Julie Keim

Julie Keim

Education

Bachelor's

University of Arizona

Personal

Profession

Director of Finance and Contracts for Creative Energy Systems

Contact

Personal website

Julie Keim was a candidate for the District D seat on the Douglas County School District Board of Education in Colorado. She was defeated by fellow challenger Judi Reynolds on November 5, 2013. Keim ran to "restore a focus on excellence and innovation to our school district."

Biography

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Keim moved to Colorado in 2000 with her husband and three children. Keim received her BSBA in accounting from the University of Arizona in 1987. She became a certified public accountant (CPA) in 1990, and was registered in Arizona and Missouri. Keim worked as a CPA for the State of Arizona Office of the Auditor General where she audited the financial records of governmental entities and the State of Arizona Department of Economic Security as Finance Director. She also worked as a senior manager for Deloitte Consulting to help improve business practices and computer systems for a variety of governmental programs and entities. At the time of her candidacy, Keim was the Director of Finance and Contracts for Creative Energy Systems.

Keim has previously volunteered with the Lewis-Palmer School District and the Douglas County School District with several education-focused groups and programs, often using her financial background as a group's treasurer. Her contributions include writing the grant to bring pre-school education and later full-day kindergarten to at risk children in LPSD through the Colorado Preschool and Kindergarten Program, working with the Parent Teacher Organization and the School Accountability Committee, and playing a role in establishing two parent programs in 2011 at Castle Rock Middle School and High School.

Elections

2013

See also: Douglas County School District elections (2013)

Keim ran against fellow challenger Judi Reynolds for the District D seat in the general election on November 5, 2013.

Results

Douglas County School Board of Directors, Four-year term, District D, 2013
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Nonpartisan	Judi Reynolds	51.9%	52,230
	Nonpartisan	Julie Keim	48.1%	48,399
Total Votes				100,629
Source: Douglas County Elections, "2013 Coordinated Election," November 21, 2013

Funding

Keim reported $11,441.95 in contributions and $11,441.95 in expenditures to the Colorado Secretary of State, which left her campaign with no cash on hand.

Campaign themes

Keim's campaign website listed the following campaign themes for 2013:

Accountability to the public

Our fund balance (cash on hand) has grown exponentially while our schools’ site-based budgets have been cut, resulting in our schools struggling just to operate. Our schools are being asked to be innovative and to compete for students with little or no funding attached to support these efforts. Auditors have cited significant and material weaknesses in the internal financial controls of our District that could result in the material misstatement of the District’s financial position. No such findings (back to 2006) were noted by the Auditors prior to the introduction of this BoE and Administration. According to Colorado Department of Education, the number of students has grown by 10%, but our teacher positions have gone down 1%. At the same time, District Administration has increased by 10%. This BoE has increased the time spent in closed-door Executive Sessions from 8% to nearly half of all meeting time and has voted 7-0 on all but a handful of agenda items with no public discussion.

Academic excellence

Our District has lost its Accreditation with Distinction while neighboring school districts (Lewis-Palmer School District and Littleton Public Schools) that have experienced similar challenges during the economic downturn were able to maintain their same Accreditations. High school students are now receiving nearly three weeks less classroom instruction per subject resulting in hundreds of hours of less preparation during their high school years. Community members are losing their voice because the “democratically elected” members of the Board believe they no longer have to represent their entire constituency and the best interests of our children and community. High school graduation requirements have been reduced resulting in less incentive for our students to work their hardest in preparation for their future, whether that be in a job or college setting.

Public input and respect

Public communication with the Board has been significantly limited or completely eliminated. The practice of holding Community Engagement Meetings dedicated to hearing from the public was ended abruptly in 2012-13 with no explanation. Public comment changed from 3 minutes with an unlimited number of speakers to 2 minutes with only 30 minutes dedicated at each Board meeting. The level of respect shown to individuals by Board members varies based on whether the individual supports the Board or not. If the citizen is not supportive of the current direction of the school district, School Board Directors avert their eyes or busy themselves with other things when the speaker does not support their agenda or they openly attack and argue with that individual. If the citizen is supportive of the current direction of the school district, School Board Directors provide them positive feedback or allow shameful costumes and antics to take place. Highly effective and respected teachers and school-based administrators are fleeing our schools and the current BoE refuses to acknowledge this problem. Our BoE has brought partisan politics into a community leadership role that is a nonpartisan elected office. This recent practice goes back to the 2009 election, which is when the drastic change in parent and employee satisfaction took place.

Note: The above quote is from the candidate's website, which may include some typographical or spelling errors.

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Julie + Keim + Douglas + County + Schools"

Julie Keim News Feed

See also

• Colorado school districts
• Douglas County School District elections (2013)
• Douglas County School District, Colorado

External links

Suggest a link

• District website
• Colorado TRACER page
• Follow the Money page