2003 Board Guidance

One of the complaints that anti-reform/anti-improvement advocates level against the D11 Board members who were elected in 2003 is that we never had a vision. They complain that we never gave guidance to the District or to the two superintendents who served under us.

Shortly after Sandy Shakes, Eric Christen, Willie Breazell, and I were sworn onto the Board of Education in 2003, Shakes read a short memorandum which was titled "Board of Education Guidance." This memorandum is found below:


Immediately after Shakes presented this guidance, the status quo Board members, (Karen Teja, Mary Wierman, and David Linebaugh), accused us of ignoring the will of the public by not asking the public if we could present this guidance. These 3 union purchased Board members had never heard of the idea of Board members having ideas before. They had spent years on the D11 Board and had never presented ideas of their own. They would simply vote the way the administration or their handlers would instruct them to vote. The notion of Board members actually presenting concrete thoughts and guidance was just too much for them to handle.

The issue that the status quo Board members had with this guidance is that it was not developed through a committee process. In fact, these statements on the memorandum were a continuation of the campaign promises that each of us made in 2003. They were a public commitment by the new Board members to lead the District exactly where we said we would lead the District should we be elected.

Those who are running the recall campaign against Shakes and Christen have never presented clear reasons for their campaign. As has been shown in other postings, one of the main reasons for the recall is a personal vendetta. Another reason is that these status quo proponents are upset about the fact that the 2003 Board has actually moved forward on the agenda that we promised to implement. For status quo Board members who ran D11 for decades, the success of reform in D11 would highlight the abject failure of these people over years and years. This is just too much for these self-serving people to deal with.

Despite the objections of the do-nothing crowd, and even despite the political wranglings between Shakes and Christen for 2 years, both of these Board members have been instrumental in moving forward with each of the points in the guidance memorandum.

As to #1 in the memo, the Board implemented a site based directive in May 2006; Shakes and Christen voted "aye." For #2, Shakes and Christen both voted for a new employee evaluation system for the entire district. In addition, both voted for a new school-based performance compensation program for the district. For #3, several new charters have been approved with the votes of Shakes and Christen, and a magnet Montessori program was implemented with their support. For #4, this again is addressed in the site based directive. Monies will first be allocated to the school sites before administration takes its share of the public dollars. For #5, Dr. Norm Ridder had his staff develop a Comprehensive Academic Achievement Plan (CAAP) for the 2004-2005 school year. (Dr. Sharon Thomas actually attempted to take credit for developing a CAAP, but this was not the case). #6 is also addressed by site based management. Teachers will have a much stronger voice in the operation of their school buildings as this management system is implemented across the district.

The question still remains: why the recall? Shakes and Christen, along with Breazell and I, have moved forward on our campaign promises. Have there been fights and struggles along the way? Absolutely. These are extremely important issues. These issues cause emotions to run high, especially for those of us with children. However, despite the overwhelming status quo forces aligned against us, we have made progress that has never been seen before in D11. After the damage inflicted on D11 by Mary Ellen McNally, Lyman Kaiser, Lynn Peterson, Karen Teja, and Mary Wierman, it is amazing that we have moved this far this fast. Rather than waste hundreds of thousands of public dollars on recalling 2 Board members who have kept their campaign promises, the public needs to demand that this group of failed D11 Board members (all of whom have participated in the recall effort), admit their failures and allow D11 to become the highest performing school district in El Paso County, as it should be.