Chalkbeat

Social media: Denver school board considering policy about when members can block people

2024-03-08T03:25:56+00:00

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Amid ongoing court cases about public officials’ use of social media, the Denver school board is considering a policy about when board members can and cannot delete comments or block people from commenting on their posts.

The proposed policy says Denver school board members who want to discuss Denver Public Schools business on social media should do so on an official account — that is, an account that is “maintained or operated … in their official capacity” — rather than on a personal account.

“School District Board Members may not speak as a representative of the School District in the course of their personal use of social media,” the proposed policy says.

Board members cannot block anyone from posting comments on their official social media pages based upon the viewpoint that the person expressed, nor can they delete anyone’s comments for the same reason, the proposal says.

However, board members can disable commenting altogether or delete comments that are not protected by the First Amendment, including “threats, obscenity, and defamation,” it says.

The proposal comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a pair of related cases, including one involving school board members in California who blocked parents from their Twitter and Facebook accounts. It also comes on the heels of a first-of-its-kind state law passed last year that allows Colorado elected officials to ban people from their personal social media accounts.

A DPS parent sued former school board member Auon’tai Anderson in September in a test of that new state law after he blocked the parent on Facebook. Anderson, a prolific social media user, served a four-year term on the board from 2019 to 2023 but did not run for re-election this past November.

Current board members didn’t quibble with the gist of the policy during a discussion Thursday.

Derigan Silver, chair of the Department of Media, Film and Journalism Studies at the University of Denver, said in an interview that the Denver board is smart to address this issue.

He summarized the proposed policy like this: “This is like saying, ‘We are going to give you a government cell phone, and you can have a personal cell phone if you want to, but do not do government business on your personal cell phone.’”

The policy also makes clear that board members can’t ban people from their official accounts for criticizing them, he said: “You have to take your slings and arrows as a government official.”

During Thursday’s meeting, board members made some edits to the proposal, cutting phrases they felt were unnecessary. Some asked school district attorney Aaron Thompson clarifying questions, including whether posting about DPS business on their private social media accounts would convert the accounts to official — Thompson said yes — and whether members would still be able to express opinions on social media — again, Thompson said yes.

“The main concern is not about what you’re saying, but what you limit others to say,” Thompson said.

The board is set to vote on the policy later this month.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Split Denver school board approves superintendent’s goals on safety, test scores, and more

2023-12-20T01:41:51+00:00

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Revising Denver Public Schools’ discipline code, screening all young students for dyslexia, and increasing the percentage of students reading and doing math at grade level are among the Denver superintendent’s goals for this school year.

At a Denver school board meeting last week — the first voting meeting since three new members were elected — the board approved a long list of metrics by which to evaluate Superintendent Alex Marrero. The metrics are officially known as “reasonable interpretations.” They are Marrero’s take on how the board, which hired him in 2021 and oversees his work, will know if he’s accomplishing the overarching goals the board has set for DPS.

The vote to approve the metrics was split, with the three newly elected board members voting no and the four veteran members voting yes, revealing a potentially new divide on a board that has been known for its divisiveness.

The tone of the hourlong debate last Thursday was polite, if impatient at times. The three new board members, who were sworn in Dec. 1, said they hadn’t had enough time to review the more than 230 metrics since they’d gotten the documents two days before.

“It is a lot to go through, to evaluate, to research as a very brand-new, 13-days-in board member,” said new member Marlene De La Rosa.

The four other board members said they sympathized. But they said the board had already delayed the vote so the new members could weigh in, and that delaying it any further would cause, as member Scott Esserman put it, “stress and uncertainty.”

“It’s really important that we take care of this and move on,” Esserman said.

An attempt by the new board members to delay a vote on all of the metrics until January failed 4-3. So did a separate attempt to delay voting on a select number of high-profile metrics related to school safety, student discipline, and academic curriculum.

The metrics are tied to Marrero’s performance evaluation, which happens each October. Last school year, Marrero met 80% of the metrics, earning him a $8,235 bonus, which was equal to 2.5% of his salary. Under his contract, the more metrics he meets, the higher the bonus.

This school year’s metrics range from hyper-specific — that the district’s new greenhouse will harvest 8,160 pounds of tomatoes by June — to more broad, including that Marrero will “guard against the … endangerment of the district’s public image or credibility.”

Other metrics specify that Marrero will:

Publish a revised “discipline matrix” by the end of this school year. The discipline matrix dictates when educators can suspend or expel a student or refer a student to police. It came under intense scrutiny after a previously expelled student brought a gun to Denver’s East High School in March and shot two deans before taking his own life.
Ensure all police officers stationed inside DPS high schools are certified by the National Association of School Resource Officers and ensure school leaders with a new officer in their building attend a training put on by the same organization. The board voted to return police officers to some DPS high schools after the East High shooting.
Ensure that school resource officers who don’t follow district policy, don’t comply with the discipline matrix, or don’t abide by best practices are “promptly removed.”
Monitor tickets and arrests by school resource officers and ensure that students are not ticketed for “low-level violations” of the city municipal code.
Increase by at least one percentage point the share of students who score at grade level on state literacy and math tests, both overall and for specific student groups, including Black and Latino students, students with disabilities, and students who qualify for subsidized meals.
Ensure all students in kindergarten through third grade take a universal reading screener to help detect reading problems such as dyslexia.
Increase high school graduation rates, the reporting for which lags a year behind. The graduation rate for the class of 2022 was 76.5%. The goal for the class of 2023 is 79%.
Improve student attendance. The district fell short of its attendance goals last year.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board rejects superintendent’s recommendation to close Academy 360 charter school

2023-11-17T18:12:30+00:00

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In a 5-2 vote, the Denver school board rejected a recommendation from Superintendent Alex Marrero Thursday to close Academy 360, a small charter school with low test scores.

Board members cited several reasons for keeping the school open, including the mental health support it provides students and families, school leaders’ commitment to boosting academic achievement, and the fact that nearby schools don’t have high test scores either.

“I don’t believe in shifting around Black and brown children from one failing school to another failing school,” board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said.

Board member Carrie Olson, who was a teacher at a Denver middle school that was closed for low test scores, also noted that school closures can be traumatic for students.

“We want to give you another chance,” she said, addressing Academy 360 staff and supporters, “and we have to see that you’re doing right by all students. Because I don’t want to incur more pain and I know the trauma of having a school being closed.”

Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán and member Scott Baldermann were the only two to vote yes on closing Academy 360. Given Denver Public Schools’ declining enrollment, Gaytán said that refusing to close low-performing charter schools would make the district’s problem of too few students and too many schools worse, especially for district-run schools.

Academy 360 opened in 2013 in Montbello, the brainchild of a young educator who imagined a charter school focused on mental and physical health and wellness that would outperform the neighborhood’s struggling district-run schools.

Ten years later, Academy 360 serves 230 students — with five classrooms of preschoolers, one classroom each of kindergarten through fifth grade, and a special education program for students with autism. Nearly 90% of students are students of color, 78% are from low-income families, 34% are English language learners, and 24% have disabilities.

Academy 360 has struggled academically. This year, it earned the lowest possible state rating, signified by the color red. Its students in grades 3-5 scored in the first percentile on state literacy and math tests last spring, meaning 99% of Colorado students scored higher.

The board voted earlier this year to close a different charter school with similar scores. But that school, STRIVE Prep - Kepner, then in the midst of a merger with the higher-performing Rocky Mountain Prep charter network, didn’t protest Marrero’s closure recommendation. Academy 360 did protest — and the majority of board members sided with the school.

Irrespective of the STRIVE vote, Marrero previously expressed concerns that allowing Academy 360 to remain open would set a precedent that Denver Public Schools doesn’t close charter schools, no matter how low their test scores. He said the premise of independently run charter schools is that they’re granted extra flexibility but also held accountable for their results.

Board members said they understood Marrero’s reasoning, but didn’t agree in this case.

“My stance is not an attempt to excuse charter schools from their obligations,” board member Michelle Quattlebaum said. “Rather, it reflects the nuanced nature of the learning process and the exceptional circumstances that may warrant deviations from established norms.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board votes to increase pay to $33,000 a year for new members

2023-11-17T16:56:26+00:00

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Three newly elected Denver school board members will be eligible for $33,000 in pay per year, after the current board voted 6-1 Thursday to quadruple members’ compensation.

Board members said they hoped the higher pay would attract more diverse candidates to run for school board. Denver Public Schools is the largest district in the state, and board members have compared serving to a full-time job that was, until recently, unpaid.

“We owe it to our students to ensure that we remove barriers that prevent a school board that looks like and reflects them,” board member Scott Esserman said.

Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán was the sole no vote. She said she couldn’t justify increasing pay for board members when that money could be spent in classrooms. Her son’s high school only has one Spanish teacher who is stretched thin, she said, and the school recently cut a jazz band elective that her son enjoyed due to a lack of funding.

“These funds could be redirected to address critical needs in southwest Denver schools,” Gaytán said, referencing the region of the city she represents.

Incoming board members John Youngquist, Marlene De La Rosa, and Kimberlee Sia, who were elected Nov. 7 and are set to be sworn in Nov. 28, will be able to invoice Denver Public Schools for up to $150 a day, five days per week, which is the maximum allowable under state law.

The board doesn’t meet in July, so members are paid 11 months of the year, hence the $33,000 in annual pay. The board previously voted in 2021 to pay members up to $150 a day, five days a month. That’s $8,250 per year, with public employee retirement benefits on top of that.

The other four members on the seven-member board are not eligible for the higher pay. State law doesn’t allow sitting board members to raise their own compensation.

District records show that only three board members — Esserman, Gaytán, and Michelle Quattlebaum — were paid in the last fiscal year. Carrie Olson did not collect any money.

At least two other Colorado school boards, in Aurora and Sheridan, have voted to pay their members, though their members’ compensation is much lower than in Denver.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver’s superintendent wants to close Academy 360 charter school. But the school board has questions.

2023-11-15T22:34:48+00:00

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The Denver superintendent has recommended closing another charter school for low test scores — a once-rare option that he used last school year as well.

This time, it’s Academy 360, a small charter school serving preschool to fifth grade in the Montbello neighborhood. Academy 360 supporters describe the school as a village where students grow vegetables on asphalt, where kids who used to kick walls now sit attentively during math, and where 90 3- and 4-year-olds attend preschool in a child care desert.

“Our children are more than their test scores,” parent Ashley Chapman told the school board.

By contrast, Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero described Academy 360 as having one of the lowest state ratings he’s ever seen. At a board meeting earlier this month, Marrero acknowledged the school serves a population of students with high needs, most of whom are Black and Latino, but said “they’re not doing it well.”

“So it’s my duty to make sure we can meet the needs of those students,” he said.

For Marrero, there’s another consideration, too. He said keeping Academy 360 open would set a precedent that DPS does not close charter schools, no matter what.

“Charter schools are built on the promise of autonomy and flexibility, and in turn, accountability,” Marrero said. “So we’re delivering on our promise in terms of holding them accountable.”

The school board is set to vote Thursday on whether to close Academy 360. But five of the seven board members have expressed reservations. That’s notable because they were all elected with the help of the Denver teachers union, which has been hostile to charters. What’s more, the board voted to close another charter school with low test scores earlier this year.

But this recommendation sparked pushback. Board members worried that closing the school — where 88% of students are students of color, 78% come from low-income families, and 24% have disabilities — would be deeply disruptive to a community that one board member described as having “need upon need upon need.”

“Are we sure this is going to make things better?” board member Carrie Olson asked Marrero. “I don’t know what the answer is, but it doesn’t feel like the answer is to close the school.”

Academy 360 Executive Director Becky McLean speaks to a third grade student during class on Friday.

School is in a community hub

Academy 360 opened in 2013 with the promise of being better than “failing” district-run schools.

Its founder, who’d taught in Hawaii through Teach for America and worked for Google, was only 25 when she came up with the concept for a health and wellness charter school where students got an hour of physical activity per day, sugary drinks were banned, and teachers emphasized social-emotional learning and restorative justice.

The school’s founder no longer works there, but current Executive Director Becky McLean has been at Academy 360 since the beginning, when the school was in a leased church space. It now occupies two floors of a building that has become a hub of community organizations.

“This building buzzes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. most times,” McLean said. “It’s a safe space. It’s a known space. What happens if that gets taken away?”

Child Find, the state agency that evaluates young children for disabilities, had an office there so it could easily see students who might qualify for Academy 360′s inclusive preschool classes.

WellPower, formerly known as the Mental Health Center of Denver, has two clinicians in the building who see students regularly. So does the Struggle of Love Foundation, which provides free mental health support and runs a daily food pantry so popular that McLean said the line of cars snakes all through the parking lot and the food is gone in an hour.

McLean estimates that 43% of the school’s 230 students see either a community-based clinician, the school’s psychologist or social worker, or a University of Denver graduate student for one-on-one mental health sessions or group counseling.

“That is unique to our model,” McLean said. “That is not every elementary model.”

That approach extends to the classroom and hallways, too. When a girl streaked down the hallway last Friday morning, sobbing heavily, Director of Academics Kristen Freeman knew just what was wrong: challenges at home and an issue at breakfast.

“We believe that relationships are the most powerful tool an adult has in this building,” McLean said, after watching Freeman follow the girl into a classroom. “I’m assuming the reason you’re sprinting down the hallway screaming is because you have a need you can’t name.”

School board member Michelle Quattlebaum, who represents the Montbello neighborhood, said she worries that if Academy 360 closes, students’ safety net will disappear.

“What we’re introducing is potentially a significant disruption of wraparound services,” she said. “How are we to ensure that these students will still receive the support that they need?”

Students line up for recess on Friday at Academy 360.

Low scores signal academic struggles

Many aspects of Academy 360 have remained the same or strengthened in the decade it’s been open. The school still partners with local nonprofit organizations, such as Children’s Farms in Action and Swallow Hill Music, to provide enrichments to its students.

In early spring, the bigger students plant vegetables in the school’s raised beds, and in late spring, the younger students harvest them. The school has two therapy bunnies, Baca and Chili, that live in a hutch outside. After learning that Academy 360 had no grassy field, the professional Colorado Rapids soccer team built the school an artificial pitch.

But in other ways, the school has struggled. In 2013, Academy 360 received the highest school rating, signified by the color green, based on its student test scores.

This year, the school received the lowest rating, signified by the color red. Its third- through fifth-graders scored in the 1st percentile on state math and literacy tests, meaning that 99% of Colorado students scored higher. When district officials visited the school in September as part of the charter renewal process, they noted that many students were disengaged.

“Most of the instruction time was spent on correcting behavior, rather than the content, as there were behavior interruptions from multiple students in each class,” a report says.

After Academy 360 got its test scores, McLean said school leaders made a two-year plan to strengthen its academics. The school hired a math instructional coach, as well as a dedicated English language development teacher for the 34% of students who are multilingual learners.

The school holds “skill-and-drill” sessions with students who are behind, and is using a new interim test it hopes will better predict how students will do on the all-important state tests.

Leaders also point out that the school’s younger students, who don’t yet take state tests, are making fast progress. The number of kindergarten through third graders reading “significantly below grade level” fell by 20 percentage points in a single year, Freeman said.

McLean acknowledges that the school has work to do. But earlier this week, she made a public plea to the school board to give Academy 360 two years to turn things around.

“We have a great game plan,” she said in an interview. “We know if we don’t turn around in two years, we will have to look in a mirror to say, ‘What’s the next step for A360?’”

Students walk on the "yellow brick road," a safe path through the parking lot, on their way to the playground Friday at Academy 360.

Are there better options?

Ten years after its founding, Academy 360 is in the same position as the district-run schools it hoped to outperform, a trajectory that has also befallen other charter schools in Denver, more than a dozen of which have closed in the past five years.

But the closest district-run school to Academy 360, McGlone Academy, is also red. Nearly all of the nearby district-run elementary schools are red, orange, or yellow.

“When I look at neighboring schools that are also red, I’m trying to figure out … how we improve outcomes for students by shuffling them around red schools,” board member Scott Esserman said when Marrero presented his closure recommendation in early November.

Marrero said the difference is that his team is working with the district-run schools to improve. Charter schools are independently run, and DPS has little power over their programming.

“Can we visit? Yes,” Marrero said. “But visibility and support? No.”

The superintendent has used that line of reasoning before to explain his recommendations to close other charter schools and to dissolve a semi-autonomous innovation zone — and it represents a departure in philosophy from previous DPS superintendents who believed that giving schools flexibility would lead to better academic outcomes.

Most board members didn’t seem swayed by Marrero’s reasoning. The board is considering a policy that would bar the district from closing district-run schools based on test scores or state ratings. So, some wondered, why shouldn’t the board do the same for charter schools?

Note: This story has been updated to reflect that Child Find had an office in Academy 360′s building but does not anymore.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board revives proposal to raise members’ pay to $33,000 a year

2023-11-03T02:02:06+00:00

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The Denver school board has revived a proposal to quadruple members’ pay to up to $33,000 a year, and most members voiced support for the idea at a meeting Thursday.

The board is set to vote on the proposal Nov. 16, which would be after next week’s school board election but before the new board members are sworn in.

Three of the seven Denver school board seats are up for election Nov. 7. Only newly elected or reelected board members would be eligible for the higher pay.

The board first considered this proposal in February but put it on hold because backers said it wasn’t ready. On Thursday, several members said raising pay would attract more diverse candidates to run for the school board, which one member called “a full-time job on top of a full-time job.”

“It’s definitely a problem that we don’t attract people to do this job because it doesn’t pay,” said board member Charmaine Lindsay, calling the current stipend ”a minimal amount of money.”

Only one board member, Scott Baldermann, said he was opposed. He said he agrees with raising pay but that the board needs to first have a more robust conversation about board member spending. Baldermann previously raised concerns about the lack of a policy on how much board members can spend on expenses such as traveling to conferences, which added up to more than $40,000 last fiscal year, according to the Denver Post.

A board policy passed in 2021 allows Denver board members to be paid up to $8,250 a year, with the rate to increase each year in accordance with inflation.

But not all seven board members are eligible to receive the pay. That’s because the 2021 state law allowing school board compensation doesn’t let sitting board members raise their own pay, and three of the current members were among those who voted on the first pay policy.

District records show only three board members were paid in the last fiscal year. Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebaum were paid the most, more than $13,000 each, which is a combination of pay and public employee retirement benefits. Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán got more than $12,000 in pay and retirement benefits.

Esserman, Quattlebaum, and Gaytán would not be eligible for the $33,000, though they would continue to receive the lower pay. The same would be true for board member Carrie Olson, who is halfway through her second term on the board but has not requested any pay.

Only the three board members elected on Nov. 7 would be eligible. Two current board members, Baldermann and Lindsay, are running to keep their seats.

The new proposal would allow board members to be paid up to $150 per day, five days a week — which is the maximum under state law. The board does not meet in July, so board members are only paid 11 months out of the year, hence the $33,000. The current policy allows board members to be paid up to $150 per day, five days a month.

Many Colorado elected officials draw salaries, though the amounts vary widely. Denver City Council members are paid $110,595 annually. The city council president makes $123,846.

At least two other Colorado school boards, in Aurora and Sheridan, have voted to pay their members. Aurora board members elected next week will be eligible for up to $450 a month. Sheridan board members can’t get paid for regular meetings, but can request $150 a day for conferences and board retreats.

Denver would be the only Colorado school board paying the maximum under the law if board members approve the increase.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Voter guide: 2023 Denver school board candidates answer 6 questions about their priorities

2023-10-11T18:59:07+00:00

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Voters will choose three Denver school board members on Nov. 7.

Eight candidates are running for the three seats. Two of the three races — in southeast Denver’s District 1 and northwest Denver’s District 5 — feature incumbents.

The third seat is at-large, meaning the board member represents the entire city. That race does not feature an incumbent since board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson dropped out of the running.

The election has the potential to shift the dynamics of the board, which has been criticized for infighting between some members. It could also change the board’s approach to solving the problems of declining enrollment in Denver Public Schools and school safety, which has become a topic of debate after a shooting at East High School.

The Denver Classroom Teachers Association has endorsed the two incumbents: Scott Baldermann in District 1 and Charmaine Lindsay in District 5. The teachers union also endorsed Kwame Spearman for the at-large seat.

Denver Families Action, a group that supports education reform and charter schools, has endorsed a different set of candidates: Kimberlee Sia in District 1, Marlene De La Rosa in District 5, and John Youngquist in the at-large race. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston also endorsed these candidates.

To help voters make their decisions, Chalkbeat sent all of the candidates the same set of questions. Their answers are below. Responses may have been edited for formatting or trimmed for length, but otherwise each candidate’s answers are as submitted.

Note: Former at-large candidate Paul Ballenger dropped out of the race but will still appear on the ballot. We did not include him in our voter guide because votes for Ballenger won’t count.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Why school board elections matter and why you should vote

2023-10-11T14:39:44+00:00

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Every other November, Colorado voters choose the people who make important decisions about their local schools. But in most school districts, very few people vote in these school board elections — and most of them aren’t parents of current students.

What exactly is a school board? And why should you care about voting in these odd-year elections?

In this story:

Why do school board elections matter, and should you vote?
What does a school board do?
Examples of school board responsibilities
How is a school board member different from a superintendent or other school administrators?
How are school board members chosen in Colorado?
Who do school board members represent?
Do school board members in Colorado get paid?
How can I learn more about my local school board and the school board candidates?
When is the next school board election in Colorado?

Why do school board elections matter, and should you vote?

Voting for school board members who share your values or perspective makes it more likely schools will run in a way that you think is good for kids and your community. If you don’t vote, you give that power to other people. In many school district elections, less than a third of eligible voters vote. Sometimes just a few hundred or even a few dozen votes separate the winners and losers. That means every vote matters.

What does a school board do?

In Colorado, school districts are run by elected officials who serve on the school board. School boards usually have five to seven members. The main function of a school board is hiring the superintendent, who is like the chief executive of the school district and responsible for day-to-day running of local schools. School board members supervise and evaluate the superintendent. School board members also vote on the budget and pay raises for teachers and other staff, and they set policies that control what happens in schools.

Examples of school board responsibilities

A school board might cast the final vote on whether to close a school with low test scores or too few students — or vote to change budget priorities so those schools have more money. Or a school board might vote to adopt a new curriculum if the old one isn’t working well to educate students.

School boards also have the final say on many contentious issues. If a student is expelled and the family appeals to keep that student in school, or if a teacher is fired and appeals to keep their job, the school board makes the final decision. School boards have voted to opt out of Colorado’s comprehensive sex education standards, to remove police from schools, and to bring police back.

Exactly how school boards operate can vary from district to district. For example, in 2020, school boards in some districts voted on whether to move to online learning, while in others, the superintendent made that decision.

How is a school board member different from a superintendent or other school administrator?

School board members don’t typically get involved in the details of running the district. That’s the superintendent’s job.

School board members can’t discipline a teacher or principal or directly tell them what to do. They don’t set bus routes or decide which routes to cut if there’s a driver shortage. School board members don’t directly pick which schools to close.

In most situations, the superintendent will make a recommendation to the school board. The school board can vote to approve or reject the recommendation or ask for other options.

School board members also can raise awareness about problems and ask for policy changes. If enough board members agree, the superintendent will work on that idea.

How are school board members chosen in Colorado?

Most school board members are elected by the registered voters in that district.

School board members serve staggered four-year terms. On a five-member board, three of the seats would be up for election one year. Then two years later, the other two seats would open up. The Denver school board has seven members, with four seats open one year and three seats open two years later.

Most school boards have term limits, so members can’t serve more than eight years total.

School boards always have an odd number of members so they don’t end up with a tie — though ties can still happen if someone skips a meeting or abstains from a vote.

Sometimes a school board member quits in the middle of their term. In that case, the other school board members choose someone to finish the term.

Sometimes school districts cancel school board elections because there aren’t enough candidates for a contested vote. That saves some money but means voters don’t have a choice in who runs the schools. Whoever volunteered becomes the school board member.

Who do school board members represent?

Some school districts elect school board members at large. That means each school board member represents the entire district, rather than a specific region within it.

If your district elects members at large, you’ll see all the candidates on the ballot and can vote for as many candidates as there are open seats. If there are two open seats, you can vote for two candidates. If there are three open seats, you can vote for three candidates, and so on. The top vote-getters serve on the school board.

Other school districts are divided into geographical regions, and each school board member represents a region. These school board members have to live in that region.

In some school districts, only voters who also live in that region get to vote in those school board races. If that’s the case in your district, you’ll see just the candidates for your area on the ballot. You can vote for one candidate, and the top vote-getter will represent that region.

In other school districts, such as Jeffco and Adams 12, school board members have to live in a certain region, but they have to win election districtwide. Every voter in the school district sees multiple school board races on their ballot, and they’ll choose one candidate for each race.

Do school board members in Colorado get paid?

Most Colorado school board members are unpaid volunteers. State law allows school board members to be paid up to $150 a day for official business, and a few school boards, such as Denver and Sheridan, have decided to pay members small stipends.

A school board that wants to pay its members has to hold a public meeting on the idea and then vote on the pay package. Compensation doesn’t go into effect, though, until after the next election. Current board members can’t vote to pay themselves and would only get paid if they win re-election.

