The conservative trend among locally elected school board members in some school districts has stalled in some cases and continued in others, according to early election results.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, ideologically driven campaigns and candidates have persisted in local school board elections, with recent top-of-mind topics including the rights of students based on their sex and gender, parental rights, updating books and instructional materials and improving student achievement.

Initial totals show one incumbent returning to D-49’s board of education, while a Republican-backed slate of candidates looks to fill three vacancies on Academy D-20’s board, and Colorado Springs D-11 seems to avoid a clean sweep of such candidates.

School District 49

For El Paso County’s largest school district, early results had Lori Thompson ahead of challenger Chris Harrell 52.1% to 47.9% and newcomer Holly Withers with a 2% lead over Jamilynn D’avola for D-49’s board of education. Previous board member and candidate Ivy Liu trailed Withers by 28%.

During their first terms, Thompson and D’Avola helped draft a Parents’ Bill of Rights and passed multiple resolutions and policies concerning transgender students. A new policy prohibiting biological male students from participating in biological female athletics has spearheaded an ongoing lawsuit against the state over alleged discrimination towards biological female students. Other local school districts and charter schools later joined the lawsuit.  

Academy D-20

In Academy D-20, Holly Tripp, incumbent Susan Payne and Eddie Waldrep were leading the three at-large seats at around 17% of the total votes apiece. Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank publicly endorsed the three candidates. Payne would be the only returning board member. She succeeded Aaron Salt, who resigned this year.

The competing slate of candidates of Brandon Clark, Renée Malloy Ludlam and Jennafer Stites trailed behind slightly at 15.5%, 14.5% and 13.9%, respectively. Cynthia Halverson yielded 4% of the votes.

Colorado Springs D-11

It wasn’t quite the clean sweep in D-11 this time around, with candidates Michelle Ruehl, Jeremiah Johnson and LeAnn Baca Bartlett leading the vote totals at 17.9%, 15.58% and 17.45%, respectively.

Ruehl and Johnson were joined by Bruce Cole as the slate of candidates endorsed by Rep. Crank, while Baca Bartlett, Michael Carsten and Charles Johnson were publicly backed by the district’s teachers union, the Colorado Springs Education Association.

Carsten yielded 15.1% of voters while Johnson received 15.24% and John Gustafson only 3.9%.

Voter turnout was far and away the highest for D-11’s board elections at over 107,700 initially recorded. Academy D-20 had the second-highest turnout at more than 76,400.

Widefield D-3

For the three open seats in D-3, Michelle Hubbard, Luis Ybarra Jr. and William Dolphin led the race, each with more than 25% of the total votes. Trailing these three were Pamela Jones with 14.4% of the votes and Robin Jones with 1.1%

Cheyenne Mountain D-12

Newcomers Jessica Lehman and Kara Mehall built decisive leads over candidates David Schulz and Janna Blanter for D-12’s two open seats.

Lewis-Palmer D-38

In D-38, Tim Bennett ran unopposed in District 1, and early results had Ginger Schaaf leading Jackie Burhans 59.2% to 40.7%.

Woodland Park RE-2

Woodland Park RE-2’s one at-large race saw Laura Gordon leading Bert West 59.7% to 40.3%. Kassidi Gilgenast led Norm Michaels 62.5% to 37.5% for District D, while Carol Greenstreet had the edge over Clayton Austin 59.6% to 40.4% for District E.

Calhan RJ-1

In Calhan, Charlotte Trohanovich, Jim Elrick and Buckey Lobdell were the apparent favorites over David Hammond for the district’s three at-large seats.

Ellicott D-22

Clinton Schubert, Amy Bautista and Michael Ferguson received the most votes, ahead of Ryan Boone, Amanda Kobilan and Alice Trulson, for Ellicott’s three open seats.

Peyton 23-JT

Robert Christian, Kelli Markus and Buffi Cavanagh were the leading candidates over Carrie LaFollette for Peyton’s three at-large seats.

Miami-Yoder 60-JT

Daniel Carneal, Samantha Berg and Jon Hogeboom led Ronny Burr for the three seats in Miami-Yoder.