Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to make clear that union members say they do not want to dominate the decision in whom to hire as new superintendent for the school district.

AURORA | Cherry Creek school district’s search for a new superintendent has led to a riddle that’s perplexing teachers, administrators and school board members.

The district is trying to find a way to attract top candidates from across the nation and tell the public everything they know along the way.

The problem is, experts say, most top candidates don’t want their current employer to know they’re shopping for a job. The local teachers’ union, however, says that, in the shadow of months of controversy swirling around now-fired or retired Cherry Creek top officials, teachers’ level of trust in the administration is gravely diminished, and transparency in the next hire is paramount.

Both sides say that the problem isn’t intractable.

Teacher union officials say controversy over how best to hire a new superintendent stems from what they say is a perception by some in the community that the district operates outside the public eye.

School district officials say they’ve already worked to right the wrongs of the past administration and also want a process that’s open and accountable, even if it doesn’t make public who’s applied for the job.

The school board initiated a nationwide search for a new superintendent this summer.

The district has been marred by controversy since the previous superintendent, Christopher Smith, abruptly resigned in January following allegations of cronyism and fostering a “toxic workplace.” That was followed by the district’s chief human resources officer, who also happened to be Smith’s wife, being fired in the following months. 

Additionally, former school board member Terry Bates resigned following a Denver Post investigation that brought to light several instances of Bates making racialized comments towards people of Latino descent. 

Local parent Keith Frazer was appointed to Bates’ seat in June.

The series of scandals prompted the teachers’ union to hire an outside polling company in July to see how the events had impacted residents’ views of the district, according to union officials. 

That poll came at a pivotal time for the district, as the school board searches for its next superintendent. 

The President of the Cherry Creek Educators Association and a local high school English teacher, Carlye Holladay,  said that educators and the community feel a lack of trust toward the school board and administration more broadly. 

Holladay told the Sentinel that the union commissioned the poll to see whether community members were feeling the same sense of unease as school staff after a bevy of critical news headlines worked their way through the area media. 

“When the previous superintendent resigned in January,” Holladay explained. “And then from there, people in the top leadership either resigned or were placed on leave… there were questions raised about [leadership’s] connections to outside consulting companies, et cetera.”

Holladay added that the union felt it was important to see what families and educators in the district were feeling as the search for superintendent was being launched earlier in the summer. 

Holladay further wanted to make clear that it was her position, and the position of the union, that the union should not dominate the decision of whom to hire. Holladay said that she recognized and respected that the decision was ultimately the board’s, but hoped that they would take the concerns of educators and local families seriously. 

The union contacted Aspect Strategic, a polling company, which then conducted a poll of active voters in the school district in July of 2026.

That poll found that voters believed that community members and teachers should have the biggest role in choosing the next superintendent, with 43% of those polled thinking that the school board should be the most compelling voice for that selection.

School board members, both in a statement and in a report to the community on the superintendent hiring process, said the district has already deeply engaged with stakeholders to glean what communities want to see in a new schools chief.

“Throughout this process, which began on Aug. 3, the Board has prioritized transparency, accountability, and community engagement. More than 1,600 stakeholders have already participated through surveys and focus groups, including one dedicated session with the Cherry Creek Education Association,” school officials said in a report. “This represents the most extensive community engagement effort ever conducted as part of a CCSD superintendent search, ensuring that the perspectives of students, families, staff, and community members help shape the qualities and priorities sought in our next superintendent.” 

In the survey conducted by the school district, teachers and parents mostly aligned on what they thought the most important qualities were in a new superintendent, but there were some differences.

“Four divergences in this table are large enough to garner specific attention,” recruiter officials McPherson and Jacobson said in the report to school board members.

Parents ranked how the district hires and ensures “teacher quality” as a top priority. In addition, school safety was twice as important to parents as it was to teachers, according to the survey ranking.

Financial management of the district was important to parents, but it was the top priority for teachers, the survey revealed.

At the same time, staff recruitment and retention, including teachers, was the second priority for Cherry Creek teachers and other staff. Parents ranked that much further down the list.

“Parents added two priorities of their own,” recruiters said in the report. “Special education and learner support drew some of their most frequent comments, spanning individualized education program services, neurodiverse students, and gifted and talented programming.” 

According to school officials, the report shows that the school board has been in the process of conducting a national search for the superintendent to “ensure the District attracts the strongest possible pool of candidates.” Applications were due by October 15 and the school board will present a finalist in January 2027.

How most school superintendents are hired 

Best practices appear to guide school districts across the country in how best to solicit the best candidates, and it almost always is linked to keeping applicant names sealed until the end of the process, recruitment and school board associations say.

State open meeting and records laws essentially allow for this discretion, except at the end of the process when school boards act officially to make hires.

According to Jeffrey Roberts with the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, Colorado Open Meetings Law, also known as the Sunshine Law, bars “local public bodies” from adopting “any proposed policy, position, rule, regulation, or formal action” in an executive session. Similarly, statutes prohibit school boards from making “final policy decisions” in private. 