How can I learn more about my school board and the school board candidates?

News organizations like Chalkbeat write about many school board elections.

Your local newspaper or TV station might have information about candidates. You can check your school district website. Search for the words “school board” or “board meetings” or “election.” Many school districts list who is running and the dates and times of local candidate forums. Community groups like the League of Women Voters and educational nonprofits often host forums or panels where you can hear from the candidates in their own words or even ask them questions. You can also check out candidate websites and see how candidates describe themselves and talk about their priorities.

Read about the candidates or watch how they answer questions. Think about how their views compare with yours or how their life experience might have prepared them. What connection do they have to local schools? What kinds of work have they done?

At the same time, be aware that school board candidates — like all politicians — sometimes use words that sound good to everyone but can mean different things to different people. If a candidate talks about strong neighborhood schools, listening to parents, or supporting teachers, look for more information about what they mean.

When is the next school board election?

Colorado school board elections take place in odd-numbered years on the first Tuesday in November. The next election is Nov. 7, 2023. If you’re already a registered voter, look for your ballot in the mail the week of Oct. 16. If you’re not a registered voter, you can find more information about voting here.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board paid Auon’tai Anderson $3,500 settlement

2023-09-28T23:15:42+00:00

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The Denver school board paid board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson a $3,500 settlement in March, according to school district records.

Anderson said the payment represents reimbursement for legal expenses he incurred during a 2021 sexual misconduct investigation, in which the most serious allegations were not substantiated. Yet the board president said the board never voted on the payment.

The district declined to release details of the settlement, despite Colorado court rulings that say settlement agreements by political entities are subject to public records law.

The $3,500 payment to Anderson appears as a line item on a spreadsheet of board expenses posted publicly earlier this month. The spreadsheet contains little information to explain the payment. It says only, “Settlement Payment per agreement 10/10/22.”

On Wednesday, Denver Public Schools denied an open records request by Chalkbeat for the settlement agreement. “Details of the payment are confidential per the terms of the agreement,” a district spokesperson said in an email to Chalkbeat.

However, on Thursday, the district did release an invoice that shows a $3,500 payment in April 2021 from Anderson to the law firm Decker & Jones, which represented Anderson during the investigation.

Asked about the settlement and invoice Thursday, Anderson said in a statement that according to state law, “Board Members are eligible to receive reimbursement for Board related expenses. I was reimbursed for the out of pocket expenses I paid for representation during the ILG investigation.” ILG, or Investigations Law Group, was the firm that conducted the investigation.

Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said in an interview Thursday that the board never voted on the settlement agreement or the $3,500 payment to Anderson.

Gaytán said she didn’t know about either until three weeks ago, six months after records show Anderson was paid. Gaytán said she noticed the $3,500 payment on a spreadsheet of board expenses that board members discussed at a meeting on Sept. 7.

Colorado courts have repeatedly found that settlement agreements involving local and state governments are public documents, said Jeff Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. The state attorney general’s office has said the same.

“Why is this secret and why would they be keeping it secret?” Roberts said. “There’s so many questions about why the district would pay a school board member a settlement.”

Anderson is the board’s most high-profile member. He has experienced some turmoil since he was elected in 2019, including the unsubstantiated allegations in 2021.

The investigation, which was commissioned by the board, did find that Anderson had flirtatious contact with a 16-year-old student on social media, and that he made two intimidating social media posts during the investigation. The board censured Anderson for that conduct.

The $3,500 payment to Anderson was part of $101,994 in expenses attributed to the board as a whole between August 2022 and last June, records show. That total also includes $48,431 the board spent on facilitators and conflict consultants. The board has been beset by infighting and power struggles between some members for more than a year and a half.

Individual board members were paid or reimbursed another $87,923, records show, for a total of $189,917 spent by the board in that time period.

Individual board member expenses were mostly a combination of stipends paid to some eligible board members and reimbursements for some board members to attend conferences.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Parent of 3, former teacher Adam Slutzker running for northwest seat on Denver school board

2023-09-20T22:49:07+00:00

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A former elementary school teacher whose three children attend Denver Public Schools is running for a seat on the Denver school board.

Adam Slutzker, who taught in a neighboring district, is running to represent northwest Denver. His children attend Columbian Elementary School, which was one of 10 schools Superintendent Alex Marrero initially recommended closing last school year for low enrollment. Though Columbian was spared, Slutzker said that experience pushed him to run for the board.

“I don’t really believe that they did their job in effectively communicating with the potentially impacted communities in a way that gave people the opportunity to process and engage in a thoughtful manner,” Slutzker said of the district’s school closure process.

However, he said declining enrollment in DPS means more closures could be coming.

“We are going to have to find a way — whether it’s closures or consolidations or different ways of appropriating our funding” to deal with declining enrollment, he said. “Hard decisions are going to have to be made. We need to be conscious of how we’re making those decisions.”

Slutzker, 39, is one of three candidates running to represent District 5 on the board. He’ll face two opponents: incumbent Charmaine Lindsay and challenger Marlene De La Rosa.

Three of the seven Denver school board seats are up for grabs Nov. 7, and a total of nine candidates are in the running. Two of the seats, including District 5, represent specific regions of the city and the third seat represents the entire city at large.

The election has the potential to change the dynamics of the board, which has been criticized for power struggles and infighting among some members. Also at stake is how DPS will deal with pressing issues including declining enrollment and school safety.

After a shooting inside East High School in March, the school board reinstated police officers in some DPS high schools. A previous board had voted in 2020 to remove school resource officers, or SROs, over concerns that SROs were over-policing students of color.

Slutzker said he’d rather the district spend money on social services and mental health support than on stationing police in buildings.

But since SROs are currently being funded by the city and not by DPS, Slutzker said he would be open to keeping them as long as they’re properly trained, and as long as the SROs are “there to protect and serve our students and not necessarily in a disciplinary fashion.”

Slutzker said he worked as an elementary school teacher from 2009 until 2014, mostly in neighboring Jeffco Public Schools. He said he left teaching when his oldest child was born and has spent the past nine years working part-time as a real estate agent, contractor, and carpenter while his wife works full-time as a nurse practitioner.

For the past two years, Slutzker said, he’s chaired Columbian Elementary’s collaborative school committee, a group of parents and teachers who advise school leaders.

“I left the classroom because it was a better financial decision for me to stay at home with our children,” Slutzker said. “I’ve always wanted to go back … I couldn’t think of a better way to be politically engaged than running for school board and making an impact on the education system.”

Slutzker said he believes it’s important for district decision-makers to listen to teachers.

“I consider myself an educator advocate, first and foremost,” he said. “Before I wear my parent hat, I put on my teacher hat.”

On issues such as how to boost teacher recruitment and retention, Slutzker said DPS needs to base its policies on educator feedback.

“They’re the experts and we need to be listening to them,” he said.

Successful Denver school board candidates are often backed either by the teachers union or by organizations supportive of education reform and independent charter schools. Asked his opinion on charter schools, Slutzker said that while he supports DPS having a variety of school types, he believes charter schools need more oversight.

He also said the expansion of charter schools in DPS has contributed to the district’s declining enrollment crisis because “we’ve opened too many schools.” In the few parts of the city where new housing is being built and school enrollment is increasing, Slutzker said he’d potentially be open to approving new charter schools, but not districtwide.

“I’m not anti-charter school, but I want to make sure every neighborhood has a thriving neighborhood school their child can attend before we go granting new charters,” he said. The term neighborhood school often refers to traditional, district-run schools.

Slutzker said his dual experience as both a former educator and a current parent make him stand out among candidates for the District 5 school board seat.

“My background in education and living it day to day, dealing with headaches of child care, the pickups and dropoffs, the healthy school start times, and how to get off of work and pick kids up at 2:40, is something I carry that other candidates are not directly experiencing,” Slutzker said.

Healthy start times is a district policy that pushes elementary school start times earlier and middle and high school start times later to ensure teenagers get more sleep.

“I think I can really empathize with other families in the district for the challenges we’re all facing in being parents in 2023,” Slutzker said.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board to limit public comment to a total of 2 hours

2023-09-08T15:01:22+00:00

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Monthly public comment before the Denver school board will be limited to a total of two hours going forward, a restriction that board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán described Thursday as a “temporary solution” to the problem of too-long meetings.

“There’s been times where we’ve stayed until midnight or 1 in the morning to hear every single constituent and parent that was coming in to share any comments or concerns,” Gaytán said during a board work session Thursday night.

“To respect each other’s time as board members, to respect the time of staff, especially, that has to stay late and put in overtime to support the board in allowing for this public comment to take place, it’s important we consider all of that in setting time limits,” she said.

The Denver school board holds one regular public comment session per month at which students, parents, teachers, and community members can sign up in advance to address the board. The next session is scheduled for Sept. 18. The board sometimes also holds special public comment sessions on particular topics.

Speakers get three minutes each to address board members, who do not respond. If speakers go over their allotted time, the board rings a loud alarm to signal their time is up.

But until now, there was no limit on the total time for public comment, though the board has previously floated the idea. Public comment almost always stretches more than an hour, and sometimes much longer if the board is voting on a controversial issue.

A long list of speakers gave five hours of testimony in March 2022 before the board voted on a policy related to innovation schools. In November, students, parents, and teachers spent six hours pleading with the board not to close their schools because of declining enrollment.

In announcing the two-hour limit Thursday, Gaytán cited a district policy, known as policy BE, which says the board “shall set a time limit on the length of the public participation time overall, a time limit for each topic and a time limit for individual speakers.”

Two board members, Scott Esserman and Carrie Olson, volunteered to draft a new policy that would set permanent limits while the temporary two-hour limit is in place.

Member Charmaine Lindsay said she’d like to allow speakers to participate virtually like they did during the height of the pandemic. Olson floated the idea of allotting three hours instead of two because she said public comment is one of the only ways to address the board.

“We are not yet good at getting out into the community in a consistent way so that people have access to us,” said Olson, who added that she starts to fade after three hours of public comment. “It might feel like we’re cutting off more access by saying there’s only two hours.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Longtime DPS volunteer Marlene De La Rosa running for northwest Denver seat on school board

2023-09-07T22:16:24+00:00

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A longtime Denver Public Schools volunteer and advocate and the mother of two DPS graduates is running to represent northwest Denver on the school board.

Marlene De La Rosa began serving on school committees when her twins, who are now 29, were in preschool. Her advocacy continued throughout their school career, from Denison Montessori elementary school to North and East high schools. She also served on several district and citywide committees, advocating for Latino parents and students while working full time as an immigration court specialist with the U.S. Department of Justice.

De La Rosa, 58, said her recent retirement and a lifelong passion for education motivated her to run for school board. She will challenge incumbent Charmaine Lindsay and candidate Adam Slutzker for a seat representing District 5, which encompasses northwest Denver.

“I am a public servant and have been all my life,” De La Rosa told Chalkbeat. “Leadership is a lifelong journey, and that’s the way I envision continuing on this path to serve my community.”

Three of the seven Denver school board seats are up for grabs Nov. 7. The election has the potential to shift the dynamics of the board, which has been criticized for infighting. Also at stake is how the board will deal with pressing issues such as declining enrollment and student safety.

De La Rosa said her top priorities include higher pay for teachers, diversifying the teacher workforce, and closing test score gaps between students of color and white students.

Declining enrollment and the possibility of school closures is a pressing topic in northwest Denver, where De La Rosa said her family has lived for four generations. The region has been hit hard by gentrification, which has pushed out families and driven down student counts.

De La Rosa said she understands how fewer students means less per-pupil funding, which often leads small schools to cut programs or staff. But she said DPS’ recent school closure decisions happened too quickly, and the community deserves more time to understand the issues and prepare for their children to switch schools.

Almost a decade ago, De La Rosa said she was hired by DPS to facilitate a community process that ended with the placement of Denver Montessori Junior/Senior High in a vacant elementary building. Some parents wanted the building to remain an elementary school, but De La Rosa said sharing Census data and demographic projections helped change their minds.

On school safety, De La Rosa said the district needs to monitor the effects of the board’s recent decision to return police officers to DPS campuses in the wake of a shooting inside East High. Her son had a positive experience with a school resource officer in high school, but De La Rosa said the board needs to ensure that’s the case districtwide by tracking the number of tickets SROs are issuing to students and for what offenses.

“They have a plan in place, and we should continue to monitor what’s going on with that plan,” De La Rosa said. “Is that meeting the needs of each specific school community? Are those school leaders happy with that plan? Do they think that’s sufficient?”

De La Rosa has been endorsed by Denver Families Action, the political arm of the organization Denver Families for Public Schools. Denver Families launched in 2021 with the backing of three local charter school networks and gets funding from The City Fund, a national organization that supports charter schools and school reform.

Successful Denver school board candidates are often backed by reform organizations or the Denver teachers union. Both spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on mailers and canvassing, making it hard for candidates without endorsements to compete.

Asked her views on charter schools, De La Rosa said, “I don’t follow any specific ideology other than, ‘How do we offer the best we can for every kid?’”

De La Rosa said she supports school choice and used it for her own children, including enrolling her daughter at East High. But she also said that the choice system is not perfect.

“You have to evaluate as the parent: What’s the best for my particular child’s needs?” she said.

Both of De La Rosa’s children were competitive athletes, which influenced the high schools they chose, she said. De La Rosa served as a parent representative on the collaborative school committee at East High, advising school leaders on how to close academic gaps between students of color and white students, she said.

She also ran a student athlete leadership program at North High that aimed to boost students’ grades and self-esteem. One year, she said she got a grant to take five student athletes to a national social justice conference in Washington, D.C., where they shook hands with former President Barack Obama.

When Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet was superintendent of DPS from 2005 to 2009, De La Rosa served on a districtwide parent empowerment council that informed parents about everything from test scores at their children’s schools to how to plan healthy meals for their families.

De La Rosa currently serves as a mayoral appointee to the Denver Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and the Denver Latino Commission. She is also a founder of LatinasGive!, a circle of women who give small grants to organizations that serve the Latino community.

“I give my money, I give my time, I give my knowledge, I give my love,” De La Rosa said. “Passion is mainly what I’ve given over all these years to support the community.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Anderson won’t seek waiver of Denver school board conflict-of-interest policy

2023-08-24T22:18:37+00:00

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Denver school board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson says he no longer wants a waiver from a board policy that bars sitting members from working for Denver Public Schools.

The board planned to vote on temporarily suspending its conflict-of-interest policy Thursday but pulled the issue from its meeting agenda.

Anderson and two other board members, Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebaum, had requested that the board vote on suspending the policy, which would have allowed Anderson to take a job with the district. Anderson, who previously worked for DPS as a restorative practices coordinator, said earlier this week that he wanted to return to working for the district in the months before his school board term ends in November.

But on Wednesday, Anderson said his situation had changed.

“I’ve accepted a contract with a client that will last through the end of my term and I’m excited to join TEAM DPS later this fall!” Anderson texted to Chalkbeat.

The board has paused the policy before to allow newly elected members to finish the semester at their DPS jobs. But this would have been the first time the board considered suspending the policy to allow a sitting member to take a job in the district.

Anderson said he has been working for the past several months as a political and educational consultant. A DPS graduate, he was first elected to the school board in 2019. After initially announcing last year that he’d run for reelection, he said in June that he was withdrawing from the school board race to run for the state House of Representatives.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board to consider pausing policy barring board members from working for DPS

2023-08-22T23:26:54+00:00

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Update: The Denver school board pulled this item from the agenda after Anderson decided not to take a job in a Denver school.

The Denver school board will vote Thursday on whether to temporarily suspend a policy that prohibits board members from working for Denver Public Schools.

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson and two other board members placed the request to pause the conflict of interest policy on the agenda. Anderson said he is interested in working at a Denver school — though if the policy were suspended, any board member could pursue district employment during the suspension.

The board has paused the policy before to allow newly elected members to wrap up their jobs. But this would be the first time the board has allowed sitting members to take jobs in the district.

Anderson, who previously worked as a restorative practices coordinator at North High School, said that several DPS school leaders reached out to him “asking if I would like to join their school communities as an official employee” as his board term is ending in November.

He said he’d rather start a job now, at the beginning of the school year, rather than a few months into it because mid-year staff transitions can be difficult for students.

“There are folks that see the value of my knowledge and expertise as a policymaker who want that skillset in their building in different roles, so I’m happy to support when I’m being asked to serve,” said Anderson. He has not yet accepted any position.

Anderson was first elected to the board in 2019. After initially announcing last year that he would seek re-election, he said in June he was withdrawing from the school board race to run for a seat in the state House of Representatives.

Board members Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebaum confirmed that they requested the policy suspension proposal be put on Thursday’s board meeting agenda alongside Anderson. It takes three board members to add an item to the agenda. The board president can do so unilaterally, but that did not happen in this case.

In interviews, both Esserman and Anderson emphasized that the board has temporarily suspended this part of the conflict of interest policy before. The policy says that “no individual may simultaneously serve as a Board member and as an employee of the school district.” The policy covers district-run schools and independently run charter schools.

In 2017, the board suspended the policy so that Carrie Olson, a 33-year DPS teacher elected that November, could finish the semester with her students. Olson resigned as a teacher on Dec. 31 that year. She is still on the board, having been re-elected to a second term in 2021.

In November 2019, the board suspended the policy for Anderson when he was elected. That suspension allowed him to work as a restorative practices coordinator at North High for the rest of the semester. He resigned on Dec. 20 that year.

And in 2021, Quattlebaum said the policy was temporarily suspended after she was elected that November so she could work until early January 2022 at George Washington High School as a family and community liaison. Board meeting minutes don’t show any vote in 2021.

“It’s effectively the reverse of what’s been done,” Esserman said. “It’s roughly the same amount of time, just on the other side of the election and with somebody who is being made offers. This is the only way he can accept a job offer.”

Anderson said he’s been working as a political and educational consultant for the past several months. Before that, he worked as the operations director at Struggle of Love Foundation, a nonprofit organization in far northeast Denver.

While working at Struggle of Love, Anderson got into an argument with a district critic who worked in the same building. Anderson obtained a temporary restraining order, but a judge declined to make it permanent. His employment ended soon after.

Anderson also previously worked for neighboring Aurora Public Schools. But he said he wants to return to working for DPS because “I’m DPS through and through. I’m a DPS kid, a former DPS educator, and an outgoing DPS board member.”

Anderson is a graduate of Denver’s Manual High School. An outspoken member of the school board, he has championed many high-profile policy changes. But his time on the board has also been marked by controversy, including a 2021 third-party investigation into sexual misconduct allegations. The most serious allegations were not substantiated.

Anderson said that if he accepted a job at a particular school and a conflict of interest arose with a board vote, he’d follow the advice of DPS lawyers on whether to recuse himself.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Newly released recording of Denver board’s closed-door meeting reveals tensions

2023-07-24T02:14:54+00:00

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In a closed-door meeting the day after a shooting at East High School in March, Denver school board members worried about being blamed, about Superintendent Alex Marrero overriding their authority by returning police to schools, and about the technicalities of how to proceed.

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, a chief proponent of removing school resource officers back in 2020, said he was scared for his personal safety. Marrero expressed frustration that board members had not asked right away about the health of the two East High deans who were shot and injured the day before by a student who later died by suicide.

Denver Public Schools leaders fought for four months to keep the conversation private. Chalkbeat and other media organizations sued in April, alleging that the meeting violated the Open Meetings Act. A Denver District Court judge agreed and ordered the recording released in its entirety. DPS refused and appealed that decision, but on Friday, the school board voted unanimously to release a redacted version.

Chalkbeat reviewed the four-hour recording that was released Saturday to the media organizations through their attorneys. The audio quality is poor, and the sound sometimes cuts in and out. But the recording provides new insight into how and why the Denver school board initially decided to approve returning school resource officers to Denver campuses — a major policy reversal made unanimously with no public discussion.

The recording shows that school board members mostly treated the return of SROs as inevitable, even as several said SROs would not entirely solve the problem of gun violence.

Tensions flared at times, especially between Marrero and Anderson.

A few hours after the shooting on March 22, Marrero informed board members that he would return armed police officers to high schools in violation of board policy.

During the March 23 closed-door meeting, known as an executive session, some board members were upset about it — not necessarily about what Marrero had done, but about how he’d done it.

“The school board is the ones being blamed for this,” Anderson said of the shooting. “You’ve made yourself the hero. Everybody is applauding you. … We got the emails thanking you: ‘Go SROs! Go SROs! Thank you for your courage, Superintendent Marrero. But f—k the rest of the seven board members.’ Those are the emails: ‘Resign today.’”

Marrero said he acknowledged that Anderson, who co-authored a 2020 policy banning school resource officers from Denver schools, was bearing the brunt of the criticism.

But Marrero said he too was getting calls to resign, and that his decision to reinstate police in schools could have repercussions for his career as a superintendent.

“People are calling for my resignation because I am pro-cop all of a sudden,” Marrero said. “I have a career beyond this. Fifty percent of the districts won’t see me from here on out.”

Meeting redacted after question about legal liability

Only 20 seconds of the recording were redacted. The redaction involves a discussion of the Claire Davis Act, named for a Colorado student killed in a school shooting. The state law creates a legal obligation for schools to exercise “reasonable care” to protect all students, faculty, and staff from “reasonably foreseeable” acts of violence that occur at school.

In the meeting, a DPS staff member asked DPS attorney Aaron Thompson if the Claire Davis Act could “open the door” to school board members or Marrero being held liable.

“Yeah, it could,” Thompson said. “I don’t think we’re there yet based on the incident that happened at East.” Then the recording cuts out.

Throughout the meeting, board members said the community wanted SROs back.

“I think that the community is clamoring for SROs,” board member Carrie Olson said. “And we all know that is not the answer.”

Board member Scott Esserman said, “We can’t simply respond with SROs. It’s the easy response. It’s the convenient response. But it can’t be the only response.”

Board member Michelle Quattlebaum said that if DPS moved to bring back SROs, “it needs to be thoughtful. They can’t come back the way they were.”

Anderson repeatedly said the board’s hands were tied. Marrero had said former Mayor Michael Hancock told him he would issue an executive order to put police in schools. Because of that, Anderson said, “the decision has already been made without the duly elected school board.”

But at another point, Marrero implied Anderson was in favor of SROs. In a tense exchange, Marrero said that Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas told him Anderson had called Thomas after the East shooting and demanded Thomas put 80 officers in the schools. And Anderson himself said he had asked for SROs to return after East student Luis Garcia was shot in February.

A previous school board that included Anderson, Olson, and board member Scott Baldermann voted unanimously in 2020 to remove SROs from Denver schools amid concerns about racist policing and how Black students were disproportionately ticketed and arrested.

Baldermann came to the executive session with a resolution he’d drafted to temporarily suspend the SRO ban. The resolution backed what Marrero had said he’d do the day before, but it put the decision back in the school board’s hands, where board members said it should be.

“What I’m most interested in is that we as a board take action,” Baldermann said. “And I think the public is expecting us to take action as well.”

However, Baldermann’s proposed resolution sparked a lengthy debate about a wonky topic that dominated the executive session: whether the board was acting in accordance with policy governance, the governance structure that dictates how the board should operate.

Under policy governance, resolutions that order the superintendent to take a certain action are discouraged. Instead, the board is supposed to govern by setting policies and goals that the superintendent must follow and achieve. The board can also set limitations that spell out what the superintendent can’t do. At the time, there was a limitation — called executive limitation 10.10 — that said the superintendent could not staff schools with SROs.

Marrero argued during the executive session that the board passing a resolution would violate his contract, which said the board must operate using policy governance.

Board members questioned if meeting should be public instead

In the end, the board members decided to turn Baldermann’s resolution into a memo. They spent an hour and a half wordsmithing it, debating changes as small as whether to capitalize certain words and as big as whether to delete a sentence that implied “trained professionals,” and not school staff, would pat down students for weapons.

The East High student who shot the deans had a safety plan that required him to be patted down daily by an assistant principal. On the day of the shooting, the assistant principal wasn’t available and a dean had taken over, Marrero said.

Some board members said the phrase “trained professionals” implied that SROs would be patting down students. But a DPS attorney told them that wouldn’t be allowed unless the SROs had probable cause. The board ended up deleting the sentence.

The board held a brief public meeting when it came out of the session. Board members read the memo aloud and voted unanimously to adopt it without discussion.

Chalkbeat and the other media organizations sued on the basis that the board made a major policy decision behind closed doors, and that the meeting was not properly noticed. State law allows elected officials to meet in private for certain reasons, but says that the “formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret.”

The meeting notice said the executive session would cover confidential matters, specialized details of security arrangements, and information about individual students who would be harmed by the public disclosure of that information.

After listening to the recording, Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen found the school board’s discussion didn’t match the meeting notice, and that the board didn’t discuss any confidential matters. He ordered DPS to release the recording, but the district appealed that decision.

The recording reveals that board members asked at various times during the executive session whether they should be meeting in public instead.

“As we are talking about suspending policy, this conversation doesn’t need to be public?” Anderson asked DPS attorney Thompson at one point.

“I think what we’ll have to do is present this memo and then vote to suspend the policy,” Thompson said.

