the balance between district run and charter schools, Scott annd Merida (and uncontested Kaplan in District 3) are decidedly more lukewarm about them, and Easley makes a point of pushing for a strong neighborhood school option (i.e. non-charter school) for every child.

Notably, the Denver Classroom Teacher's Association, whose slate of candidates in the last election was decidedly underwhelming, has put forward a slate of much better qualified candidates this year.

* Two candidates are running in the at large race, Mary A. Seawell and Christopher Scott. Deborah Sims Fard was running for the at large race, but withdrew.

Mary Seawell is the favorite in this race with endorsements from Mayor Hickenlooper, both at large school board incumbents, a host of current and former state and local elected officials from Denver, and three key unions, and a dramatic fundraising advantage. About half of her funds come from four men affliated with Timpte Inc., a trucking business, which has been a major patron of Cole Arts and Science Academy in North Denver. Seawell is an education consultant.

Christopher Scott, seems like a competent good guy, but doesn't have the army of well organized support lined up behind him. His is the candidate of choice of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, however, the primary union representing teachers in Denver, as well as two incumbent DPS Board members, Arturo Jimenez, who is stepping down from District 5, and Jeanne Kaplan, who is running unopposed in District 3. Scott is a business consultant.

While it is hard to tell the policy differences between the two candidates, I trust the good political judgment of many of the people who have endorsed Seawell and join in supporting her in the at large school district race. Lining up support and having big networks of influential people available to you are crucial assets, in and of themselves, for a school board member.

I won't express an opinion in the other two school board races, in which I do not have a vote.

* Two candidates are running in the District 2 race (Michelle Moss in the incumbent in this open Southwest Denver seat): Ismael Garcia and Andrea E. Merida. Both candidates appear reasonably qualified and are community leaders. They appear to have similar levels of support.

Merida is supported by unopposed incumbent DPS Board member Jeanne Kaplan, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association; outgoing incumbent DPS member Arturo Jimenez, and the United Food and Commercial Workers. She is a web designer.

Garcia's support has come from businessmen including Phil Anschutz, Thomas Gamel of Rockmount Capital (who also supported Seawell), Steven Halstedt founder of Centennial Ventures founder; and Richard Saunders of Saunders Construction. Gracia is also supported by DPS School Board President Theresa Pena and Linda Childears, CEO of the Daniels Fund. Garcia is a community college administrator and is ordained as a minister.

* Five candidates are running in the District 5 race (Arturo Jimenez is the incumbent in this open Northwest Denver seat): Alton Clark, Nate Easley Jr., Vernon Jones Jr., Andrea Mosby and Jacqueline Shumway.

Veron Jones Junior's biggest supporters are the men associated with Timpte, Inc. (who also support Seawell). Also notable are Kristin Richardson, chair of the DPS Foundation board; former City Council President Elbra Wedgeworth; Anna Jo Haynes, Mile High Montessori president; and David Greenberg, founding board member of the Denver School of Science and Technology. Jones is a pastor.

Nate Easley Jr. is backed by the American Federation of Teachers Colorado, Public Education Committee of the CEA, and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. Easley is Deputy Director, Denver Scholarship Foundation.

The other three candidates have far smaller dollar campaigns. Jacqueline Shuway, the only candidate for the District 5 seat who is not African American, has received small donations from Joel Judd, D-Denver, Denver City Council member Marcia Johnson and Denver City Council member Carla Madison. Alton Clark has not solicited any donations and spent very little on his campaign. Andrea Mosby didn't file a campaign finance report and skipped a candidate's forum on September 23. None of these three responded to a questionaire from Education News Colorado to which all of the other candidates in contested races did respond.

* The other districts in the Denver Public Schools (1, 3 and 4) are either uncontested (3) and have no seats up for election this year (1 and 4).

* Issue 300 is opposed by the City and almost everyone who has spoke out about it, including me. Zero tolerance policies useful produce bad results, and this would cost the city money that it doesn't have to spare.

