District 6 school board member Taylor Sullivan takes down candidate page following backlash

By Anne Delaney for The Greeley Tribune

The Greeley-Evans School District heard from concerned teachers on Friday because of a social media thread posted on a newly elected board of education member’s candidate page.

The page belonging to Taylor Sullivan has since been taken down, and Sullivan issued a statement on the posts written by an administrator of “Taylor Sullivan for D6 School Board.”

“It served its purpose but, in the end, there was a post made, not by me, but by someone who assisted in my campaign,” Sullivan wrote in the statement. “I didn’t approve, authorize, or know about the post and she has since been removed from that page and has made a public statement accepting her error. I do accept the responsibility that the content on the page falls back on me.”

Sullivan and other new board of education members Kyle Bentley and Rob Norwood, and board president Michael Mathews, who was re-elected, will be sworn into office during a board of education meeting Monday evening at the District 6 building on 9th Avenue.

District 6 spokesperson Theresa Myers said Friday the school system heard from staff concerned about the content of the posts written by Sherrie A. Peif, who replied to a teacher questioning a view in the thread — thought to be coming from Sullivan — by writing: “I just think that publicly admonishing the person you now work for probably isn’t smart, but hey that’s your choice.”

Greeley City Councilman Tommy Butler replied to the post, saying, “District 6 staff does not work for you. You work for them.”

Peif was once an education reporter at the Greeley Tribune and currently works as a reporter for Complete Colorado. In a post on her Facebook page, Peif apologized for the confusion caused by the post. She wrote the error occurred because as an administrator of the page, she had a choice to post as the voice of Sullivan’s candidate page or as her own page.

Peif asked that no one hold the post against Sullivan, writing, “She NEVER said this nor would she!”

Peif said she placed a call to District 6 superintendent Deirdre Pilch.

Myers said the district “reassured staff” the board of education does not make decisions about hirings or firings.

“The board of education collectively has one employee, the superintendent,” said Myers.

In her statement, Sullivan said another reason she decided to take down the page was to eliminate the “constant flow of angry comments (that) are just fueling the fire and creating a hurtful environment between the teachers, school board and the rest of the district.”

The social media conversation began from a question-of-the-day post on Sullivan’s page in late October asking for thoughts on “what is the single most important thing facing our district right now?”

The candidate page’s answer given on the single biggest issue was “the 19 months of learning our children have lost,” and the reply included a three-step process to get District 6 students back on track.

The third item in the list said the district “needs to get back to teaching to the standards and stop teaching lessons that distract the student from learning back educational tenets.”

The explanation continued to add teachers are required to follow curriculum in each school and they should focus on “the basics of math, reading, writing, science and civics and leave the social and emotional skill building to the parent.”

Commentators who identified as District 6 teachers, and Butler, took issue with the third item in their replies, leading to a lengthy exchange with candidate page writer now identified as Peif.

Greeley Education Association president Andraya Lee said Friday she had not seen the Facebook conversation. Lee said content taught in District 6 classrooms follows state standards and is thoroughly reviewed before the material is introduced into schools.

“Any curriculum purchased by District 6 is vetted by Colorado state standards and goes through a multi-tier process with educator and parent and student input,” Lee said. “But the end decision if curriculum is purchased is based on how it aligns with Colorado state standards.”

Lee said social and emotional learning lessons are taught in the district because they are part of state standards. Critical race theory, or CRT, is not included in state standard and is not taught in District 6 schools.

“Unlike charter schools, we can’t pick and choose curriculum,” Lee said. “Our job as educators is to teach to state standards. That is how curriculum is selected in District 6. It’s not a dartboard with ‘eeny meeny miny moe.’”