The board’s decision to temporarily return SROs kicked off several months of intense community and board debate about whether to keep SROs next school year, and whether Denver has the right safety and discipline policies.

On June 15, the board voted again to reinstate SROs — but that time, the debate was public and the vote was divided. Anderson, Esserman, and Quattlebaum voted no.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Former East High principal John Youngquist is running for a seat on the Denver school board

2023-07-05T10:00:00+00:00

John Youngquist, a longtime Denver educator who spent about a decade as principal of East High School, announced Wednesday that he’s running for a seat on the Denver school board.

Youngquist said he will run for an at-large seat representing the entire city. Although he lives in southeast Denver, where a school board seat is also up for election, Youngquist said the work of the at-large seat better reflects his decades-long experience in Denver Public Schools — as a student, a teacher, a principal, a district administrator, and a parent.

“My experience has been across the city over time,” he said, adding that he’s running at large “because it’s every student and every school that really does matter to me in my heart.”

Youngquist, 57, will have two opponents: Kwame Spearman, a former mayoral candidate and part-owner of the Tattered Cover bookstore, and Brittni Johnson, a DPS parent and doctoral student. Another candidate, Paul Ballenger, dropped out of the race in late September.

The seat is currently held by Auon’tai Anderson, who is running for a state House of Representatives seat instead of seeking re-election to the board.

Three of the seven Denver school board seats are up for grabs Nov. 7. The election has the potential to change the dynamics of the board, which has been criticized for infighting. Also at stake is how the board will deal with declining enrollment and respond to safety concerns, especially after a high-profile shooting inside East High in March.

Youngquist’s two teenage daughters are students at East, where he served two stints as principal, from 2007 to 2012 and 2017 to 2022. He returned to East in 2017 after the previous principal mishandled complaints against the cheerleading coach.

Youngquist said student safety has always been his top concern. When he was principal of Newlon Elementary in southwest Denver in the 1990s, he recalled having to develop his own protocol to deal with the drive-by shootings that were prevalent at the time: sounding an air horn so students on the playground knew to get down.

East had a school resource officer during Youngquist’s tenure — and he said he was among the principals in 2020 who signed a letter asking the school board not to remove police officers from schools. He said he agrees with the board’s recent decision to reinstate them.

But SROs are only one aspect of school safety, Youngquist said.

“My belief is that safety is grounded in the daily operation of the school, in the culture of the school,” he said. “And then you create structures to ensure your responses to behavioral challenges at the school site are responsive and supportive of young people.”

Youngquist was himself a DPS student, graduating from Thomas Jefferson High. He started his career there as a social studies teacher. He’s been principal of three DPS schools: East, Newlon, and the now-closed Smedley Elementary in northwest Denver.

He’s also worked as a principal supervisor and as a central office administrator developing programs to recruit more principals of color and help all principals stay in their jobs longer.

Youngquist also worked in the Cherry Creek School District and in Aurora Public Schools, where he was chief academic officer. He said he’s spent the past year as a consultant for districts including Denver and Aurora, as a principal coach, and as part-time chief operating officer for the Denver Youth Program, a nonprofit that aims to reduce youth violence.

If elected, Youngquist said he’d focus on pulling the board together to craft a clear vision for the district, recruiting and retaining diverse teachers and principals, and ensuring students are academically successful. To do that, Youngquist said he wouldn’t try to write policy as a board member, but rather would set goals and limitations so the experts — the superintendent and his staff — could recommend policy for the school board to consider.

“Every element of work we put into play in a district and in a school has to have the intention of creating successful teaching and learning experiences,” he said.

The board also has to make tough decisions. One recent example was the decision to close three schools with low enrollment, which the board voted on one day after the superintendent publicly recommended it.

Instead of reacting when a school’s enrollment is already too low, Youngquist said the district should develop a plan “for how and when we might engage in school closure conversations” so that parents better understand the process.

“That is an 18-month conversation that moves toward a decision,” Youngquist said. “That is not an 18-day or week-(long) conversation that moves toward closure.”

Although Denver school board candidates historically fall into one of two political groups — those backed by the teachers union and those backed by education reform organizations — Youngquist said he doesn’t see himself as an exclusive member of either camp.

Youngquist said he’s running because DPS is “in a lull.”

“I know the real work that it takes to fully engage a community in the success of a school … and the success of a district,” he said. “I’m fully optimistic that we can pull in that direction again and gain momentum so that over the course of the next several years, we’re seeing the experience turn into a fully positive one and seeing results that matter for kids in their school lives.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated after the ballot was finalized with the names of all candidates running for the at-large seat. It was also updated to reflect that former candidate Paul Ballenger dropped out of the race in late September.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Aurora school board won’t take any action on report into discrimination

2023-06-29T01:50:09+00:00

The Aurora school board came out of a closed-door session Wednesday and voted, with no discussion, to take no action on a report that substantiated a discrimination complaint from former superintendent Rico Munn.

The public vote was unanimous. The executive session meeting lasted about an hour. The board agenda did not list a public meeting, but a spokesperson for the district had said the board would decide whether to meet publicly after the closed session.

Colorado law generally requires that public meetings be announced 24 hours in advance.

The former superintendent alleged racial discrimination by the board, and specifically two members, Stephanie Mason and Tramaine Duncan. Munn said the board members had called his Blackness into question in part because they didn’t think he was doing enough to retain Black educators.

An initial fact-finding report in May concluded the claims weren’t backed up because the board members are also Black, because Munn resigned rather than being fired, and because the Board didn’t admit to making some of the statements Munn alleged they had made. A second decision-making report completed in June used the fact-finding report, but found that Munn was effectively pushed out or fired and that racial discrimination did play a role.

That report recommended that the board censure Mason and Duncan, that the report be published on the district’s website for the public to read for at least a year, and that the board receive training on the district’s anti-discrimination policy and on federal Equal Employment Opportunity laws.

With the vote, it appears the board will do none of these things. Three of the seven board members, including Mason, are up for re-election this November.

A new superintendent, Michael Giles, is scheduled to start July 1.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Rico Munn discrimination complaint linked to long-simmering disagreements about approach to Black teacher retention

2023-06-29T18:38:35+00:00

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Update: On Wednesday the Aurora school board voted unanimously not to take action on the recommendations related to Rico Munn’s discrimination complaint.

For years Black and Hispanic teachers in the Aurora school district have complained of mistreatment and discrimination — even as the district was led by a Black superintendent and equity efforts to hire and retain more teachers of color ramped up.

Whether that superintendent, Rico Munn, did enough to support Black educators is behind a discrimination complaint Munn filed as he departed the district under a negotiated agreement.

According to two independent investigations, Munn alleged that Black board members Stephanie Mason and Tremaine Duncan called his Blackness into question and expected him to act in certain ways because he was Black while holding him to unwritten expectations — actions that he said ultimately created a hostile work environment and led to him being unjustly removed from his position.

Rodrick D. Holmes, an outside investigator who interviewed Munn, the seven board members, and a consultant who has worked with the board for years, concluded that poor leadership, interpersonal conflicts, and an intense focus on race all contributed to the board’s decision not to renew Munn’s contract. But Holmes did not find evidence of racial discrimination.

But a second outside investigator working off the Holmes fact-finding report reached the opposite conclusion.

Doug Hamill found that the board as a whole — and specifically Mason and Duncan — engaged in a pattern of discrimination, calling Munn’s “Black card” into question and that the board as a whole essentially fired Munn. That investigator recommended that the board censure Mason and Duncan, post the conclusions of the investigation online for the public to read, and that the board undergo training.

The board has an executive session scheduled Wednesday evening to get legal advice about the complaint. While the agenda doesn’t include a public discussion, the board could still choose to talk about it. School board members have refused interviews ahead of that meeting. Munn said he is dealing with a family medical issue and is not doing interviews.

The two investigations and conflicting conclusions shed light both on Munn’s departure and on long-standing challenges faced by one of Colorado’s most diverse districts when it comes to hiring and retaining educators who reflect the students they serve.

The district’s next superintendent, Michael Giles, will be charged with making improvements the board majority felt Munn couldn’t achieve, including to retain Black educators, to significantly improve outcomes for Black students, and to work with a board that has struggled to get along with each other and with their superintendent.

Aurora district’s focus on equity has evolved

The Aurora school district serves about 40,000 students, including 86% who are students of color. Aurora is home to many refugee communities.

In the 10 years of Munn’s tenure, the percentage of students of color in the district has increased slightly, even though the percentage of Black students has decreased slightly.

When a school board with no Black members hired Munn in 2013, equity was one of his stated priorities, but in recent years, other more diverse school boards pushed him to do more.

Munn worked to reduce the number of students who were expelled, attempted to increase the number of principals of color, and paired schools with programs that aimed to cultivate teachers from the district’s diverse student body. Later, he launched a mentoring program for young men of color.

The school board has created goals around equity targets and regularly has discussions about how that work progresses. At times, those discussions have been tense.

The district did see improvements in some student outcomes. Hispanic students made some of the largest gains in graduation rates in the state. Aurora Black students made huge gains too, and have a higher graduation rate than the state average for Black students. In one metric the board monitored — how many Black and Hispanic sixth grade students were on grade level in English tests — Black students made progress and were doing better than the district’s Hispanic students, though both groups still lag behind white and Asian American students.

But when it came time to evaluate Munn against these targets, the board decided to skip his evaluation, citing lack of test data during the pandemic. When the school board voted 4-3 late last year not to renew Munn’s contract, all they would say was that there had been a conflict in their vision. Munn negotiated to continue consulting for the district through this fall to help onboard a new superintendent.

After he stepped down from his superintendent position, Munn filed a discrimination complaint. According to district policy, such complaints are reviewed first by a fact finder and then by a separate decision maker who recommends corrective action if appropriate. In this case, the district decided to contract out both roles to avoid any conflicts of interest since the complainant was the former superintendent. The district spent more than $30,000 on the two contracts.

Much of the investigation centers on Mason, who joined the board in 2019 and whose term is up this year. She has not said if she’s going to run for re-election. Mason has focused primarily on teacher issues. In early 2020, she presented a resolution that would hold the district more firmly to goals around recruitment and retention of educators of color.

It helped spur more work, including with consultant Promise54 to draft a plan addressing the challenges teachers have identified, such as a lack of data, unclear goals, and inconsistent initiatives.

The district also has written more goals around equity, including one that at least 60% of respondents in staff surveys should report that they believe “APS has an explicit commitment to equity.” In 2020, 58% agreed but by May 2022, that dropped to barely over half.

Teacher retention goals central to complaint, fact-finding report

According to both Holmes’ fact-finding report completed in May and Hamill’s decision-making report released a month later, Munn’s discrimination complaint was closely tied to how the board interpreted district goals around equity, especially teacher retention.

At board meetings, Mason raised concerns she had heard from Black educators and questioned statistics that showed progress.

Munn alleges that Mason insisted Munn “act more Black” to achieve policy outcomes. He said the board judged him exclusively on retaining Black educators when the board goals talked about educators of color. He said that the way board members expressed their concerns frequently crossed the line into harassment. He said other board members allowed mistreatment to continue unabated.

After interviewing all seven board members, Holmes concluded there were insensitive communications and poor leadership on the part of the board, but he did not believe those problems constituted discrimination because board members Mason and Duncan are also Black. Holmes also states that because Munn negotiated a transition out of the district, as opposed to being fired, it means he doesn’t have an adverse outcome from the discrimination to be able to contest. And he said the evidence did not amount to a hostile work environment.

“Munn asserted in his complaint and during his interview that Board members commented on his Blackness and the racial makeup of his leadership team, both publicly and privately. However, not a single member of the Board substantiated Munn’s allegations,” Holmes wrote.

Based on Holmes’ fact-finding report, Hamill reached the opposite conclusion. Hamill cited court cases to say that if Munn resigned because he knew he was being pushed out, that constitutes being discharged, or fired, meaning he did suffer as a result of the harassment, and that it doesn’t matter his critics were also Black. Hamill also concluded that Mason and Duncan not believing that Munn was “Black enough” — as reported by Munn and some witnesses — is enough evidence to determine that the termination was racially motivated.

“Mr. Munn’s ‘Black Card’ was constantly questioned or ‘up for examination,’” according to Board consultant Crabill. Further evidence of pretext includes the lack of factual basis for the Board’s decision not to renew Mr. Munn’s contract,” Hamill wrote.

AJ Crabill, a consultant who has been working with the Aurora school board for years, told Holmes that it was obvious that some school board members wanted Munn to “focus his efforts on the retention of Black and Brown staff, rather than just people of color. Crabill emphasized that it is important for the Board to be explicit and candid about its goals and expectations,” and suggested that they change the language in their goals to reflect that.

The board did just that in September 2022 — updating their guidance to say the superintendent “will not allow the retention rate of Black and Hispanic/Latino educators to be significantly below the retention rate of all educators in APS-operated schools.” This was around the same time board members were privately discussing whether to renew Munn’s contract.

In November 2022, Munn gave his first and only progress report on that goal. The data he presented showed Black teachers have the lowest retention rates in the district — a worrying contrast from January 2020, when Munn reported that Black and Hispanic teachers had higher than average retention rates.

In his interview with investigators, Crabill noted that Munn’s data on retention rates for employees of color was often challenged, but that board members “never had any countervailing data to present, and the attacks on Munn’s data were supported only by opaque anecdotal experience.”

Since Munn was hired in 2013, the district has increased the number of non-white teachers. The number of Black teachers went from 74 to 104, or 4.3% of all teachers. Hispanic teachers went up from 205 to 230, to 9.7%.

The district also slightly increased the number of Asian teachers, from 49 teachers to 56, just barely more than 2% of all staff.

The Holmes report describes Munn accusing Mason of making anti-Asian remarks and not considering members of the Asian community to be people of color. The comments came in the context of criticizing Munn’s leadership team, which Mason did not consider to be diverse enough.

According to the report, Mason denied making anti-Asian remarks, but said she did tell Munn that “one Asian person does not make his Leadership Team diverse… [and] that his executive team was not diverse because it did not have adequate Black representation.”

When Munn stepped away from the role of superintendent, at least three of the members of his leadership team were Black.

In her interview with Holmes, Mason also admits that she “‘probably’ used the term ‘Black’ more often in reference to diversity, but during meetings with the Board she meant ‘everyone’ not just Blacks.”

Duncan, whom the decision-maker Hamill also found to have discriminated against Munn, denied wrongdoing in his interview with Holmes, the fact-finder. But he did say that when Munn asked for guidance on diversity work, “the Board told Munn the focus should be on retaining Black and Brown teachers.”

The reports could further drive a wedge between school board members who already struggle to agree on issues.

The Hamill report that concludes board members Mason and Duncan discriminated against Munn in part uses comments made by other board members to reach that conclusion. For example, board member Michael Carter, who is also Black, told Holmes that he thought firing Munn was “BS,” and “recalled APS staff and Board members remark that Munn was not black enough, but Carter could not identify any specific individuals.”

Hamill concludes with several major recommendations: that Mason and Duncan be publicly censured by their colleagues, that they be barred from holding leadership positions on the board, that the board publicly post the findings favorable to Munn on the district website for at least a year, and that the entire board receive training on the district’s anti-discrimination policy and federal Equal Employment Opportunity laws.

Crabill, who has worked with the board for years to try to prevent them from micro-managing Munn and stick to setting policy, told the investigator that training might not make a difference, because it would “not change engrained life-long beliefs.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Denver Public Schools appeals release of recording of closed-door board meeting about police

2023-06-26T19:06:36+00:00

Denver Public Schools is resisting releasing a recording of a March closed-door meeting of the school board as a Denver District Court judge had ordered the district to do.

DPS appealed the district court ruling Monday to the Colorado Court of Appeals. The school district’s lawyers had indicated at a court hearing earlier this month that they would continue to oppose the release of the recording of the five-hour meeting.

The meeting, called an executive session, occurred on March 23, one day after an East High School student shot and injured two deans inside the school before fleeing and taking his own life. The school board emerged from the executive session and with no discussion voted unanimously to temporarily suspend its policy banning police in schools.

Chalkbeat and six other media organizations sued DPS for the recording of the executive session. The media organizations argued that the topics of the meeting were not properly noticed and that the board made its decision in private, despite the public vote. State law says the “formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret.”

Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen listened to the recording and ruled Friday in favor of the media organizations. He ordered DPS to release the recording publicly at noon Monday.

But DPS’s appeal now puts the process on hold. In its notice of appeal, the school district’s lawyers asked the appellate court to consider whether the district court judge was wrong to listen to the recording and determine that the discussion in the executive session did not meet the criteria under state law for when boards can meet privately.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Judge: Denver school board must release recording of closed door meeting

2023-06-23T19:54:03+00:00

Denver Public Schools must release a recording of a five-hour closed-door meeting at which the school board discussed returning police officers to schools, a judge ruled Friday.

The meeting occurred on March 23, one day after a student shot and injured two deans inside East High School before fleeing and later taking his own life. After the closed-door executive session ended, the school board voted unanimously to suspend its policy banning police officers in schools with no public discussion.

That decision would become the subject of three months of intense community debate before the board voted 4-3 this month to make the policy change permanent and allow police in schools at the discretion of the superintendent.

Chalkbeat and six other media organizations sued Denver Public Schools for the recording of the executive session, arguing that the topics were not properly noticed and that the school board may have made a decision in private that was merely rubber-stamped by the public vote.

Colorado’s open meetings law says the “formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret.”

Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen listened to the meeting recording and ruled Friday that the school board “did engage in a substantial discussion” or “adopt a proposed policy, position, resolution, rule, regulation, or formal action” in the closed-door executive session in violation of state law.

DPS said Friday that it will appeal the ruling.

“While we respect the Court, we disagree with the ruling and will be appealing the decision,” school district spokesperson Bill Good said in a statement.

Attorney Rachael Johnson, who represented the media organizations along with attorney Steve Zansberg, said in a separate statement that she was pleased with the court ruling.

“A discussion about the public’s business, especially school safety, cannot be conducted in secret,” said Johnson, who is with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

At least one Denver school board member disagrees with DPS’s decision to appeal the ruling. In an email to fellow board members that was obtained by Chalkbeat, board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson expressed concerns about transparency and legal costs.

“Appealing this decision erodes public trust in the school board,” Anderson said in an interview.

He said the board is “already suffering from a low approval rating” and that an appeal “would endorse the message that we are hiding something. And I don’t believe we have anything to hide.” The board should admit it was wrong and do things differently next time, he said.

State law allows elected officials to meet in executive session to discuss certain legally sensitive matters, including staff or student information that must be kept confidential, some contract negotiations, lawsuits, and other topics. The topics and the legal justification for the executive session must be described in a public agenda item.

The day of the East High shooting, Superintendent Alex Marrero told board members in an email obtained by Chalkbeat that he was committed to returning police to schools even though it violated board policy at the time — and he asked for a closed-door meeting for the following day.

But the public agenda item for the executive session didn’t include any mention of the policy around school resource officers.

Instead, the meeting notice said the executive session would cover matters required to be kept confidential according to state or federal law, specialized details of security arrangements, and information about individual students who would be harmed by the public disclosure of that information.

After listening to the recording, the judge found the Denver school board’s discussion didn’t match the meeting notice.

Luxen wrote that he couldn’t identify any matters required to be kept confidential under federal or state law or any discussion of specialized security arrangements.

Instead, he wrote, there was a “lengthy discussion of general security arrangements … including the return of school resource officers to Denver public schools.”

Nor did the discussion cover information that would adversely affect an individual student, the judge found.

“Although there was discussion of an individual student during the executive session, the nature of that discussion would not adversely affect the person involved,” Luxen wrote.

By the time of the Denver school board’s executive session, the student who shot the deans at East High, 17-year-old Austin Lyle, had taken his own life.

The judge ordered DPS to release the recording by Monday at noon.

In a hearing on June 16, DPS attorney Jonathan Fero said the district might object to the recording’s release as contrary to the public interest, even if the judge ruled against the district.

This story has been updated throughout with additional comments and details from the ruling.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Sheridan needs a new superintendent. The process has divided the community — again.

2023-06-20T22:57:31+00:00

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The Sheridan school district has no superintendent this month — and no clear plan to open a search.

Some board members want to appoint the internal candidate recommended by the departing superintendent, Pat Sandos. That proposal has divided the board, with one member accusing the board president of trying to bribe her to go along.

Meanwhile, the board has agreed to pay Sandos his full salary for a transition year starting in July, even though he’s officially retired as of May 31. Community members have launched a petition to terminate Sandos’ extension. For too long, they say, the district has overlooked and ignored the needs of parents and students, and it’s time for new leadership.

The district on Denver’s southwest edge serves about 1,100 students, including a large percentage from low-income families or identified as homeless. Like many in the metro area, the district is struggling with declining enrollment, which means less revenue and tighter budgets. The teachers union is seeking raises similar to those neighboring districts have agreed to, but negotiations have stalled. Meanwhile, teachers and parents alike report high turnover and important positions sitting vacant.

Alejandra Balderrama, a Sheridan parent, got involved in the petition requesting the current superintendent leave sooner because she’s concerned about staff turnover, especially the sudden departure of the elementary school principal after the school was recognized for students’ exceptional academic growth.

“I really don’t find that to be fair,” Balderrama said.

She said she hopes a new leader will mean more stability among staff and better communication with parents.

“I would like constant communication between not only the teachers and principals or administration, but also with the parents,” Balderrama said. “It’s important for us to really be involved.”

Board split on how to search for a superintendent

Superintendent Pat Sandos was hired in 2018 amid pushback from community members who preferred one of the other finalists — a Hispanic educator from southwest Denver. Instead, Sandos, an internal candidate, was selected in a split vote.

At the time, board member Daniel Stange said the district needed someone from outside to listen to the community’s calls for change.

This time, Stange, now the board president, believes that there is no need to spend thousands of dollars on a superintendent search firm if there’s a good internal candidate.

“They turn out the same type of superintendent, filtering the way they do, and you get what you get,” Stange said. “If we want a different result, a new type of superintendent, then why would we be spending money to hire a search firm?”

“Our internal search is really focused on the culture of our schools,” Stange added. “We want a bilingual female. The majority of the board is supportive of an internal candidate that matches that.”

But veteran board member Sally Daigle, who voted for Sandos in 2018, feels strongly that the board needs to do a comprehensive search. The disagreement began at the same December meeting when Sandos announced his retirement.

Sandos recommended the board appoint his chief academic officer, Veronica Maes, to be his replacement. He would train her during his transition year.

Daigle advocated for the district to hire the Colorado Association of School Boards, of which she is an active member, to lead a search. The push to consider only one internal candidate concerns her.

“There’s something just not right about the whole thing,” Daigle said. “I would not argue for an hour and a half that we needed to do this if I didn’t think so.”

At a tense board meeting this spring that sometimes turned into shouting, Daigle read text messages from Stange that she later described as an effort to bribe her into agreeing with the plan using reimbursement payments as leverage. Sheridan is one of a few Colorado school districts that pays board members, allowing reimbursement for certain meetings and costs.

“I told you I would approve the costs for you to work with CASB if you didn’t give us a lot of pushback with this issue,” reads the text message from Stange, which Daigle shared with Chalkbeat. “It really feels like you are trying to push us into a costly and lengthy process? I hope you remember that we are a 5 member board. Majority rules but consensus will always provide a confident image to our constituents.”

“It was threatening, coercion, or whatever you want to call it. I was kind of pissed,” Daigle said.

Daigle serves on a CASB committee that requires monthly meetings and is a full-time caretaker for her mom. She wants to get compensated when she does work that requires her to make other care arrangements for her mom.

Stange said it wasn’t meant as a bribe or coercion, but said he knows that “to some people it might sound like that.”

Stange said he was upset that Daigle was “making a fuss” about the superintendent search and said there was disagreement over whether Daigle’s CASB conference work should count as school board work.

According to a records request, as of May 21, only two board members have received any payment since the policy took effect. Daigle received $1,725, and Maria Delgado-Garcia received $1,093.

Sheridan schools, including the alternative high school SOAR Academy, seen here in August 2020, offered in-person learning through most of the pandemic.

Internal candidate says her passion is in working to close equity gaps

Maes, who joined Sheridan as chief academic officer last year, said she wants to be superintendent to keep working on important projects.

“My entire life, my passion is closing equity gaps, working with multilingual learners — that is my why,” Maes said. “I was a Spanish-only speaking child, and I did not go through a great sink-or-swim experience. When I moved over to Sheridan last school year, it really was filling my bucket.”

“When Pat announced he was going to retire, it concerned me for the work,” she said. “We are getting a lot of traction.”

Stange said he’s happy to hire Maes into the top district role — lauding her approach to equity and the fact that she’s a Hispanic woman.

Maes has agreed not to request a higher salary during the transition year so that the small district will pay only one superintendent salary — to Sandos. Sandos, meanwhile, said he considers himself to still be the superintendent.

Daigle said a broader search would ensure the district finds the best candidate. And if that is Maes, she will still stand out even more, Daigle said.

