The D20 Accountability Project

11/07/2025

With the recent departure of D20’s legal counsel, rumors are already circulating that the new board majority may be looking to bring in Brad Miller of Miller Farmer Law- a name that should raise serious concern for anyone who values transparency, public input, their taxpayer money, and the integrity of our schools.

Miller has been deeply involved in controversial efforts across Colorado to reshape public education from the inside out- often by pushing privatization, supporting charter expansion, and advising boards that have skirted Colorado’s Open Meetings Law. His record in places like Woodland Park and D49 includes questionable legal advice that enabled secretive decision-making and sparked lawsuits over violations of the public’s right to know. As new members join the D20 school board, it’s more important than ever that our community keeps a close eye on district decisions. We’ve already seen how Academy District 20 has used secrecy, backroom meetings, and abused “executive sessions” to push through major changes without public input.

That’s where the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) comes in. CORA gives every Coloradan the legal right to access public documents/ from emails and contracts to meeting notes and budget details- so we can hold our elected officials accountable. Under CORA, agencies must respond within three working days, and they can’t withhold or delay records without clear legal justification. If they do, citizens can take them to court and win attorney’s fees for unlawful denials .

Given what we’ve seen in other districts- like Woodland Park, where right-wing legal consultants and new board majorities have tried to operate in the dark- D20 residents should expect the same tactics here: less transparency, more ideology-driven decisions, and diminished trust.

Our best defense is sunlight.
• Attend board meetings and insist on clear, specific explanations when executive sessions are called.
• File CORA requests if information isn’t shared publicly.
• Demand that the board remember who they serve: the public.

Transparency isn’t optional in a public school system. It’s the law, and it’s the foundation of a community that values accountability and integrity.

🚨 NOW LIVE IN THE GPT STORE 🚨

D20 director Susan Payne has a problem with me using CORA.

She really has a problem with me helping others use it effectively.

So let’s not keep her waiting.

I just launched a custom GPT trained specifically to assist with Colorado Open Records Act requests. It’s built on real-world requests from Academy District 20, the City of Colorado Springs, the Pikes Peak Library District, the Elizabeth school district, the Woodland Park school district, and the Garfield RE-2 school district. It includes the full CORA statute and 22 court cases that shaped it.

It knows the difference between a stall tactic and a lawful response.

This is for the people who get slapped with $2,000 fee estimates. For those who’ve been stonewalled, redirected, or gaslit. And it’s especially for anyone who’s ever been made to feel intimidated just for asking questions.

Because that’s the point of this project. Not just to expose broken systems, but to lower the barrier to entry. To help people get over the fear and confusion of using one of the few cost-effective tools the public has left to hold government accountable.

And yes, I’m taking it further. I’m working to schedule a community workshop in early December to share what I’ve learned over the years, including a live demo of how to use the GPT. I might as well just do what I've been accused of doing.

Payne and her bloc now control every seat on the D20 board. But they do not control the public.

Link to the GPT is in the comments.

Just ask it, "Help me start a new CORA request."

Because sunlight is free.
And I’m just getting started.

11/04/2025

Just resharing this. New reporting in the comments.

11/03/2025

Take a hard look. One of these fear-stoking mailers hit D20 mailboxes. The other landed in D11. Same design. Same talking points. Different school districts.

Both are paid for by shady “independent expenditure committees” likely fronting for Advance Colorado, a well-oiled misinformation machine with zero local accountability. One calls itself “Springs Opportunity Fund.” The other “D11 Parents and Teachers.” Neither is local. Neither is grassroots. Both are designed to manipulate.

What they’re pushing isn’t community concern. It’s copy-paste panic. And not even clever panic. They can’t be bothered to make original propaganda. Just swap the district name and hit print. It’s lazy, cynical, and insulting.

They think you’re stupid. That you’ll fall for cheap emotional bait instead of asking basic questions like: Who wrote this? Who paid for it? And why now?

They think that you're too stupid to remember that they spent THREE QUARTERS OF A MILLION DOLLARS on local elections in 2021 and 2023.

Just to repeat, THEY THINK THAT YOU ARE STUPID.

Here’s the kicker. If the candidates benefiting from tens of thousands of dollars in dark-money manipulation actually cared about kids or real issues, they’d denounce this trash. But they won’t. Because this is the only way they can win. By lying, fear-mongering, and hoping you don’t notice.

Sit with this for just a few seconds.

They can’t win on ideas. They can’t win on integrity. So they mail out fake emergencies and hope voters don’t flip the postcard over and ask: Who profits from keeping you scared?

This isn’t about education. It’s about control.

Vote local. Vote informed. And call this out for what it is: propaganda.

11/01/2025

🚨 Another “Emergency” Mailer? Let’s Talk About What’s Actually on Fire.

The Springs Opportunity Fund is flooding mailboxes again, this time with sirens, slogans, and a flyer so alarmist it practically yells “panic now, verify never.” But here’s what they still don’t want you to notice:

🧾 One late 48-hour notice. Still no contributions reported. Negative balance.

