Jeffco Public Schools’ teachers union votes ‘no confidence’ in Superintendent Tracy Dorland

Jeffco Public Schools’ teachers union said this week that educators have lost confidence in Superintendent Tracy Dorland’s ability to lead Colorado’s second-largest district and are demanding that the Board of Education step in.

The Jefferson County Education Association sent a four-page letter to the school board Tuesday outlining numerous grievances against Dorland, ranging from failure to address school safety concerns to making decisions “behind closed doors without explanation.”

“Superintendent Dorland’s approach has repeatedly undermined trust, destabilized our schools and diverted valuable time and resources away from classrooms,” the union wrote in the letter. “Her leadership style is fundamentally misaligned with the values our community expects and our students deserve.”

The letter said the union’s representative council unanimously voted “no confidence” in Dorland.

“I was disappointed, but not surprised that the JECA issued their vote,” Dorland said in an interview Thursday. “That’s straight out of a typical union handbook.”

Dorland noted that the letter comes as the teachers union and district haven’t been able to reach a deal on a new contract. She defended her leadership, saying student academic performance has increased, while suspensions and expulsions have dropped under her superintendency.

She was hired in 2021 as Jeffco Public Schools’ sixth superintendent in seven years.

“Over the last four years, I’ve provided leadership stability,” Dorland said. “…I hear their concerns. I’m reflecting on their feedback and I take their concerns seriously.”

A day after the union notified the school board of its vote, state Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican, sent her own letter to board President Mary Parker saying she was “deeply alarmed by what has unfolded in this district under the leadership of Superintendent Tracy Dorland.”

Both the union and Kirkmeyer criticized Dorland’s handling of a Jeffco Public Schools administrator who was investigated for allegedly possessing child sexual abuse material.

That administrator, former Chief of Schools David Weiss, was fired by the district in December after the Jefferson County sheriff’s office began its investigation. He later died by suicide.

“From the tragic high profile case of the chief of schools — whose misconduct was allowed to continue until his death — to a series of incidents where individuals accused of wrongdoing were permitted to resign quietly or be transferred rather than held accountable, this district has repeatedly chosen to protect itself instead of protecting students,” Kirkmeyer wrote in her letter to Meyer.

“The public trust has been shattered,” Kirkmeyer added. “A culture that allows misconduct to be ignored, minimized or hidden must be dismantled. That starts with new leadership.”

Dorland pushed back on the lawmaker’s allegation that Jeffco Public Schools continues to allow misconduct in the district, saying it was “unfair and, frankly, libelous.”

“I was particularly disappointed in the inaccurate statements she has shared in her letter,” Dorland said of Kirkmeyer. “We have taken all appropriate steps to address, immediately, any issues that have arisen.”

While the union’s letter, which detailed a broad range of issues beyond Weiss, did not explicitly call for the superintendent’s termination, Jefferson County Education Association President Brooke Williams said in an interview that the union is supportive of the school board replacing Dorland.

“I’m not opposed to new leadership and I don’t think our council is opposed to new leadership in Jeffco,” she said. “…We feel there’s a lack of trust right now.”

Williams, the union president, said educators have tried to bring their concerns to Dorland in the past, but they have been ignored.

“There’s been some gaslighting,” she said. “…We’re calling on the school board to take swift action and decisive action to restore collaboration and re-establish the confidence in leadership in Jeffco and really rebuild our relationship not only with our communities, but our employees.”

Williams said she does not believe the union has ever taken a vote of no confidence before.

“We have a long history in Jeffco of being divided by educational politics and once again… Jeffco Public Schools is marred and divided by educational politics,” Dorland said.

The union’s letter paints Jeffco Public Schools as a district in crisis.

The union alleged that Dorland has made top-down decisions — including changes to health care and school start times — without listening to students, families and educators.

Many of the district’s decisions are also happening “behind closed doors without explanation,” including the removal of books from school libraries, according to the letter.

Dorland disagreed with the union’s assertion that she hasn’t engaged with the community when making decisions, such as altering when school days begin and end. The change was made, the superintendent said, because it was inefficient and meant students in one building received less instruction time than their peers in another building.

“We did work with people to make those decisions,” Dorland said. “My leadership and my team’s leadership… has been about students first and that is who my primary customer is.”

Jeffco Public Schools provides insufficient mental health support to students and staff and maintains “unsustainable workloads, especially in special education and alternative education settings,” the letter said.

When educators have raised concerns about school safety, Dorland “has dismissed or delayed action while morale, retention and student outcomes suffer,” according to the letter.

There have also been other safety concerns, according to the letter, such as a Ralston Valley High administrator not allowing a school nurse to call 911 when a student was allegedly vomiting blood.

The union said Dorland hasn’t communicated adequately with the community regarding how schools will respond if federal immigration officers show up on campus — a fear that educators across metro Denver have expressed since President Donald Trump resumed office earlier this year and ramped up deportations.

“Superintendent Dorland’s continued leadership has exacerbated tensions, widened the gap between decision-makers and stakeholders, and damaged the district’s credibility with employees and the broader community,” the union wrote in the letter.

Dorland reduced the number of equity, diversity and inclusion specialists the district employs from three to one and ended diversity and inclusion training, the union said.

She also made changes to the district’s resources for supporting transgender students and changed policies on teachers using pronouns in email signatures without input from staff or the school board, according to the letter.