The board could vote to appoint Maes as soon as this month. That’s when the board expects a report on community feedback on the district’s goals and direction, based on a survey and some meetings. If Maes agrees with the community priorities, it makes sense to appoint her, Stange said.

Daigle is frustrated because the district has paid a pair of consultants $12,000, twice what CASB would have charged to conduct a superintendent search that included community engagement. Stange said the consultant contracts include work on a strategic plan, and the community feedback also will support that work.

While parents agree with the board president that representation matters in a leader, some worry that any internal candidate, Hispanic or not, might continue to ignore their requests.

Alexis Marquez, a leader of the advocacy group Sheridan Rising, said that last year, Sheridan parents presented a list of requests to the district — including that the district provide Spanish interpreters for school board meetings so more parents could participate.

“It wasn’t a hard ask, but this letter went completely ignored. It was never even acknowledged,” Marquez said. “This is just a blatant disregard for the community. If you can’t speak the language, you can’t partake.”

Sandos said he would like to add interpreters to school board meetings but logistics and cost have been a challenge. Other school districts with large numbers of Spanish-speaking families, such as Adams 14, have offered interpretation for years.

Maes said she wasn’t aware of the letter or the request. She has ensured that schools offer interpreters for meetings with parents, she said. It wasn’t something she had considered for school board meetings.

Maes said better communication with the community would be a top priority if she’s chosen as superintendent, along with recruitment of new students and teachers.

“I just want to do the work,” she said. “This kind of stuff gets in the way of that.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Scott Baldermann is running for re-election to represent southeast Denver on the school board

2023-06-20T15:55:30+00:00

Scott Baldermann, who represents the southeast part of the city, is running for re-election to the Denver school board.

Baldermann filed his candidacy Friday. The 47-year-old father of two Denver Public Schools students was elected in 2019 as part of a historic “flip” of the school board to candidates backed by the Denver teachers union.

Over the past four years, Baldermann has advocated for curtailing school autonomy and ending competition among schools over enrollment and test scores.

He championed ensuring more teachers can earn Colorado’s version of tenure by no longer allowing semi-autonomous innovation schools to waive it, and has taken a harder line with charter schools. Most recently, he proposed bringing police officers back to schools — a contentious policy that won approval on a 4-3 vote.

Baldermann’s seat representing District 1 is one of three seats up for grabs on the seven-member Denver school board on Nov. 7. He’ll face one challenger: DPS parent and former KIPP Colorado charter school network CEO Kimberlee Sia.

Baldermann largely self-funded his 2019 campaign, ultimately spending more than $330,000 to win his seat. He said he must do so again “because of the dark money hovering over the district.” Groups supportive of education reform, which Baldermann opposes, spent more than $1 million in the last Denver school board race.

There’s a lot at stake in this election, including how the largest district in the state will deal with declining enrollment and respond to safety concerns after shootings in and around schools.

The election comes at a time when power struggles among some board members have eroded confidence in the board. A recent survey found many Denver voters have an unfavorable view of the board, and some parents have called for the entire board to resign.

Baldermann is the only incumbent currently running for re-election. Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson recently dropped his re-election bid to run for the Colorado House of Representatives instead.

Baldermann has mostly stayed out of the interpersonal conflicts that have dogged the board. A quieter board member, he is a strong supporter of the board’s switch to policy governance, a change that has at times contributed to the turmoil.

Under policy governance, board members set goals and limits but don’t get involved in the day-to-day operations of the district, which is the job of the superintendent.

“This board, I feel, has been very productive,” Baldermann said in an interview. “But a lot of interpersonal dynamics have overshadowed that work.”

An example of that productivity, he said, was the passage of a policy called “Ends 4 Health and Safety,” which the board adopted with no fanfare in February, a month before a student shot and injured two deans at East High School in March. Just three sentences long, the policy says that in light of a recent increase in gun violence, the district will collaborate with law enforcement and others “to proactively mitigate internal and external threats to safety.”

Those three sentences served as the framework for the district’s response to the East shooting, Baldermann said. A memo the board adopted the day after the shooting temporarily suspending its ban of police in schools and directing Superintendent Alex Marrero to develop a long-term safety plan by June 30 was simply telling him “to accelerate that work,” Baldermann said.

“The good work is boring,” Baldermann said of that policy and others that lay out the board’s goals for the district. “But at the end of the day, that’s the stuff that helps me sleep at night [knowing] that we were doing the right stuff and we were being proactive.”

He believes he has more policy work to do.

Baldermann was among the board members who voted unanimously in 2020 to remove police officers from schools in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.

Three years and several gun incidents later, he said his position changed. Baldermann’s original proposal to bring back school resource officers included training requirements for the officers and limits on their interactions with students, but a majority of his fellow board members stripped out those provisions before the proposal passed.

Baldermann also recently voted to close three district-run schools with low enrollment.

“I do believe that we need to close schools,” he said. “I want to make sure that our marginalized communities aren’t the ones shouldering all of this burden. This needs to be a holistic, citywide solution to address what our schools are going to look like.”

Editor’s Note: This story was updated after the ballot was finalized with the names of all candidates running for the District 1 seat.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Auon’tai Anderson is dropping out of the Denver school board race to run for a state House seat

2023-06-12T16:26:53+00:00

Denver school board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson is dropping his re-election bid and will run instead for a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives.

The 24-year-old is the most high-profile member of the Denver school board, and his exit from the race will mean a change in the dynamics of the board, which has been criticized for infighting, including between Anderson and President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán.

“The Anderson era of the school board has been consequential and we’ve made a lot of progress,” Anderson said in an interview. “But it’s also an opportunity to go back to being boring. You won’t have a lightning rod of one person of seven being outspoken on the school board.”

Anderson was elected in 2019 to an at-large seat representing the entire city as part of a historic “flip” of the school board to members backed by the teachers union. His four-year term ends in November. Anderson had announced more than six months ago that he was running for re-election to the board. Two other candidates — Kwame Spearman and Paul Ballenger — announced this spring that they would challenge him for the seat.

But on Monday, Anderson said he plans instead to run for the House District 8 seat representing northeast Denver in 2024. The seat is held by state Rep. Leslie Herod, a Democrat who is barred from running again due to term limits. Four other candidates have already filed to run for the seat, according to the secretary of state’s office database.

Other politicians have simultaneously served in the state legislature and on local school boards, including in Denver, but Anderson said the timing of the races would have made that difficult.

In the wake of a shooting inside East High School in March, Anderson said he began thinking about the limitations of the school board to make broad political changes. For instance, Anderson said the school board can’t enact gun control measures, while state lawmakers can. He recalled a conversation he said he had with a Black mother and student.

“The student said, ‘You’re telling us everything you can’t do. What are you going to do about it?’” Anderson said. That conversation helped push him to run for the legislature, he said, where he hopes to advocate for gun safety, rent control, and reproductive rights, among other issues.

In a campaign video, Anderson said he accomplished everything he set out to do on the school board, a claim he repeated in an interview. In the video, he listed reunifying Montbello and West high schools — two schools in communities of color that the district previously closed for low student test scores. West High reopened in 2021, and Montbello High reopened last year.

Anderson mentioned raising the minimum wage for district employees to $20 an hour, stocking school bathrooms with free menstrual hygiene products, and passing policies inclusive of LGBTQIA students, such as mandating all-gender restrooms — all of which he championed.

“I am walking away with my head held high,” Anderson said in an interview. “Even if I am never elected to another seat in government again, I’m walking away having no regrets.”

Anderson also helped lead the push in 2020 to remove police officers from Denver schools following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. But the future of that policy is uncertain. The board voted to temporarily suspend it after the East shooting, and some board members now want to bring school resource officers back more permanently.

Board members Michelle Quattlebaum and Scott Esserman have joined Anderson in publicly opposing the return of SROs. Anderson said he’s confident that Quattlebaum, Esserman, and others will “keep that work going” after he leaves the board.

A poll taken in April before other candidates had declared found just 9% of respondents said they planned to vote to re-elect Anderson and more than half said it was “time for someone new.” A third of respondents were undecided.

Anderson’s time on the school board has been controversial. In 2021, his fellow board members censured him for violating expectations of board member behavior.

The censure came after a five-month investigation into sexual assault and misconduct allegations, the most serious of which were not substantiated. But investigators did find that Anderson had flirtatious contact with a student while he was a board member and made social media posts that were coercive and intimidating toward witnesses during the investigation.

“Leadership always comes with bumps, and people make mistakes,” Anderson said. “But it’s about how we learn from those mistakes and keep moving the mantle forward.”

This will be the third time Anderson has run for office. A graduate of Denver’s Manual High School, Anderson first ran for school board in 2017 when he was just a teenager. Though he lost that race, he ran again two years later and won.

In announcing his now-canceled re-election bid last November, Anderson said he’d considered running for a seat on the Denver City Council but changed his mind after the board’s debate last fall on whether to close schools with low enrollment.

Superintendent Alex Marrero initially recommended closing 10 small schools. Anderson was a vocal opponent of that plan, which Marrero whittled down and the board rejected.

But four months later, in March, the board came back and voted to close three of the 10 schools. Anderson voted to close Math and Science Leadership Academy and Denver Discovery School, however, he cast the sole vote against closing Fairview Elementary, where enrollment projections were in dispute.

Declining enrollment and school closures will be among the issues the next school board will need to tackle, and Anderson left open the possibility that he could run for the board again someday. But he also said that this coming election, when three of the seven seats are up for grabs, “is an opportunity for us to hit a good restart.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Raw emotions, shouting, and prayers as Denver school board debates police in schools

2023-06-06T18:45:21+00:00

A Denver school board discussion of police in schools Monday began with board members shouting to be heard after the president cut off their microphones and ended with a series of ministers praying that the district’s children be safe and that its leaders show good judgment.

“This topic is too important for us to gloss over,” board member Michelle Quattlebaum, who opposes stationing police officers inside schools, said after her microphone was cut off. “I will continue to press back on structures of oppression.”

The tumult at Monday night’s Denver school board meeting reflected ongoing conflict on the board, the deep division in the community over police in schools, and how strongly each side feels their solution is safest for students. The debate follows several incidents of gun violence, including a shooting inside East High in March that prompted the board to temporarily lift a ban on police in schools.

Now the board is weighing whether to bring the officers back on a long-term basis. But with dueling proposals on the table, the seven board members don’t agree.

Superintendent Alex Marrero invited Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas to Monday’s meeting to explain how police would partner with Denver Public Schools if the board reinstates school resource officers, known as SROs. The agenda item read only “Superintendent’s Update.”

Thomas promised specialized training in de-escalation and the adolescent brain. He pledged that the officers would come from the community and want the assignment. He said they would focus on positive interactions with students and deterring crime, not on discipline.

“I’ve seen it work where young people have had a great opportunity to develop relationships with police officers in their schools,” Thomas said.

Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith then read off a long list of just-in survey results overwhelmingly in favor of police: 95% of students at Montbello High, 90% of parents at Northeast Early College, and 85% of staff at Lincoln High are in support of SROs, Smith said.

The results were notably different from previous survey results. An April survey conducted by the district found just 41% of students in favor of SROs. At a series of telephone town hall meetings last month, parents consistently ranked SROs second behind weapons detections systems as the resource they wanted DPS to invest more money in.

Quattlebaum questioned the validity of the survey results presented by Smith. Black students, she said, “do not feel safe speaking their truth” for fear of being seen as opposing school safety. The survey, she said, supports what Marrero, board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, and board members Scott Baldermann and Charmaine Lindsay want: to return SROs to schools.

“But have we done the real research, is what I’m asking,” Quattlebaum said. “Creating and holding the space that’s actually required to address the situation?”

Gaytán tried to cut Quattlebaum off. She said it wasn’t Quattlebaum’s turn to speak.

“Please, I ask for your respect,” Gaytán said. “As president of the board, I’m asking you kindly and respectfully to respect procedure.”

Quattlebaum kept speaking. “When we go down the list of traits of white supremacy, this is actually one of them,” she said.

Gaytán gestured toward the technical crew controlling the microphones. Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson jumped to Quattlebaum’s defense. “Do not cut her mic!” he said.

But Gaytán did. Quattlebaum stood up and spoke loudly.

“I will continue to be a voice and a beacon,” Quattlebaum said.

Anderson’s microphone was cut off a few minutes later, after Marrero said it was “impossible to fathom” that Denver’s students of color would be over-policed by SROs under his watch, even though it happened in the past. “Then is not now,” Marrero said.

“Respectfully, Dr. Marrero, I have to just,” Anderson began.

“Vice President Anderson,” Gaytán said. “Would you please follow procedure and ask for the floor?”

“I’m not doing this with you today,” Anderson said to Gaytán.

When Anderson’s microphone went dead, he also stood up and shouted.

“Just because we have new faces doesn’t mean we trust what you’re going to do!” he said.

The board is considering two proposals. One, authored by Baldermann, would let the superintendent decide when, where, and for long SROs should be stationed in schools. While Gaytán and Lindsay have not formally endorsed Baldermann’s proposal, Gaytán called the return of SROs “inevitable,” while Lindsay has said they could help.

Another proposal, backed by Quattlebaum, Anderson and board member Scott Esserman, says the district should instead work with the city to create community resource officers who would be available to schools only when necessary.

The bulk of Monday’s meeting was set aside for public comment — and the topic of SROs dominated among the speakers in the packed auditorium. Nearly all speakers, including a large group with the advocacy organization Movimiento Poder, were opposed to bringing back SROs.

They said SROs cause trauma, ticket and arrest Black and Latino students, and do nothing to stop school shootings. They accused the school board of being reactionary and ignoring data.

“For my sake, and thousands of students’ sake, please stop ignoring the Black and brown voices,” said Carold Carter, a sophomore at Denver School of the Arts.

“It’s important we show our community of beautiful students that we truly care about them and will refuse to treat them as criminals or their schools as prisons,” the 15-year-old said.

At a press conference just a half hour before the meeting Monday, some parents expressed a more complicated view. Dorian Warren, a Black mother with a son at East High, said that the SROs at East have tried to build a rapport with her son.

Warren is part of a group called Resign DPS Board that is calling on all seven board members to step down — or at least for voters to get rid of any incumbents who run for reelection.

In a year filled with gun violence, Warren said there were no incidents after the SROs returned.

“I don’t want to see another child die and more finger pointing,” Warren said. “This board needs to be proactive and stop dragging their feet, stop making excuses, stop being divisive.”

Before Monday’s board meeting was over, Quattlebaum had apologized for “stepping out of order.” More than three hours of public comment ended with a series of nine ministers who used their allotted three minutes each to stand at the microphone and pray.

“I’ve been here for a few hours, so I’m tired,” said Brandon Washington, pastor of Embassy Christian Bible Church. “And I know you are too. One of the things that was fatiguing was not just the passage of time, but the manner in which this conversation occurred. So I want to be careful to give some attention to remembering that the agenda here is not self. It is others.”

School safety, Washington said, is “a complex matter.” “Let everyone here think the best of the other,” he said, “knowing that everyone here desires the welfare of children.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Father and security consultant Paul Ballenger is running for Denver school board

2023-05-25T20:19:36+00:00

Update, Sept. 29: Paul Ballenger announced that he is dropping out of the race for an at-large seat on the Denver school board.

A Denver father who served in the military and is concerned about school safety announced Thursday that he’s running for an at-large seat on the school board.

Paul Ballenger, 46, referenced a recent high-profile shooting at East High School in his announcement on the sidewalk in front of Denver Public Schools headquarters. He said the shooting on March 22 “changed everything.”

“That was the day I came to realize the ineffective safety policies my family and our school felt were felt by all,” said Ballenger, who is a single dad to a daughter who finished middle school at McAuliffe International School this week and will attend Northfield High next year.

Ballenger will have three opponents for the seat, which represents the entire city: Kwame Spearman, a DPS graduate who was until recently the CEO of independent bookstore chain Tattered Cover; John Youngquist, who was formerly principal of East High; and Brittni Johnson, a DPS parent and doctoral stuent.

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, who currently holds that seat, is not seeking re-election.

Three of the seven Denver school board seats are up for grabs Nov. 7. The election has the potential to change the dynamics of the board, which has been criticized for infighting and power struggles between some members over the past year. Also at stake is how the board will deal with declining enrollment and respond to safety concerns.

Ballenger said he joined the U.S. Marine Corps more than 20 years ago. After his military service, he worked as a firefighter and EMT. He said he came to Colorado in 2016 to help start a security company. In 2020, he and his daughter moved to Denver, where they live in the Central Park neighborhood. Ballenger still works in security as a consultant.

In an interview, he said his security experience would be an asset to a district struggling with how to keep its schools safe. He said the board’s 2020 decision to remove police officers from schools — which it temporarily reversed in the wake of the East shooting — was made without enough community feedback. Schools should be able to choose whether or not to have a police officer, known as a school resource officer, or SRO, Ballenger said.

“I think there should be much more autonomy at the principal level to make decisions,” he said. “If a principal … says ‘Hey, you know what, there’s a lot of violence in the neighborhood, there’s been gang activity, … I’m a little concerned with guns coming to school, I want to ramp up for a bit until things cool off,’ I think that’s a very reasonable request.”

Ballenger said he’s been frustrated by the school board’s infighting. If elected, he said he wants to “restore some dignity” to the board and get members back to business.

“I want to make school board meetings boring again,” Ballenger said.

He said he knows the board faces tough decisions, including about whether to close schools with low enrollment. But Ballenger said the closure process has fallen short.

“I’ve heard the word ‘blindsided’ over and over again,” he said. “In the event that school closures have to happen, we have to make sure that they are fair, make sure that they are equitable, and that we’re involving the community early on so they can either advocate for their school or at least understand that changes could be happening.”

Ballenger neither aligned himself with nor distanced himself from the philosophy of education reform, which is often a dividing line in Denver school board elections. Rather, he said he believes that “if a school is working well for the children and the staff, it should be left alone.”

In his announcement, Ballenger said his experience as “an Army guy, a businessman, a security expert, and a dad to a really great kid,” makes him “uniquely positioned to assist.”

“More than anything, I want every parent in Denver to be free from worry as to whether their child is in danger, but instead to know in full faith that their child is thriving,” he said.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated after the ballot was finalized with the names of all candidates running for the at-large seat. It was also updated to reflect that Auon’tai Anderson is not seeking re-election.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Charter school centering Black students misses enrollment target, won’t open in Denver this fall

2023-05-23T21:17:30+00:00

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A charter elementary school centering Black students won’t open as planned in Denver this fall. 5280 Freedom School did not enroll enough students for next school year, and the Denver school board isn’t considering giving the charter school more time.

The refusal is a departure from past practice and emblematic of the increasingly tough outlook for charter schools in Denver, which was once among the friendliest districts for the publicly funded, privately run schools. But declining enrollment and shifting politics have changed that — even for a school aiming to fulfill one of the school board’s priorities: improving education for Black students.

“It’s unfortunate because the longer we wait, there are still Black students entering schools … and not learning, not getting the quality instruction they need,” said Branta Lockett, founder of 5280 Freedom School. “That’s what’s most devastating to me.”

The school board initially denied the application of 5280 Freedom School last June along with the applications for two other charter schools that wanted to open in Denver Public Schools.

The district feared 5280 Freedom School would fail to enroll enough students, with Superintendent Alex Marrero noting that “school models of this limited size are not in the best interests of pupils, the district, or the community.”

More than a dozen charter schools have closed in recent years, often because of low enrollment. Denver schools are funded per pupil, and schools with low enrollment struggle to afford enough staff to offer robust programming. District-run schools are closing, too. The school board recently voted to close three small district-run schools at the end of the school year.

5280 Freedom School appealed its denial to the State Board of Education, which ordered the Denver school board to reconsider. State Board members said it was unfair to assume that 5280 Freedom School would face the same enrollment challenges as other Denver charters.

In September, the Denver school board complied with the State Board’s order and approved 5280 Freedom School to open this fall. But the approval came with conditions, including that the charter fill all of its open seats in its first year. 5280 Freedom School pledged to open with 52 students in kindergarten and first grade, and gradually build the school from there.

But the school wasn’t able to enroll 52 students. Lockett said only 38 students — 27 kindergarteners and 11 first graders — enrolled in 5280 Freedom School during the school choice window this spring, when families submit their choices for next school year.

The school’s agreement with DPS said failure to enroll 52 students “would result in a breach of contract and would prevent the school from opening.”

In March, 5280 Freedom School sent DPS a letter proposing two other options, according to a copy obtained by Chalkbeat. The school proposed opening this fall with kindergarten only or delaying its opening until 2024, giving it more time to recruit students.

“5280 is providing this letter as a demonstration of its interest in working proactively with DPS to address any concerns as early as possible,” the letter said.

But school board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said in a statement this week that the board “is not currently considering” 5280 Freedom School’s request.

That was news to Lockett, who said Tuesday that neither the board nor DPS ever answered 5280 Freedom’s School’s letter. “They’re not obligated to respond to us,” Lockett said. “But if you believe in equity, if you believe in students first, if you believe in supporting Black families and communities, the least you could do is respond.”

Past school boards have given other nascent charter schools more time to recruit students. In 2018, the board allowed a charter school called The CUBE to delay its opening after it missed its enrollment target. The board did the same for the American Indian Academy of Denver in 2019. However, both schools continued to struggle with enrollment. The CUBE closed in 2021, and the American Indian Academy of Denver will close at the end of this school year.

5280 Freedom School is now considering reapplying to DPS next year or opening as a private school, Lockett said. It already runs a successful summer program that teaches children about Black history, African drumming, poetry, nutrition, and more.

“It has been a difficult journey,” Lockett said. But she said not everything has been a loss. “There were a lot of obstacles placed in front of us that we were able to overcome time and time again,” she said. “The only one we didn’t meet was enrollment.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Kwame Spearman says he’s running for Denver school board after short bid for mayor

2023-05-08T12:00:00+00:00

After dropping out of Denver’s mayoral race two months ago, Kwame Spearman announced Monday that he is now running for an at-large seat on the Denver school board.

Spearman, 39, was until recently the CEO of the Denver-based independent bookstore chain Tattered Cover, of which he is still part owner. He is also a graduate of Denver’s East High School. His mother is a longtime educator in the system, and Spearman serves on the board of the Denver Public Schools Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises money for the district, though he said he’ll step away from that appointment during the campaign.

Spearman will have two opponents for the seat, which represents the entire city: John Youngquist, the former principal of East High and a parent of two East students, and Brittni Johnson, a DPS parent and doctoral student. Another candidate, Paul Ballenger, dropped out of the race in late September.

School board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, who currently holds that seat, is not seeking re-election.

The election is set for Nov. 7. Three of the seven Denver school board seats are up for grabs. There’s a lot at stake, including how the largest district in the state will deal with declining enrollment and respond to safety concerns after shootings in and around schools.

The election also has the potential to change the dynamics of the board. Power struggles among some members have eroded confidence in the board.

Spearman said he’s running for school board because DPS is “not headed in the right direction.” The board spends too much time infighting and not enough time talking about academic outcomes for students, school safety, and “the mental health quagmire,” he said.

“My belief is that your neighborhood deserves great schools, and foundational to that is representatives from the school board starting and ending every conversation with a focus on student outcomes and academic excellence,” Spearman said.

The community deserves a board member who is going to spend their time listening “rather than tweeting during district meetings or fighting against other board members,” he said.

Spearman shied away from calling himself a reformer but said that school choice has worked. School choice is a key tenet of the education reform philosophy that lets families choose the schools they think best fit their kids’ needs. Board members need to stop focusing on whether a school is district-run or charter, he said, and focus on whether it’s great.

“We can’t get rid of that,” Spearman said of school choice. “That’s what made Denver Public Schools in its heyday so successful — is that parents were finally given the opportunity to figure out the best type of environment for their student.”

Tattered Cover’s flagship store is located across the street from East High, and Spearman is a non-parent member of the Parents - Safety Advocacy Group, a group formed to push for change in the wake of a March shooting inside the school.

After the shooting, the school board suspended a policy banning police from schools and allowed 14 officers to be stationed at 13 campuses, including two at East. If elected, Spearman said he’d support allowing each school to decide whether they want an officer on campus.

But he said it’s not feasible to let all 200 DPS schools come up with their own plan. He said the board should “entrust principals with the ability to make the decision around [school resource officers] and give them guidance on how to make that decision and options to choose from.”

Spearman dropped out of a crowded field of 17 candidates running for Denver mayor in March, just a few weeks before the election. He said he got into the mayoral race late, which is what prompted him to enter the school board race early. His late entry didn’t allow him to build alliances with community groups, he said, which he hopes to do this time around.

As for which groups he’ll seek out, Spearman named both reform groups and the Denver teachers union, which have historically been on opposite sides in school board elections.

“My concern is we’re not focusing on the right outcomes, and you’re seeing a deterioration of the district because of it,” he said.

Editor’s note: This story was updated after the ballot was finalized with the names of all candidates running for the at-large seat. It was also updated to reflect that Auon’tai Anderson is not seeking re-election and that former candidate Paul Ballenger dropped out of the race.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board dissolves Beacon Network, plans to take control of Grant and Kepner

2023-04-11T05:08:58+00:00

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In a split vote Monday, the Denver school board dissolved one of the district’s three innovation zones, placing a group of semi-autonomous schools back under district control.

