Auon’tai Anderson drops out of Denver college board race to run for state Home
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Denver college board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson is dropping his re-election bid and can run as a substitute for a seat within the Colorado Home of Representatives.
The 24-year-old is essentially the most high-profile member of the Denver college board, and his exit from the race will imply a change in the dynamics of the board, which has been criticized for infighting, together with between Anderson and President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán.
“The Anderson period of the college board has been consequential and we’ve made plenty of progress,” Anderson stated in an interview. “But it surely’s additionally a possibility to return to being boring. You gained’t have a lightning rod of 1 individual of seven being outspoken on the college board.”
Anderson was elected in 2019 to an at-large seat representing your entire metropolis as a part of a historic “flip” of the college board to members backed by the academics union. His four-year time period ends in November. Anderson had introduced greater than six months in the past that he was working for re-election to the board. Two different candidates — Kwame Spearman and Paul Ballenger — introduced this spring that they might problem him for the seat.
However on Monday, Anderson stated he plans as a substitute to run for the Home District 8 seat representing northeast Denver in 2024. The seat is held by state Rep. Leslie Herod, a Democrat who’s barred from working once more as a result of time period limits. 4 different candidates have already filed to run for the seat, in response to the secretary of state’s workplace database.
Different politicians have concurrently served within the state legislature and on native college boards, together with in Denver, however Anderson stated the timing of the races would have made that tough.
Within the wake of a taking pictures inside East Excessive Faculty in March, Anderson stated he started enthusiastic about the restrictions of the college board to make broad political adjustments. As an example, Anderson stated the college board can’t enact gun management measures, whereas state lawmakers can. He recalled a dialog he stated he had with a Black mom and scholar.
“The coed stated, ‘You’re telling us every little thing you possibly can’t do. What are you going to do about it?’” Anderson stated. That dialog helped push him to run for the legislature, he stated, the place he hopes to advocate for gun security, hire management, and reproductive rights, amongst different points.
In a marketing campaign video, Anderson stated he completed every little thing he got down to do on the college board, a declare he repeated in an interview. Within the video, he listed reunifying Montbello and West excessive colleges — two colleges in communities of coloration that the district beforehand closed for low scholar check scores. West Excessive reopened in 2021, and Montbello Excessive reopened final yr.
Anderson talked about elevating the minimal wage for district staff to $20 an hour, stocking college bogs with free menstrual hygiene merchandise, and passing insurance policies inclusive of LGBTQIA college students, reminiscent of mandating all-gender restrooms — all of which he championed.
“I’m strolling away with my head held excessive,” Anderson stated in an interview. “Even when I’m by no means elected to a different seat in authorities once more, I’m strolling away having no regrets.”
Anderson additionally helped lead the push in 2020 to take away law enforcement officials from Denver colleges following the homicide of George Floyd in Minneapolis. However the way forward for that coverage is unsure. The board voted to quickly droop it after the East taking pictures, and some board members now need to deliver college useful resource officers again extra completely.
Board members Michelle Quattlebaum and Scott Esserman have joined Anderson in publicly opposing the return of SROs. Anderson stated he’s assured that Quattlebaum, Esserman, and others will “preserve that work going” after he leaves the board.
A ballot taken in April earlier than different candidates had declared discovered simply 9% of respondents stated they deliberate to vote to re-elect Anderson and greater than half stated it was “time for somebody new.” A 3rd of respondents have been undecided.
Anderson’s time on the college board has been controversial. In 2021, his fellow board members censured him for violating expectations of board member conduct.
The censure got here after a five-month investigation into sexual assault and misconduct allegations, essentially the most critical of which weren’t substantiated. However investigators did discover that Anderson had flirtatious contact with a scholar whereas he was a board member and made social media posts that have been coercive and intimidating towards witnesses in the course of the investigation.
“Management all the time comes with bumps, and other people make errors,” Anderson stated. “But it surely’s about how we be taught from these errors and preserve shifting the mantle ahead.”
This would be the third time Anderson has run for workplace. A graduate of Denver’s Guide Excessive Faculty, Anderson first ran for college board in 2017 when he was simply a young person. Although he misplaced that race, he ran once more two years later and gained.
In asserting his now-canceled re-election bid final November, Anderson stated he’d thought-about working for a seat on the Denver Metropolis Council however modified his thoughts after the board’s debate final fall on whether or not to shut colleges with low enrollment.
Superintendent Alex Marrero initially really useful closing 10 small colleges. Anderson was a vocal opponent of that plan, which Marrero whittled down and the board rejected.
However 4 months later, in March, the board got here again and voted to shut three of the ten colleges. Anderson voted to shut Math and Science Management Academy and Denver Discovery Faculty, nonetheless, he forged the only vote in opposition to closing Fairview Elementary, the place enrollment projections have been in dispute.
Declining enrollment and college closures might be among the many points the following college board might want to deal with, and Anderson left open the chance that he might run for the board once more sometime. However he additionally stated that this coming election, when three of the seven seats are up for grabs, “is a chance for us to hit restart.”
Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, masking Denver Public Faculties. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
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