Colorado election 2025: School board races

At least two dozen Colorado school districts will hold board elections in 2025, shaping the future of K-12 education for hundreds of thousands of students enrolled in public schools across the state.

Ballots began going out by mail Oct. 10 to all active registered voters in Colorado. The state’s coordinated 2025 election features two statewide ballot measures, Proposition LL and Proposition MM. Depending on where they live, voters will also be asked to weigh in on such items as local ballot issues, city council races and school board races.

Election Day is Nov. 4. Eligible Coloradans can register to vote or update their registration at GoVoteColorado.com. Any eligible voter who registers to vote by Oct. 27 will receive a ballot in the mail. After Oct. 27, eligible voters can still register and vote in person at a polling location until 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Voters who receive a mail ballot can return it through the mail, deposit it in a secure ballot drop box, or drop it off at an in-person polling location. County clerks in Colorado’s 64 counties oversee elections in their jurisdictions, and information about ballot drop box and in-person service locations is available at local county clerks’ websites.

Here’s a look at board elections in Colorado’s five largest school districts by student enrollment.

Denver Public Schools

Four of seven seats on the board governing Colorado’s largest school district are up for election in 2025: seats representing District 2, District 3 and District 4, and one at-large seat representing the entire city.

As it did two years ago, the DPS race is drawing big spending from Better Leaders, Stronger Schools, an independent expenditure committee, or super PAC, which can spend unlimited sums of money to influence elections but is barred from coordinating directly with candidates. The group’s top donor, Denver Families Action, was founded in 2020 and has roots in the pro-charter “school reform” movement, though its leaders say they have broadened their focus to issues of declining enrollment and school safety, while pivoting away from past reform priorities like standardized testing.

All three DPS board candidates endorsed by the group in 2023 won their elections, and it has reported spending over $560,000 on campaign advertising in 2025 as it looks for a repeat victory. Last month, Better Leaders, Stronger Schools also received a $40,000 contribution from billionaire Republican megadonor Phil Anschutz, according to campaign finance disclosures.

The group has endorsed a slate of candidates consisting of Alex Magaña for the at-large seat, Mariana del Hierro for District 2, Caron Blanke for District 3 and Timiya Jackson for District 4.

Meanwhile, the union representing DPS teachers, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, has contributed a total of at least $34,188 to the campaigns of four union-endorsed candidates. The group slams its deep-pocketed opponents for “trying to buy influence in our local school board elections.”

The DCTA-endorsed slate consists of Amy Klein Molk for the at-large seat, Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán for District 2, DJ Torres for District 3 and Monica Hunter for District 4.

Three other candidates seeking a DPS board seat are not endorsed by either group: incumbent Scott Esserman, who was elected to an at-large seat in 2021, is running to represent District 3; incumbent Michelle Quattlebaum is running for reelection in District 4; and Jeremy Harris is running in District 4.

Jefferson County

Three of five seats on the Jeffco Public Schools Board of Education — representing District 1, District 2 and District 5 — are up for election in 2025.

Jeffco Public Schools, the state’s second-largest district at over 75,000 enrolled students, includes Evergreen High School, the site of a school shooting last month that left the 16-year-old gunman dead and two other students seriously injured.

Educator Denine Echevarria and IT professional Michael Yocum are running to represent District 1, while attorney Peter Gibbins faces Samuel Myrant in the race for District 2. Both seats are being vacated by current board members. In District 5, incumbent board president Mary Parker is running for reelection against two challengers, mediator Tina Moeinian and Army veteran Gloria Teresa Rascon.

Candidates backed by teachers unions have consistently held a majority on the Jeffco school board since a high-profile recall election that ousted three conservative board members in 2015. The Jefferson County Education Association has endorsed Gibbins and Moeinian in this year’s election.

On Oct. 13, the union rescinded its prior endorsement of Yocum, citing the revelation of a sealed court record that it said was not “disclosed to JCEA during the recommendation process.” The announcement followed a report by the Rocky Mountain Voice, a conservative website owned by former GOP governor candidate Heidi Ganahl, that Yocum in a recording had “acknowledged a deferred adjudication involving a sealed juvenile sexual offense.”