Kepner Beacon and Grant Beacon middle schools will no longer be under the umbrella of Beacon Network Schools, a zone overseen by an independent board of directors.

It was not immediately clear Monday what the change will mean for students, parents, and teachers. Many parents fear that programs and services they love at Beacon schools will go away. District leaders have said being under district control will improve the schools.

Superintendent Alex Marrero recommended revoking Beacon’s innovation zone status because of low test scores at Kepner Beacon and concerns about the zone’s organizational health, including what he said was inadequate financial oversight by the zone board.

Marrero also said Denver Public Schools no longer supports the Beacon zone’s unique employment structure, which was set up under a previous superintendent. The zone’s executive director, Alex Magaña, is an employee of the district but answers to the zone board.

Several school board members were conflicted on whether to dissolve the zone. But Scott Baldermann, whose son attends Grant Beacon, was firm in his vote to get rid of the zone.

For a zone executive director to be an employee of DPS but answer to an unelected zone board that Baldermann called “hand picked” constitutes “self dealing,” he said.

“This is what holding schools accountable looks like,” Baldermann said.

The board voted 5-2 to revoke Beacon’s innovation zone status. Vice President Auon’tai Anderson and board member Carrie Olson voted no. Both said they were worried about Kepner Beacon in southwest Denver, a community whose schools have repeatedly been closed, reopened, and reinvented in the name of improving student test scores.

At a meeting last month, Beacon parents pleaded with the board not to dissolve the zone.

“The lived experiences of the people in the community don’t match what we’re talking about here,” said Olson, a former teacher who taught for years at Kepner Middle School before it was restarted as Kepner Beacon. “All they see once again is that Denver Public Schools is coming into the neighborhood and saying, ‘We know best.’”

Several parents said they feared that getting rid of the innovation zone was the first step to getting rid of the schools’ individual innovation status. Schools with innovation status can waive rules, laws, and teachers union contract provisions to do things they believe will improve student learning. But unlike schools in zones, individual innovation schools are overseen by DPS.

“Our school is not broken,” parent Claudia Carillo told the school board at a lengthy public hearing last month. “So why fix our school if it’s not broken?”

But Marrero said repeatedly Monday that the Beacon schools won’t lose anything.

“They maintain all the great things you saw,” he said, referencing visits to the schools by board members. The district, he said, would “simply have more visibility” into the operations and academics at Beacon schools and be able to intervene “without any obstacles.”

A state law passed last year gives innovation zones some recourse when they disagree with district decisions. The law allows a neutral third party to hear disputes and issue recommendations. It also allows the State Board of Education to review and comment on local revocation decisions but not override them. Magaña said Beacon may consider that recourse.

While innovation schools — district-run schools with charter-like flexibility — exist throughout the state, these types of innovation zones are unique to Denver Public Schools. As part of education reform policies supported by the previous school board, the district encouraged school autonomy. Part of that was creating innovation zones, groups of semi-autonomous schools that share leadership and resources and have additional flexibilities.

The current board has placed new limits on individual innovation schools and placed innovation zones under more scrutiny. However, the Beacon Network is the first zone to be dissolved.

The Denver school board directed another innovation zone, Northeast Denver Innovation Zone, or NDIZ, to submit a new plan for how it will operate after teachers at its largest school, Northfield High, voted last month to leave the zone next school year.

NDIZ charges each of its schools a per-pupil fee to fund the zone’s operating expenses. The school board directed the district to review if NDIZ will be financially viable without Northfield.

The board also unanimously approved without comment the plan for the Luminary Learning Network, which was the first innovation zone in DPS when it was formed in 2016.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board President Xóchitl Gaytán to move to censure Vice President Auon’tai Anderson

2023-04-07T23:07:45+00:00

Update: On Monday, the Denver school board removed any discussion of a potential censure from the agenda. Read more.

Denver school board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said she will move to censure board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson for alleged violations of board policy in the wake of the March 22 shooting at East High School.

Gaytán has accused Anderson of disclosing to the press confidential information from a closed-door executive session of the board, among other violations. Anderson has said the information he disclosed was shared outside of the executive session.

The board is set to discuss the alleged violations at a meeting Monday before the matter moves to a vote on April 20, Gaytán said.

Anderson declined to comment Friday.

The move comes after a year of personality conflicts, power struggles, and attempts at reconciliation between board members. The board is under more public scrutiny in the wake of the shooting at East, which has raised questions about school safety and discipline policy.

Censuring a board member requires a majority vote of the board.

On March 23, the day after a student shot two staff members at East, Denver board members met in a closed-door session, then voted unanimously to return police officers to Denver schools. On March 27, Anderson, who previously led the effort to remove police from schools, held a press conference in which he said the mayor forced the board’s hand.

Anderson said Denver Mayor Michael Hancock “had an executive order ready to be drafted and declare a public health emergency … to deploy school resource officers back to schools.” Hancock’s office has denied this.

Gaytán described Anderson’s comments as a violation of board policy in a memo last month.

According to a copy obtained by Chalkbeat, the memo alleges that Anderson “disclosed information discussed in Executive Session. Specifically, naming the Mayor’s private communication with the Superintendent regarding the creation of an Executive Order to address school safety.”

Anderson has said that Superintendent Alex Marrero relayed that information to him before the executive session.

Gaytán’s memo also chastises Anderson for holding the press conference at all and for making “inaccurate statements” about the shooter at East, student Austin Lyle, and his history of expulsion from the neighboring Cherry Creek School District.

The memo lays out what Gaytán sees as the potential impacts of Anderson’s actions.

“Statements from the press conference being held by VP Anderson may be used as part of a lawsuit against the District regarding the Board’s culpability for the violence at East HS,” it says.

Anderson was censured by the board in 2021 for violating expectations of board member behavior after an investigation found he’d had flirtatious contact with students on social media. Investigators also found that Anderson made two social media posts during the investigation that could have been seen as coercive or intimidating to witnesses.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Some Denver mayoral candidates want more city voice in public schools

2023-03-14T11:16:00+00:00

Several candidates in the crowded and competitive Denver mayoral race want the mayor’s office to have a louder voice or even a formal role in running the state’s largest school district.

Seventeen mayoral candidates are on the ballot, and no front-runner has emerged. It’s the first wide-open mayoral race in Denver in 12 years, and it follows both interpersonal conflicts on the school board and rising youth violence, including a fatal shooting outside East High, which has prompted candidates to weigh in on returning police to schools.

The state of Denver Public Schools — and the question of public confidence in the officials who run it — have put education on the agenda, even as crime, homelessness, and the cost of housing dominate the mayoral candidate debates.

Some candidates have criticized the school board’s behavior, with Mike Johnston saying in a survey that the board has made Denver Public Schools “more of a public embarrassment than a source of pride.” Most recently the head of Gary Community Ventures, Johnston has broad political connections, as well as ties to education reform. As a state senator, he authored Colorado’s teacher evaluation law and the READ Act.

Others, including state Sen. Chris Hansen and finance expert and social entrepreneur Trinidad Rodriguez, have called for the city to be more involved in district decision-making.

Their ideas stop short of mayoral control of Denver schools. Rodriguez, who is the son of former Denver school board member Rosemary Rodriguez, is proposing to give the mayor the authority to appoint additional members of the school board.

Hansen, who sponsored legislation to support semi-autonomous groups of schools , favors having a single mayoral appointee serve as a non-voting member. In a survey from the group Educate Denver, Hansen said a mayoral appointee would enable “the city to have a hand in the hiring and accountability of the superintendent to serve the city and students well.”

State law says the Denver school board can only have seven members who must be elected by voters, not appointed. Changing that would require action by state lawmakers, DPS General Counsel Aaron Thompson said.

Former Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce President Kelly Brough has said she’d designate a mayoral cabinet member to work with the district, but she said she’s open to other ways of having an impact, including mayoral appointees on the school board.

“A city is only as good as its school district, and ours needs help,” Brough said in a video interview with El Comercio de Colorado. “Whether you look at the disparities and achievement gaps based on race, which are some of the largest in the nation, or you look at just the functioning of our board, we can do better in both regards — and we have to.”

School board responds to criticisms

Other candidates — including Lisa Calderón, community activist Terrance Roberts, GreenLatinos state director Ean Tafoya, and Al Gardner, an IT executive with Salud Family Health — have said the mayor should not interfere in the elected school board.

“The mayor and city departments will develop partnership programs with DPS, providing resources and support [to] positive initiatives,” Calderón, who is a college professor and head of an organization that helps Democratic women run for office, said in response to a question on a Chalkbeat survey.

“The mayor shouldn’t interfere with an independently elected school board.”

Calderón placed third in the 2019 Denver mayor’s race and served as chief of staff for progressive City Council Member Candi CdeBaca.

Asked to respond to the candidates’ criticisms, the school board issued a joint statement.

“Rather than respond to this negativity,” it says, “we have kept our heads down and focused on continuing to do the vital work of supporting all of our students and community members.”

The board statement lists several accomplishments, including a rising graduation rate, higher salaries for teachers and a $20 minimum wage for paraprofessionals, and a new sustainability policy.

“As a duly elected member of the Denver school board, I‘m looking for a partner in the mayor’s office,” board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said in an interview. “I’m not looking for someone who is trying to be adversarial.”

Member Scott Baldermann issued his own statement pointing to the politics behind the criticism.

“Some mayoral candidates align with education reform proponents that introduced market-driven ideologies into DPS the past two decades,” Baldermann said.

“Those conservative policies led to resource inequities, union busting, privatization, and an obsession with standardized test scores. I can understand why they would not support certain policies implemented by the current board.”

But Paul Teske, dean of the University of Colorado Denver School of Public Affairs, said he doesn’t hear much debate about actual education policy, in contrast to past years.

“I’ve heard some candidates talk about safety officers in school and how crime and homelessness even intersects with some of the issues in our schools, but straight-ahead policy — like what DPS should be doing — I don’t hear much about,” he said.

Education is still in the mix

The Denver mayoral race is wide open since Mayor Michael Hancock, who’s served in that role for 12 years, can’t run again due to term limits.

Voters will have until April 4 to return their ballots or vote in person. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the vote — a likely outcome — the city will hold a runoff election between the top two contenders on June 6.

Mayoral candidates address a crowd at Denverite’s People’s Forum debate at the Carla Madison Recreation Center on March 7.

Education arguably played an even bigger role when Hancock was elected from a crowded field in 2011, as the school district was in the midst of controversial reforms. Hancock ran a television ad about driving his son 18 miles from the family’s home in far northeast Denver to East High because their local school was “failing.”

Education is still in the mix this year, said longtime political analyst Eric Sondermann, but it’s been dwarfed by two pressing problems: rising crime and a lack of affordable housing.

The role education is playing, Sondermann said, is that it “is one more contributing factor for the very downcast attitude that most voters have about the city at the moment. … The state of DPS is not the number one contributor to that, but it is on the list.”

In a 9 News/Metropolitan State University of Denver poll, 46% of respondents ranked education a top issue, just below crime, homelessness, and housing.

Conflicts among Denver school board members and tense debates at public meetings were common last year, despite the board being composed entirely of candidates backed by the teachers union and opposed to many previous reform policies. The district also faces real challenges with unpopular solutions. Enrollment is declining, and the school board just voted to close three schools. More school closures could be coming next year.

The district also hasn’t solved longstanding inequities, including a yawning test score gap between white students and Black and Latino students. Denver’s gap is the biggest in Colorado.

Ideas for city and schools to work together

Mayoral candidates have repeatedly referenced the test score gap in forums and questionnaires. Most of their ideas for addressing it focus on how to help students outside of school by providing more after-school and summer programs and paid apprenticeships with city departments, in addition to ensuring families have stable housing and safe neighborhoods.

“DPS has their own elected officials and they have their own billion dollar budget,” Roberts, a community activist who was once a gang member, said at a debate hosted by two education groups, Ednium and Transform Education Now. “But you know what the city of Denver can do? Make sure we attack the cycle of poverty in this city for Black and brown youth.”

Other candidates have proposed ideas to help the district save money so it can invest those dollars back into schools. Hansen, whose two sons attend DPS, has proposed that the city and district team up to electrify their bus fleets and buildings.

“This could save both entities tens of millions of dollars per year, and that would free up more funds to improve services and increase teacher pay,” he wrote in Chalkbeat’s questionnaire.

Taela Johnson, 14, left, and Gete Mekonen, 14, put henna on their hands during an Arabic language class at North High School on Jan. 23.

Brough, whose two daughters attended DPS, floated the idea that the city parks and recreation department could maintain DPS athletic and recreation facilities in return for community access.

Johnston, who previously worked as a teacher and principal and whose children attend DPS, has proposed increasing city funding for school mental health clinics.

Several candidates have also suggested building affordable housing for teachers. They include Brough, Tafoya, Tattered Cover bookstore owner Kwame Spearman, and state Rep. Leslie Herod.

“It is extremely important that we have more diverse housing stock so young people can become first-time home buyers and build generational wealth so they can get on their way,” Herod said at a debate held by CBS 4. “We do that by … using Denver’s land — land owned by Denver, DPS, and RTD — to build diverse housing across the city and county of Denver.”

Some candidates support police in schools

The mayoral candidates have also weighed in on how to curb youth gun violence and stop shootings like the one that killed a 16-year-old East High School student, Luis Garcia, who died earlier this month after being shot outside the school in mid-February.

At a debate hosted by 9News, six candidates — Johnston, Brough, Hansen, Spearman, Rodriguez, and City Councilor Debbie Ortega — raised their hands to signal they’d support bringing back school resource officers to Denver schools, as long as Denver schools agreed. The school board voted in 2020 to remove school resource officers.

At a debate hosted by PBS 12, Ortega said some East High students asked the city council to return police to schools. School resource officers were jointly funded by the city and DPS.

“This is where school board, city council, mayor, and superintendent need to come together and listen to community, listen to our students, our teachers, so we are addressing these issues how they want to see them addressed in their school environment,” Ortega said.

Other candidates, including Tafoya and Calderón, pointed to solutions other than police.

“It’s more important than ever that we provide peer support and mentorship, extracurricular activities, job training, and mental health support,” Tafoya wrote in response to a Chalkbeat questionnaire. “When our youth have hope, our entire community is stable.”

Calderón mentioned increasing the number of school social workers and counselors trained in de-escalation techniques, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and crisis intervention.

Most mayoral candidates have said they will get involved with Denver Public Schools by endorsing candidates for school board, which Hancock has done in the past. The next school board election is in November. Three of the seven seats will be up for grabs.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board pay could increase to as much as $33,000 per year

2023-02-27T23:52:20+00:00

More than a year after the Denver school board voted to pay new members up to $750 a month, the board is considering raising the amount significantly. A proposal introduced last week but quickly put on hold would quadruple the stipend to as much as $3,000 a month.

The proposal would allow board members to earn up to $33,000 a year: $150 per day for up to five days a week except in July, when the board doesn’t meet. Only a few other Colorado school boards pay members at all, and none pay members more than a small stipend.

Board Treasurer Scott Esserman said the resolution was indefinitely postponed Thursday because it wasn’t ready, not because there isn’t support for the idea. He and other board members said they expect the board to revisit the issue as soon as next month.

The goal of raising pay, board members said, is to make serving easier for community members who otherwise couldn’t afford to miss work or hire a babysitter to attend meetings.

“Currently, the majority of the school board is white, and the majority of students in Denver Public Schools are students of color,” said Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, a longtime proponent of board member pay. “This can help for folks who want to run.”

The resolution appeared on the board’s public agenda after a closed session to receive legal advice related to board member compensation. The resolution doesn’t say who asked for it to be drafted, though several members said they agree it needs to be addressed.

Even if the board passes a resolution this spring, no members would receive the increased rate until after November’s election, district spokesperson Bill Good said. Even then, only the newly elected or re-elected members would be eligible for higher pay, he said. The 2021 state law allowing school board compensation doesn’t allow sitting members to raise their own pay.

The seats held by Anderson and board members Scott Baldermann and Charmaine Lindsay are up for election in November. The winners of those seats would be eligible for the new, higher salary, while the other four board members would not be eligible until 2025.

Several board members said they spend from 10 to 40 hours per week on board duties for no pay. Although four of the seven board members have been eligible for the $750 per month stipend since they were elected in late 2021, none have been paid yet because the district is still developing the process, Good said. Once it has, they will be eligible for backpay, he said.

“As a board member that is eligible for board member compensation, I have yet to receive payment,” said President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, who was elected in 2021. “However, the DPS administration is in process to ensure that that happens very soon.”

In addition to three public school board meetings and work sessions each month, Gaytán said board members have several optional work sessions and committee meetings, as well as non-public meetings with district staff to understand data and recommendations. The non-public meetings are informally called “two-on-twos” because only two board members attend at a time. Any meeting with three or more board members must be held in public.

Board members also regularly visit schools and attend events, such as groundbreaking or graduation ceremonies. They also sometimes attend conferences, community meetings, and forums, and meet with parents and other constituents. Board members don’t have aides so they are responsible for returning their own phone calls and emails. Gaytán said she gets about 200 emails in a typical week and many more if the board is debating a hot topic.

A previous Denver school board, which included current members Anderson, Baldermann, and Carrie Olson, voted in November 2021 to allow stipends of $150 per day for up to five days a month, or a yearly maximum of $9,000. The vote was a compromise. Some former board members didn’t want to approve any pay at all given the district’s financial needs.

“The original resolution to pay board members was more symbolic than anything else,” Esserman said. “If the goal is to eliminate some of the obstacles to having board members who are more representative of our communities and people who can afford to spend the time because at least they’re getting paid something for their labor, there’s a need to increase that.”

Many Colorado elected officials draw salaries, though the amounts vary widely. Denver City Council members are paid $101,167 annually. The city council president makes $113,288.

Under the Denver school board’s current policy, members can only be paid for days when they perform official board duties. Those duties include attending board and committee meetings or “other activities approved in the future by the board or the board’s designee.”

At least two other school boards in Colorado have voted to pay their members. The tiny Sheridan school district south of Denver was the first in the state to allow compensation in 2021: $150 for a full day of board work or $75 for a half day.

Polly Plancarte, a district employee who serves as executive secretary for the board, said in an email that Sheridan board members don’t get paid to attend board meetings, only conferences like the annual conference held by the Colorado Association of School Boards.

All together, the five Sheridan board members were paid a total of $1,650 in 2022, Plancarte said. No board members have been paid this year, she said.

The Aurora Public Schools board voted last year to allow compensation of up to $450 a month: $150 a day up to three days per month. But no Aurora board members have been paid yet. The compensation will kick in for new board members elected this November.

Correction: This story has been updated with correct salaries for Denver city council members and the city council president.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board wants better communication with parents as district weighs school closure

2023-02-24T05:14:23+00:00

Denver school board members said Thursday night that they expect better communication with parents and educators as district officials consider next steps — including possible closure — for 15 schools with low enrollment.

At the same time, board members who previously voted against school closures said they now believe some schools have such low enrollment that the situation is unsustainable.

Superintendent Alex Marrero presented an update on enrollment and possible steps toward closure at Thursday’s board meeting. He identified three schools with especially low enrollment that could close as soon as the end of the school year: Denver Discovery School, Math and Science Leadership Academy, and Fairview Elementary.

Marrero emphasized that he has not yet made a formal recommendation to close those schools or any others, and that he’s open to new ideas from the community. He said he is approaching the process differently than he did in the fall, when he made a recommendation to close 10 small schools and then directed school leaders to hold community meetings to hear from affected families.

The board rejected a narrowed down version of that recommendation in November, saying the process was rushed and didn’t give families enough of a chance to weigh in.

This time, Marrero is proposing meeting with the affected school communities before making a recommendation — a change that school board members said they appreciated.

“Yes, these three schools can be recommended for closure, and these 12 schools can be recommended for closure next year, but that’s not what I’m bringing forward today,” Marrero said in an interview after the board meeting Thursday night. “I want everybody to be prepared that that could be the case, but we’re also looking for creative solutions.”

Marrero said the process could move quickly for the three schools with “critically low enrollment.” He said district staff could begin engaging with families and teachers at Denver Discovery School, MSLA, and Fairview Elementary immediately, and he could bring a formal recommendation to the board next month.

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, who was sharply critical of the school closure recommendation process this fall, said he feels differently now about the three smallest schools.

“I believe that we are at a point with the three schools that we need to take action immediately,” Anderson said. “I’m seeing a number of 62 kids at a middle school and it’s not feasible. And I think we have to have some tough decisions.”

Denver Discovery School is projected to have just 62 students next year, while MSLA is projected to have 104 excluding preschoolers. Fairview Elementary is projected to have 118. Denver schools are funded per student, and schools with low enrollment struggle to afford enough staff.

Anderson acknowledged that families may have avoided schools previously flagged for closure in the just-closed school choice window, leading to even lower enrollment at those schools.

“I do wonder if some parents were scared off from enrolling their kids because they saw these schools on a list before,” he said, referring to Marrero’s previous recommendations.

The process would move more slowly for 12 schools Marrero identified as having “concerning enrollment,” meaning they are projected to have fewer than 215 students next year.

A proposed timeline calls for district staff to meet with the 12 school communities from March to August, and for Marrero to present a formal recommendation to the school board in September. Any closures or other changes, which the proposal says could include revising school boundaries or co-locating one small school with another, wouldn’t happen until fall 2024.

The 12 schools are Ashley Elementary, Beach Court Elementary, Cole Arts and Sciences Academy, Colfax Elementary, Columbian Elementary, Eagleton Elementary, Hallett Academy, International Academy of Denver at Harrington, Kaiser Elementary, Palmer Elementary, Schmitt Elementary, and Whittier K-8. Projected enrollment ranges from 131 students excluding preschoolers at IAD at Harrington to 209 students at Cole Arts and Sciences Academy.

Board members offered suggestions Thursday for what they’d like the meetings with the school communities to look like. Anderson said Marrero should lead the meetings himself.

Families should be assured their children will get priority to enroll at other schools if their school closes, Anderson said, and staff should be assured they’ll get other jobs in the district. He also suggested the meetings be held both in-person and virtually so more families could participate.

Board member Carrie Olson said one of the most uncomfortable parts of the meetings this fall was when parents would ask questions that principals didn’t know the answer to. She requested that “people who can answer questions” be in the room at all community meetings.

“Clear communication with answers at meetings is going to be vital and imperative,” she said.

The board is considering a new policy that directs the superintendent on how to approach school closures. It acknowledges that district enrollment is declining and says the board “believes it is necessary to consolidate and unify schools to maintain the financial viability of the district and to maximize the resources, staff, and programs offered to students.”

Consolidation and unification are how Denver officials describe school closures.

The policy outlines a long list of information that the district should provide to families and educators at schools recommended for closure, including the “positive implications of proceeding” and the “negative implications of not proceeding.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board votes to close STRIVE Prep - Kepner charter school

2023-01-13T02:19:50+00:00

STRIVE Prep - Kepner, a charter middle school in southwest Denver, will close at the end of this school year after the Denver school board voted Thursday to shutter it for low test scores.

The school has a “red” rating and its students scored in the first percentile on state math and reading tests last spring, according to a district memo recommending closure.

The closure vote was rare for two reasons. The Denver school board hasn’t voted to close a charter school since 2011, though more than a dozen have surrendered their charters voluntarily over the past decade, often because of low enrollment. The STRIVE Prep network is surrendering the charter for another of its schools, Lake, this spring.

The school board also hasn’t voted to close a school — district-run or charter — for low test scores since 2016 when it closed district-run Gilpin Montessori. It hasn’t voted to close schools for low enrollment, either. In November, the board rejected a recommendation from Superintendent Alex Marrero to close a set of small district-run schools.

Though school closures are often controversial and spark forceful pushback, the vote to close STRIVE Prep - Kepner was quick. There was little discussion among board members. Vice President Auon’tai Anderson was the only member to vote no. He said he opposes closing any school without robust community engagement, which he said didn’t happen in this case.

“I want to acknowledge the pain that some families may be sitting with right now,” he said.

STRIVE Prep didn’t publicly oppose the superintendent’s recommendation to close its Kepner school, and no teachers or parents spoke during a special public comment session Tuesday.

In a letter to families last month, STRIVE Prep acknowledged that it fell short at its Kepner school, which opened in 2016 as a replacement for struggling district-run Kepner Middle School.

“STRIVE Prep asked for the opportunity to operate Kepner to better deliver for kids and families, and despite our best efforts, we did not live up to our promises,” the letter reads.

Charter schools can appeal closures to the State Board of Education. But STRIVE Prep will not appeal the Kepner closure, spokesperson Julia Virnstein said.

STRIVE Prep - Kepner has 178 students this year, Virnstein said. District data for last year shows 91% of the school’s students were Hispanic, 86% qualified for subsidized school meals, and 82% were English language learners, which is far above the district average.

The school is part of Denver’s second-largest charter network. Its sixth and seventh graders will need to find new middle schools next year. Denver Public Schools’ window for families to choose schools for next year opens Friday. Some STRIVE Prep students may choose to attend Kepner Beacon, a district-run middle school that shares the Kepner campus.

