Latest news with #DistrictD
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
PCA teacher running for seat on Poudre School District Board of Education
Mike Thomas, a teacher at Poudre Community Academy and former member of the Colorado Education Association's Board of Directors, is running for seat on the Poudre School District Board of Education in the November 2025 election. Thomas, 41, is running for the District D seat, representing northwest Fort Collins. Jim Brokish, who currently holds that seat, does not plan to run for reelection. Tom Griggs, who spent most of his professional career teaching teachers, and Coronda Ziegler, a student success manager at Colorado State University, have also announced their candidacy for the District D seat. Board of Education members must reside within the district they represent but are elected by all voters within the school district's boundaries. Thomas taught for 13 years at schools in Boulder, Denver and Fort Collins after getting started on his career in education in a Head Start program in the Seattle area, Thomas told the Coloradoan on May 30. His experience ranges from preschool through high school, primarily in science, mathematics, construction and welding. Thomas took a break from teaching for several years to be a stay-at-home father — he and his wife, Kristen Rasmussen, have two children — and renovate their Fort Collins home before accepting a job two years ago at Poudre Community Academy, one of two alternative high schools in Poudre School District. Concerns over the poor condition of the building that houses PCA prompted him to run for the school board, he said. Thomas waited until the school year was over to announce his candidacy, fully aware of a PSD Board of Education policy that automatically puts district employees running for seats on the school board on an unpaid extended leave of absence until the election. Were he to win the District D seat, that policy reads, Thomas would deem him 'automatically and voluntarily resigned as a District employee' upon taking the oath of office. 'I really love PCA; I don't want to leave it,' Thomas said. 'I made the decision to think about running in January, when we had to walk across the street with all of our students to use the bathroom, because our bathrooms had stopped working for the third time this year.' More: Poudre School District raising pay for teachers, classified employees One of Thomas' primary concerns, he told the Coloradoan, is ensuring the district uses money from the 2024 debt-free schools mill levy to properly maintain, repair and improve its school buildings and other facilities. He would like to help the school district explore the use of solar and geothermal energy in its facilities. Thomas would also like to see the district speed up the implementation of its new elementary school literacy curriculum through professional development opportunities for teachers and expand its use into middle and high schools. 'I'm really happy with what the district is doing at the elementary school level, which is a big change,' Thomas said. 'It has not been implemented as fully as it needs to be; professional development has not been provided as extensively as it needs to be. We need to make it happen a lot faster than what's going on right now.' In addition to serving on the Colorado Education Association's Board of Directors, Thomas said he worked on multiple political-action campaigns and helped two candidates with their races for seats on the Boulder Valley School District Board of Education while living there while his wife, now a climate scientist at CSU, completed post-doctoral work at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Two candidates in other districts have also announced their candidacy for Board of Education seats in the November 2025 election — Sabrina Herrick in District C (northeast Fort Collins) and Andrew Spain in District E (northern and western Larimer County, including Wellington, Red Feather Lakes and Poudre Canyon). Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@ and This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Mike Thomas running for seat on PSD Board of Education
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
CSU student success manager running for seat on Poudre School District Board of Education
Coronda Ziegler, a student success manager at Colorado State University, is running for a seat on the Poudre School District Board of Education in the November 2025 election. Ziegler is running for the District D seat, representing northwest Fort Collins. Jim Brokish, who currently holds that seat, is not running for reelection. Tom Griggs, who spent most of his professional career teaching teachers, and Mike Thomas, a teacher at Poudre Community Academy, have also announced their candidacy for the District D seat. Board of Education members must reside in the district that they represent but are elected by voters throughout the school district. Ziegler and her husband, Joe, are the parents of three children attending PSD schools. Her primary reason for running, Ziegler said, is 'to make sure that it is a sustainable district that speaks to the needs of all students, families, teachers and so on and so forth, and making sure that we are having broad considerations in the work that we do.' At CSU, Ziegler's job as a senior student success manager focuses on improving the university's graduation and student retention rates and 'developing a good student experience,' she said. More: Poudre School District raising pay for teachers, classified employees 'I help advance our student success efforts across the university in different departments, units, in classrooms and cocurricular activities,' Ziegler told the Coloradoan. 'My ultimate goal is how do students succeed?' Ziegler previously worked in housing and dining services and academic advising roles at CSU, her employer since 2007. She has taught undergraduate- and graduate-level courses, as well, according to her biographical information on the CSU website. 