Denver's 2009 General Election Ballot

The General Election ballot in 2009 for Denver will be conducted by entirely by mail, and will go out around Columbus Day in October. The School Board District lines can be found here.

CANDIDATES FOR DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOL BOARD

At-Large:
Deborah Sims Fard
Christopher Scott
Mary Seawell

District 2 (SW Denver):
Ismael Garcia
Andrea Merida

District 3 (Central/East Denver)
Jeanne Kaplan

District 4 (NW Denver)
Alton Clark
Nathaniel Easley
Vernon Jones
Andrea Mosby
Jacqueline Shumway

BALLOT QUESTION:

Initiative 100: Shall the voters of the City and County of Denver adopt an ordinance amending the Denver Revised Municipal Code and in connection therewith, requiring immediate impoundment of a vehicle when the driver is driving without a valid operator's or chauffeur's license, or driving contrary to the restrictions imposed upon their license, or driving while their license has been denied, suspended, canceled or revoked, or when a driver of a vehicle is an illegal alien, while mandating the issuance of a summons without requiring the immediate impoundment of a vehicle when a validly licensed driver does not have such license in their immediate possession but has corroborating identification and proof of insurance, and allowing bond exemptions for rental cars, stolen vehicles, expired licenses renewed within 20 days, and lien holders when vehicles were sold to validly licensed drivers?

Via Denver Pols

I live in School Board District 1, which is not up for consideration this year. The other two East side School Board District 3 and 5 also do not involve contested elections this year. Those of us who live in East Denver will be deciding only the At Large School Board race and the Denver Municipal Ballot Initiative. Those who live in West Denver will also be voting in one of two contested school board races for their district.

I will look at the candidates in the three contested school board races in a future post. These races are officially non-partisan, although some of the candidates have a history of involvement in partisan politics.

I oppose Initiative 100. Zero tolerance policies (e.g. the $2,500 fee and mandatory impoundment apply even when you actually are a valid driver but don't have a license on your person) are bad policy, and we don't need to get Denver's traffic court into the business of conducting immigration hearings. This is a policy on how police operate and the municipal impoundment lot runs that the City, it officials and its police do not support.

Choices When Parenting Tweens

There are people who go gaga over babies. Over the holiday season, I was introduced to my two baby nieces, and to the baby daughter of my wife's BFF. It isn't that I don't like babies, but I lack the discernment to really distinguish one from another.

By the time they reach elementary school, however, the story is entirely different. Suddenly, they have personalities, opinions, interests, and direction. You can watch in wonderment to see the tendencies of you and your relatives sometimes perfectly mirrored, and other times utterly rejected.

They can also start to be some help around the house. My nine year old, with only minimal assistance, made our entire New Year's Eve dinner, complete with menus and an imaginary tip to calculate. My seven year old, with the vigor that can only come from lack of experience, shoveled our walk on this snowy morning. Amazingly, like the kids lined up to paint the fence in Tom Sawyer, this isn't even work for them yet, it is a new experience that they're eager to share. While child labor laws are a necessity, the centuries when children were vital economic contributors to the household weren't entirely wrong.

Living in the Denver Public School district makes understanding your children's personalities, opinions, interests and direction not just a private joy, but a practical necessity. The days of my own childhood, where there was one public K-12 option for you based on where you lived, and one secular K-8 private school, if you were so inclined, are relics of a small town life that I left behind. In Denver, there are choices, lots of them, and the system has made every effort to array them not as good, better and best, but as schools with different specializations.