The board on Thursday approved 19 other charter schools to keep operating within Denver Public Schools. The board voted to renew their charters for periods ranging from one to five years, depending on the schools’ academic performance and other factors.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver officials recommend closing STRIVE Prep - Kepner charter school for low test scores

2023-01-06T02:51:59+00:00

A Denver charter middle school could close at the end of this school year if the school board follows a recommendation to shutter STRIVE Prep - Kepner for low test scores.

Superintendent Alex Marrero is recommending the board take the rare step of not renewing STRIVE Prep - Kepner’s charter. A memo notes the school, which opened seven years ago, earned the lowest state rating last year, signified by the color red.

Kepner students scored in the first percentile on state math and reading tests last spring, the memo says, which means 99% of Colorado students did better.

School closures are controversial. In 2018, the Denver school board began backing away from a previous policy of closing schools with low test scores. No district school has been closed for low performance since then.

In November, board members rejected a recommendation to close several district-run elementary schools with low enrollment. But board members didn’t offer much pushback Thursday on the recommendation to close STRIVE Prep - Kepner, with a few even saying they agreed with it. The board is set to vote Jan. 12.

Vice President Auon’tai Anderson was the sole member to express reservations.

“I’m struggling with the Kepner decision because the optics would look as if we are closing the school versus a school acknowledging, ‘We have not met the mark and we are going to surrender’” our charter voluntarily, Anderson said.

STRIVE Prep - Kepner has 178 students this year, according to network spokesperson Julia Virnstein. District data shows 91% of its students last year were Hispanic and 86% qualified for subsidized school meals, an indicator of low family income.

STRIVE Prep - Kepner opened in 2016 after the district decided to close district-run Kepner Middle School for low test scores. The hope was that STRIVE Prep - Kepner and another school that opened at the same time, Kepner Beacon, would better serve students.

In a letter to families last month, STRIVE Prep acknowledged its shortcomings.

“STRIVE Prep asked for the opportunity to operate Kepner to better deliver for kids and families, and despite our best efforts, we did not live up to our promises,” the letter says.

Charter schools are publicly funded but independently run by their own boards of directors. The Denver school board authorizes charters to open and votes to renew their contracts periodically. A vote against renewing a school’s contract is a vote to close the school.

Charter surrenders are more common than closures. The school board hasn’t voted to close a charter in at least a decade, officials said. In 2011, the board voted to close Life Skills Center, a high school that served students who’d struggled elsewhere. In the years since, another 13 Denver charters closed voluntarily, often because of low enrollment.

With 10 schools, STRIVE Prep is Denver’s second-largest charter network. It is currently in the process of merging with another homegrown charter network, Rocky Mountain Prep, after the departure of its founder last year.

STRIVE announced in October that another of its schools, 188-student STRIVE Prep - Lake, will voluntarily close this spring. Denver schools are funded per student, and STRIVE said the Lake closure is to ensure “students have access to well-resourced schools.”

Marrero is recommending that the board renew the contracts of 19 other charter schools for periods ranging from one to five years. The length of a renewal recommendation is based on a school’s academic performance and other factors.

Denver has a total of 56 charter schools this year.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver board OKs moving HBCU-style Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy to new building with space to grow

2022-12-16T04:31:44+00:00

To provide space for it to grow, Denver’s HBCU-style high school will move next year from a converted office building to a former elementary school in northeast Denver that district leaders said has amenities, such as a full kitchen, that its current space lacks.

The Denver school board unanimously approved relocating the Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy to the former Barrett Elementary building Thursday night. A program for students with disabilities now located at Barrett will move to a different location, district officials said.

Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said he voted yes reluctantly. He said he struggled with moving Smith STEAM out of the far northeast Denver community where it was founded.

“I was in a position today not to even want to attend this board meeting because I did not want to take the weight of this decision because I want to value what the original plan was,” Anderson said. “For me this is now centering on, I don’t see a Plan B.”

Modeled on historically Black colleges and universities, Smith STEAM opened in fall 2021 in a converted office building. The building was already occupied by another school, Montbello Career and Technical High, and the placement was supposed to be temporary. The district promised to find Smith STEAM a permanent location within two years.

This fall, Superintendent Alex Marrero said that wasn’t possible. Instead, he and his staff recommended closing Montbello Career and Technical High, known as MCT, to make room for Smith STEAM. After both schools pushed back, Marrero scrapped his recommendation.

But Smith STEAM and MCT can’t continue to share the building. Smith STEAM has about 135 ninth- and tenth-graders this year, and plans to add 11th and 12th grades over the next two years. There’s not enough room at the current location to do that.

What’s more, Smith STEAM doesn’t want to stay there. The school’s founders, along with students and parents, have said the building doesn’t meet their needs. Its hallways are narrow, some of its classrooms are small, and it doesn’t have a full kitchen, an auditorium, a competition-sized gym, or outdoor athletic fields.

“The building we’re in is not a school,” sophomore Jessie Matthews told the school board in October. “The ninth grade biology classes have to come into the 10th grade chemistry room to do experiments because the biology class is the size of a prison cell.”

The plan to move Smith STEAM to the former Barrett Elementary building in near northeast Denver was introduced at Thursday’s board meeting without an explanation from Marrero.

Anderson asked Marrero a series of questions, including whether the Smith STEAM principal was in favor of the move, whether the building would be retrofitted for high schoolers, and whether there was any empty land in the far northeast to build a new school instead.

Marrero answered the first two questions with a yes and the last question with a no.

“There is no land,” he said.

Smith STEAM Principal Shakira Abney-Wisdom did not respond to a request for comment.

Marrero said the board needed to vote Thursday so the district could publish Smith STEAM’s new address in a guide aimed at helping families choose schools. The window for students to apply for schools for next school year opens in mid-January.

The first year Smith STEAM was included in the guide, its address was listed incorrectly. Denver schools are funded per student. The mistake affected Smith STEAM’s enrollment and led the district to agree to fund the school as if it were fully enrolled.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Auon’tai Anderson announces he’s running for re-election to the Denver school board next fall

2022-11-30T10:01:00+00:00

Update: Auon’tai Anderson announced in June that he was dropping out of the school board race to run for a seat in the state House of Representatives. He will not appear on the Nov. 7 ballot for Denver school board.

The Denver school board’s most high-profile member announced Wednesday — 11 months before the next election — that he’s seeking a second term on the board.

Auon’tai Anderson, 24, was elected in 2019. His election helped “flip” the board majority to members backed by the teachers union and opposed to education reform strategies. A Denver Public Schools graduate who worked for the district before being elected, Anderson represents the city at large and has been board vice president for the past year.

In an interview, he said he was set to run for Denver City Council next year but changed his mind after the board’s recent school closure debate. Superintendent Alex Marrero had recommended closing 10 schools with low enrollment. Anderson, along with hundreds of parents and teachers from the targeted schools, spoke out against the closures. In the end, the superintendent narrowed his recommendation before the board voted down all closures.

“I realized through the debate on school closures the communities that are hurting,” Anderson said. “I truly believe that if I was not on this board when that conversation took place, I believe that this board may have made the decision to close those schools.”

Anderson is running for re-election next fall.

Anderson has been outspoken on many issues. After George Floyd’s murder, he helped lead an effort to remove police officers from Denver schools. He has supported LGBTQIA+ students, including by pushing to mandate all-gender restrooms in schools.

Inspired by the advocacy of Black students, Anderson helped shepherd a resolution directing Denver Public Schools to diversify its curriculum to include more Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous history. And he pushed the district to raise pay for paraprofessionals to $20 an hour.

But his tenure also has seen controversy. Anderson’s board colleagues censured him last year, saying his behavior had violated expectations.

The censure came after a five-month investigation into sexual assault and misconduct allegations, the most serious of which were not substantiated. But investigators did find that Anderson had flirtatious contact with Denver students on social media and made social media posts that could be perceived as intimidating toward witnesses in the investigation. Some community members and students called for Anderson to resign from the board.

Asked about the investigation findings, Anderson said he has stumbled in his leadership.

“That process of the last year showed gaps in my leadership, areas where I have been able to reflect and grow from,” he said. In the aftermath of the investigation, which he said caused him to have a mental health crisis, he said he has “a renewed spirit to continue this work.”

More recently, Anderson has clashed with board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, who was elected last year. During a board meeting Monday, Anderson apologized to Gaytán for “our interpersonal relationship sometimes rising to the level where it has been a public show.”

“I know that I have contributed personally to some of what some folks would describe as dysfunction,” Anderson said. “I just call it interpersonal issues. We may not always agree with one another or the approach or how it’s executed, but that’s never warranted to some of the infighting that has been caused that I have contributed to on this board.”

In an interview, Anderson said he respects Gaytán and wants to support her for however long she is president. (Board officers are elected every two years.) He said it’s time to move past the distractions and “get back to work for kids.”

The board has a lot of work ahead, he said, including addressing declining enrollment, increasing graduation rates, and closing the district’s test score gaps, which are the largest in the state between Black and Hispanic students and white students. He noted that if he’s re-elected, his 1-year-old son will start as a student during his second term.

“He’s a multilingual Afro Latino student,” Anderson said of his son, Khalil. “I want to make sure he has everything he needs to be well equipped to read and do math at grade level. That’s something that he’s not guaranteed at this moment.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver board votes down school closures, restarts declining enrollment conversation

2022-11-18T03:48:03+00:00

Denver Public Schools will not close any schools next spring, after the board rejected a last-minute recommendation from Superintendent Alex Marrero to shutter two small schools.

At the Thursday meeting, Marrero apparently surprised even some board members by dropping three other schools that he had recommended be closed.

The Denver school board had been set to vote on the closure of five small schools that receive budget subsidies. Marrero instead recommended closing only the two smallest schools: Denver Discovery School and Math and Science Leadership Academy.

Board members voted down even that recommendation and revoked a resolution adopted in June 2021 that directed the superintendent to address declining enrollment and that kicked off the process of finding criteria to close schools.

Board members said the process was rushed and did not involve enough opportunity for families and teachers to weigh in.

“If we vote yes to close the schools in this manner, we are saying we don’t respect you,” board member Michelle Quattlebaum said. “If we vote no to close the schools in this manner, we are saying we respect you enough to have an honest conversation with you and come up with a plan.”

The decision sends Marrero back to the drawing board but doesn’t mean school closures are off the table in the future. Board members said gentrification, declining birth rates, and limited state funding mean the problem isn’t going away.

“I’m not going to paint a pretty picture that no school will ever close from now on,” board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said. “The budget is showing us there are a lot of constraints. And we need to make sure this district will continue to be responsible with the funding.”

The vote against closing Denver Discovery School and Math and Science Leadership Academy was 6-1, with board member Scott Baldermann casting the only yes vote.

Denver Board of Education member Auon’tai M. Anderson, right, said he felt “blindsided” by the new recommendations and the process has not respected families.

DDS is a middle school with just 93 students this year. MSLA is an elementary school with 115 students. Denver funds its schools per pupil, and schools with fewer students have less money to pay for staff and programming.

But a majority of board members objected to the process the district used to come up with the school closure recommendations because it didn’t directly involve the students, families, and teachers from the affected schools.

Instead, Marrero applied criteria suggested by a community committee that the district should close schools with 215 students or less. Marrero’s first recommendation, which he announced three weeks ago, was to close 10 schools that met the criteria.

Last week, after hearing pushback from parents and board members, Marrero slashed his recommendation in half from 10 schools to five. And on Thursday, he cut it again to two, sparing Fairview Elementary, Schmitt Elementary, and International Academy of Denver at Harrington.

“After listening to feedback from the community, I’m going to shift,” Marrero said.

The last-minute change upset some board members.

“I feel like we’re playing politics with a bunch of kids and their education and I’ve had enough of it,” board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said. “I’m pissed, to be totally frank with you.”

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero initially recommended the closure of 10 schools, then five schools, then two. Ultimately the board voted not to close any schools.

Other board members spoke passionately about the need to restart the entire process and include the community from the beginning.

“We’re going to engage in those dialogues and conversations,” Scott Esserman said, “and we’re not going to promise them we’re not going to close their school.

“But we’re also going to ask them for alternatives.”

Board member Carrie Olson called school closures “the most difficult task that any board or superintendent will undertake” and noted that “they rarely go well.” But she said “we cannot do it without the community.”

On Monday, families and educators packed a public comment session to plead with the board not to close their schools. It was the only opportunity for the community to address the full board before Thursday’s vote. Each person was allotted three minutes to speak, and the session stretched for six hours. Many speakers were from the schools Marrero spared.

No one from MSLA or DDS spoke on Monday.

Declining enrollment is affecting several metro districts, including Aurora and Jeffco. A week ago, the Jeffco school board unanimously voted to close 16 small elementary schools.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver board could rescind resolution directing superintendent to close schools

2022-11-09T00:19:16+00:00

Three Denver school board members want to erase the directive that prompted the superintendent to recommend closing small schools.

At the Nov. 17 meeting where the board is set to vote on Superintendent Alex Marrero’s recommendation to close 10 small schools, board members will also be asked to rescind a 2021 resolution that directs the superintendent to review under-enrolled schools and come up with options for closing some schools and consolidating their students.

“The rescission of the policy allows the board to give Marrero a new direction,” said board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson. “How do we as a board articulate our vision to the superintendent to address declining enrollment through a humane, community-supported way?”

Anderson requested that the motion to rescind the resolution be placed on the Nov. 17 agenda. Board members Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebuam said they support the request. It takes three board members to place an item on the agenda. A district spokesperson confirmed that the item will appear.

Those same three board members said last week that they oppose the superintendent’s recommendation to close schools. Board members Scott Baldermann and Charmaine Lindsay said last week that they were undecided. Carrie Olson said Tuesday that she is also undecided.

Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán declined last week to say how she would vote but said she is concerned that under-enrolled schools aren’t providing students with robust services.

The lack of services for students at small schools was what prompted a previous school board to pass the resolution, officially called the Small Schools Resolution, in June 2021. Denver schools are funded per pupil, and schools with low enrollment struggle to afford enough teachers. That can sometimes lead to schools cutting electives like art or music, combining two grade levels into a single classroom, or losing bilingual programming.

Four of the current board members were either elected or appointed after the resolution was passed. Of the three others, only two — Olson and Baldermann — voted for it. Anderson was on a leave of absence when the vote took place.

The resolution directs the superintendent to work with school staff, students, parents, neighborhood groups, and advocates to come up with ideas for consolidating schools so that each elementary school has at least 300 students and two classrooms per grade.

It says the process of coming up with those ideas should be “community-led and district-supported.” And it says the superintendent should give the school board several options for consolidating schools and list the pros and cons of each.

But Marrero only presented the board with one option: a recommendation to close 10 elementary and middle schools that have fewer than 215 students, not counting preschoolers, and to reassign those students to nearby schools.

At a school board meeting last Thursday, Marrero and some board members disagreed on whether his process of arriving at that recommendation was community led.

Marrero argued that it was, because the criteria he used to identify the schools recommended for closure — 215 students or less — was developed by a committee of 34 parents, teachers, district staff members, and community advocates.

“The community, albeit a small portion of the community, was involved because they created the criteria,” Marrero said at the meeting.

Using Whittier ECE-8 as an example, Marrero said there was no way to include families from the 10 schools recommended for closure in the discussion up front “because we didn’t know that Whittier was going to be selected once we applied the criteria.”

Some board members pushed back.

“When we have not had direct conversations with the impacted communities until we have come forward with the plan,” Esserman said, “that is district led. That is not community led.”

Marrero told board members he was struggling with how to engage communities in a productive discussion that wouldn’t simply result in pleas to not close their schools.

“Yes, we can engage and perhaps there can be a different solution,” Marrero said. “But reality is — we’ve all experienced it — the answer is going to be, ‘Please do not.’ And then what?”

In interviews, Esserman and Anderson said a better approach would be to give parents, educators, and advocates the plain facts — such as, for example, that their school with 190 students can’t afford an art teacher but schools with 400 students can — and then ask them to brainstorm solutions that could include consolidation. The district has been subsidizing small schools, and officials said the subsidies are getting more expensive as enrollment declines.

At Thursday’s meeting, Marrero said the Small Schools Resolution is prescriptive in that it calls for the district to close schools. “It doesn’t call for necessarily innovation and creativity, which is what I’m hearing” from board members, Marrero told them.

Rescinding the resolution, Anderson and Esserman said, would allow the board to be clearer about what it wants. For them, they said, that’s a process that ends not with a list of schools from the superintendent but a list of options from the community.

“It takes more time,” Esserman said, “but we have a better chance of getting it right.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver superintendent recommends closing 10 schools

2022-10-25T23:37:25+00:00

Eight Denver elementary schools, one K-8 school, and one middle school could close at the end of this school year if the school board follows recommendations Superintendent Alex Marrero announced Tuesday. The 10 schools would consolidate with other schools in the district.

All 10 of the schools are district-run schools. The school board will hear a presentation on the recommendations Nov. 3. A vote is scheduled for Nov. 17.

“We know that these decisions are not easy for our community, but they are necessary for our scholars,” Marrero said in a press release.

“These recommendations will not only help right-size our school district,” he said, “they will allow our scholars access to more well-rounded educational experiences, and will also put the school district in a position to better address our staffing needs across the district.”

The schools Marrero is recommending for closure are:

Columbian Elementary. Columbian students would be reassigned to Trevista at Horace Mann, though all students can choose to attend any school in the district.

The district didn’t include this year’s enrollment numbers in its announcement, but Columbian had 218 students last year, according to district data. Of those 218 students, 74% were Hispanic, 15% were white, and 7% were Black. More than three-quarters of students — 78% — qualified for subsidized school meals, an indicator of family poverty.

Palmer Elementary. Most Palmer students would be reassigned to Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment. Kindergarten through fifth grade would be at Montclair and preschool would be at Palmer.

Palmer had 258 students last year, according to district data. Of those 258 students, 56% were white, 17% were Hispanic, and 16% were Black. Less than a third of students — 26% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Math Science Leadership Academy. MSLA students would be reassigned to Valverde Elementary.

MSLA had 154 students last year, according to district data. Of those 154 students, 86% were Hispanic, 6% were Black, and 4% were white. Nearly all students — 95% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Schmitt Elementary. Schmitt students would be reassigned to Godsman Elementary.

Schmitt had 201 students last year, according to district data. Of those 201 students, 68% were Hispanic, 18% were Black, and 8% were white. Nearly all students — 93% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Eagleton Elementary. Eagleton students would be reassigned to Cowell Elementary.

Eagleton had 258 students last year, according to district data. Of those 258 students, 84% were Hispanic, 8% were white, and 3% were Black. Most students — 90% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Fairview Elementary. Fairview students would be reassigned to Cheltenham Elementary.

Fairview had 174 students last year, according to district data. Of those 174 students, 49% were Hispanic, 39% were Black, and 7% were white. Nearly all students — 95% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Colfax Elementary. Most Colfax students would be reassigned to Cheltenham Elementary. Kindergarten through fifth grade would be at Cheltenham and preschool would be at Colfax.

Colfax had 255 students last year, according to district data. Of those 255 students, 66% were Hispanic, 16% were Black, and 11% were white. Most students — 88% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

International Academy of Denver at Harrington. IAD at Harrington would close and its students would join a new enrollment zone containing Columbine Elementary and Swansea Elementary. Students who live in enrollment zones are not assigned to a specific school but rather asked to choose between several schools in the zone.

IAD at Harrington had 167 students last year, according to district data. Of those 167 students, 75% were Hispanic, 11% were Black, and 2% were white. Most students — 88% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Denver Discovery School. Denver Discovery would close and its students would be sent to other schools in the Greater Park Hill/Central Park Enrollment Zone.

Denver Discovery had 113 students last year, according to district data. Of those 113 students, 44% were Black, 36% were Hispanic, and 5% were white. Most students — 83% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Whittier K-8. Whittier would close and its students would be sent to other schools in the Greater Five Points Elementary Enrollment Zone and the Near Northeast Middle School Enrollment Zone.

Whittier had 227 students last year, according to district data. Of those 227 students, 49% of were Black, 39% were Hispanic, and 7% were white. Most students — 90% — qualified for subsidized school meals.

Denver’s seven-member elected school board has the final say on which schools close. Four of the seven board members have past experience with school closures, and some have said they oppose them. The board recently pushed back on a recommendation to close an alternative school, Montbello Career and Technical High School, which spared it from closure.

Marrero cited declining enrollment as the reason for recommending closing schools. The 90,000-student Denver Public Schools has lost about 6,000 elementary students since 2014, when elementary enrollment peaked.

Decreasing birth rates and rising housing costs that push families out of the city will cause continuing enrollment decline, district officials predict.

Fewer students means less funding. Denver schools are funded per pupil, and schools with low enrollment struggle to afford a robust staff of teachers, mental health workers, and others, which sometimes leads the schools to cut programming or combine classes.

But closing schools is a controversial solution. Closures can be traumatic for students, families, and teachers, who all often vehemently oppose the option.

Closures also often have an outsize impact on low-income communities of color. That’s true of Marrero’s recommendations, too. At nine of the 10 schools, most students are Black and Hispanic and come from low-income families.

Marrero’s recommendations are informed by criteria developed by a committee of parents, teachers, and community members. In June, the committee recommended Denver close elementary and middle schools with fewer than 215 students, as well as those with fewer than 275 students that expect to lose 8% to 10% more students over the next two years.

The committee also recommended that charter elementary or middle schools that have not been financially solvent for two or more years should close.

Charter schools are publicly funded and approved by the Denver school board but independently run by their own boards of directors. In the past four years, 11 charter schools have closed on their own, many due to low enrollment.

In a separate announcement Tuesday, Denver’s STRIVE Prep charter network said it is closing one of its middle schools, STRIVE Prep - Lake, at the end of the school year.

Marrero refers to the closures he’s recommending as consolidations or unifications. The difference, district officials have said, is that in a consolidation, some of the norms, values, and programs from the closing school — such as dual language or arts programs — would move to the school receiving its students.

Denver is not the only district considering school closures. The superintendent of neighboring Jeffco Public Schools has recommended closing 16 elementary schools due to low enrollment. Jeffco announced that recommendation Aug. 25, and its board is set to vote Nov. 10, giving the community about 11 weeks to provide feedback.

Denver will have a little more than three weeks until its vote.

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Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Two Denver schools share a building. One wants to stay. One wants to go. Neither may get its wish.

2022-10-18T22:31:13+00:00

In far northeast Denver, two public schools share a former office building. But the building isn’t big enough for both of them — and on Thursday, the school board is set to vote on a recommendation that makes neither school happy.

District leaders are recommending closing Montbello Career and Technical High School, an alternative school for students at risk of dropping out. MCT has been in the building longer and serves about 70 students, most of whom are on track to graduate this year.

Closing MCT would make room for the newer school in the building, an HBCU-style high school called Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy. The academy serves about 135 ninth- and tenth-graders this year, and plans to add 11th and 12th grades over the next two years.

MCT students and staff don’t want their school to close. And Smith STEAM families don’t want their school to be located in an office building that doesn’t have a library, a kitchen to cook hot meals on site, or a regulation-size gym.

Meanwhile, several of the school board members who must make the decision said they feel conflicted about closing one school that serves Black and Latino students to expand another.

“Let’s say — and this is very, very hypothetical — that MCT closes,” said Michelle Quattlebaum, who represents the northeast region on the board. “Do you know what’s going to happen to the students at STEAM? They’re going to know that we only got our school because other students that look like us, that are marginalized, lost their school.”

School closures are always controversial, and there are likely more of them coming in Denver as elementary school enrollment declines. The situation with MCT and Smith STEAM is both a precursor to those difficult decisions and an entirely unique situation.

MCT pushes back against closure

Smith STEAM is a district-run high school that was founded by a group of Black parents and community members with technical help from district staff. In 2020, the school board approved temporarily co-locating it with MCT for two years while the district continued to search for a long-term facility. The first-of-its-kind school opened in fall 2021.

Students stand outside the former office building that houses the two schools.

MCT is what the district calls a pathways school. Intentionally small, pathways schools are designed to serve teens who have been expelled from other schools or who are behind on credits. The far northeast area has other pathways schools, and the district has said MCT students can go to either Vista Academy or Legacy Options High School next year.

But MCT staff say their school is unique. It offers the only automotive technology program in that part of the city, and many students go straight from MCT to good-paying jobs at auto dealerships, staff said. The school also earned the highest-possible academic performance rating from the state this year, signified by the color green.

“How do you close a green school?” Principal Arnetta Koger asked the school board at a public comment session Monday, three days before Thursday’s scheduled vote.

MCT’s 70 students face many challenges, staff said. Some are experiencing homelessness. Others are teen parents. Most, if not all, work full-time jobs in addition to school. Some students have severe anxiety that makes it hard for them to attend large high schools.

“MCT gives them a place to feel at home,” teacher Laura Hutchinson told the board. “It gives them a place to feel like they belong and feel like they have a family.”

Senior Kim Rojas said she didn’t know what to expect when she came to MCT last year. She said she found friends who care and teachers who make her feel heard.

“This school, it’s a good environment for the students to feel welcome and not ashamed,” Rojas said in an interview. “I love this school a lot.”

