The Colorado Polling Institute released a second survey late last month that takes a look at the status of the upcoming Denver Public Schools Board of Education election. But as with CPI's first poll, its usefulness is questionable.
Three seats will be on the November 7 school board ballot, including the District 1 seat currently held by Scott Baldermann and the District 5 seat held by Charmaine Lindsay. Both are running for reelection.
But the most-watched race is the one for the at-large seat currently held by Auon'tai Anderson — who dropped out of the race for reelection to pursue a seat in the state legislature.
Current candidates to replace Anderson include former mayoral candidate and Tattered Cover CEO Kwame Spearman, former East High School principal John Youngquist, security consultant Paul Ballenger and Anderson-endorsed Brittni Johnson.
The CPI poll puts Youngquist at the head of the pack — an early accolade the candidate eagerly held up in an email sent out to supporters that read, "Friends, I am happy to share the news that I came in first place in the first public poll of the race released by the Colorado Polling Institute today! We have double the amount of support of the next closest remaining candidate in the race!"
But a look at the poll data shows that only 4.8 percent of people surveyed said they would vote for Youngquist if the election were held today. A little over 87 percent of respondents were still undecided. Addressing that in his email, the candidate said, "There is still a large amount of remaining undecided voters, so please make a donation today to keep our momentum going! Also, please reshare the poll with your social networks!"
Youngquist tells Westword that he's excited about the poll despite the large number of undecideds, saying he "wasn't surprised by the result." At the very least, he thinks the poll will help raise awareness about the election. He's confident that as the race goes on, the public is "going to see a lot of Youngquist signs out there."
The second-place candidate on the poll was Ulcca Joshi Hansen, with support from 4.5 percent of people surveyed; however, Hansen dropped out of the race on August 29, citing a lack of "soft-side" support, or funding from large outside groups.
Next is Spearman, with support from 2.3 percent of the poll's respondents — but he isn't worried about the results. "If you looked at that poll and had any other conclusion than '87 percent of people don't know who they're going to vote for,' I don't think you know how to read polling data," he says.
"This was totally expected," Spearman adds. "We are asking voters to vote on three separate occasions in a non-federal election year. ... Three times in a year is a lot, and we literally just inaugurated a new mayor." But he thinks people will be more tuned in to the school board race by October.
Besides the fact that the highlight of the poll is the percentage of undecided voters, there are other questionable elements in the CPI survey.
First, it was dated very soon after it came out; Hansen had dropped out of the race by the time the poll was published, and Johnson didn't announce her campaign until September 5 — almost a week after it was released.
Then, of the 414 people who participated in the poll, only 78 are parents of K-12 students — and only 48 of those students are actually in the DPS system.
This snapshot of the board election comes in the wake of CPI's first poll, which asked over 400 residents whether they thought Denver was headed in the right direction. The results, which came out on August 23, revealed a clean split, with 44 percent answering in the affirmative and 44 percent saying they thought the city was going down the wrong path.
CPI says its mission is to "help inform decision-making...through trustworthy, nonpartisan public-opinion research," according to the group's senior adviser, Curtis Hubbard. But the question of who is funding the new organization has yet to be answered, as the institute has not disclosed the identities of its donors.
Representatives for CPI could not be reached for comment.
Despite most participants in the second poll having little personal stake in the direction of DPS, school safety was one of their top priorities. It was a top priority for 48.5 percent of respondents, second only to "recruiting and retaining good teachers," which 49.3 percent said was more important.
Nearly 63 percent of respondents said they supported the reintroduction of school resource officers to DPS earlier this year after they were removed by the current board in the summer of 2020. The move came after a student shot and injured two deans at East High School.
A little under 23 percent of people who took the CPI poll said they opposed the reintroduction of SROs.
Spearman, who entered the school board race on May 8 with a focus on safety, says he would like to remove SROs from DPS again at some point in the next few years.
"I thought a lot about SROs and how they're playing out in our schools; I think today we definitely need [them] in our schools," Spearman says. "However, I believe that we should strive in the next few years to create safety metrics in which we do not need police officers in our schools. I believe that we can get there as a community, and it's actually something that we should strive for. I think what was unfortunate about what happened over the past few years is we removed SROs without any alternative, and that was obviously not the right answer."
