After three days of counting ballots and a couple of tight races, the Denver School Board has four new members, and for the first time in recent history, all of them are backed by the Denver teachers union instead of by education reform organizations.

Board Director Tay Anderson said the “flip” from being backed by education reform organizations to being supported by the Denver teacher’s union 7-0 means that “Denver Voters agree with the direction we are headed. We didn’t need to spend a million dollars to push our folks, it was everyday teachers knocking on doors, parents texting their neighbors, and identifying what our students needed to recover from the pandemic.”

In an election that saw low turnout, Denver voters chose Carrie Olson, Scott Esserman, Michelle Quattlebaum and Xochiti “Sochi” Gaytan to lead the state’s largest school district. 

Esserman is a parent and former schoolteacher in public and private schools in Colorado. Olson, from District 3, was the only incumbent, first elected in 2017 and then becoming president in 2019. Quattlebaum, from District 4, has three children who graduated from George Washington High School where she has worked as the family and community liaison. She’ll have to quit that job now that she’s on the board due to conflict of interest. Gaytan was born in Mexico, became a U.S. citizen as a young adult and has two sons. 

Contacted by the Gazette, Gatan said she is looking forward to the challenge, “They’re needing community candidates to make change in DPS for quality learning environments,” she told The Gazette.

The night was a loss for supporters of education reform who say the board supported by the union doesn’t concentrate enough on academics, especially during the pandemic.

The board has seven directors who are elected to four-year staggered terms. This election, one at-large seat and three regional seats were up for grabs. All Denver voters can vote for the at-large seats, but only residents within a region can vote for the regional seats.

Denver Public Schools has 200 schools and serves 90,000 students. State campaign finance reports show that more than a million dollars was funneled into this year’s school board election.