DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — There's a new director of the Douglas County School District Board of Education. Board members elected Jason Page to the seat in a special meeting Tuesday night.
"This school district has weathered some storms as of late, but the time for complaining and arguing is over," Page said. "I look forward to further discussions about the ideas I have about how we can continue to make Douglas County schools the best they can be because all of our students deserve that."
Page enters the role at a time of relative turmoil for the district over the last year and a half.
In April, the Douglas County School District paid former Superintendent Corey Wise more than $830,000 to settle his discrimination claims over his firing last year after he advocated for students with disabilities and youth of color.
A district judge ruled the board violated the Colorado Open Meetings Law in connection with its firing of Wise, according to reporting from our partners at The Denver Post.
Robert “Bob” Marshall, now a state representative for House District 43, filed a lawsuit in February 2022 alleging the board held a series of private one-on-one meetings to discuss replacing Wise.
The Colorado Open Meetings Law, part of the Colorado Sunshine Law, generally requires state or local governmental bodies to discuss public business or to take formal action in meetings open to the public.
The judge did uphold the board's decision to terminate Wise because he reached the settlement with the district.
Then in May, board member Elizabeth Hanson resigned, citing concerns about the board updated the district's equity policy.
Education
DougCo school board member Elizabeth Hanson resigns ahead of equity policy vote
The board voted to make updates to the policy that expand the definition of diversity so broadly, some board members expressed concern it diluted the intention of the policy. Revisions also put the responsibility of achieving equity on the student, not the district or staff.
Before the meeting, parents and students protested 'racism' outside the building, in support of 8th grader Jeramiah Ganzy who said classmates called him racial slurs at school while teachers stood by without intervening.
Ganzy, 14, told Denver7 he's experienced so much racism at Castle Rock Middle School that he no longer feels safe there.
Hanson also cited the district's financial state as a reason for her resignation. She said the board frivolously spent money that "belongs to classrooms."
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Family of boy targeted by alleged racism calls Hanson's resignation 'empowering'
Page takes over the Board of Education temporarily through November of 2023.
In a press release he said, “in my current career as an IT professional, I have led both local and international teams in many different arenas, including local government, mining, education, oil and gas, data centers, and global consulting. I have gained specialized training in process development, organizational change management, problem solving and decision-making analysis, customer support, and product management,” Page said.
He most recently served two years on the board of directors at Ben Franklin Academy between 2020 and 2022, a public charter school in Highlands Ranch, and represented charter schools on the Douglas County School District's long-range planning committee.
He's also a parent of a Douglas County schools student.
