The Douglas County school board publicly interviewed two finalists to become its next superintendent Thursday, with both candidates pledging to work to heal a school district cleaved apart by the dismissal of their would-be predecessor. 

Each of the board’s seven members asked the two candidates, both school leaders in the county, one question during two roughly hourlong interviews. While topics ranged from school security to literacy, concerns about the division in the district repeatedly crept up, and unsurprisingly so: The board sat in those same seven seats 27 days ago, when its members narrowly voted to fire then-Superintendent Corey Wise after a caustic, openly combative meeting that has since spilled over into national media and a Douglas County courtroom.

Douglas County school board names two finalists to become next superintendent

As it stands now, the board seems set to hire either Erin Kane, who helped found and now runs a charter school, or Danny Winsor, the district’s executive director of schools, to replace Wise. Following Thursday’s meeting, which began with board President Mike Peterson asking sheriff’s deputies to escort an audience member out of the room, the two candidates will face public forums and feedback next week. The board has said it may make a hire before the end of the month.

Of the two, Kane has already received significantly more attention. After Wise’s firing, her name immediately began to circulate on social media and in subsequent public meetings as a pre-ordained finalist, and Peterson has acknowledged that he’d asked Kane if she would apply for the superintendent job before Wise had been fired. 

Kane, a founder and the current executive director of schools for American Academy, also served as an interim superintendent for Douglas County from 2016 to 2018. In her interview Thursday, she touted the success of her charter school – which, she said, has grown from 300 students at its founding to 3,000 now – and of her two-year stint as the top school administrator in the county.

She noted academic gains made by the district then, as well as improved retention rates. In the wake of Wise’s firing, some school board members have repeatedly said they fear a mass exodus of teachers and staff. 

Against the backdrop of a highly politicized school board, board member David Ray asked Kane about polarization and politics.

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Kane, who financially supported the campaigns of the board’s four new members and leaders, said she was a registered Republican. But she said she didn’t “see a role for (politics) in leading a school district” and that ideology had wormed its way too far into that job. She said she wanted to hear all good ideas, from all sides, and she advocated for the community coming together on the common ground it shared: helping Douglas County kids.

Kane said she viewed the rule of the superintendent as executing the vision of the board while giving teachers room to do their jobs without micromanagement; she said she would “take a bullet” for a teacher who took risks and may draw the ire of parents. She spoke of the need to show parents of special education students that the district supports them, and she said the key to successful special education is meeting the individual needs of individual children.

Referencing apparent rumors about her supposed position circulating in the community, Kane came out firmly against arming teachers, saying law enforcement partnerships were sufficient. She also said she was flatly opposed to a voucher program or something similar, saying it wasn’t the district’s job “to pay money to people to go somewhere else.” Instead, she said she wanted a bond measure that would raise employee salaries and build more neighborhood schools.

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While Kane’s approach to the interview seemed informed by the public divide that’s already emerged about her candidacy, Winsor spoke more emotionally about his attachment to the district, for which he’s worked for 13 years. He said parents need to feel they have a voice in the community and he, like Kane, urged a focus on the shared goal of a strong school district.

“The soul of this community wants to see our students be successful,” he said. “I think we’re getting stuck on how we all want it to look.”

He stressed being accessible to parents, staff and students, and that students feel safest when they feel known. He, like Kane, stressed the need for staff to get more competitive salaries, a question that the district will likely put before voters in November and one that will become a key part of the new superintendent’s job for the next several months.

Winsor said he had a “huge concern” about having appropriate staffing levels for special education services, which he looped back to finding money to pay employees better. 

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“I love this district, period,” he said. “I love our students, period. I love our staff, period. I love our families’ commitment to this district, period. That’s the commitment we need to have in this district.”