Teacher Whitney Homra told the board that the former office building where MCT is located may be lacking “but it is our home and we want it.”

Smith STEAM wants the facility it was promised

During the same public comment session, students, parents, and educators at Smith STEAM asked the district for what it promised them two years ago: a different facility that could accommodate their growing high school. They didn’t talk about the recommended closure of MCT but rather focused on the deficiencies of the building.

“The building we’re in is not a school,” said sophomore Jessie Matthews, who is also student body president. “The ninth grade biology classes have to come into the 10th grade chemistry room to do experiments because the biology class is the size of a prison cell.”

Freshman Camille Harley said the cafeteria — which doesn’t have a kitchen to make hot lunches on site — “is small and the food is just bad.”

“We deserve to have a space where we can be ourselves,” said sophomore AiVory Pearson. “We don’t have a field. We don’t have an auditorium. We don’t have a gym that is up to code.”

School board members said they too are concerned about the facility. Vice President Auon’tai Anderson (who no longer goes by Tay) said the district should be uplifting the school, which is modeled after historically Black colleges and universities, especially in light of its 2019 commitment to recognize and foster Black excellence.

“Every time I’m walking into that building, I should feel like I’m walking into Wakanda,” he said.

District staff said at a board meeting last week that they looked for another facility for Smith STEAM but couldn’t find one. While a facility might not be available right now, Superintendent Alex Marrero said, one could be available in the near future “depending on what action the board takes.” He recently said his team is working on recommendations to close some elementary schools and that the board is expected to vote next month.

But the elementary schools, and any others recommended for closure, likely wouldn’t shutter until 2024. MCT and Smith STEAM will run out of room to cohabitate next year.

“I’m struggling with this immensely,” said board member Scott Esserman. “I’m not questioning anybody’s intent, but we’re not getting this right — and we have to.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver board approves charter school centering Black students

2022-09-23T00:59:22+00:00

After the state ordered Denver to reconsider a charter school centering Black students and culture, the Denver school board Thursday approved the school to open next fall.

But the approval comes with conditions, including that 5280 Freedom School must fill all of its open seats in its first year. The school plans to open with 52 students in kindergarten and first grade, and add grades each year up to fifth grade.

Denver schools are funded per pupil, and other new charter schools have had to delay opening because they didn’t enroll enough students. Existing charter schools have closed because their enrollment declined, and the district is considering closing some of its own schools due to low student counts. The school board initially rejected the 5280 Freedom School for fear it would struggle to attract enough students to be financially viable.

The 5280 Freedom School appealed the board’s denial. Last month, the State Board of Education ordered Denver to reconsider its decision. State Board members said it was unfair to assume that 5280 Freedom School would face the same challenges as other charters.

The school grew out of a summer camp program focused on the well-being of Black children, teaching them about Black history, African drumming, poetry, nutrition, and more. Families loved the camp so much they asked for a year-round school, founder Branta Lockett said.

“A reason our school is so needed is that DPS has failed Black students and other marginalized students over time,” Lockett told the State Board of Education at a hearing last month. She pointed to several examples, including the disproportionate discipline of Black students and the under-identification of Black students as gifted. The state recently found the district violated the rights of Black boys with disabilities who attend specialized programs.

The Denver school board approved the school unanimously without discussion.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Adams 14 appoints new board member after withholding applicant names

2022-09-14T16:10:13+00:00

The Adams 14 school board appointed a new board member to fill a vacancy Tuesday night in a process that lacked transparency compared to previous years.

The district refused to release the submitted letters of interest or publish the names of the people who applied to the board vacancy. Instead, the district invited the public to a community forum at the high school to hear from the people interested in the board vacancy — without naming who they might hear from.

At the start of the meeting Tuesday night, the district leaders announced that only one of the two applicants showed up to the forum: Lucy Molina, a bilingual mother, business owner, and community organizer who had applied to previous board vacancies.

Lucy Molina and her children pose for a portrait outside of their home in Commerce City in 2020.

Last month, the board said only one person, who they never named, had applied for the vacancy. The board reopened the application process in the hopes of getting more applicants and received one more.

Tuesday, the board did not name who the other applicant was and did not clarify if Molina had been the initial sole applicant, or the second person to apply after the board reopened the process.

After the forum, the board approved the appointment of Molina in a unanimous vote after noting disappointment that the other unnamed applicant didn’t show up.

Reneé Lovato, the board vice president, thanked Molina for her community engagement.

“Every meeting, any school board thing that has gone on since I can remember, I’ve always relied on you being there and being the voice for our community, so thank you for stepping up for this,” Lovato said.

Molina will serve out the remainder of Ramona Lewis’ term, which was to go to November of 2023.

Lewis, who had been the board president, left her position earlier this year citing personal reasons and refusing to elaborate. On Tuesday, the board also approved the hiring of Lewis as the executive assistant for the board and the district’s lawyer.

District leaders said during the meeting that the board’s longtime executive assistant Monica Avina is now in a different position.

Adams 14’s five-member school board has had approximately one vacancy per year as members leave their positions prior to serving out their terms.

In prior years, the district published letters of interest from those interested in serving on the board as soon as the deadline to submit them had passed, allowing for public inspection long before a vote.

Most recently when board member Janet Estrada was appointed to serve on the board in March 2021, four people expressed interest in the position and all were named publicly prior to the vote.

The Denver school board, which also had a board vacancy earlier this year, published the resumes and letters of interest of their five applicants about a month before taking a vote to appoint one of the applicants.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Denver recommends closing a far northeast alternative high school

2022-09-01T22:56:45+00:00

A small alternative high school in far northeast Denver could close if the school board follows a recommendation from district leaders.

Denver Public Schools leaders are recommending that Montbello Career and Technical High School shutter at the end of this school year, partly to make room for another school. Montbello Career and Technical, which serves students who are off track to graduate, shares a campus with an HBCU-style high school, Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy, which opened last year.

But sharing a campus will no longer be viable after this school year, according to the district’s written recommendation. Montbello Career and Technical has about 70 students this year. Robert F. Smith currently has about 150 ninth- and tenth-graders and plans to add 11th and 12th grades over the next two years. The building holds 275 students. If Robert F. Smith adds another class of students next year, the building would be over capacity.

Instead, district leaders are recommending closing Montbello Career and Technical and sending its students to two other alternative schools in far northeast Denver: Vista Academy and Legacy Options High School. Vista Academy is two miles away.

The new Montbello High School, a nearby comprehensive that reopened this fall, also plans to offer credit recovery and GED classes, the recommendation says.

Students stand in front of doors to a building housing Montbello Career and Technical High School and Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy.

The recommendation to close Montbello Career and Technical is separate from a high-profile discussion about how to consolidate Denver elementary schools. Enrollment is declining in elementary schools, and a district committee has come up with suggested criteria for when to close small schools. But the superintendent has not put it into practice yet.

Alternative schools, which Denver calls pathways schools, would likely be exempt from any closure criteria based on enrollment. Pathways schools are designed to be small to give more individualized attention to students who are at risk of dropping out.

Montbello Career and Technical was previously called P.U.S.H. Academy. Before the district closed the old Montbello High School, it served as the school’s credit recovery program.

The idea for Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy came from a group of Black parents and community leaders in far northeast Denver. In a first-of-its-kind step in 2019, the school board directed the district to work with the group to hone their application to open a new district-run school modeled on historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs.

Najja Shakir Al-Islam hands out papers to students on the first day of school at Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy in August 2021.

The school board approved the school, then called the Michelle Obama STEAM Academy, in August 2019. (The school was renamed after Robert F. Smith, a Denver graduate described by the district as “a Black American investor, inventor, engineer, philanthropist, and entrepreneur.”)

But the school didn’t have a location. In November 2020, the board approved temporarily co-locating it with Montbello Career and Technical for two years. It opened in August 2021.

“The district shall continue to search for a long-term facility placement for the Robert F. Smith STEAM Academy,” the school board’s 2020 resolution said. “District staff shall be authorized to take any reasonable actions necessary to facilitate said placement.”

The school board was originally scheduled to hear the closure recommendation at its meeting Thursday. But the board voted to delay the recommendation until Oct. 6. The reason for the delay was so the member who represents northeast Denver, Michelle Quattlebaum, who wasn’t at Thursday’s meeting, could be present for the discussion.

A vote on the closure recommendation has not yet been scheduled.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Charter school centering Black students wins appeal to open in Denver

2022-08-18T17:10:16+00:00

Two months after the Denver school board turned down a charter school focused on Black students, the school won an appeal before the State Board of Education.

The 5280 Freedom School was one of three elementary charter schools whose applications were denied by the Denver school board in June but the only school to appeal. After hearing arguments from both sides Wednesday, the charter-friendly State Board sided with the 5280 Freedom School in a 5-2 vote, which will force Denver to reconsider its denial.

State Board members were unconvinced by Denver Public Schools’ argument that the 5280 Freedom School would struggle to attract enough students and balance its budget. Elementary school enrollment in Denver is shrinking, and the district pointed out that 11 charter schools have closed in the past four years, in large part because of a lack of students. Once fertile ground for charter schools, Denver has become less hospitable politically as well.

But State Board members said it was unfair to assume the 5280 Freedom School would meet the same fate. “It seems unfair to hold this would-be operator responsible for challenges that another operator experienced,” Democratic board member Rebecca McClellan said.

McClellan joined Democrat Angelika Schroeder and the three Republican board members in voting in favor of the 5280 Freedom School. Though they voted yes, Republicans Joyce Rankin and Steve Durham questioned the school’s proposed focus on culturally relevant curriculum and its mission to combat anti-Black racism in Denver Public Schools.

“I may disagree with many of the premises of this school,” Durham said. But, he added, “what schools like this do is at least they’re innovative.”

A student who attended the 5280 Summer Freedom School shows her artwork.

The 5280 Freedom School is proposing to open in central Denver in the fall of 2023 with up to 52 students in kindergarten and first grade. The school plans to add grades each year until it reaches 300 students, a benchmark the district argued will be hard to achieve.

Founder Branta Lockett disagrees. A former Denver teacher, she and others have run a successful summer camp focused on the well-being of Black children, teaching them about Black history, African drumming, poetry, nutrition, and more. Families loved the camp so much they asked that the program become a year-round school, Lockett said.

“A reason our school is so needed is that DPS has failed Black students and other marginalized students over time,” Lockett said. She pointed to several examples, including the disproportionate discipline of Black students and the under-identification of Black students as gifted.

The Denver school board has acknowledged that the district has served its Black students more poorly than its white students, and has ordered its schools to do better. But wide disparities still exist. State standardized test scores released Wednesday reveal that Denver has the largest gap between the scores of white and Black students in the entire state.

“This school being unique in centering the experiences of Black students, it takes us away from trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” McClellan said. “It gives students and families a chance to try something they think will work better.”

The Denver school board could reject the 5280 Freedom School again. The charter school could appeal again too. A second State Board decision would be final.

This is the second time in two years that the State Board has overturned a charter school decision by the Denver school board. In 2020, the State Board ordered Denver to reconsider its decision to delay the opening of a new high school in the DSST charter network. Upon reconsideration, the Denver board voted unanimously to allow the school to open sooner.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Aurora will pay school board members

2022-08-17T01:32:27+00:00

The Aurora school district will pay future board members a stipend of up to $450 a month, the board decided on Tuesday.

Serving on a school board to help guide a district in creating policy, setting goals, and hiring superintendents has traditionally been a volunteer position in Colorado. Board members say that it requires a lot of time, and that the uncompensated commitment deters parents, especially those from lower income families, from serving on the board.

Aurora school board member Michael Carter, who drafted the new policy, said earlier this month that he hopes the new policy will promote greater diversity and participation on the school board.

“The majority of our students’ parents work,” Carter said. “For them to participate in this board is going to be hard. I never want a financial restriction to be a reason why an individual is not on this board.”

The Aurora district is one of the most diverse in the state with students of color representing 86% of all students, and 71% qualifying for free or reduced price lunches, a measure of poverty. Racially, the school board is diverse, but historically, members have come from select affluent neighborhoods of the district.

Current policy in Aurora allows reimbursement for “necessary expenses incurred in carrying out specific services previously authorized by the board.” Last month that included meals and Uber rides for three members who attended a school board training conference at Harvard University.

When it takes effect after the next election cycle, board members would be able to request $150 per day of board work for up to three days per month, or a maximum of $450 per month.

State law allows board members to be paid up to five days a week, far more than Aurora’s limit.

Last year, Aurora had been one of the first school boards to discuss offering pay, soon after Colorado passed a law to allow it. Some board members wanted to pass the policy before November’s election so that new board members would qualify. The law states that the board members who vote to approve pay can’t reap the benefits during the same term.

Board President Kayla Armstrong-Romero at the time delayed the vote because the board had sought public feedback and received none.

This time, there again was no public comment about the board’s proposal, and the vote was unanimous. At a previous meeting, only one member had raised questions about the proposal. Anne Keke, who said she wasn’t necessarily opposed to board pay, asked how the policy related to improving student outcomes.

Other board members responded that they hoped that getting more parents to participate would help students, and that representation of the community’s diversity would also be a good thing.

The school boards for Sheridan and Denver have already passed policies to allow board pay following the next election.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

‘One voice’: A new approach to governance is dividing the Denver school board

2022-07-29T17:21:05+00:00

Personality conflicts, power struggles, and tense debates have marked the past several months on the Denver school board. The strife is driven less by political differences than by disagreements about how the board should operate. Some community members worry the disagreements are eroding trust in the board and distracting from the goal of advancing equity for students.

The school board’s latest retreat, held in mid-June, was facilitated by a consultant who specializes in conflict resolution. Forty-five minutes into the eight-hour meeting, the facilitator noted the tension in the glass-walled, high-rise meeting room.

“I absolutely feel the energy in this room of mistrust and fear and hesitation,” she said.

The facilitator asked the board to suspend those feelings and imagine what could be possible if all seven of them worked together — an outcome that is all the more crucial as Denver Public Schools heads into a new school year with lots of ground to make up.

“The interpersonal challenges we’re facing right now is something we need to overcome immediately,” board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said in an interview, “so we can meet the focus and intent of doing policy work that impacts our students.”

This board was expected to be more unified than any in recent history because all members were backed by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and pledged a new approach after more than a decade of education reform policies. But over the past six months, board members have interrupted one another in meetings, raised their voices, and accused each other of gaslighting, misogyny, and playing the “oppression Olympics.”

Who is on the Denver school board?

Carrie Olson was elected in 2017 and re-elected in 2021 to represent central-east Denver.

Tay Anderson was elected in 2019 to represent the city at-large.

Scott Baldermann was elected in 2019 to represent southeast Denver.

Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán was elected in 2021 to represent southwest Denver.

Scott Esserman was elected in 2021 to represent the city at-large.

Michelle Quattlebaum was elected in 2021 to represent northeast Denver.

Charmaine Lindsay was appointed in 2022 to represent northwest Denver after member Brad Laurvick, who was elected in 2019, resigned.

How long do board members serve?

Board members are elected for four-year terms. They can only serve two terms, or eight years total. The terms are staggered so that new members are elected every two years.

What does the board do?

The board sets policy for Denver Public Schools, which serves more than 90,000 students. The board hires the superintendent, who is tasked with putting that policy into action.

They disagree on matters as small as whether to call each other by their first names in work sessions and as big as how to gather feedback from the community, which has led some members to hold public events without inviting others.

The board spent much of the winter and spring debating a single policy related to school autonomy and teachers rights, which critics said left little time to talk about important issues such as helping students learn to read and improving their mental health.

The tensions boiled over at a June meeting to fill a vacant board seat. It took nine rounds of voting and several heated and emotional exchanges for a majority of members to agree.

“I’ve shared with each of you privately that I’m really worried about the health of our board in moving forward,” member Carrie Olson said at the meeting.

A few days later, Gaytán told local media outlets she feared at-large board members Tay Anderson and Scott Esserman were planning to replace her as president. The fear stemmed partly from comments Anderson made on a local internet talk show about wanting to “decrease and decentralize the role of the president and empower it in the board as a whole.”

A coup didn’t happen. But apprehension and accusations permeated what was supposed to be a meeting to work through differences. When the mediator tried to pair Gaytán and Esserman for an exercise, Gaytán said she didn’t want to be alone in a room with him.

The board headed into summer break with conflicts unresolved.

Differing views of how board should run

Chalkbeat spoke with six of the seven board members, as well as more than a dozen parents, educators, and community members who watch the board closely. Some said adult politics and personalities have gotten in the way of children’s needs.

“I believe each one of our board members is a good person because you don’t volunteer for this job if you don’t care about kids at some level,” said Nicholas Martinez, co-founder of local advocacy group Transform Education Now.

“But I don’t see folks being willing to put their own goals aside to do right by kids.”

Others see passion and a new board finding its way.

“From my perspective, we have a group of passionate leaders that chose to be in service of the students of Denver Public Schools,” said board member Michelle Quattlebaum, who was elected last year. “And so with that passion sometimes you have disagreements.

“As far as us being functional, dysfunctional, something in between, I guess I’d say it’s in between. We’re trying to find our synergy and what does that look like.”

With the exception of the newly appointed member, the board has been working together since November. That’s when three new members — Gaytán, Quattlebaum, and Esserman — were elected. Their first meeting included a surprise: In a secret ballot, Gaytán was chosen as president over Olson, who had led the board for the past two years.

Denver school board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, seen here at a 2021 climate rally, acknowledges that personal conflicts are getting in the way of board work.

Quattlebaum was elected secretary and Esserman was elected treasurer. Anderson, who joined the board in 2019, was elected vice president.

The vote created a leadership group representative of the board’s diversity. It also elevated brand-new members while the board was transitioning to a new, little understood governance structure that has become its own source of tension.

Called policy governance, it is meant to set clear expectations for the board and superintendent. Board members set goals for the district. The superintendent comes up with a strategic plan to reach those goals. The board then evaluates the superintendent — and decides whether to fire or rehire him — based on the progress he made toward those goals.

The previous board adopted it in the spring of 2021 to help attract a new superintendent. Some in Denver, including the mayor, blamed a dysfunctional school board for the resignation of former Superintendent Susana Cordova in 2020. Board members wanted to assure her successor that they wouldn’t be micromanaged or undermined.

But most board members said the switch to policy governance has been bumpy.

“Part of what’s going on with policy governance is that we have seven board members with seven different understandings of what policy governance should look like and how it should be implemented and how to interpret what it is,” Esserman said.

Pushback on how the president monitors behavior

Current board policy says the president should “monitor board behavior” to make sure members are following rules and policies, as well as state law. But the board is still drafting some of its rules, including around how to engage the community and gather feedback, which has led to disagreements about what members can and can’t do.

Early this year, Anderson, Esserman, and Quattlebaum planned to host a virtual town hall meeting about a proposal introduced by Gaytán and board member Scott Baldermann. The proposal aimed to shore up teacher job protections but also limited the autonomy enjoyed by innovation schools. It was controversial from the start.

Gaytán told the other board members to hold off.

“I am pausing any impending town halls,” she wrote in an email to board members that was obtained by Chalkbeat. She also asked board members to refrain from meeting with teachers or principals “until we implement a plan for our community engagement.” Gaytán has said policy governance requires the board to speak with “one voice” and engage the community together.

In emails, Anderson and Esserman pushed back. Anderson said that while he respected Gaytán as president, he disagreed with her “unilateral” decision to nix the town hall.

“I have always held town halls on significant issues like this without the board president pushing back,” he wrote, adding that he’d followed her directive for 11 days but couldn’t continue to do so when the board was considering voting on the job protections as early as the following month. “I must be accountable to those who sent me to this seat and at least hear them out.”

President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán and Vice President Tay Anderson do a teambuilding activity during a school board retreat in March.

Anderson, Esserman, and Quattlebaum held the town hall.

How board members interact with the public continues to be a point of contention. Anderson and Esserman are launching a series of community meetings starting Saturday. They didn’t coordinate with Gaytán to plan the session in her own southwest Denver district.

Gaytán also has chided board members about comments they’ve made publicly. For example, she confronted Esserman for saying at a community meeting that a district decision to move a storied JROTC program from Manual High School, where most students are Black and Latino, was an example of institutional racism.

Gaytán summarized her conversation with Esserman in an email that she provided to Denver media outlet Westword. She wrote that his comments at Manual were “egregious” and put the integrity of the board and superintendent at risk.

“Esserman responded with an aggressive tone and was dismissive by telling me that I had limited authority as president of the board,” Gaytán wrote. “He told me that the authority I believed I had was in fact ‘imaginary authority.’ He continued with his verbal abuse and stated that my interpretation of policy governance is a ‘garbage interpretation.’”

In an interview, Esserman declined to comment on allegations that he verbally abused Gaytán.

“I don’t think that it serves the students, families, teachers, and community members of Denver Public Schools to get into that,” he said. “I’m not interested in engaging in that dialogue publicly.”

Gaytán has made similar allegations of bullying against Anderson.

“There are some people who will question a woman leader,” Gaytán said in an interview. “That’s one aspect of what could potentially be some of the dynamics at play here.”

Anderson said his disagreements with Gaytán are because they have different opinions on policy governance and the role of the board president.

“There have been several times where our president has been misguided on her power or her roles and we’ve had to correct that in private settings,” Anderson said. “Any time we push back, we are met with, ‘We are anti-Latino, we are anti-women, we are anti-something.’

“It’s truly just stating, ‘This is the role of the board president.’”

School board Vice President Tay Anderson, seen here just after being sworn in in 2019, believes holding community meetings is part of his job as an elected official.

Anderson said he voted for Gaytán for president but now regrets it.

“If I could do it again,” he said, “I would have cast my ballot for President Olson.”

Worries that board division could affect students

Why does it matter if the school board is getting along? In short, community members said, because dysfunction on the board can get in the way of schools making progress for students.

“The power struggle will overshadow the board doing anything,” said Milo Marquez, who belongs to a group called the Latino Education Coalition, which supports Gaytán as president. “It’s taking away from the larger focus, and that is that our children come first.”

TeRay Esquibel, who heads an organization for young Denver Public Schools alumni called Ednium: The Alumni Collective, agreed.

“I hope at some point we can get to a point where we’re having conversations on, ‘What does it mean to serve students and families?’” he said.

Those who helped elect the board members also worry that any dysfunction could be used as political fodder for their opponents. Retired Denver teacher Margaret Bobb runs a popular pro-union Facebook page with more than 5,000 members. She shut it down for the summer because acrimonious comments, especially in the wake of a split vote to appoint new board member Charmaine Lindsay, were raising public awareness of divisions on the board.

“I thought we were all headed in the same positive direction together,” Bobb said of the board members. “I hope they’re using this time in the summer to meet one-on-one with each other and resolve whatever is simmering below the surface.”

After the contentious retreat in June, the board took July off. Their first meeting of the new school year will be another hourslong retreat Aug. 8.

“We’re all committed to the kids,” Olson said. “We have a lot of the right ingredients to make a recipe of a strong board. We’re just not there yet.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Adams 14 school board president resigns

2022-07-19T23:09:43+00:00

The Adams 14 school district announced the resignation of its board president Tuesday afternoon.

Ramona Lewis, who was elected in November 2019 and was to serve until 2023, resigned suddenly. Her resignation was effective immediately.

Reached by phone, Lewis said she stepped down for personal reasons but would not specify what they were.

“It was just a decision I needed to make,” Lewis said. But she added that she is committed to continuing to support the district’s work.

The district’s announcement stated that the board and Adams 14 Superintendent Karla Loria “regretfully accepted the resignation.”

By state law, the board must declare a vacancy and start taking applications from those interested in finishing Lewis’s term.

The Adams 14 school board, like the district, is familiar with turnover. The last board member to resign was Regina Hurtado in 2021, when she moved out of the district.

Before that, the board had a vacancy in 2020, when a board member’s term expired and no one ran to replace her. In 2019, a board member resigned in the middle of an investigation into an incident in which he had improperly accompanied his wife to a substitute teaching assignment in the district. In 2018, the then-board president resigned, just before the State Board issued its first order asking the district to hire an outside manager.

The district is now at another turning point after the state ordered it to reorganize amid continued academic struggles.

The state has not yet initiated that process, and a district lawsuit seeking to stop that order is pending.

Adams 14 board member Maria Zubia said Tuesday she was sad to see Lewis step down but was not concerned about the board or district being able to continue moving forward.

“I wouldn’t have been able to take this work on without Ramona Lewis and Renee Lovato,” Zubia said, speaking of two board members. “It was because of them that I decided to do this. I could see a vision. I thought we could really do more together. I’m grateful I got to serve with her.”

Reflecting on her time on the board, Lewis said hiring Loria as superintendent is the thing she is most proud of.

“We had a board for the first time where we were all on the same page, focused on our children.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Denver board reverses parts of controversial innovation schools policy

2022-06-17T01:12:12+00:00

The Denver school board Thursday partially reversed an earlier decision, returning control to the district’s semi-autonomous innovation schools over their school calendars, the structure of their school leadership teams, and other aspects of how the schools are run.

