El Paso County Colorado School District 49 is a leader in the field of education at the state Legislature, but it hasnít always been that way.Brett Ridgeway, D 49 education officer, said for many years, they were not in the practice of being involved with what went on at the state Legislature. ìWe were quite isolationist, we just didnít want to engage,î he said. ìWe have since flipped that script a full 180. We decided we were tired of being the victim regarding whatever happened at the state level and to engage and be a leader instead.îD 49 is a conservative community, but much of education is projected by the left-side orientation, Ridgeway said. D 49 is often sought out regarding bipartisan issues, to give direction on what is needed coming from a right-sided orientation. ìWe are often sought out as a contributor and thought leader now,î he said.The district was originally involved in the Pikes Peak Business and Education Alliance, a coalition consisting of various districts throughout the city. Ridgeway said they realized the group had different interests than what they needed to pursue at D 49. ìWeíre growing so fast, and we found that we canít always defer what our needs are to the needs of districts that are in a different place than we are,î he said.About 10 years ago, they hired Amy Attwood of Attwood Public Affairs as a lobbyist and representative for D 49 at the state Legislature. Ridgeway said the chief officer team works with her in terms of the issues and policies they want to be engaged with.ìPolitics is a long-term game and Attwood is our arm to keep the legislators equipped with pertinent information so they can make decisions that will benefit education as a whole; and, of course D 49,î Ridgeway said. ìOur goal is to make things the best they can be for our students.îAttwood brought up three issues of interest during the July BOE meeting. One issue involved getting the Legislature to agree to suspend state assessments for this coming year. ìIn this environment of COVID, state assessments are a worthless endeavor,î he said. ìThis is not a partisan issue, this is what is good for the kids and education as a whole.îThe second issue involved mill levy overrides. Starting with the 2022-23 budget year, the Colorado Department of Education will calculate an override mill match amount for distribution to each school district plus specify a formula for calculating the amount of the distributions, creating a mill levy override match fund. ìWe worked on this for a long time; itís a complicated issue and we had to equip the Legislature to recognize what the situation is and convince them why something needed to be done in a certain way,î Ridgeway said. Itís a great win for D 49 and an example of a long-term investment paying off, he said.The third issue involved charter school appeals. He said D 49 is known as a great charter school authorizer. ìBeing a great charter school authorizer means we donít just say, ëdo whatever you want,í we engage with them and help them be the best that they can be,î Ridgeway said. One bill was introduced to approve appeals from charter schools if they were denied authorization, basically presuming guilt on the part of the school district if they did not authorize the charter school. He said for some districts, that might be true, but they didnít want to be constrained by that. ìWhen we say no to a charter school, there is a good reason for it. We have 12,000 students in nine charter schools, so we are not anti-charter,î Ridgeway said. ìThis is another great example of defeating a bill that was too narrowly defined and not a good answer for the greater movement of charter schools. We want charter schools to be successful.ìThis is an exciting time for D 49 and weíre proud to be a leader in education.î
