Boulder Weekly sent candidate questionnaires to all state primary candidates. These are their written responses, edited for length and clarity. Find a full list of candidates and questionnaires here.
Office: Colorado State Board of Education, District 2
Campaign website: gebhardtforcolorado.com
Relevant experience
BVSD board of education, member (8 years) and president (2 years)
Colorado Association of School Boards, member (8 years) president
National School Board Association Board of Directors, member (4 years) chair of political action committee
I am a mom, a spouse, a former school board member and an education attorney. I have been a champion for public education all my career. I attended Boulder Valley Public schools as did all five of my children. As a I have over 30 years of experience in the local schools, as a parent, as a member of my school’s SAC and the district DAC, as a volunteer. I know the challenges firsthand of being a parent of a student on an IEP. I know first-hand the struggles of children who were born outside our country and are non-caucausian as three of my own children are.
I spent the majority of my career fighting for more funding for our students. This work took me to all corners of the state, first challenging how we fund building schools which resulted in legislation that has brought more than $3.0 billion into school facilities, including right here in Boulder. The Justice High charter school was a direct beneficiary of my work at both the state and the school board. I also challenged overall school funding where I argued to the Supreme Court that our current system for funding our schools is inequitable and inadequate. I have been and will continue to be committed to working so that our public education system provides opportunities for all students to have successful lives and careers.
Priorities
My top three priorities are to secure opportunities for all Colorado students to lead their most successful lives; to lift up the needs of children with learning differences; and to support welcoming, well-resourced schools.
Lightning round
Yes/no answers only
Do you think districts should keep snow day/adverse weather cancellations (rather than switching to remote learning)? Yes
Do you think there should be less emphasis on standardized testing? Yes
Would you support later or staggered start times for children of different ages? Yes
When was the last time you paid rent? How much was it?
The last time I paid rent was when I was in law school. I don’t remember my monthly rent, but I lived in an apartment in Boulder.
What are the top challenges facing the state’s education system today, and how will you address them?
- Hiring challenges/teacher shortage
- Underfunding
- Divisiveness
Throughout the state, many districts are unable to hire qualified and certificated educators. I will work with high schools and counselors to encourage pathways in high school that could lead to careers in education. I will also work with our institutions of higher education for alternative pathways to careers in education.
Our schools are woefully underfunded. I will continue to be on the forefront as an advocate for increased funding which is at the foundation of providing smaller classes, adequate salaries for educators, support for all students and money for facilities.
The schools face a divisiveness today that can make providing a quality education to all students challenging. Some of this divisiveness is reflected by the challenges by certain organizations that seek to prohibit inclusion of LGBTQ curricula, that ignore the needs of trans students and that advocate for the banning of certain books. I will continue to fight to ensure every district has policies that require inclusion for all students, and that we comply with all applicable state and federal laws. I will also oppose efforts to ban books and to advocate for policies that oppose book banning.
These challenges are reflected in how and why I chose my priorities that I identified above.
What are the top challenges facing students today, and how will you address them?
- Mental health
- Social media/screen time
- Anxiety over the future
We must provide adequate mental health services to all students who need it. The increase in suicides among young people is unprecedented and must be addressed. As a board member, I will continue to advocate for increased funding for this priority. This funding should not be grant based but should rather be available to each school district and should be sufficient to provide the necessary services. At a May 14 meeting, the BVSD board discussed having to apply for another grant for mental health services as the current one was expiring, which was the source of funding for some of the district’s mental health services.
Many of us, including students, spend too much time on our screens, which has been demonstrated to change brain functioning and which, in some schools, reduces student engagement with teachers. Further, access to social media can result in students being bullied or harassed — not just at school, but outside school and at home. Several districts across Colorado are involved in litigation against social media companies because of the impact they have on our youth. I will research best practices from other states that are addressing this issue and work to promote discussions at the board level and in communities to address these issues felt by our students.
Students are presented with many paths for their lives after school. This can be stressful as students see a future that will be challenging for them. In my conversations with high school students, they express deep concern about their future due to environmental and global warming issues. It is important that the options schools offer students include relevant and engaging paths so that students believe that they can have meaningful careers and that they can impact their futures. These paths should include opportunities for attending college or career technology opportunities, trade schools and military.
How do the needs between suburban/urban and rural school districts differ, and how will you balance your approach and resources in addressing them?
It is important to recognize the 178 distinct school districts across the state. While there are some commonalities, the ability to provide a quality education to a small remote district with less than 100 students is quite different from the ability to provide a quality education to 90,000 students. We are a local control state, so helping each district meet their own needs requires recognition of the local communities’ values. I have worked with every type of district and have an understanding of these challenges.
