Unlike recent school board elections in Colorado, the 2025 coordinated elections sent a clear message in favor of progressive-minded candidates.

Following the initial results, the Colorado Education Association (CEA), the statewide teachers’ union, announced in a news release that over 80% of its endorsed candidates were ahead in their races across Colorado.

In Teller County, a slate of three CEA-backed candidates for Woodland Park RE-2’s board of education won by decidedly larger margins, ranging from 15-20% of total votes ahead.

Board member-elect Kassidi Gilgenast, a district parent and volunteer, said that she decided to run after becoming frustrated with decisions by the current board and previous superintendent that had manifested into anxiety in the district’s schools and their seeming lack of care or engagement with the community.

She added that the elections that voted in that current board were likely reflective of “larger societal factors” in public education coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, including greater focus on parental rights and addressing liberal or progressive ideas being introduced in schools.

“But I think that that was really overstated to a certain extent and that there was this huge backlash over what people perceived was happening in the district,” she said.

In recent years, the district has endured administrative turnover, inconsistent financial reporting, school consolidation and the loss of a local sales tax for revenue. This all transpired while facing public criticism over adopting a social studies curriculum preferred by conservative groups and making decisions for its local charter school with little public transparency or input.

Gilgenast added that the three victories this year seem like “a very significant shift” that brings “a much more hopeful outlook for the future.”

“I really feel like that shift is broadly across the community,” she said. “And certainly not everyone is happy with the results, because not everyone in town voted for me, but I think that this is marking a really significant shift, and I hope it’s a positive one that people will get behind.”