Susan Payne is an Academy District 20 board member listed in the district's current public directory as board Vice President. In the 2025 D20 board context, her retained source layer supports a public campaign built around school safety, academic achievement, parental rights / family engagement, fiscal stewardship, transparency language, and local control. Public biographical sources support a professional background in Colorado Springs law enforcement, Safe2Tell formation / leadership, and school-safety work. A September 11, 2025 retained board-meeting audio segment now supports that Payne herself raised CORA-request and requester-pattern questions during a radon / indoor-air-quality discussion. The current corpus still does not support attributing the exact weaponizing CORA phrase to Payne.
In this repository, Payne matters because she sits at the intersection of D20 board governance, the 2025 conservative school-board slate, public-safety and school-safety campaign positioning, campaign-finance infrastructure, and a campaign-adjacent transparency / CORA rhetoric lead involving School Yard Secrets.
The strongest current source is the D20 official directory for her present board role. The campaign site supplies candidate self-description and platform language. Colorado TRACER supplies direct candidate-committee and expenditure evidence. Colorado Times Recorder and existing D20 summaries supply the local-reporting context for the 2025 D20 race, sports-policy conflict, and candidate-network frame.
Vice President219-25Elect Susan Payne, committee ID 202550492172024-11-25 lists Payne as Affiliate, Violence Prevention Project; this supports a profile / affiliate listing, not employment terms or exact role boundariesEchoes of Columbine; this is same event evidence, not proof of membership, endorsement, funding, campaign coordination, employment, or control2003, executive director from 2006 to 2018, and formerly a Colorado Springs Police Department detective; Colorado Trust and CU Boulder sources show multi-actor Safe2Tell formation; Safe2Tell official history says the program began operations as a nonprofit in 2004 and became part of the Colorado Attorney General's Office in 2014; Colorado Politics / The Gazette reports a 28-year CSPD career, first school-resource-officer role, D12 safety-director role, and national / CU Boulder school-safety advisory work, while a 2009 Colorado Trust source says Payne then had 17 years' police-officer experienceweaponizing CORA or wasting district money| Source | Target | Mechanism | Flow | Evidence strength | Source basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy District 20 Board of Education | Susan Payne | May 20, 2025 appointment vote / Resolution 219-25 | Authority / board-seat appointment | direct evidence | Susan Payne public-record and D20 campaign source cluster |
| Susan Payne | Academy District 20 Board of Education | Official board-directory listing | Authority / governance role | direct evidence | Susan Payne public-record and D20 campaign source cluster |
| Susan Payne | Elect Susan Payne |
Candidate committee / registered-agent relationship | Campaign administration | direct evidence | TRACER slice; campaign-site footer |
Elect Susan Payne |
Kris Garofalo | Campaign expenditures | Money for campaign services | direct evidence | TRACER expenditure rows |
Elect Susan Payne |
Flatcreek Communications | Campaign web-design expenditure | Money for campaign web services | direct evidence | TRACER expenditure row |
Elect Susan Payne |
Candice / Candi Boyer | Filing-agent / TRACER-work relationship | Campaign compliance labor | direct evidence | TRACER slice and prior raw follow-up |
| School Yard Secrets | Payne / Tripp / Waldrep slate | Site promotion surface | Attention / campaign messaging | direct evidence for promotion; unresolved for control | School Yard Secrets site capture |
| Payne | School Yard Secrets CORA post | Possible campaign-adjacent rhetorical relationship | Unresolved | candidate lead | Site promotion only; no direct Payne attribution found |
| Payne | D20 CORA / radon request discussion | Board questions during September 11, 2025 radon / indoor-air-quality discussion | Legitimacy, scrutiny, expense, and disruption framing | direct evidence for recorded exchange; exact quotes need verification | Susan Payne public-record and D20 campaign source cluster |
| Springs Opportunity Fund | Payne campaign | Reported support | Campaign support / attention | reported relationship | Colorado Times Recorder reporting |
| Payne | Safe2Tell | Local precursor / formation / Program Director / executive-director role | School-safety program leadership / legitimacy | direct evidence for central role; unresolved for sole-founder framing | Susan Payne biographical source cluster |
| Payne | Colorado Springs Police Department | Prior detective / officer role | Public-safety professional background | direct evidence for AG detective characterization and 2009 17 years' publication claim; reported relationship for 28-year officer / first SRO details |
Susan Payne biographical source cluster |
| Payne | Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 | Director of safety/security role | School-safety administration | reported relationship | Susan Payne biographical source cluster |
| Payne | IBS / Violence Prevention Project | Affiliate profile listing | Professional legitimacy / school-violence-prevention profile | direct evidence for listing | Susan Payne biographical source cluster |
| Payne | Moms for Liberty / M4LU | Featured speaker / Q&A listing for March 17, 2025 virtual event | Attention / school-safety legitimacy | same event | Susan Payne biographical source cluster |
| Payne | Colorado Parents Advocacy Network | Reported citizen-petition collaboration on competency-law changes | Policy advocacy / attention | reported relationship | Susan Payne biographical source cluster |
The current source set supports a narrowed finding: School Yard Secrets, not Payne in any inspected source, used the exact weaponizing CORA rhetoric in a post that framed public-records requests as a D20 resource-drain problem. The same site separately promoted the Payne / Tripp / Waldrep slate, which makes the rhetoric relevant to Payne's campaign context. It does not prove Payne authored, adopted, approved, funded, or controlled that framing.