'I believe I would bring a broad perspective and understanding to the Board of Education,' Ziegler said. 'It's not just a single issue when I think about how we use data to make decisions, and understanding that data is both quantitative and qualitative. 'What does the budget and funding look like? How do we spend our money, and how do we get more funding in the district. I believe I bring some translatable experience that will enhance the board.' Ziegler said she's in her mid-40s while declining to give her precise age. Her husband is the education director for The Family Center/La Familia, a family resource center providing childcare and supportive services focused on the local Latinx community. One of her strengths, Ziegler said, is the ability to have meaningful dialogue and build relationships with people from diverse backgrounds. Ziegler earned a bachelor's degree in general science and master's degree in higher education administration from Fort Hays State in her native Kansas and a doctorate in education and human resource studies from CSU. 'One thing I want to highlight is that I represent a segment of the population that consists of folks who are working day to day raising their children,' Ziegler said. 'The middle-class piece, to me, I think is important. Being in the throes of affordability in Northern Colorado is part of my life every single day, and you need people to talk about that. That's part of a child's experience, too.' Two candidates in other districts have also announced their candidacy for Board of Education seats in the November 2025 election — Sabrina Herrick in District C (northeast Fort Collins) and Andrew Spain in District E (northern and western Larimer County, including Wellington, Red Feather Lakes and Poudre Canyon). Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@ and This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Coronda Ziegler running for seat on PSD Board of Education
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Longtime teacher of teachers running for a seat on PSD Board of Education
Tom Griggs, who spent most of his professional career teaching teachers, is running for a seat on the Poudre School District Board of Education in the November 2025 election. Griggs, 71, is running for the District D seat currently held by Jim Brokish, who said he is not running for reelection. Candidates must live in the geographic district they represent but are elected by all voters in the school district, which spans more than 1,800 square miles. The volunteer directors serve four-year terms. Serving on the PSD school board 'is just an extension of my career, my professional interest, my fascination with teaching and learning,' Griggs told the Coloradoan on April 28. 'It's a chance to serve the community that has supported me for the 25 years.' Tom Griggs, a retired education professor and Fort Collins resident for 25 years, is running for the District D seat on the Poudre School District Board of Education in the November 2025 election. Griggs has two adult children who attended and graduated from PSD schools while he was teaching education classes for 20 years as a professor at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley. He was previously a professor at San Jose State University. Many of his former students, he said, are teachers and administrators in PSD and other Northern Colorado school districts. He earned a teaching license and master's degrees in education for teaching English and social studies at the secondary level and in arts for teaching English as a second language at UCLA. After teaching high school in Salinas, California, Griggs went back to school to earn a doctorate in teacher education from the University of Toronto, he said. Griggs has also worked internationally, receiving a grant to work with Brazilian public school teachers of English as a foreign language in the fall of 2016. That led to a Fulbright Distinguished Teaching Award that turned into a visiting international professor's position at a university in Brazil. Griggs said he returned to Fort Collins from Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic and has since worked as both a full-time and temporary substitute teacher and social emotional learning specialist in both the Poudre and Thompson school districts. He is a former president of the Colorado Association for Bilingual Education and was a chair and co-founder of the group now known as Advocates for Public Education Policy, Griggs said. 'I think I have some unique perspective to add to the mix of perspectives that are on the board currently,' Griggs said. 'Unique and, I guess, valuable. I think there's a real advantage to know what the school system looks like and how it works from inside and out from a scholarly point of view. I'm a systems thinker, and I approach study with an open mind, looking at it from other people's perspectives.' Griggs is the only candidate so far to announce their candidacy and file official paperwork for the District D seat, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's online database. District D is located in north Fort Collins. Two candidates in other districts have also announced their candidacy for Board of Education seats in the November 2025 election — Sabrina Herrick in District C (northeast Fort Collins) and Andrew Spain in District E (northern and western Larimer County, including Wellington, Red Feather Lakes and Poudre Canyon). Another potential candidate who had filed an affadavit and paperwork with the secretary of state's office in February, Ashley Hale, told the Coloradoan on May 5 that she had changed her mind and would not run. Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@ and This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Longtime teacher of teachers running for seat on PSD school board
