By Deb Risden
Board of Education appoints new director
On April 21, in a unanimous vote, the D 49 BOE selected Jack Ryan for director of District 2. Ryan replaces Deb Schmidt, who resigned from her position.
There were five applicants who went through the interview process. Ryan is a retired U.S. Army Sergeant Major and currently works as an IT project manager.
Update on layoffs
In January, the D 49 Board of Education declared fiscal exigency due to enrollment projections and budget forecasts. David Nancarrow, director of communications, said that initially about 100 positions were expected to be impacted through cuts in programs or attrition. “The district prioritized protecting classroom instruction and student learning as much as possible. While some impacts to programs were unavoidable, a larger share of reductions came from non-classroom and administrative roles,” Nancarrow said.
As of April, 10 contracted teacher positions have been eliminated.
“The teacher cuts were all program related,” said Paul Andersen, executive director of people and culture. He said the Dual Language Immersion program at Stetson Elementary School and some computer science courses have been eliminated. Andersen said all core subjects remain untouched.
The district also consolidated the gifted education program. Rather than a full-time person in each elementary school supporting the program, the district moved to a model whereby the schools would share, reducing to one person half-time for each school.
Andersen said in the end there may have only been about 90 positions eliminated. “The reductions were fairly even proportionately across the population of staff that included administrative positions,” Andersen said.
He said there are vacancies in the district that employees can apply for; it is early in the hiring season. Andersen anticipates about 60 may not be returning.
Andersen said it’s been hard to lose staff. “We are trying to recover and figure out what next year is going to look like. We might stop doing some things, and in some ways we’re doing more with less. We are able to do our most important work, which is serving our students, keeping them safe and providing the best learning environment possible.”
D 49 recognized nationally for best practices
D 49 was one of six organizations that were finalists for the Baldridge Performance Excellence Award. Two health care organizations won the award; however, the remaining four finalists were featured in a “Best Practices Spotlight” during a recent Quest for Excellence Conference held in Baltimore, Maryland.
D 49 was recognized for its 49 Voices System that includes combining input from parents, students and workforce to drive improvement in district practices.
A team of D 49 leadership attended the conference. Paul Andersen and Brian Smith, superintendent of Falcon Zone, gave a presentation on the district’s Voice of the Workforce program. “The focus was on the way we listen to our workforce. We believe that VoW is essential for us in achieving our mission and vision to be the best choice to learn, work and lead,” Andersen said.
After the 25-minute presentation, Peter Hilts, D 49 superintendent, facilitated a panel discussion. Other panel members were Andersen, Smith, Dr. Louis Fletcher, executive director of joint operations, and Amy Sanchez-Martinez, principal at Sand Creek High School.
The VoW program is a year-long communication process that includes a survey of the workforce followed by what Hilts refers to as “learning tours.” He meets with groups of staff in every school and department. Meeting participants are different every year. Andersen said there are more than 40 meetings that take place with eight to 10 people in each.
“We don’t know the right areas to improve unless we ask our workforce. It has driven a lot of improvement across the district over the years,” Andersen said.
He said the time Hilts spends with staff also helps build trust in the organization. “If you go back 15 years, there was low trust in the organization,” Andersen said. “There was a lack of trust in the board of education and senior leadership. We began this effort as a way to rebuild that trust in the foundation of the organization. Trust is one of the values in our cultural compass,” he said.
Lawsuit status
In May of 2025, D 49 filed a lawsuit against the Colorado High School Activities Association, the state of Colorado and others challenging CHSAA rules on allowing transgender athletes to compete based on their gender identity. Seven other school districts in the state joined the lawsuit.
In December 2025, a settlement was reached with CHSAA. The terms of the settlement outlined that D 49 would pay CHSAA $60,000 for legal fees. CHSSA agreed not to penalize districts for having sports locker rooms and teams separated by biological sex.
The litigation remains active against Colorado Civil Rights Division and Attorney Gen. Phil Weiser; however, it may be dismissed. Nancarrow said, “U.S. district court Judge John Kane (Colorado) is reviewing a recommendation by United States Magistrate Judge Maritza Dominguez Braswell to dismiss. There is no estimated time of decision by Judge Kane.”
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