Three seats will be on the November 7 school board ballot, including the District 1 seat currently held by Scott Baldermann and the District 5 seat held by Charmaine Lindsay. Both are running for reelection.
But the most-watched race is the one for the at-large seat currently held by Auon'tai Anderson — who dropped out of the race for reelection to pursue a seat in the state legislature.
Current candidates to replace Anderson include former mayoral candidate and Tattered Cover CEO Kwame Spearman, former East High School principal John Youngquist, security consultant Paul Ballenger and Anderson-endorsed Brittni Johnson.
The CPI poll puts Youngquist at the head of the pack — an early accolade the candidate eagerly held up in an email sent out to supporters that read, "Friends, I am happy to share the news that I came in first place in the first public poll of the race released by the Colorado Polling Institute today! We have double the amount of support of the next closest remaining candidate in the race!"
But a look at the poll data shows that only 4.8 percent of people surveyed said they would vote for Youngquist if the election were held today. A little over 87 percent of respondents were still undecided. Addressing that in his email, the candidate said, "There is still a large amount of remaining undecided voters, so please make a donation today to keep our momentum going! Also, please reshare the poll with your social networks!"
Youngquist tells Westword that he's excited about the poll despite the large number of undecideds, saying he "wasn't surprised by the result." At the very least, he thinks the poll will help raise awareness about the election. He's confident that as the race goes on, the public is "going to see a lot of Youngquist signs out there."
The second-place candidate on the poll was Ulcca Joshi Hansen, with support from 4.5 percent of people surveyed; however, Hansen dropped out of the race on August 29, citing a lack of "soft-side" support, or funding from large outside groups.
Next is Spearman, with support from 2.3 percent of the poll's respondents — but he isn't worried about the results. "If you looked at that poll and had any other conclusion than '87 percent of people don't know who they're going to vote for,' I don't think you know how to read polling data," he says.
"This was totally expected," Spearman adds. "We are asking voters to vote on three separate occasions in a non-federal election year. ... Three times in a year is a lot, and we literally just inaugurated a new mayor." But he thinks people will be more tuned in to the school board race by October.
Besides the fact that the highlight of the poll is the percentage of undecided voters, there are other questionable elements in the CPI survey.
First, it was dated very soon after it came out; Hansen had dropped out of the race by the time the poll was published, and Johnson didn't announce her campaign until September 5 — almost a week after it was released.
Then, of the 414 people who participated in the poll, only 78 are parents of K-12 students — and only 48 of those students are actually in the DPS system.
This snapshot of the board election comes in the wake of CPI's first poll, which asked over 400 residents whether they thought Denver was headed in the right direction. The results, which came out on August 23, revealed a clean split, with 44 percent answering in the affirmative and 44 percent saying they thought the city was going down the wrong path.
CPI says its mission is to "help inform decision-making...through trustworthy, nonpartisan public-opinion research," according to the group's senior adviser, Curtis Hubbard. But the question of who is funding the new organization has yet to be answered, as the institute has not disclosed the identities of its donors.
Representatives for CPI could not be reached for comment.
Despite most participants in the second poll having little personal stake in the direction of DPS, school safety was one of their top priorities. It was a top priority for 48.5 percent of respondents, second only to "recruiting and retaining good teachers," which 49.3 percent said was more important.
Nearly 63 percent of respondents said they supported the reintroduction of school resource officers to DPS earlier this year after they were removed by the current board in the summer of 2020. The move came after a student shot and injured two deans at East High School.
A little under 23 percent of people who took the CPI poll said they opposed the reintroduction of SROs.
Spearman, who entered the school board race on May 8 with a focus on safety, says he would like to remove SROs from DPS again at some point in the next few years.
"I thought a lot about SROs and how they're playing out in our schools; I think today we definitely need [them] in our schools," Spearman says. "However, I believe that we should strive in the next few years to create safety metrics in which we do not need police officers in our schools. I believe that we can get there as a community, and it's actually something that we should strive for. I think what was unfortunate about what happened over the past few years is we removed SROs without any alternative, and that was obviously not the right answer."
