DENVER — Former Tattered Covered CEO Kwame Spearman, who dropped out of the Denver mayor’s race roughly three weeks before Election Day, announced Monday that he is now running for the Denver Public Schools Board of Education's at-large seat in November.
Spearman will challenge current Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, who has kept a high profile since being elected in 2019.
“Right now, we have an opportunity to make a change on our school board, to get our school board and her district back on track,” Spearman told Denver7. “I think the culture of the school board needs to change. I think the notion of bringing politics into the school board needs to change.”
Spearman is a graduate of Denver East High School and said the March shooting at the school that wounded two deans, along with the controversy around school resource officers, are part of the reason he entered the race and why the board needs to move in a new direction.
“We can’t have excellence if our teachers are afraid to go to school,” he said. “And those are conversations we need to be having at the school board meetings, not political grandstanding.”
He also weighed in on recent data uncovered by Denver7 Investigates showing that on the day of the East High School shooting, 40 DPS students were on a pat-down protocol like the student responsible for the shooting.
Denver7 Investigates
40 DPS students on pat-down protocol at time of East HS shooting, records show
“We’ve got to focus on safety. And quite frankly, we are not right now,” Spearman said. “We need a safety plan that makes our parents, students and teachers feel safe at school.”
In a statement, Anderson said, “I welcome Mr. Spearman to the race for the Denver School Board At-Large seat this November and hope that he remains committed to his campaign through the entirety of the election. While it is essential for voters to have diverse choices, I am particularly proud of the progress made since my election in 2019. This includes increasing the minimum wage to $20 per hour, implementing universal dyslexia screening, addressing the school-to-prison pipeline, and many more accomplishments.”
Anderson spoke to Denver7 on Tuesday. Click here to read more.
