A Conversation With Dr. Mike DeGuire

On November 2 of this year, the school board for the Denver Public Schools district will hold its biyearly election. Running for the District 3 position on the Denver school board is Dr. Mike DeGuire, who is no stranger to education, Denver’s public school system, or the challenges that come with leading. Now 76 years of age, DeGuire has worked with Denver Public Schools for 28 years, both as a teacher and as a principal.

I recently had the chance to sit down with Dr. DeGuire, and we talked about education, LGBTQ students, and standardized testing.

What inspired you to run?
Well, a number of things. I’ve been a principal for 28 years. I’ve also been a teacher and a district reading coordinator. Plus, I’ve spent the last nine years coaching principals, and I’ve learned a great deal about the struggles and challenges that continue to exist in our schools here in Denver. I want to give back and try to help enact policies that will help improve learning for all of our students and improve the work conditions for our staff and all the employees. I also have a daughter, who is a counselor in Denver Public Schools, and I have a grandson who’s a student.

With anti-trans legislation running rampant across our country’s school system, local high schools discriminating against LGBTQ students and their staff, and the ongoing bans of both BLM and Pride flags in the classroom, its vital that we have more members of the LGBTQ community on our school boards. Not just allies, but those who can understand our needs on a personal level.

As a gay man, I’m very interested in making sure that the mental and social emotional health of all of our students is addressed fully. And I’m very concerned for our LGBTQ students, because I feel that they specifically have had significant challenges during the pandemic and I want to be sure that we have systems in place to support them, as well as all of our students who come from backgrounds where they have specific needs that are not being met in their own home environment. So we want to be sure and support them as well.

How will you counter bullying and harassment in schools?
I understand the issue of bullying and harassment that’s happened; I understand the anxiety and depression that occurs for so many young adults and even adults in their life as they’re dealing with the issue of their own sexual orientation. I have a lot to offer as a leader, especially because I’ve been a principal, and I’ve been a coach for other principals.

But I also have a lot to offer in terms of living my life. I understand that we have to be able to know where people are coming from, to listen to them, and to understand their struggles, so that we can help support them in their journey. And I feel very privileged to have many gay friends and straight friends as well, and people who have been supporting me throughout my life, and I want to be able to give back in terms of the educational knowledge that I have, as well as the support that I’ve been able to give to others and to be able to receive.

I feel like we have a lot we should be doing in education that’s not happening to help support the whole child, and the whole student, if you will, in terms of their mental, social, and emotional well being. And in order for learning to happen, we have to capture where kids are at, where students are at emotionally. Learning doesn’t happen in isolation. We have to connect with children in terms of where they’re at, in terms of developing relationships with people and knowing who they are, in general, and to be able to support them and understand their needs, their strengths, their skills, their passions. That’s what learning is all about.

What are your goals, both long-term and short-term, if you’re elected?
My goals are very far-reaching in some ways. I feel that the learning education focus that we have right now is not working for our students. We have a lot of research of late that’s proving that fact. Students have been interviewed and asked what was important for them, how did it prepare them for their futures in terms of their education in school, and they’re saying that it was way too narrow. It was much too focused on academics, and it didn’t prepare them for life. They said that they needed to have more experiences in clubs, community activities, to have more opportunities to work together in collaborative experiences. They also mentioned that they didn’t have a chance to learn about work experiences.

This is really important: that we rethink our whole college-track focus, which we call “an academic’s obsession,” and try to make it more focused on the opportunities for work as well. Students need to have an opportunity for internships, apprenticeships, and to understand what the world of work is like. And they need to be able to have project-based learning experiences, so that you learn how to get along, how to develop critical thinking, how to have complex problem solving activities.

We have not been doing our kids a service. The jobs in the future that are going to be there when they graduate for our kindergarten students today, when they graduate in 2034—those jobs don’t exist. Most of them don’t exist. We’ve got to think ahead and make sure that we change our education system. That’s my overarching, major goal, because we’re not doing our kids a service, and we’re not helping them develop the self-confidence, resilience, empathy, and understanding for each other.

The other critical piece of this is that we’re measuring student achievement, primarily on standardized tests. We need to get away from that. The standardized testing monopoly has been the primary rule, if you will, in education for over 20-plus years. We need to rethink that and start focusing on formative assessments and other bodies of evidence that will demonstrate how students are developing their skills and their competencies. The colleges have shown us the way.

SAT and ACT are no longer required for over two thirds of the college admissions. And so, our public education system needs to change and understand that we’re needing to help our students in different ways in terms of different experiences and different activities that go beyond the typical, narrow focus on academics. We’ve got to expand that and focus on their well being and learning that makes sense to them, so they’re engaged in relevant learning experiences. That’s the long-term goal.

The other thing we need to do is fund education differently. We’re not funding our local schools as well as we should. Colorado is 44th in the country for state funding. It’s one of the lowest funded states in the country, yet we’re one of the top states in the country economically. We’re not using our resources well for our students across the state.

What would you like our readers and voters to know about you before taking to the polls?
Basically, I’ve lived a long life. I’ve been fortunate to have been married. I have four children and four grandchildren. That was the first phase of my life. I was a teacher for many years, and then I became a principal in Jefferson County in Edgewater, CO, as well as a principal in Southern Jeffco in Littleton, CO. Then, in 1993, I came out as a gay man and realized that in order to live my authentic self, I needed to discover who I was and to be more true to myself.

Since that time, I’ve been lucky to have wonderful experiences in continuing my education and my work in schools. But I’ve also been able to be an advocate for the needs of others, of those who have not been able to succeed, whether they’re Black or Brown students, or those who have been marginalized, or others who have not been able to achieve in life. I’ve been lucky enough to be part of a support group as I was coming out, and I understand the needs of all of our young students as they’re struggling with their own identity.

If you live in Denver, please don’t forget to vote on November 2nd. LGBTQ youth are counting on you.