Yes, they finally filed a 48-hour notice today, after multiple rounds of glossy fear-bait hit local homes. But their reporting still shows no contributors and a balance that’s below zero. So the public knows money is being spent, but not where it’s coming from.

That’s not transparency. That’s a burn pile.

And it gets worse.

The candidates named in this flyer?

They deliberately did not seek endorsement or support from a political party. And they didn’t receive it.

Not because it wasn’t available, because, as they've stated clearly several times, they believe school board races should stay nonpartisan, as the law intends.

But Springs Opportunity Fund? They’re running this like a national culture war campaign, just without the disclosures.

📉 False claims. Fuzzy math. Phantom donors.

The flyer accuses these local parents and professionals of being “woke liberals” and backs it up with exactly zero evidence, unless you count weaponized buzzwords and misrepresented state laws.

➤ “Marxist” teachers? That’s not informing the public. It’s red-scare fan fiction.
➤ “Invasive surveys”? Parents already have opt-out rights.
➤ “Boys in girls’ bathrooms”? That’s a state-level civil rights issue, not a D20 campaign plank.

And it bears repeating: the organization behind these mailers has yet to report a single dollar in contributions. Yet somehow they’re paying designers, printers, and postage.

If this is how they behave before an election, imagine what happens after.

🧭 The D20 Accountability Project was created to shine light on exactly this kind of manipulation. You don’t have to agree with every candidate. But you should demand honesty, transparency, and basic compliance with the law, especially from the people trying to influence your vote.

If your campaign can’t win without deception, it shouldn’t be anywhere near our schools.

Ask yourselves, "Who benefits from school districts being governed by people that can't win without their seats being bought and paid for by lies and baseless fear?"

-
isn’t optional.

10/30/2025

Just a reminder that D20 school board candidate Cynthia Halverson graduated from Rick Green's Patriot Academy back in February, a Christian nationalist training program tied to Andrew Wommack’s Truth & Liberty Coalition, El Paso County GOP chair Ken Davis, and even “Constitutional Defense” fi****ms courses.

This isn’t neutral “leadership training.” It’s a political pipeline aimed at taking the (including Education) for a sectarian agenda.

Full breakdown in the comments.

10/29/2025

Excellent article from Logan Davis about the current state of the dark money pipelines, including the Springs Opportunity Fund that is supporting Payne/Tripp/Waldrep in D20. Link in the comments.

10/28/2025

Why isn’t anyone asking more questions about this?

Back in 2021, Academy District 20 quietly rewrote a job description so Susan Payne’s husband could qualify. He was hired at a higher salary than advertised, after other candidates were pushed aside, and concerns about favoritism were documented by the district’s own former security director.

Now Susan sits on the board that oversees the same department her husband runs.

How is that not a conflict of interest?
How is this not a bigger deal?
And has Susan Payne ever made a written, or even verbal, commitment to fully recuse herself from board decisions affecting her husband’s position or department?

Accountability shouldn’t depend on who’s asking the questions.

10/28/2025

Susan Payne’s campaign surrogate and manager, Kris Garofalo, has been doing cleanup duty online, posting defenses any time Payne’s record is questioned. Last week, Garofalo published a lengthy “fact check” about Payne’s exit from Cheyenne Mountain School District 12, where Payne previously worked as Security Director.

But here’s what still doesn’t add up: Garofalo never explains why the district pulled Payne’s equipment, badges, and system access three and a half months before her contract ended.

If this were just a routine “contract expiration,” why the early lockout? And why would a district suddenly eliminate an entire cabinet-level position, then keep paying the person for months afterward? That doesn’t happen unless something went wrong. Districts don’t abruptly dismantle executive-level roles that are supposedly “working beautifully” and es**rt someone out mid-term. It defies common sense.

That’s not a clean exit. That’s a quiet removal.

Garofalo’s post doesn’t clear anything up. It scolds the public, piles on titles and talking points, and ends by telling voters to stop asking questions and to “get out of the way.”

We notice who’s desperate to shut the questions down.

Garofalo also claims Susan “took a stand” by pushing District 20 to join the CHSAA lawsuit.

Took a stand against what? An invented problem?

Took a stand against fiscal responsibility?

Or just took a stand because that’s what Brad Miller told her to do?

10/28/2025

We are hearing that Rep. Jeff Crank hosted a town hall last night for the three extremist candidates in D20 that he endorsed, but we can’t find any announcement or other information about it. Does anyone have any insight? Surely this wasn’t a private event?

10/22/2025

We were forwarded the results of a CORA request to Cheyenne Mountain School District regarding Susan Payne’s employment history. We offer this with no editorializing or interpretation.

10/19/2025

On the heels of the recent and powerful endorsement from an *anonymous* person, the "Proven Experience" slate just dropped two more powerful endorsements from people that we're sure actually exist.