At the middle school level in Denver, there are two schools of the arts, one well established (but experiencing a bit of administrative turmoil) and another new. There are a couple of schools with gifted and talented programs and another with a pre-International Baccalaureate program. There is a school devoted to science and technology. There is a school devoted to foreign languages. Some are charter schools, some are ordinary public schools with special programs, and some are just ordinary public schools. There is a neighborhood school which was historically underwhelming but with a core of parents working to make it better. There is the option of choosing a school out of the district, or moving out of the district to secure such a school. The Saints, Mary, John, Anne and Vincent among them, all beckon. There are the Denver and Colorado Academies, Waldorf and Graland Country Day School, which is safely in Denver proper's city limits. Then there are the "Christian" schools, which our family, of course, dismiss out of hand -- not every option is meant for us.

The effect of this is to add a whole new dimension to an otherwise ordinary science fair project, after school Spanish class, new found interest in fashion, part in a school play, or encounter with kids from different neighborhoods at a jump rope clinic. Will a love for peering through a microscope to discern which cleaner most readily dispatches dried chicken blood translate into happiness with a half hour trip each way to a well regarding science and technology school? Does a downbeat afternoon after Spanish rule out an International School, or does it just mean that today's conversation partner was being a jerk this afternoon because he forgot his afternoon snack at home? Does an interest in fashion portend a future in the stage craft program at the Denver School of the Arts, or merely years of credit card bills at the Cherry Creek Mall? How much do you simply look at your child's own interests, and how much do you look at the total academic program offered and the degree to which the non-curricular side of a school looks healthy? How much do things like the quality of the facilities or the length of the trip to school each day matter?

More mundanely, which interests require follow up and support, and which do not? Does a beloved art class project oil painting hanging on a bedroom wall suggest that a weekend painting class is in order? Will saying yes to violin lessons buttress a life long love of music, or simply add to the guitar and keyboard and drum sitting unused in a box in the corner after months of whining about practicing for violin lessons? Where does opening up possibilities for your children end, and over scheduling begin? Do you cheer on the fact that your child is reading far above reading level, or bemoan the fact that despite being able to read difficult materials, your child chooses much more basic books seven times out of ten when reading for fun? After your child has spent considerable time learning skating or skiing or Spanish, but not achieved mastery, should that child be allowed to quit without putting up a mighty fuss over it?

This brings up another part of the parenting of tweens. Suddenly, they have become cunning. Their efforts to manipulate you, for reasons that advance their own best interests and those that undermine them with equal frequency, have become conscious and calculating. After watching a Disney channel character use her puppy dog eyes and sweet pleading to manipulate her father, during a rare stint of TV watching while we were on vacation, my own daughter decided that the character had a good thing going and immediately set about to mimic the technique. Of course, old mainstays like wild, uncontrollable temper tantrums aren't gone as methods of parental manipulation. But, they work less well now that we've had almost a decade to learn how to handle them.

Our kids have had an overwhelmingly secular upbringing, living in an extended family where some of their relatives are just as secular as we are, while others are very intensely religious in different ways. They weren't baptized, have had only fleeting interactions with a local Unitarian church and with the religious traditions of family and friends, and know only the barest handful of biblical stories. This certainly hasn't prevented them from growing into well behaved children. Teachers and fellow parents frequently emphasize their extraordinarily good conduct above all their other tendencies and talents. But, one of these days, they will need to learn some of the stories and theologies enough to understand where others in our society are coming from. Should we teach them those at home? Should we rely on them to pick them up by osmosis from friends and the general culture? Should we wait until they have questions or raise it ourselves? Too much unsatisfied curiosity can make those ideas artificially tempting and forbidden. Too much importance attached to those lessons can create unwelcome interest where there wasn't any before. What is a secular parent of tweens to do?

Still, the pre-teen, elementary school years are good ones for parents. The dreaded specter of attitude and teen romance has not yet come into full bloom, while it is now possible to have genuine conversations with them. You can start to get a sense of what the future will hold, although the crystal ball is sometimes cloudy. What do you make of it when the first answer you can remembering your child expressing to the "What do you want to do when you grow up?" question, is "I want to be a contestant on 'the Bachelor' when I grow up."

Nobody promised it would be easy, I suppose.