Vote Dr. Brenda, Mash, Azari for Greeley-Evans school board
Reject a far-right takeover of our public schools
Ballots are in the mail, and the Greeley Gadfly has a round of endorsements to announce.
In the hotly contested race for the Greeley-Evans District 6 School Board, voters are urged to select Dr. Brenda Campos-Spitze, Natalie Mash, and Doran Azari.
There are three seats up for election Nov. 7, and there will be seven names for voters to choose from. The three names above are the only voices the Gadfly can urge residents to support.
These names also were selected by the Greeley Education Association, the union that represents teachers within our school district. The Gadfly is a staunch advocate of unions, and he is confident our teachers also selected Campos-Spitze, Mash and Azari for the following reasons:
In her short time on the board since being appointed to a seat this past year, Campos-Spitze — or Dr. Brenda, as her campaign has nicknamed her — has shown courage in the face of an angry group of book-ban advocates and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric. Her determination to speak up for the underserved students in our community is vital to strengthening public education in Greeley and Evans. Campos-Spitze, a family doctor at Sunrise Community Health, is bilingual, and her ability to speak directly to parents of our most vulnerable student populations makes her a voice they can and should trust. Building that trust in our public schools will go a long way in helping Greeley and Evans thrive, and it’s why she’s earned the endorsements of so many prominent voices within our community. Campos-Spitze deserves a four-year term.
Campos-Spitze is following a path set out by Mash, who was appointed to her school board seat in 2018 and was then elected to a four-year term by voters in 2019. Mash is a neo-natal and post-partum nurse with UCHealth, and she too has earned endorsements from key figures within our cities. She helped lead our school district through the tumultuous era of COVID, making hard choices and working to keep students, teachers, and staff safe. During her time on the board, the district has shown marked improvement in test scores and enrollment, proving that working in good faith with a dedicated superintendent can yield positive results. The school district still has room for improvement, and the Gadfly trusts Mash to help keep things on track. Mash deserves another four-year term.
Azari is a longtime Greeley Central orchestra teacher. He doesn’t need to prove to anyone his dedication to the communities of Greeley and Evans; his 25 years in a public school classroom already are a testament to his servant’s heart. Add to that service his status as a U.S. Army veteran, and one comes to see how much our students and teachers will benefit from his maestro’s hand keeping the school board’s rhythm upbeat. Azari understands well the difficulties public school teachers and students face in our communities. He no doubt worked with hundreds if not thousands of teachers over his long career in education, and he will have vital insight into what steps the district can take to recruit and retain the best of the profession. Azari deserves a four-year term.
The Greeley-Evans school district is at an important moment. Enrollment and test scores have stabilized following the disruptions from the pandemic, and district leadership has garnered statewide praise for how D6 found innovative ways to improve some of our lowest-performing schools.
It would be a tragic mistake to return to an era of deep division and mistrust in our school district. We have been down that road too many times in Greeley and Evans, and we already know where it leads: to more anger, worse outcomes for students, and vulnerable populations in our communities feeling isolated and unheard. In this important moment, we need leaders on our school board, not disruptors.
The opposition
The remaining candidates for the Greeley-Evans District 6 School Board have not earned endorsements today because they seek not to empower students or teachers or even parents, but rather they seek to empower themselves and their narrow worldview — and to impose that worldview on the rest of us.
Stacey Casteel, Ashlee Tilley, and Scott Rankin seek to join far-right members on the D6 board to establish a majority bloc that plans to swiftly oust our popular superintendent. They cannot be trusted to be voices of reason in our public education system.
These candidates are being propped up financially by a thick web of dark money, probably because they know their extreme views aren’t widely shared by Greeley and Evans voters.
Casteel began her campaign with imagery comparing LGBTQ+ persons to wolves in sheep’s clothing, a harmful dogwhistle intended to imply our gay and lesbian community members seek to harm children. This is a disgusting and outdated worldview, and it goes to show just how out of touch she and her supporters truly are. She files frivolous complaints against the district with state authorities that only serve to pull resources away from our students and teachers. And she even said during the campaign that she doesn’t want her own children to attend D6 schools. The Gadfly implores voters NOT to select Casteel.
Sadly, Tilley is not so different. Tilley and Casteel share a registered campaign agent in Amber Cecil, a Weld Republican political operative. Both advocate for banning books within our schools simply because they don’t want their own children to read them. They would take away from parents the right to determine what is age- or classroom-appropriate, because they want to make those decisions for us. They want to force on our schools a ludicrous and widely rejected curriculum that attempts to brainwash students into believing the Christian God was solely responsible for the brave experiment that is American democracy. For these and many more reasons, the Gadfly implores voters NOT to select Tilley.
Rankin officially has withdrawn from consideration in the school board race, although his decision to do so came after ballots already were printed. Even so, the Gadfly implores voters NOT to select Rankin, a former member of the D6 board who for years has financially supported far-right candidates and organizations.
Finally, the Gadfly simply knows too little about Elda Ibet Palacios to encourage voters to support her. Although Palacios began the campaign with the aforementioned Cecil as her registered agent, the Gadfly cannot say for certain how she would vote or what causes she would center as a member of the D6 board. The Gadfly encourages Palacios to participate in the district’s many volunteer boards so the community can better come to know her and that she can better understand the needs of students, parents, and teachers within our district.