The September 11, 2025 board-video source now separately supports Payne-specific CORA evidence. In a radon / indoor-air-quality agenda discussion, Payne asked whether the radon-related request wave / group involved CORA requests, whether the requesters were constituents with children in the affected schools, and whether there was a pattern of multiple CORA requests from the same constituents. She then connected the discussion to an image / petri-dish submission, expense, verification, disruption, transparency, child safety, and her investigator / law-enforcement background. This supports a public-records scrutiny / cost / disruption framing. It still does not support the stronger claim that Payne said weaponizing CORA, named Rob Rogers, opposed CORA generally, or held an anti-transparency position.
Countervailing or narrowing evidence matters here. Payne's campaign site uses transparency-positive language around curriculum and policy decisions, communication, information access, and budgeting. That does not prove a robust public-records-access position, but it does block a fair summary from flattening the record into anti-CORA or anti-transparency.
The September 11, 2025 D20 minutes and YouTube capture add a meeting-context layer. Payne is recorded in the minutes as present and leading the Pledge of Allegiance. The YouTube automatic captions attribute to Payne an early board-comment segment about violence, threat assessment, student exposure to violent imagery, armed school security, behavioral warning signs, and healthy conversations after traumatic incidents. Written public comments in the same minutes use CORA as an accountability tool around portable-classroom records and criticize district spending on the CHSAA lawsuit. Those public comments are separate from Payne's later radon / CORA exchange.
Susan Payne biographical source cluster supports the main professional biography without relying only on campaign self-description. The Colorado Attorney General source describes Payne as instrumental in creating Safe2Tell in 2003, serving as Safe2Tell executive director from 2006 to 2018, and previously working as a Colorado Springs Police Department detective. Safe2Tell's official history places the program's nonprofit operations in 2004 and Attorney General incorporation in 2014.
The Safe2Tell founding-credit layer now needs careful wording. Colorado Trust's 2009 report says Payne created and tested a local Colorado Springs hotline, presented the strategy to Colorado leaders in 1999, was appointed Safe2Tell Program Director after a 2003 Colorado Trust grant and board formation, and became Executive Director / first Colorado Department of Public Safety-Homeland Security Special Agent for school safety in 2006. That same report and CU Boulder sources also name multiple formation / support figures and institutions, including Del Elliott / CSPV, Ken Salazar / the Attorney General layer, the Colorado Trust, Colorado Crime Stoppers, Colorado State Patrol, Colorado Department of Public Safety, Jeanne Smith, Don Quick, Ed Lucero, and Mark Trostel. The durable phrasing should be central Safe2Tell creator / builder or founder, in a multi-actor formation context, not sole founder.
Public reporting gives only limited support for why Payne left Safe2Tell. Colorado Politics / The Gazette and Colorado Sun reporting say she stepped down as director in November 2018, citing a need for a change. Westword gives a more detailed attributed account: Payne had handed Safe2Tell to Essi Ellis, expected to keep serving as a resource and national expansion advocate, and said an unexplained chain-of-command directive from the prior October meant she could not keep doing that through Safe2Tell. The current public source set does not establish misconduct, firing for cause, retaliation, or institutional motive.
Reporting from Colorado Politics / The Gazette adds that Payne worked 28 years as a Colorado Springs police officer, became the city's first school resource officer, created Safe2Tell in 2004 for Colorado Springs students and schools, became Cheyenne Mountain School District 12's first director of safety and security in 2019, and served in special-adviser / consultant roles with the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center and CU Boulder's Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence. A 2009 Colorado Trust report instead says Payne then had 17 years' police-officer experience, while CSPV's current profile uses the broader phrase 28-year law enforcement veteran. Treat the duration as unresolved until CSPD, POST, or personnel records establish dates and scope.
The Secret Service / NTAC source layer is also narrower than some public bios. A 2020 Secret Service press release directly lists Payne as an additional participant in a nationwide NTAC tour about Protecting America's Schools; it does not call her an NTAC employee, special adviser, consultant, author, or report contributor. The retained Protecting America's Schools report text says the report was authored by NTAC staff and does not name Payne in the text search. Adviser / consultant phrasing should remain attributed to reporting or biography pages.
raw/board-materials/academy-district-20/2026-05-02-board-directory-susan-payne.md: provides the direct official board-directory listing for Payne as Vice President.raw/board-materials/academy-district-20/undated/38754.pdf: provides direct appointment-minute support for Payne's May 20, 2025 board appointment.raw/board-materials/academy-district-20/undated/38742.pdf: provides direct September 11, 2025 meeting-minute context, including Payne's attendance, pledge-leading role, board-comment topics, and CORA-related written public comments.raw/video/d20-advocates-joel-event-2025-10-12/joel-advocates-event.generated-asr.md: generated ASR from a user-provided local Advocates event video; useful as a low-confidence campaign-mobilization lead, not quote-ready evidence.raw/video/youtube/d20-board-meeting-2025-09-11-ipzLzvCu2eg/source-note.md: preserves YouTube metadata and automatic captions for the September 11, 2025 board meeting, plus a retained Payne / CORA / radon audio segment and MLX ASR; useful for Payne-attributed board-comment context, but exact quotations require audio verification.raw/articles/2026-05-02T184000-0600-elect-susan-payne-campaign-site-capture.md: preserves campaign self-description and issue framing.raw/datasets/tracer/elect-susan-payne-2025-2026/elect-susan-payne-tracer-transaction-slice.md: provides the direct candidate-committee transaction slice.raw/articles/2026-05-02T183740-0600-school-yard-secrets-weaponization-of-cora-post.md: preserves the CORA rhetoric source and attribution limits.weaponizing CORA, name Rob Rogers, or criticize Rob training others to use CORA? No inspected source proves that.17 years / 28 years duration conflict, first-SRO detail, and Secret Service adviser / consultant characterization remain unresolved or reporting-backed.