Former steering committee member Andrew Spain running for seat on PSD Board of Education
Andrew Spain gained a lot of insight into the Poudre School District while serving as a parent representative last year on the Facilities Planning Steering Committee that was tasked with recommending school consolidations and closures to address declining enrollment.
That insight, he said April 7, revealed not only the challenges the district was facing but also opportunities to do some things that 'are pretty doggone amazing.'
And it's why he's running for a seat on the Poudre School District Board of Education in District E in the November election. Incumbent Carolyn Reed, first appointed to the board to fill a vacancy in 2015 and re-elected twice since then, is term-limited and cannot run again.
Spain filed his formal candidate paperwork March 30 with the Colorado Secretary of State's office and has already started distributing a one-page flyer listing his qualifications, accomplishments and goals for the school board.
Spain, 58, and his wife, Beth, live in Wellington and are both graduates of PSD schools. Between them, they have seven children, ranging in age from 16 to 32.
More: Timnath annexes 50-acre site Poudre School District bought in 1999 for possible new school
Plans to close and consolidate some schools, as recommended by the Facilities Planning Steering Committee, were ultimately scrapped by the Board of Education last spring following widespread community opposition. Declining enrollment and the associated cuts in per-pupil spending, though, remain and will continue to be a major focus of the school board in the coming years, Spain said.
'We, as a district, are facing both significant challenges as well as tremendous opportunity as far as where the school district can go,' Spain said. 'Having graduated in the school district and having kids in the school district, I would like to be part of identifying and creating those solutions long-term.'
Andrew Spain, a Wellington resident and graduate of Fort Collins High School, is running for a seat on the Poudre School District Board of Education in the November 2025 election.
Spain has a Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy analysis from the University of Missouri and works as the associate executive director for the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, he said.
Spain also holds bachelor's and master's degrees in political science, from the universities of Northern Colorado and Missouri, respectively; has been a licensed paramedic in both Colorado and Missouri for more than 30 years; and served as director of the Emergency Medical Services Education program at the University of Missouri.
'I think I bring a lot of skills, abilities and experience to being able to help identify solutions and solve the problems and move the district into some amazing things moving forward,' Spain said. 'The community has such an appetite for it; we obviously saw that with the consolidation efforts. The community wants really high-quality education available to the students. There are so many things that I think we're going to be able to do that are pretty doggone amazing when it comes down to it.'
Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, x.com/KellyLyell and facebook.com/KellyLyell.news.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Former steering committee member running for seat on PSD school board
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