AURORA | Only one of three open seats on the Cherry Creek School District school board will see competition for voters’ picks on November 5.
Four residents of the district — which includes much of southern Aurora and the southeast metroplex suburbs — are running to make big decisions for the 55,000-student school district, including managing hundreds of millions of mostly taxpayer dollars.
Three of five voting seats are up for grabs this November. This year’s election will change the dynamic of the school board, which makes final decisions on everything from milk carton contracts to spending large amounts of taxpayer money on school construction, teacher salary and myriad initiatives.
Only the District C seat has more than one hopeful, making the other seats a shoo-in barring surprise withdrawals.
That seat was occupied by former board President Dave Willman, who resigned last spring after using a self-described racist term, “tar baby”, at a teacher appreciation banquet. Regardless, Willman would have been term-limited. The two candidates hoping to earn the seat for the next four years are both African-American.
Angela Garland, one of those hopefuls, has four children that are students in the district. In a district questionnaire, she said she volunteers on the district Foundation Board, a fundraising entity. She said she has also served on the District Accountability Committee and Leadership Cherry Creek program.
Garland said “each of these ‘appointments’ have provided me with a degree of insight, compassion and empathy for all the complexities within our school district with the most important being our students.”
Her opponent for the seat is Alioune Sogue, an environmental engineer and leader of the Colorado African Organization. The nonprofit has provided resources to over 80 percent of immigrants and refugees resettled in the state since 2004, he said in the district questionnaire.
Sogue has said his priorities would be supporting new, innovative learning environments and focusing on the district’s immigrant population.
Two other candidates are running unchallenged for separate seats.
Janice McDonald is running for reelection to the District B seat. She was originally elected in 2015 and will serve another four years, barring a withdrawal from the race.
The board’s District A seat is open after its current holder, Eric Parish, backed out of a reelection bid. Parish is a vice president of MGT Consulting, a for-profit group winning millions of dollars to manage struggling districts and schools in the region, including in neighboring Aurora Public Schools. Parish cited family responsibilities in his announcement not to run for reelection.
Vying for the open seat is Anne Egan, who also does not face competition. Egan said she has volunteered in the district for almost 20 years. Like Garland, she has served on a bevy of district committees and groups and graduated from the Cherry Creek leadership academy program.
Egan said three of her children have graduated from the district, and one is still a student. She said that student mental health is her priority.