1.) The actions of these three new board members were a huge cause for concern, from their very first meetings onward.

2.) DougCo had the same style of AFP-backed "reformer" candidates take control of their board in recent years, and the results have not been what most citizens would consider positive.

I've already addressed the first one, but I can link you to video of of the meeting at which they voted to hire Brad Miller if you'd like to see for yourself. I can also link you to evidence that Thompson's new board members knew Miller was going to be hired by JeffCo before it was even voted on. A lot of the JeffCo community felt blindsided by our new board majority and their agenda. Witt, Newkirk and Williams ran on campaign buzzwords like "transparency" and "fiscal accountability" that of course sound great to voters who aren't dialed in, so it's not surprising they were elected when they had campaign backing from Americans for Prosperity. I'll be honest, I didn't know there was so much riding on the 2013 election and missed my chance to vote. But it didn't sit well with a lot of people that the first action of these "transparency" advocates was to lawyer up, to keep things from the board minority members, and to break board policy and apparently sunshine laws as well. It didn't take long for JCEA to fear these three, and that's what their statement about "starting right after the last election" was in reference to, but JCEA weren't the only ones who were upset basiclly right off the bat. Once we all saw the pattern of AFP-backed "reformers," we saw the damage it was doing elsewhere and wanted to stop it.

This is evidenced by the fact that despite having been successful at breaking up the teachers union in DougCo and having a voter base in which republicans outnumber democrats by well over 2:1, DougCo still voted out all three of their incumbant reformers who were up for re-election. Many voters, (myself included) weren't even aware of this movement when these three were elected in JeffCo. But the increased voter turnout, participation of voters of every party affiliation, and patterns in all local elections this year support the claims that this is not a partisan argument or a simple matter of supporting or villifying the teachers unions. Big monied, national, political special-interest groups supported education reform candidates in all these local elections, and whenever anyone points that out, they are accused of being liberal union thugs who put politics first. But we weren't the ones who wanted candidates to have a particular political ideology, and we're having to fight it all across the state.

These "reformers" have been in DougCo for a lot longer than in JeffCo, and test scores are dropping, turnover rate has been increasing, DCSD owes the state $4.2 million for school bord changes which resulted in overcharging the state for fulltime students. the public woke up to it. There's no union left in Douglas and there are more than twice as many republican voters there than democratic (Democratic voters: 44,655 – Republican voters: 104,378), yet Douglas County still voted out ALL THREE of the incumbent reformer candidates who were up for re-election. How is that a liberal or union problem?

In JeffCo, more republicans voted than democrats, so again, if you think the issue is limited to "the liberals" you totally fail to understand your opposition. I'm registered independent, I'm not a teacher nor a member of any union, and my only connection to JeffCo Schools is that my kids are going to go to school here. I happily spent my time, energy and money working for this recall, while people like youcontinue to ignore the depth of the issue and scream about political party lines and union-busting. That's why you lost in a landslide.

You mean use scare tactics when losing and keep the union club in power.

Jeffco teachers' only agenda is to provide premium education to the students presented to us with compensation that reflects experience, education, and evedence of student growth.

Goodbye, Jule Williams, Ken Witt, and John Newkirk. You are no longer relevant.

Of course JCEA had a plan. They worked hard to make sure that the parents and community in Jeffco knew what was going on here. But the recall effort was, in fact, started and led by parents and didn't start in 2013. I hear all this vitriol about the evil union, but who do you think the union is?? It's the teachers. You know, those people to whom we entrust our children's learning and safety every day. (I mean, really, thugs??) And if the union wouldn't stand up and participate in a fight taken on by their members, well, what good are they?