Two Douglas County school administrators were named as finalists Wednesday to become the county school district’s next superintendent, fewer than four weeks after the previous superintendent was fired and amid an ongoing legal battle over his dismissal.

Erin Kane, the executive director of schools for a Douglas County charter school, and Danny Winsor, the executive director of schools for the Douglas County School District, were unanimously chosen as finalists by the board’s seven members. An effort to add Chris Page, the principal of Highlands Ranch High School, as another finalist failed on a 3-4 vote, which came along the new member-versus-veteran member lines that have fractured the board.

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One of those longer-serving members, David Ray, moved to add Page to the finalist list, and new member Kaylee Winegar supported a vote on including the principal. But she then voted against actually adding him to the finalists list. Board member Elizabeth Hanson also attempted to have Winsor be the only finalist, arguing that the seven member board – publicly split over the decision to fire then-superintendent Corey Wise a month ago – should come together behind one candidate. That effort also failed on a 3-4 vote.

Twenty-three people applied – several of whom withdraw their names – and 15 candidates were screened by the board ahead of a five-hour executive session Wednesday, during which the board interviewed three potential finalists. 

Winsor has been with the district for 13 years, according to his bio on the district’s website. Before becoming executive director of schools, he “held the roles of DCSD Director of Choice Programming, high school and middle school principal, assistant principal, school counselor, teacher, and coach,” according to the website. He has a master’s of counseling psychology from the University of Northern Colorado.

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Kane helped launch American Academy, a Douglas County charter school, and has served as its executive director since 2009, aside from a two-year window beginning in 2016 when she worked as the school district’s interim superintendent. Before taking the reins of American Academy, she “spent nearly a decade in the high technology industry in project development, project management, education, consulting, and practice management,” according to her bio on the school’s website.

Kane’s inclusion on the list seemed inevitable: Immediately after Wise’s firing, Kane’s name was raised publicly in board meetings by the public and on social media as the newly elected leaders’ preferred candidate. Board president Mike Peterson said last month that he reached out to Kane about applying for the position in January, before Wise had been fired. Vice president Christy Williams said she had children at Kane’s school and that she hoped she would apply.

Kane donated $50 apiece to campaign committees for Peterson and fellow new board members Kaylee Winegar and Becky Myers. She donated $150 to support Williams’ effort, according to state records. 

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The board will meet again Thursday beginning at 12:10 p.m. to begin finalist interviews. A finalist forum and community input is scheduled for March 10. Though an exact hire date has not been set by the board, the board approved a timeline last month indicating a potential offer may be made at the March 22 meeting. 

Wednesday’s announcement comes 26 days after the board voted 4-3 to immediately terminate Wise, its previous superintendent, despite a staff protest that was so large the district had to cancel school. Regardless of which finalist the board hires in the coming weeks, Wise’s firing will hang over its seven members for the foreseeable future: Wise has indicated he will sue the district, for which he worked for 26 years, and his attorneys have specifically sought records related to Kane.

A separate lawsuit filed against the district by a Douglas County resident, arguing the board broke state law when its leaders privately discussed firing Wise, has already begun; a judge is currently weighing whether to bar the board’s members from those types of private conversations going forward.

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Tensions among the board – made up of four newly elected members and three more veteran ones – were rising before Wise’s firing. But they burst into view in the run up to that Feb. 4 vote, when Ray, Hanson and Susan Meek publicly accused their four fellow members of breaking the law and delivering an ultimatum to Wise a week before they voted to fire him.

The board’s leaders have denied breaking the law and have said they apprised Wise of his options: He could retire, resign or be fired. 

Last month, the new members pushed through a swift timeline and indicated they didn’t want to redefine the district’s direction or mission, despite those leaders saying Wise’s firing was about doing just that. The expedited timeline – far faster than that adopted by Denver Public Schools last year, for instance – is necessary, the board’s four new members have all said, to bring stability back to leadership and to the district’s upcoming push to raise teacher salaries at the ballot box in November.