“This does not downplay the actions of political extremists, who are trying to use a complicated and traumatic event from over a decade ago to achieve their own political outcomes,” the JCEA said in a statement. “These harmful political tactics do nothing to support our students, teachers, or public schools.”

Douglas County

Four of the seven seats on the Douglas County School District board are up for election in 2025: District B, District D, District E and District G.

School board politics in the suburban battleground county south of Denver have been fractious in recent years. After capturing a narrow 4-3 board majority in 2021, conservatives undertook a series of controversial moves, including the ousting of longtime superintendent Corey Wise and revisions to its equity policy, prompting protests from teachers and students. Wise ultimately received an $832,000 settlement from the district, and the district separately paid a $103,000 settlement for violating open meetings laws.

In 2023, three candidates endorsed by the Douglas County Democratic Party swept the school board races. Then-chair Mike Peterson, head of the board’s conservative majority, resigned from his seat the same month.

None of the three remaining conservatives elected four years ago are seeking reelection to their seats in 2025. Like all school board elections, the Douglas County races are officially nonpartisan — but once again, two slates of ideologically aligned candidates are competing in head-to-head contests for each of the board’s four open seats.

The Common Sense DCSD committee aims to preserve the board’s conservative majority, and among the top issues listed on its website is a promise to “fight to preserve girls-only teams, restrooms, and locker rooms,” along with commitments to “parental rights” and “curriculum transparency.” The Douglas County GOP has endorsed the slate. Its candidates are Matt Smith in District B, Keaton Gambill in District D, Dede Kramer in District E and Steve Vail in District G.

The Community’s Voice, Community’s Choice slate — which is supported, though not formally endorsed, by county Democrats — emphasizes its candidates’ education experience and promises to make the district “accountable to the people, not politics.” Its candidates are Kyrzia Parker in District B, Tony Ryan in District D, Clark Callahan in District E and Kelly Denzler in District G.

Cherry Creek School District

Seats representing District D and District E are up for election in the Cherry Creek School District, which serves more than 53,000 students spread across the southeast Denver metro area.

Terry Bates, a financial executive, faces Amanda Thayer, a district volunteer and member of its accountability committee, in the District D race. Bates is running to replace his wife, Kelly Bates, who is term-limited after representing District D for the past eight years.

In District E, Mike Hamrick, an Air Force veteran and retired sales representative, faces Tatyana Sturm, a realtor.

Bates and Hamrick are endorsed by the Cherry Creek Education Association, a teachers union. A newly formed super PAC, Common Sense Excellence, has reported spending $107,000 to oppose the candidacies of Thayer and Sturm. The group received funding from Parents and Teachers United and the Colorado Fund for Children and Public Education, a nonprofit that shares an address with the Colorado Education Association.

Aurora Public Schools

In the Aurora Public Schools district, which serves over 38,000 students in Adams and Arapahoe counties, all board members are elected at large. Four of the board’s seven seats are up for election in 2025. Voters in the district will cast up to four votes in the field of seven at-large candidates, and the top four vote-getters will be elected.

Two incumbent APS board members, Tramaine Duncan and current board president Anne Keke, are running for reelection. The other candidates are Tapsuru “Ousman” Ba, a nonprofit program coordinator; Gayla Charrier, a small business owner; Hendrix Percival Lewis, a software engineer; Kristin Mallory, a federal contracting officer; and Nino Pepper, a realtor.

The super PAC Students Deserve Better, which received funding from the Colorado Education Association, has reported spending $13,980 on behalf of a slate that includes Charrier, Duncan, Keke and Mallory. Ba has benefited from $16,426 in independent expenditures from a PAC funded by the Colorado League of Charter Schools.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 8:46 a.m., Oct. 22, 2025, to clarify that while the Community’s Voice, Community’s Choice slate is supported by Douglas County Democrats, the party did not vote to formally endorse the candidates.