We know it’s almost Spring, but we were still shocked when The Denver Post’s editorial board already sent out their softball team.
What can be described less as an interview, and more as an infomercial for recent Jeffco Superintendent quitter Cindy Stevenson (we’d quit, too, if we got paid six figures to do nothing), Stevenson explains why she took her ball and went home. Put your batters’ helmets on PeakNation™, as we dive into the softballs that The Post’s ed board tossed Stevenson’s way:
Question: “Immediately after these folks [already described in the interview as conservative and controversial] were elected, you announced you’d be retiring after the end of the school year… why did you want to stay?”
Translation: You abruptly quit on the kids four months later, so we need to explain how you had big, hopeful ideals, but that so-called meanies on the school board wouldn’t let you.
Question: “Last month you announced your retirement by tweeting, ‘I can’t lead and manage because I’m not respected by this board. I can’t make decisions. This board does not respect me.’ What had the board done to bring you to that point?”
Translation: Show how the school board is big “meanies”. Don’t worry, I won’t challenge you on any specifics, so you have carte blanche to paint the school board as unreasonable as you want.
Question: “There have been some assertions made about who was there [at Stevenson’s last continuous board meeting], that maybe it was orchestrated by the union; what was your perception of the people who came out to the meeting?”
Translation: By inserting words like “assertions” and “maybe”, I can pass off a fact as circumstantial while allowing you to say this was a normal “grassroots” reaction to that mean school board…. Don’t worry, we won’t re-emphasize that it was your decision.
Question: “Tell me a little bit about some of the challenges the [Jeffco] district faced when you first took over the top management position.”
Translation: Let’s show the people how great you have made the district such that only insane people would choose to go a different direction than yours.
Question: “And tell me some of the milestones.”
Translation: F-it, let’s just go full puff piece on this.
Question: “Talk a little bit about achievement, if you would.”
Translation: And, while you’re at it, is it true this school board has a secret ritual where it sacrifices a puppy during board meetings?
We’re not saying that The Denver Post should have gone hostile, but we certainly hope that the embattled newspaper at least got paid for this piece. Of course, Alicia Caldwell has been playing defense for Stevenson from the very beginning, so should we be surprised?