Scott Baldermann is functioning for re-election to represent southeast Denver on the school board

Scott Baldermann, who represents the southeast portion of the metropolis, is operating for re-election to the Denver university board.

Baldermann submitted his candidacy Friday. The 47-year-outdated father of two Denver Community Colleges college students was elected in 2019 as portion of a historic “flip” of the university board to candidates backed by the Denver academics union.

Over the earlier 4 a long time, Baldermann has advocated for curtailing university autonomy and ending levels of competition among colleges around enrollment and take a look at scores. 

He championed ensuring more lecturers can earn Colorado’s variation of tenure by no for a longer time enabling semi-autonomous innovation educational facilities to waive it, and has taken a more durable line with constitution educational institutions. Most recently, he proposed bringing police officers back again to colleges — a contentious coverage that won approval on a 4-3 vote.

Baldermann’s seat symbolizing District 1 is one of a few seats up for grabs on the seven-member Denver faculty board on Nov. 7. Hence significantly, he has no challengers. 

He largely self-funded his 2019 campaign, finally paying a lot more than $330,000 to acquire his seat. He mentioned he must do so all over again “because of the dark revenue hovering above the district.” Groups supportive of education and learning reform, which Baldermann opposes, invested much more than $1 million in the past Denver faculty board race.

There’s a great deal at stake in this election, such as how the biggest district in the state will offer with declining enrollment and react to security considerations right after shootings in and all-around universities.

The election comes at a time when energy struggles between some board users have eroded self-confidence in the board. A modern survey uncovered numerous Denver voters have an unfavorable look at of the board, and some parents have named for the overall board to resign. 

Baldermann is the only incumbent now managing for re-election. Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson just lately dropped his re-election bid to operate for the Colorado Home of Reps instead.

Baldermann has generally stayed out of the interpersonal conflicts that have dogged the board. A quieter board member, he is a potent supporter of the board’s switch to policy governance, a alter that has at situations contributed to the turmoil. 

Underneath plan governance, board members set objectives and restrictions but do not get concerned in the day-to-working day functions of the district, which is the occupation of the superintendent.

“This board, I experience, has been very effective,” Baldermann said in an job interview. “But a whole lot of interpersonal dynamics have overshadowed that perform.”

An case in point of that efficiency, he claimed, was the passage of a coverage referred to as “Ends 4 Health and Basic safety,” which the board adopted with no fanfare in February, a month prior to a student shot and wounded two deans at East Significant University in March. Just a few sentences extensive, the coverage states that in light-weight of a latest increase in gun violence, the district will collaborate with legislation enforcement and many others “to proactively mitigate inner and exterior threats to basic safety.” 

All those three sentences served as the framework for the district’s reaction to the East capturing, Baldermann explained. A memo the board adopted the day right after the shooting temporarily suspending its ban of law enforcement in faculties and directing Superintendent Alex Marrero to create a long-time period protection system by June 30 was basically telling him “to accelerate that operate,” Baldermann reported.

“The very good work is uninteresting,” Baldermann stated of that plan and other folks that lay out the board’s targets for the district. “But at the close of the day, that’s the stuff that will help me snooze at night time [knowing] that we had been performing the right stuff and we were remaining proactive.”

He thinks he has additional coverage do the job to do. 

Baldermann was amongst the board members who voted unanimously in 2020 to eliminate police officers from universities in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. 

Three years and several gun incidents afterwards, he reported his position improved. Baldermann’s primary proposal to convey back again faculty resource officers bundled education specifications for the officers and boundaries on their interactions with pupils, but a bulk of his fellow board customers stripped out people provisions ahead of the proposal passed.

Baldermann also a short while ago voted to near three district-run educational facilities with very low enrollment. 

“I do feel that we need to have to near universities,” he claimed. “I want to make confident that our marginalized communities are not the kinds shouldering all of this burden. This demands to be a holistic, citywide answer to address what our educational facilities are going to search like.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, masking Denver General public Universities. Get in touch with Melanie at [email protected].