Anne Egan

Director, District A

Anne Egan has had the chance to see how the Cherry Creek School District functions at all different levels.

Egan, who was sworn in as the CCSD Board of Education District A Director in November, has long had a well-informed view of the district of more than 55,000 students. A former education policy advisor with Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, Egan and her family specifically moved to a home in the district for the schools. Her four children have all progressed through Cherry Creek Schools.

This experience has come in addition to longtime roles within the district – Egan has been an active member in CCSD organizations ranging from elementary school PTCOs to the Cherry Creek Community Legislative Network. All of this work within the Cherry Creek School District and beyond made running for the school board in 2019 feel like a perfect fit.

“It was important for me to give back to the district,” Egan said, adding that at one point, she had four kids in four different schools. Each found their own path to excellence within the district, and each drew on resources within their classrooms to forge their own pathway of purpose. “The district has always done a great job. I want to continue conversations about mental health, diversity and inclusive excellence and innovation in education.”

Egan certainly has the experience and the know-how to keep those issues at the forefront in her new role on the board (she earned a master’s degree from the University of Denver). Egan is used to working hard behind the scenes to maintain the district’s tradition of excellence, and she wants to bring those skills to bear in implementing the ideals and values encapsulated in Cherry Creek Future Forward, the district’s roadmap for maintaining excellence well into the future.

With its focus on Instructional Excellence, Workforce Excellence and Operational Excellence, the Cherry Creek Future Forward roadmap aligns closely with Egan’s own priorities in looking to the future of Cherry Creek Schools.

Janice McDonald, Vice President

Director, District B

Voters chose McDonald to take over the Director B seat on the Cherry Creek School District Board of Education in 2015, but her roots in the community go far deeper than a single election. Since McDonald and her husband moved to the district in 1976, the landscape surrounding their home in the Overland High School feeder area has transformed fundamentally.

“I was able to witness the district evolve in to what it is now,” McDonald said. “When I first moved here, we called it ‘Country City’ and we thought of the school district as a rural school district. We used to have farms near Eastridge Elementary.”

Just as the city of Aurora expanded and developed, so did the Cherry Creek School District. McDonald and her family took an active role in the district’s evolution – all five of her children attended Cherry Creek schools, and she took an early active role as a volunteer and an employee. She volunteered at Eastridge and Ponderosa elementary schools; she worked with the I-Team at Smoky Hill High School in the late ‘70s and moved on to a role as a family school community liaison at Prairie Middle School before retiring in 2010. These posts in the district came in addition to McDonald’s extensive work for the city of Aurora, Aurora Mental Health and other community organizations.

Angela Garland

Director, District C

Angela Garland may be new to the Cherry Creek School District Board of Education, but she’s not unfamiliar with the most pressing issues facing the district.

Garland, who started her term in the board’s District C Director position in November, 2019, is the mother of four children who are currently enrolled in CCSD. Her résumé includes positions with the Cherry Creek Schools Foundation, district P.A.S.S. (Partnerships for Academically Successful Students), Cherry Creek’s District Accountability Committee and parent teacher organizations. All of this work with district organizations caps a career spent working closely with nonprofits and other community organizations in Colorado, Missouri and her native Nebraska.

Combined, all of this experience has offered Garland a unique perspective on the most pressing issues related to public education in general and those facing Cherry Creek Schools specifically.

“I worked in the nonprofit and social services world for about 10 years, and that was my first foray into education. I saw a lot of students who were highly impacted by poverty, divorce, incarceration or other issues that made school that much more difficult for them,” Garland recalled of her work immediately following her graduation from the University of Nebraska with a degree in political science and English. “I often served as an intermediary for families who’d had negative experiences in public schools. I saw firsthand the needs of various schools and the needs of various students.”

Kelly Bates, President

Director, District D

Kelly Bates, who began her first term as a CCSD board member in the fall of 2017, brings a great deal of experience volunteering and serving in the district. Bates has served in leadership and volunteer roles at Creekside Elementary, Liberty Middle School and Cherokee Trail High School for more than a decade, serving as PTCO President and Vice President and chairing a wide variety of events and fundraisers. Bates earned the Wendy DeBell Exceptional Volunteer Award in 2012 and 2014, garnering recognition for her consummate work for students, teachers and the wider community. At the district level, Bates has been active in CCSD's bond and budget campaigns, as well as consistent participant in events and organizations ranging from Leadership Cherry Creek to the Parent Information Network and the Special Education Advisory Council. Bates boasts a background in education, having served as a child care director and preschool teacher at facilities in Michigan and Ohio.

Kristin Allan

Director, District E

Kristin Allan’s service on the Cherry Creek School District Board of Education in 2021 follows several years of experience volunteering in CCSD schools and at district-level positions. A parent of two children in the district, Allan began volunteering in their classrooms when her oldest child was in kindergarten. Allan soon took on leadership roles in school and then district accountability organizations.

“The more involved I became, the more passionate I became about service to our school district,” Allan said, adding that her advocacy role for her own kids ended up expanding. “As I was going through this process, I started thinking about all of the other students. They need a voice.”

Allan grew up in New York, where she earned her bachelor’s degree and attended Brooklyn Law School. After relocating to Colorado in 2005, she worked in a firm before striking out on her own and starting her own practice about three years ago. Allan and her family specifically moved to a house in CCSD for the schools.

A practicing attorney and small business owner, Allan built up a long list of district-based roles before beginning as a board member. She’s a graduate of the Leadership Cherry Creek program, which offers participants a behind-the-scenes view of district operations, and her time as chair of the District Accountability Committee and High Plains Elementary School’s Accountability Committee offered the first steps that would ultimately lead to a position on the board. 

In her current role as Director of District E, Allan brings goals and priorities that align with CCSD’s Core Values: Growth Mindset, Equity, Whole Wellbeing, Engagement, and Relationships.

“Having consistent Core Values across the different schools and demographics is so important. I frame all of my Board of Education work around those values,” she said, adding that our Core Values clearly define how everyone will work together to achieve our vision and carry out our mission. “Our values are the beginning of the story, not the end. When we operationalize our Core Values, we work to achieve excellence. When we put our Core Values into action, we allow each student to find their pathway of purpose.” 

The commitment to real, effective and measurable action that first drove Allan to volunteer at her kids’ schools has persisted, and it’s now the mission she draws on to positively impact more than 55,000 students.