The Colorado Association of School Executives recently appointed a Colorado Springs-area district leader as its future president.

Wendy Birhanzel, superintendent of Harrison School District 2, was named president-elect at a CASE convention last week. Birhanzel, who will assume leadership in 2026, will be only the third CASE president from the Pikes Peak region in the last 29 years.

“I’m really honored to have been chosen for this role,” Birhanzel said. “I’m looking forward to stepping into this role at a time when public education has a lot of challenges, but also a lot of opportunities.”

Birhanzel’s ascent to CASE leadership comes during a fraught period in public education.

A 2024 adequacy study of Colorado school funding, published by the nonpartisan American Institutes for Research, concluded that Colorado schools are severely underfunded, and that it would take an additional $4 billion to properly educate students across the state. There is a growing effort to shift public funds toward charter and private schools. And a teacher shortage threatens the quality of instruction in classrooms across Colorado and the U.S.

“Public education is under attack,” Birhanzel said. “That’s why it’s important that we advocate and we tell our story and we make sure that students receive a quality education regardless of where they go.”

As the state’s leading organization for K-12 leaders, CASE’s primary mission is advocacy for Colorado’s educational professionals and the students they serve, Birhanzel said.

“Everyone who knows me knows that I will share my opinion and I will advocate fiercely for our kids,” said Birhanzel, whom CASE named the Colorado Superintendent of the Year for 2023.

“I’m a firm believer that, regardless of what ZIP code you live in, you should have a quality education, and I have always advocated for that. I’m just going to be doing it on a larger scale.”

As CASE president, Birhanzel intends to spend much of her time meeting with educators and lawmakers on the state and national level, “to tell the story of what’s happening in schools here in Colorado,” she said.

“I want to help change the perception of public education. I will not change everyone’s perception, but if we can just educate a few people to understand the work that is happening in our public schools, if we can help people realize that our teachers are in a noble profession, that our school leaders give so much of themselves. If I can accomplish that, then I will consider my term a success.”

Birhanzel’s three-year CASE tenure will include a year as president-elect and member of the executive committee, one year as sitting president and a year as past president, she said.

“The fight for public education is on,” Birhanzel said. “And I’m ready.”

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