Our public school system is injured by a thousand cuts. At year end, our most dear institutions are confronted with a lawsuit over book banning, a lawsuit over termination of a middle-school dean defending books, districts threatening educators with termination, and authorization of a tax grab and land grab by two charter schools in the so-called “classical” model.

Elizabeth School District is home to much of this activity. Its superintendent Dan Snowberger and attorney Brad Miller have either incited or supported the book bans and the termination of a middle-school dean. The district will go to court in January on the book banning case that, according to Colorado Public Radio, has already put $57,000 in attorney Miller’s money bucket. The American Civil Liberties Union is litigating the case for two students who objected to the removal of 19 books from their school libraries.

In a related case, LeEllen Condry, the district’s former middle school dean of students, was terminated when she publicly opposed the book banning. The district’s legal claim is she was fired over budgetary concerns. Condry asserts she was discriminated against and fired to retaliate against her anti-book-banning statements.

In Colorado District 11 in Colorado Springs, Angelica “Angel” Givler-Viers is no longer in her fifth-grade classroom at McAuliffe Elementary School because D-11 wants to fire her. She posted running commentary on district actions on social media. She supported the one-day strike in October objecting to the district’s refusal to recognize the D-11 education association and negotiate a binding master agreement. Educators in D-11 now work under an employee handbook specifying rules and guidance.

Press reports state some D-11 school board members felt the master agreement gave teachers too much decision-making authority over school administration. The board asserts that basic terms will not “automatically disappear” related to salary, leave, planning time and health benefits. Teachers obviously worry about what the board’s statements imply related to salary, leave, planning time, health benefits and many other issues regarding school operations and employee relations.

Similarly in Sheridan School District, one of the smallest in the Denver metro area, the district and the teachers’ association have come to an impasse with the elapse of the district’s master agreement. Teachers have worked many months without a contract. They held an after-school rally at school headquarters last week well attended by teachers, parents, children and concerned citizens.

Kate Biester, fiery Sheridan Education Association president, decried the board’s inaction on its master agreement. She notes teachers received a 1% raise immediately chewed up by increased health benefit expenses. Sheridan salaries are not competitive with neighboring districts. Turnover is high, school resources are limited, school safety is in question, and working conditions are unsettled. Sheridan has a low property tax base that compounds its financial circumstances. Sheridan’s school finance problems will also be felt by other districts as they deal with inadequate state funding.

To wrap up, it’s back to Elizabeth School District where Superintendent Snowberger, attorney Miller, and the board are trying to get a charter school, Independence Classical Academy (ICA), on its feet. The school will compete directly for students with a local elementary school in a residential development that has not grown as quickly as expected. The district is losing students to Douglas County and other districts.

The charter agreement for ICA was drawn up by attorney Miller with help from Kim Gilmartin who hoisted up John Adams Academy in Douglas County. The ESD board authorized the contract, so ICA had a year to get its enrollment in place to proceed to next steps. That enrollment didn’t work out and the prospective building for the school needed repairs, including a new roof paid for by the district. Now ICA, with Gilmartin helping out, is looking to receive state funds to jumpstart its programs in its second year without students.

Christina Howell, an Elizabeth School District resident, was on the original board to establish the charter. She resigned when she disapproved of how the school would be managed. She now asserts the state should not provide start-up money to ICA until it meets its initial contract requirements for enrollment. She appealed to the Colorado Department of Education to hold onto start-up tax dollars until that time. CDE told her to take up her case with ESD, as Colorado is a local-control state. That’s the circle of unaccountability built into charter statutes.

Gilmartin of Liberty Schools Initiative receives support from the Daniels Fund and Ready Colorado. Daniels Fund has its “Big Bet” going. This initiative looks to put about 40,000 new school seats, mostly through charter schools, in the state. These “seats” will compete with district schools for the state’s declining school children population.

Gilmartin is at least one of the inside persons implementing Daniels’ Big Bet. She was instrumental in the John Adams Academy land grab taking 26 acres of Douglas County School District assigned property from DCSD in Douglas County’s Sterling Ranch. Sterling Ranch residents vigorously objected but lost in a decision by Douglas County Commissioners.

These conditions don’t make for creative destruction. They make for destruction.

Paula Noonan owns Colorado Capitol Watch, the state’s premier legislature tracking platform.