A Castle Rock parent behind a recent effort to recall four Douglas County Board of Education members is now shifting his focus to the November 2021 school board elections.
Nate Ormond told Denver7 education reporter Nicole Brady a new effort, Road2Recovery, will target the four school board members whose terms expire this year.
“We’ve got a lot of potential candidates who said they might be interested, so I’m going back through that list now to find out which might still be interested and might share the same vision and qualifications that I would like to see,” Ormond said.
Three of the four board members who were targeted in the recall have terms ending in 2023. The board members who will be targeted for replacement in 2021 are Christina Ciancio-Schor, Anthony Graziano, Krista Holtzmann, and Kevin Leung.
All four were elected in 2017 as part of the anti-school voucher “CommUnity Matters” slate of candidates.
Ormond responded to criticism he’s trying to “flip” the liberal-leaning school board, saying two of the candidates he’s interested in supporting are unaffiliated voters. He said he will support “student-first” candidates.
“Along with the vision of bringing Douglas County back to the performance level of the early 2000s when they were ranked No. 1 in the state, or close to No. 1, and even nationally recognized,” he said.
The decision to suspend the recall campaign wasn't well received by all supporters. The RoadtoRecall Facebook page has dozens of negative comments, including some encouraging refunds of donations. An administrator post promised a “Zoom Q&A in the next day or two to address your questions.”
Ormond said he intends to follow FEC requirements for converting the recall effort to an election campaign.