There have been instances, like in Archuleta County in 2020, where district court judges have said that “deciding finalists in executive session is supported by Sunshine Law provision.” This allows the Board to make a public list of finalists while concealing documents by applicants who did not make it to that stage.  

But state law does not preclude school districts from shielding candidate names.

The local educators’ union argues that teachers and parents should play a bigger role in selecting the next superintendent. 

Jubal Yennie, the executive director of the Colorado Association of School Boards, told the Sentinel what is considered standard hiring procedures for superintendents. 

“The process can be fairly detailed and involved,” said Yennie. “You’re going to have a lot of community meetings because you’re looking for someone with an understanding of the community and what residents are looking for.” 

Yennie said that “generally” school boards provide ample opportunity for community outreach, adding that there are entire search firms who can assist boards in finding candidates to match the profile they are looking for. 

“You have to name your finalist, and that has to be public,” Yennie said, adding that it was not uncommon for boards to list multiple finalists, who would then inform their current employer that they were looking at another position. 

In terms of rebuilding trust with community members, Yennie said that transparency and honesty with families and educators are key.

“In this particular case, it’s the confidence [people] have in the search firm, whether it’s reputable,” Yennie said. “I know that the consultants they’re working with are very good at what they do. Having [the firms] communicate with the community and Board regularly about the information they’re gaining would be helpful to build trust.”

However, confidential national searches, like the one Cherry Creek schools wants to pursue, do happen. 

For example, Seattle Public Schools selected their current superintendent from a confidential search last year. 

The circumstances in Seattle were different from Cherry Creek, as the previous superintendent opted to step down to pursue a career in higher education. 

District and teachers’ union both survey the public 

Some representatives of the district, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, questioned the legitimacy of the union’s poll, claiming that the questions were slanted in a way to elicit a certain response. 

The Sentinel reached out to Aspect Strategic, who said that the questions were sent out to registered voters in the district and were live for roughly a week. Alex Dunn, who worked on the poll for Aspect Strategic, said that they “rarely” see residents that are engaged and “so concerned about the direction of the district.” A common thread Dunn saw was that respondents were “eager for leadership that [wasn’t] afraid to do things differently.”

“They were very clear that parents and teachers should have a voice in that leadership transition,” Dunn said. 

Still, representatives of the educators’ union say that the school board’s insistence on a closed search process has only reinforced their transparency concerns. 

Holladay said that she reached out to the school board before the results of the community survey were released and was disheartened by their response. 

“Why dismiss the data?” Holladay said when asked about some of the sentiment from the district. “Why dismiss the information from the public? I didn’t go out and send a SurveyMonkey; I didn’t go out and pick people. We were not involved in how people were selected for this survey.” 

Holladay characterized the attempts to write off the poll as biased as being counter to the mindset she hoped elected officials would have. 

The board “believed that, in this particular case, if they were to open up the process and not keep candidates’ names confidential, that we would lose high-quality candidates,” Holladay said. “The board says that they have heard our concerns, yet they have also asserted that they’re going to continue with the process as it was originally planned; it’s going to continue to be a confidential process.” 

Holladay believes that the results of the survey indicate that community members are looking for ways to engage in the superintendent hiring process. 

Holladay said that an open search process wouldn’t necessarily mean “outing” potential candidates, in the way the district has characterized. Holladay said that she’d like the board to be open about what criteria and qualities they are looking for in a superintendent. 

“What I keep hearing is that, ‘We’re going to get the highest quality candidates this way’, but my question is, what criteria are [they] using to determine who’s a high-quality candidate?” Holladay asked. 

Holladay added that she and the union understand that they are not asking for the board to completely disregard candidates’ privacy, but rather to share what criteria and qualities they are looking for in the next superintendent. 

In response to criticism from union groups, the board affirmed its commitment to transparency.

“Throughout this process… the Board has prioritized transparency, accountability, and community engagement,” they said in a statement. “More than 1,600 stakeholders have already participated through surveys and focus groups, including one dedicated session with the Cherry Creek Education Association.” 

The Board said that these meetings represent “the most extensive community engagement effort ever conducted as part of a CCSD superintendent search”. In the Board’s view, the process has “ensur[ed] that the perspectives of students, families, staff, and community members” shape the qualities and priorities of the next superintendent. 

While the board declined to offer any additional comments on the lack of trust some teachers and others in the community have expressed, Cherry Creek officials previously told the Sentinel: “We recognize that trust is earned through actions. Over the past several months, district leadership has implemented a number of measures designed to strengthen financial stewardship and reinforce public confidence.” 

Holladay urged district officials to take the poll results seriously and be more receptive to community input. 

“Teachers are told every day that you should look at the data and figure out how you’re going to adjust your instruction,” Holladay said. “And I think the same can be asked of our elected leaders and others in the district.” 

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