In addition to differences in size and location, there is a wide disparity in property wealth which affects funding available for schools. Many remote districts with low property wealth need additional and different kinds of supports as compared to the less remote districts with greater property wealth. Additional property wealth allows those districts to raise more money locally and thus have additional financial resources to meet their needs.
The state board oversees grants, and I would work to ensure that smaller rural districts have better access to grants and have the support to comply with grant application and grant implementation.
Another important role for the state board is the drafting of rules and regulations. It is critical for a board member to understand the many kinds of challenges different size districts have in complying with the hundreds of rules and regulations. Given my experience working with districts of all sizes and wealth, I understand these challenges and will work to make sure that the rules that are enacted by the state board take into account the different abilities of districts to implement the rules.
What are your plans for meaningfully addressing the achievement gap in schools?
What many call the achievement gap, I describe as the opportunity gap. Defining it in this manner helps us focus on the resources that are needed rather than focusing on deficits in our students.
We need to focus on those educational factors that are within a school’s control. There are some outside of school opportunities that can be offered, so it is essential we recognize that providing each and every student an opportunity to succeed requires a community approach. Meaningful parent and community engagement and partnerships with local organizations are the critical components of a successful school.
I support the factors that are described in the Schools of Opportunity Project at the National Education Policy Center housed at CU Boulder. These factors are important in creating engaging and successful opportunities which can close achievement gaps. These factors include ensuring that each school provides broad learning opportunities that recognize cultural factors, a healthy school culture, sufficient learning time, and uses multiple measures to assess student learning, supports teachers and all educators as professionals, provides supportive opportunities for students with learning differences, provides students with those additional services and supports as needed, curriculum that builds on the strengths of multi-language learners. I also support the community school approach and we are seeing this used successfully in school districts in Colorado.
Do you believe state-level changes are needed to more equitably distribute tax revenue between wealthy and poorer districts? If so, what is your plan to do so?
Yes. There have been some state level changes to attempt to equitably distribute tax revenue, but we need to do more. As relates to school funding, the state has a formula that attempts to equalize the base funding to distribute to school districts. As property values and property taxes are so variable across the state, the ability of a local school district to raise local dollars is extremely inequitable.
The current school finance act does not adequately address this. In addition, the way we fund facilities is dependent on local wealth and thus extremely inequitable. I would continue to advocate that the state addresses these two issues. Colorado could provide mill levy override matching funding that is sustainable. For facility funding, the state should provide general fund matches for local bonds so that low-wealth districts can renovate or build new schools.
I have served on two state task forces that address funding for public education. The result of the last task force led to the revising of our school finance formula. I will continue to work collaboratively with members of these task forces, with the public education community and with our local elected officials to educate them about these inequities and to draft legislation that would address the inequalities.
In recent years, the Douglas County School Board has been fined for violating open meetings laws. What responsibility do school boards have to ensure transparency, and what is the state board’s role in ensuring that responsibility is met?
Transparency is important for any public figure. While I was on the BVSD board, we made sure we complied with all the open meetings laws. Each individual member should be trained in and understand their obligation under the open meetings law. From the state board meetings I have attended, both in person and virtually, I have found that they model following open meetings laws.
What efforts do you make in your daily life to consider and understand people with different lived experiences from your own?
It is important to recognize that others have very different lived experiences that impact their lives and their communities. For the last eight years, I have listened carefully to people who have lives that are different from mine. I have been moved by the struggles that many in our community face and have consistently advocated for policies and programs to improve their and their children’s experiences in schools. I have visited and worked with low-income and minority populations across the state and worked with legislators and policy makers to support their families and communities. While campaigning, I have made it a priority to engage with Latino and low-income community members.
What does a safe and inclusive learning environment look like to you and what tools do you think schools need (that the board of education has the power to provide) to create that environment?
Providing safe places for students and staff to learn and teach is critical to student success. Students need to feel safe every day — safe from bullying, safe when expressing themselves, safe from racial discrimination and antisemitism and safe from oppression. Students also need to feel protection from those rare external events, like natural disasters, and the unimaginable: a shooter or predator.
In these cases, our schools must maintain positive relationships with police and other public safety groups to ensure physical safety while upholding commitments to every student’s civil rights. The state board sets the standards and, in that role, should make sure that these standards meet the statutory requirements but also require that students are taught about diversity in our country, that history lessons are taught with factual content and students feel safe, respected and engaged in their studies.
When was the last time you changed your mind about something, and what was it?
The last time I changed my mind (on something other than our dinner plans) was during the end of this last session. I and several other education advocates have been working for many months advocating for additional certificates of participation (COPS) to help meet the $18 billion dollars needed for school facilities. It became clear that there wasn’t enough time left in the fiscal year to accomplish this, so rather than continue to push for the COPS this session, we agreed to postpone our ask and work again next year on the issue.
