We can continue the work the CCSD Board of Education has done for the past four years and set priorities to support and uplift the district community. We can continue to build awareness surrounding mental health in schools and open a treatment school for students in need. By emphasizing equity in addition to updating policies for the welfare of the Cherry Creek School District, we can achieve these goals in the hands of two candidates.
Smoky Now endorses incumbents Anne Egan and Angela Garland for re-election.
Anne Eagen has proven to be qualified for her position on the Board in previous years and in anticipation, for her next years to come.
On the Colorado Association of School Boards since 2021, Eagen has been Director of the Legislative Resolutions Committee, Math Pathways Taskforce, and the Colorado Board of Education Technical Advisory Panel. She has furthered her leadership across CCSD by being Director and Treasurer on the Board of Education (BOE) alongside her involvement at Cherry Creek High School, Campus Middle School, and Belleview Elementary School.
With her consistent participation, CCSD has seen students earn industry certifications at the Cherry Creek Innovation Campus, passed a bond and budget in 2020 at the highest margin ever, built new schools, and led Colorado to prove in-person learning for students during the COVID pandemic. Most significantly, Eagen has built the Traverse Academy mental health facility and school- a nationally recognized building for students.
Eagen strives for equity. Whether in racial, gender, gender identity, cultural, religious, and/or academic needs, she wants to honor the diversity that makes up CCSD as a whole.
Angela Garland has demonstrated her well-deserved spot on the school board with her history at CCSD.
Garland’s volunteer experience on the BOE directly since 2019 and as a CCSD Foundation Board Member from 2014-2019 addresses her character as an individual who is driven by distinctiveness in beliefs and developing programs to engage the community. She has since then been a part of the Cherry Creek Community Legislative Network, the CCSD PASS Committee, and the CCSD Office of Inclusive Excellence Committee Chair.
Her background doesn’t end there. Outside of the district, Garland has been a Development Director for the Greater Colorado Council in Boy Scouts of America, Program Team Manager of Friends First, and the Program Director of Girls Incorporated of Omaha.
Garland believes in keeping a safe school district in regard to public health for students and parents. Security in an environment for students to excel from an academic standpoint is a priority Garland wants to envision for the future of CCSD.
Garland is qualified and capable- two traits that any candidate should have for the board to succeed in making decisions for all.
In their dutiful service to the district, Egan and Garland have worked tirelessly towards the maintenance of both buildings and minds.
From their dedication to the upholding of crucial district policies that regulate the community on its path to success to their personal pledge to take up arms in the fight for the mental health, of both students and staff, these women are, and should remain, integral to ensuring all Cherry Creek schools thrive.
Anne Egan, as a continuation to her service as Director of District A, centers her campaign around equity, a simple concept that Egan has woven into a complex web of support and empathy, specifically focusing on the psychological challenges of students, an extremely prevalent issue in a constantly changing and quickening world.
In the journey towards a safe and uplifting environment to which Egan has committed herself, one of the largest undertakings becomes the statement of the Traverse Mental Health Day Treatment School, a mental health day treatment center that provides support for those struggling with serious mental illnesses ranging from anxiety to depression with the help of trained psychologists. A building that stands as a physical reminder of her devotion to the district.
Hoping to once again take up the position of Director of District C, Angela Garland has set her sights on the upkeep and improvement of Cherry Creek’s academic performance, largely working to guarantee students a well-rounded education basked in passion.
Garland has continuously not only expressed but exemplified her appreciation for the arts, including in her own visit to and fight for Smoky Hill when its newspaper program was in danger of being taken from the student body. In her own words, the district’s abundance of extracurriculars and creative programs gives all students the invaluable opportunity to explore their interests and potential without the worry of affordability, a notable issue plaguing the general Cherry Creek community, an area that faces some of the highest poverty rates in the entire state.
As a candidate, Garland aims to tackle these pertinent community issues with a direct and unwavering approach, namely proposing and implementing policies which, according to her candidate information, will work to “support and uplift our core values, academic excellence, student’s pathway to purpose and our newly announced strategic plan”.
Ardently resolute in their missions to better the district, a task they have more than proven themselves capable of, Egan and Garland are the absolute pairing that can lead Cherry Creek past the horizon of its brightest future, creating a community that helps all its members rise to, and surpass, the ceiling of success. A ceiling that can only be reached, or broken, should they be re-elected.
