Another day, another spectacle of unions behaving badly in Jefferson County School District. In this episode, the Jefferson County School board voted to approve the hire of a new superintendent, Daniel McMinimee. As The Denver Post noted, his “educational credentials could hardly look more solid”:
“He’s been in the field for nearly three decades, starting out as a teacher and football coach in the 1980s, then moving on to principal, director of schools and assistant superintendent of secondary schools.”
Yet, things were so out of hand at the meeting last night that the school district security actually had to escort an unruly teacher out of the building. So, why the temper tantrums?
It turns out that despite his educational creds, he’s from Douglas County. The horror! Under McMinimee’s leadership, here’s what Democratic former state Senate President Peter Groff told EdNews about Douglas County Schools’ achievements, as we reported several months ago:
“Groff explained that Douglas County is ‘far enough along in its choice program that schools can truly attend to individual student needs and ‘Denver is close to being able to be in that position’”
Of course, the real reason the education establishment is mad about the introduction of someone – anyone – from Douglas County is that the district has proven that everyone can benefit when unions are not running the show. As we mentioned earlier, it’s going to be awfully difficult to continue to pan reform efforts when they benefit Jeffco’s students.