Sept. 1 marked the final deadline for candidates interested in running for school board seats around the state. And in what’s likely to be one of the most contentious races – in Jefferson County, where three board members were kicked out of office two years ago – two candidates filed to run at the 11th hour to challenge two of the three incumbents, including Mrs. Colorado.

In 2015, Jefferson County voters tossed three of the school board’s five members and two other incumbent board members chose not to run again, so recall backers came up with a slate of five candidates. All five won, although three have to run again this year for election to their first full four-year term.

Board President Ron Mitchell told Colorado Politics last month that the three incumbents – himself, Susan Harmon and Brad Rupert – had no one filed to challenge them. “I believe candidates and their backers, like Americans for Prosperity, will show up. We’re planning like there will be (opposing) candidates.”

He was mostly right.

Friday, two people filed candidacy petitions with the Board of Education for two of the three seats and set up a challenge for Harmon and Rupert in November. Mitchell is unopposed.

Matt Van Gieson will run against Rupert. Van Gieson was previously the president of the parent-teacher organization at Golden View Classical Academy, a controversial charter school in Jefferson County. The school, which offers a classical curriculum, receives its teacher training and other support from Hillsdale College, a private religious college which in the past has received money from conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. Van Gieson lives in Arvada.

Erica Shields will challenge Harmon. Shields, whose lives in Littleton, was the 2016 Mrs. Colorado America.

As of Tuesday, neither Van Gieson nor Shields had filed candidacy paperwork with the Secretary of State, but they have 10 days from the date of their announcements to make those required filings.

Eight candidates are running for four seats in Douglas County, which has been at the center of national controversy for setting up a voucher program declared unconstitutional by the Colorado Supreme Court, intimidation of a high school student by the board chair and vice-chair, and often-raucous board meetings.

The four seats (out of seven) are currently held by conservative reformers. Three of the incumbents are eligible to run again. However, none of the three are running, leaving the district with four new members come November.

Four candidates are tied to a slate called Elevate that is backed by conservatives with support from alumni of the Leadership Program of the Rockies, a training program for conservative candidates that has placed at least nine alumni on school boards around the state, including the three Jeffco board members who were recalled in 2015. The four candidates in the Elevate slate include Debora Scheffel, who lost a close 2016 re-election bid to the state Board of Education.

Four other candidates, backed by teacher/parent groups in the county, are also running.

A changeover of just one seat from the current conservative majority to the current pro-teacher minority could mean the end of the voucher program, known as the Choice Scholarship Program. It also could bring back the teachers’ union, the Douglas County Federation, which is affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers. The school board eliminated the contract negotiations with the union, meaning teachers now have to negotiate their own contracts with their supervisors.

In the Loveland-based Thompson district, four candidates have filed to run for the three seats on that seven-member board. Two conservative incumbents chose not to run for re-election.

The only contested race is between Lynn Greer and Barbara Kruse, who is backed by the Thompson Education Association. The teachers’ union also supports incumbent Lori Hvizda Ward and candidate Paul Bankes.

The 2015 election changed the board in Thompson from a conservative majority to one backed by the teachers’ union. The changeover ended a lawsuit from the union as well as a stalemate over contract negotiations.