The 5-to-2 vote came three months after the board adopted a controversial policy requiring Denver’s 52 innovation schools to abide by the entire teachers union contract, as well as the state law that grants teachers Colorado’s version of tenure.

Under the revisions passed Thursday, innovation schools will still have to abide by the state tenure law. But the schools won’t have to follow the entire teachers union contract. Instead, some provisions will be mandatory and others will be flexible.

For example, it will be mandatory for innovation schools to pay their teachers according to the salary schedule in the contract. But schools will be able to start the year early or end it late.

The revisions came about because a majority of board members argued that the policy they passed in March had unintended consequences. While the goal of the policy was to strengthen job protections for teachers, some board members said they never meant to curtail the flexibilities that let innovation schools try new things and operate differently from traditional schools.

Board members said they didn’t realize the March policy would curtail innovation schools’ ability to set their own calendars, for example, until after the vote when district staff wrote a memo about the policy’s ramifications.

“We have to make sure we correct things that were an oversight for us when we first voted on this,” said board member Michelle Quattlebaum.

Quattlebaum joined board members Carrie Olson, Scott Esserman, Charmaine Lindsay, and board Vice President Tay Anderson in voting for the revisions. Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán and member Scott Baldermann voted no. Gaytán and Baldermann were the architects of the original policy, while Anderson took the lead on drafting the revisions.

Enshrined in state law, innovation schools are district-run schools that can waive certain parts of the tenure law and teachers union contract. The March policy put limitations on those waivers, prohibiting Denver schools from seeking waivers to hire teachers on one-year contracts, for example, or paying teachers stipends to work extra hours.

Those waivers also won’t be allowed under the revised policy. Innovation school teachers will be able to earn “non-probationary status” after three years of effective performance evaluations, providing them job protections if they are laid off or due process if they are fired. They will have access to a mediator to help settle grievances. And if they work extra hours, they will be paid at a rate that meets or exceeds the hourly rate spelled out in the teachers contract.

The Denver Classroom Teachers Association supported the policy passed in March, while many innovation principals and parents opposed it, worried it would hamper the unique practices at their schools. Unlike when the board voted in March, there was no lengthy public comment session Thursday with educators and parents pressing the board on the pros and cons.

Much of the board discussion Thursday centered on the timing of the vote. A motion to postpone it until the end of the month failed. Some board members wanted to give the superintendent and teachers union more time to come to an agreement on which parts of the contract should be flexible and which should not. But a majority of board members said delaying the vote only would have delayed the uncertainty for innovation schools.

“Innovation schools deserve some resolution,” said board member Charmaine Lindsay, who was appointed last week to fill a vacant seat. Thursday’s meeting was her first on the board.

The policy will go into effect when innovation schools apply to renew their innovation plans. Nearly all Denver’s innovation schools — 49 of the 52 — are up for renewal in the 2022-23 school year.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Deeply divided Denver school board appoints Charmaine Lindsay to vacancy

2022-06-10T12:00:00+00:00

After nine rounds of voting and a tense discussion Thursday that revealed frayed relationships between Denver school board members, the board appointed family law attorney Charmaine Lindsay to fill a vacant seat.

Lindsay will serve the remaining 17 months of the term of former board member Brad Laurvick, a Methodist pastor who resigned from the board because he is relocating for his job. Elected in November 2019, Laurvick served through most of Thursday’s board meeting, stepping down at the end so the other members could appoint his replacement.

The discussion among the other six members was marked by sadness, frustration, and concern about the board’s ability to work together. Allegations of dysfunction have dogged the board since 2020, when the Denver mayor and others blamed board members for the resignation of former superintendent Susana Cordova. A new superintendent, a new board governance structure, and new board members elected in 2021 who shared the backing of the Denver teachers union presented the board with a chance for a fresh start.

But despite sharing similar political views on education, board members haven’t been united, with much of the spring taken up by extended debate on school autonomy that isn’t settled yet.

For several rounds of voting Thursday, the six remaining members were split on who to appoint. Five people applied to fill the vacancy but one later dropped out, leaving four candidates.

“I can see where we’re headed, and I’ve shared with each of you privately that I’m really worried about the health of our board in moving forward,” board member Carrie Olson said. “No matter where we land on this vote, I’m concerned that we need to all be able to come together.”

Charmaine Lindsay speaks at a forum in May.

Board Vice President Tay Anderson and members Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebaum initially supported Lindsay, while Olson, President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán and member Scott Baldermann supported another applicant, former Denver teacher Julie Bañuelos.

Gaytán noted that Bañuelos ran for the board seat representing northwest Denver in 2019 and came in a close second behind Laurvick in a three-way race. Olson said Bañuelos understands the district and has deep roots in the northwest community, which is home to many Latino families. Bañuelos is Latina, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and bilingual.

But Anderson and Quattlebaum expressed concerns, including about an interaction in which Bañuelos asked Quattlebaum, who is Black, “Do you speak for the Latinos too? Do you speak Spanish?” The interaction happened last month while the board was publicly interviewing applicants for the vacancy. Quattlebaum said she found Bañuelos’ questions condescending and was hurt her colleagues didn’t speak up.

Anderson said that while he and Bañuelos share many of the same views, he could not vote for her because of how she reacted to secondhand sexual assault allegations levied against him last year. A district investigation found those allegations were unfounded. Anderson grew emotional as he described the impact of the accusations, including threats against his family.

Esserman and Gaytán had a heated exchange about a Zoom meeting that took place between Esserman, Anderson, and Bañuelos as part of the board’s efforts to interview applicants. Bañuelos brought an attorney to the virtual meeting, a decision Esserman said was problematic.

Gaytán defended Bañuelos’ actions.

“As a woman of color, I understand that,” Gaytán said. “I understand when there’s two men that behaved a certain way in an interview, if you’re not sure if they’re going to come at you some kind of way, you’re going to feel —”

“I will not be attacked by you in any comment,” Esserman said, interrupting her. “I did not behave in any way inappropriately in any interview at any point, and I will not be told that I was.”

Anderson also objected to Gaytán’s characterization. “I take great offense to that, as you painted me as an aggressive Black man trying to attack a woman,” he said.

“I did not say that,” Gaytán said.

In supporting Lindsay for the vacancy, Anderson touted her experience as a parent and her legal experience as a trained mediator, saying the board could use her skills. He noted that Lindsay holds no political allegiances and told the board she’s uninterested in running for election when the northwest seat comes open in November 2023.

“This has been one of the most tumultuous times I have sat on this board because of the way that we govern, the way that we interact with one another,” Anderson said.

“Charmaine may not be our No. 1 choice, for some, but I do believe Charmaine brings the perspective of a trained mediator, and we gotta get our house together.”

Following Anderson’s comments, Olson joined Anderson, Esserman, and Quattlebaum in voting to appoint Lindsay to the board. Olson had voted no on Lindsay in four prior rounds of voting.

“I agree with Director Anderson that this vote has been particularly stressful,” Olson said, “and in speaking with many of my board colleagues, we’ve shared tips on panic attacks. It’s been a rocky road. There’s just a lot going on. I think it’s healthy for our board to get somebody in this seat and for us to be able to move forward to start building a team together.”

The board plans to hold a retreat next Thursday, and several members said it was important for the newest member to be there. The board will also hold a special meeting that afternoon to vote on revising a controversial new policy affecting semi-autonomous innovation schools.

The five people who applied to fill Laurvick’s seat were Lindsay, Bañuelos, Leonard “Leo” Darnell, David Diaz, and Adeel Khan. Diaz dropped out of the running before the vote and threw his support behind Bañuelos, who also had the support of a number of Latina elected officials.

Over the next 17 months, the board will grapple with several big issues, including how to address declining enrollment and the possibility of closing or consolidating small schools.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board may reverse parts of controversial innovation policy

2022-06-10T03:23:30+00:00

Denver’s semi-autonomous innovation schools could get back control over school calendars, teacher hiring timelines, the structure of school leadership, and other flexibilities leaders say are key to providing a better educational experience.

Citing unintended consequences, a majority of Denver school board members said during a heated discussion Thursday that they support moving forward with a proposal to overturn parts of a controversial new policy adopted in March. The board is set to vote on the proposal at a special meeting next Thursday.

Key parts of the new policy, which was meant to shore up teacher job protections, would remain in place. Innovation schools would have to abide by Colorado’s version of tenure. They’d also have to follow certain provisions of the teachers’ union contract, including one related to grievance rights.

But they wouldn’t have to follow the entire contract, a change that would preserve more school autonomy.

“This is truly the middle ground people were looking for,” said board Vice President Tay Anderson.

The revisions were introduced by Anderson at a board meeting Thursday. The discussion that followed was unusually tense, with board members interrupting each other, arguing about procedure, and animatedly reading aloud opposing emails they got about the proposal.

The recently adopted policy requires Denver’s 52 innovation schools to follow the state’s tenure law and the entirety of the district’s teachers union contract. At the heart of the disagreement among board members is whether the policy will have unintended consequences. Some board members said they feel they were misled about what the policy would do and why it was needed. Board member Scott Esserman said the process of passing it was rushed and flawed.

“We jammed this down people’s throats without knowing what the outcome of this policy would be,” Esserman said. “It is incumbent upon us as a board to correct that.”

Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán and member Scott Baldermann disagreed.

“I see no unintended consequences,” Baldermann said, explaining that he doesn’t believe any school should be able to waive any tenet of a teachers union contract.

The board passed the new policy in March after weeks of heated debate. The vote was split, with Anderson and member Michelle Quattlebaum voting against it. The teachers union supported the policy, while innovation school leaders and parents vehemently opposed it.

Some board members said they didn’t fully understand the ramifications of the new policy until two weeks after it passed, when district staff wrote a memo outlining the new restrictions. For instance, board members said they didn’t realize that requiring innovation schools to follow the union contract would prevent schools from developing their own calendars to provide teachers with more training days or recognize Islamic holidays that the district does not.

Innovation school leaders who received the memo were upset.

“When the board passed the [policy] … we were assured by several of you that we would not see the unintended consequences we’re now seeing,” Frank Coyne, a leader at the Denver Green School, told the board in April. “I feel like I’ve been lied to.”

After reading the memo, four board members — Anderson, Quattlebaum, Esserman, and Carrie Olson — requested a school-by-school analysis of the implications of the new policy, known as an executive limitation because it directs the superintendent.

Esserman and Olson voted for the policy but issued a joint statement afterward that said they acknowledge their votes caused harm to “some members of our communities.” Esserman and Olson wrote that they’d been assured by district staff that “with some exceptions, innovation schools will be able to continue implementing their innovation plans,” and added that the board “retains the right” to revise the policy if it has unintended consequences.

Both Esserman and Olson, along with Anderson and Quattlebaum, expressed support Thursday for revisiting the policy. The four represent a majority of the seven-member board.

The district and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association are currently negotiating a new contract, as well as a memorandum of understanding regarding which provisions of the contract should be flexible and which should not. Union President Rob Gould said in an interview Thursday that the board should not intervene by revising the policy mid-negotiation.

But Quattlebaum and others pointed out that the board’s original vote in March also occurred in the middle of negotiations, which began in February.

The debate over Denver’s innovation schools has caught the attention of state leaders. Innovation status is enshrined in state law and has long been used as a way to spur school improvement efforts. It also serves as a middle ground between district-run and charter schools.

In the aftermath of the original Denver vote, lawmakers passed a bill creating a mediation process to handle disagreements between districts and innovation zones, though Denver succeeded in protecting school board authority in the final version.

And at a recent State Board of Education progress report on Denver’s Abraham Lincoln and Manual high schools, State Board members grilled Marrero about the importance of innovation waivers to the two schools’ improvement efforts and to the district’s other schools. Even under the new policy, schools facing state intervention like Abraham Lincoln and Manual retain a higher level of autonomy and can apply for more waivers.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver superintendent: School board should deny 3 charter applications

2022-06-10T03:57:04+00:00

Update: The Denver school board voted Thursday to deny the applications of the three charter schools. The vote to deny STEM School Denver authorization to open was unanimous. The votes to deny the 5280 Freedom School and Radical Arts Academy of Denver were 5 to 2 and 4 to 3, respectively.

The Denver schools superintendent has recommended against opening three new charter schools in the district, which was once fertile ground for the independent public schools.

Superintendent Alex Marrero wrote that the charter schools’ applications did not meet the quality threshold in Colorado’s charter school law. However, his more detailed review showed each school met most of the state and district criteria except for enrollment.

Enrollment in Denver Public Schools has declined from 93,800 students in 2019 to 90,200 students this year — and the latest forecast predicts another 4% decrease by 2026.

Marrero wrote that a district analysis concluded it would be unrealistic or “very difficult” for STEM School Denver, a project-based elementary school, and the 5280 Freedom School, an elementary centering Black students, to meet their enrollment targets.

“The school may be able to consistently enroll a very low number of students, but school models of this limited size are not in the best interests of pupils, the district, or the community,” Marrero wrote in his recommendation to deny the 5280 Freedom School.

In the case of a third charter school, the Radical Arts Academy of Denver, which is proposing to open in growing far northeast Denver, Marrero also had concerns about enrollment — not because of an overall decrease but because the arts- and project-based elementary school did not collect enough “intent to enroll” forms showing student interest.

The Denver school board is set to consider Marrero’s recommendations Thursday and vote on whether to authorize the schools to open. If the board votes no, the charter schools can appeal to the State Board of Education. Colorado law generally has been interpreted to mean school districts can’t turn down charter schools because enrollment threatens district-run schools. However, they can turn down schools because they don’t seem viable.

Marrero’s recommendations are in line with a political shift in Denver Public Schools away from education reform tenets like charter schools and school choice, and toward supporting traditional district-run schools. For the first time in recent history, all seven members of the school board were elected with the backing of the Denver teachers’ union, which has long opposed opening new charter schools. Marrero was hired last year by a union-backed board.

In addition to politics, Denver’s enrollment crisis makes the approval of any new schools — charter or district-run — less likely. The forecast is so bleak that the district is developing criteria for when to close or consolidate small schools.

A committee recently recommended targeting district-run schools with fewer than 215 students and charter schools that are not financially viable due to low enrollment. All Denver schools are funded per student, and 11 charters have closed on their own in the past four years.

Elementary schools have been hardest hit by declining enrollment, fueled by lower birth rates and high housing prices that push families out of the city. All three of the proposed charters are elementary schools. Their founders each said that despite the enrollment forecast, their schools would fill a unique need and serve some of the district’s most marginalized students.

In an acknowledgement that Denver has poorly served the 14% of students who are Black, the school board in 2019 passed a Black Excellence Resolution directing the district to do better. Branta Lockett, a former Denver teacher and the executive director of the 5280 Freedom School, sees her school as a powerful way to realize that directive.

“The change is needed,” she said, “and it’s needed fast.”

Though Lockett is proposing to locate her school in central Denver, she said she expects to draw students from all over the city and outside it too. That’s been the case for the summer camp she and others have run for the past four years, teaching young people about Black history, African drumming, nutrition, poetry, and more. Being at the camp felt inspiring and revolutionary, Lockett said — and she wants students to experience that year-round.

“I felt like I was valued,” she said, “and I don’t typically feel that way as a Black teacher in school.”

The founders of the Radical Arts Academy of Denver are also former teachers. Kelly Okoye, the proposed school’s chief of learning, said arts education is too often pushed to the side in favor of math and literacy, especially for the students of color that the academy hopes to serve. Instead, the school proposes to teach core subjects through the arts.

“We want to do school differently,” Okoye said. “Our students deserve that.”

Teaching phonics is important, but Okoye, a former literacy teacher, said “you can’t stop there.” At the academy, students would not just read autobiographies and write their own, but they’d also have the opportunity to make a playlist about who they are and their history, design an album cover, or choreograph a dance, and present their learning to the community.

Though the school had not collected the requisite number of “intent to enroll” forms when it submitted its application to the district, Okoye said the school has since exceeded its target.

STEM School Denver would also be project-based, though its curriculum would be more rooted in science and technology, with coding classes starting in kindergarten. The school would be a replication of a high-scoring charter school in Highlands Ranch that offers kindergarten through 12th grade, though the Denver school would only serve elementary students.

Leaders at the Highlands Ranch school describe it as messy, noisy, quirky, and full of intense and unusual learners. Many of its students have been identified as gifted, and some also have disabilities that make it hard for them to succeed in traditional schools, said Penny Eucker, CEO of KOSON Schools, the nonprofit organization that runs the school.

About 60 of the 600 students at the Highlands Ranch elementary school live in Denver, commuting as many as 35 miles each way, Eucker said. She sees opening a STEM School in Denver as a way to help the district’s enrollment, not hurt it, by luring back students who have left for other school districts, private schools, or home schooling.

“The last thing we want to do is take students from neighborhood schools,” Eucker said.

STEM School Denver has not identified a location yet, which Marrero noted as a deficit in his recommendation. But Eucker said she floated the idea of co-locating with a district-run school or even taking over a school being closed for low enrollment — an idea that is likely to generate intense pushback from community members opposed to charters.

“I said it could be a win-win where we could locate in one of these buildings that’s losing students,” Eucker said. District staff, she said, were not receptive to the idea.

The leaders of all three proposed schools hope the school board will see value in their proposals and go against the superintendent’s recommendations Thursday. The district’s accountability committee, made up of parents, educators, and community members, recommended that the board approve all three charters.

“We’re hoping the board will vote yes,” Lockett said.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver superintendent’s goals include dismantling ‘oppressive systems’

2022-05-23T21:51:38+00:00

In anticipation of the Denver superintendent’s first evaluation in October, the school board has approved the criteria for evaluating his first year on the job.

The metrics are related to the retention of educators of color, the adoption of social and emotional learning curriculum, the rate of out-of-school suspensions, and more.

Superintendent Alex Marrero started the top job in Denver Public Schools in July. His arrival coincided with the school board’s adoption of a new type of governance that requires it to set overarching goals called “ends statements.” The board has five.

In summary, they are:

The district will be “free of oppressive systems and structures rooted in racism.”
Students will receive a well-rounded and culturally relevant education. All students will score at grade level on district tests, and students who score below will achieve “significant academic growth.” Students with disabilities will have the resources they need.
Students and staff will be mentally and physically healthy.
The district will be a safe environment where the impacts of COVID are minimized.
Graduates will be independent, lifelong learners who can make well-informed decisions.

As the school board’s sole employee, the superintendent is in charge of making sure the district is moving toward those overarching goals. To that end, Marrero has crafted a set of metrics, called “reasonable interpretations,” by which the board will measure his success.

Last week, board members unanimously approved metrics related to four of the five goals. They delayed voting on metrics related to the second goal because Marrero said he needed board members to further define what they meant by a well-rounded education.

Per Marrero’s latest contract, which was approved in December, five months after he started the job, the board must evaluate his performance by Oct. 31 each year. Documents prepared by Marrero and approved by the board say he will be successful if he achieves 75% of his targets. Marrero wrote that he expects to achieve some targets by the end of this school year, but it will take until the end of the next school year to achieve others.

The metrics board members will use to evaluate Marrero direct him to:

Open at least four “community hubs” by the start of next school year. The community hubs will offer “programs and services that support social, emotional, physical and academic needs of students,” according to a document written by the superintendent. Marrero has said he will pay for these hubs with savings from job cuts in the central office.
Identify at least two “enduring systems of oppression” within the district to be dismantled.
Retain educators of color and multilingual educators at the same rate as other educators, as measured by preliminary teacher retention data available in September.
Establish a community advisory panel that includes representation from at least 10 organizations that serve historically marginalized communities.
Increase the percentage of students and families of color who report feeling a sense of belonging in the district, as measured by an annual survey. Last year, 68% of Black students and 69% of Latino students said they feel they belong at their school, while 91% of Black families and 93% of Latino families said they feel welcome at their child’s school.
Increase from 33% to at least 85% the number of schools that have a curriculum dedicated to social and emotional learning.
Increase from fall to spring the percentage of staff members who quantify their well-being in a twice-yearly survey as a 7 or higher on a scale of 0 to 10.
Ensure the rate of out-of-school suspensions doesn’t exceed the rate in 2018-19, the last school year before the pandemic. In that year, 4.25% of students were suspended, though the rate was higher for Black students, who were disproportionately suspended.
Keep in-person schooling “a priority when our current health conditions allow.”
Ensure every district-run high school offers a financial literacy course. As of now, 21 of 23 high schools offer these courses. A group of recent Denver Public Schools alumni called Ednium has been pushing the district to prioritize financial literacy.
Re-establish benchmarks for graduation rates after pandemic-related disruptions. Graduation rates dipped statewide in 2021, with Denver posting a 74% graduation rate.

The board is set to vote next month on the metrics related to the last overarching goal, about offering a well-rounded education. According to a draft, those metrics will include:

Re-establishing baselines for participation in and achievement on state literacy and math tests. In 2021, more than half of Denver students in grades three through eight opted out of the Colorado Academic Measures of Success, or CMAS, tests. Scores were lower, too.
Ensuring that students who score below grade level on state tests experience high academic growth year to year, as measured by student growth percentiles.
Reducing the number of students in kindergarten through third grade reading below grade level. Last fall, just 46% of students were reading at or above grade level.
Ensuring that 70% of students in district-run schools report in an annual survey that their lessons are culturally and linguistically relevant.
Ensuring that 50% of students in district-run schools report they have “student agency.” That’s measured by five questions including, “I get to choose some things I learn in school” and “I know my strengths and weaknesses.”
Ensuring that all students learning English as a second language receive high-quality instruction as determined by a program review.
Ensuring students with disabilities receive the support they need, as measured by metrics including the timely completion of initial special education evaluations. A Chalkbeat investigation found the number of initial evaluations fell during the pandemic.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Meet the 5 applicants to fill a seat on the Denver school board

2022-05-17T21:51:36+00:00

The five applicants to fill a vacancy on the Denver school board answered questions about school budgeting, school choice, and what they’d bring to the board Monday at a forum for residents of northwest Denver, the region they would represent if selected.

The vacancy was created by the resignation of board member Brad Laurvick, who was elected in 2019 but will step down next month when he moves from Denver for his job.

The seven remaining board members are set to vote June 9 to appoint one of the five applicants to serve the last 17 months of Laurvick’s term. Monday’s community forum was the first opportunity for residents to hear from the applicants, who include two former Denver Public Schools teachers and a current principal supervisor for a Denver charter school network.

The school board will interview the applicants May 26. The public can sign up to comment May 26 or June 9, board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said. Both meetings will be livestreamed.

Here’s what the five applicants had to say Monday.

Julie Bañuelos, a former Denver Public Schools bilingual teacher, said she applied to fill the vacancy because she understands the history of the district and how its policies have impacted students, especially those from working-class families. “I feel DPS continually underrepresents my community,” Bañuelos said. “The change that has been created has really exacerbated some very discriminating situations for our students that are most marginalized.”

Leonard “Leo” Darnell, who is an assistant dean at the University of Colorado Denver and leads a mentoring program for high school students interested in architecture and construction, said he has expertise with budgets that would be helpful to the board. Darnell said he wants to find ways to support teachers and avoid consolidating schools because of declining student enrollment. “I think there are better solutions out there than consolidation,” he said.

David Diaz, who worked as a math teacher in Denver before opening a personal training studio, said he applied because he believes students need a different approach post-pandemic. “They need a safe environment,” said Diaz, who has three daughters in Denver schools and whose wife is a teacher at Lake Middle School. “We need policy to make sure we can help them out with their social emotional needs first and foremost. It’s time to pivot.”

Adeel Khan, who was the founding principal of a Denver charter high school and now manages principals for the DSST charter network, said he wants to take what he learned as a school leader during the pandemic and apply it districtwide. “We have students who are lost in school,” Khan said. “We need to provide the resources our schools need to provide the appropriate support and mental health to our students.”

Charmaine Lindsay, an attorney who specializes in family law, said she has years of experience with Denver Public Schools as a mother and grandmother. She said she saw how her son’s friends of color would get disciplined and suspended more than white students. A trained mediator, Lindsay said she believes in restorative justice. “I want to try to bring those kind of solutions as opposed to just suspending kids in the schools,” she said.

Audience members submitted questions on index cards, and a district staff member read selected questions aloud. Asked her opinion on Denver’s cultivation of a variety of school models, including publicly funded but independently run charter schools, Bañuelos said the approach has created schools that are exclusionary and not transparent.

“It has exacerbated inequity and racism and really disconnected communities,” she said.

Diaz said he doesn’t support charter schools sharing buildings with district-run schools because such co-locations, as the district calls them, segregate students. That was his experience when his children went from an integrated dual language elementary school to a co-located middle school where many of the Spanish-speaking students chose one school and the English-speaking students chose the other.

“They could no longer have lunch together, have art together, even play sports together,” Diaz said. “We could do a lot better for our kids. Our kids need to be together.”

Darnell said he agrees allowing families to choose schools can create segregation, but it’s not likely that Denver will prohibit choice. As such, he said the district needs to focus on “accountability and making sure that we have quality instruction” in all schools.

Lindsay didn’t express an opinion on charter schools, which have long been a controversial topic in Denver. Instead, she said her experience as a lawyer handling child custody cases is that most parents choose schools based on location, not type.

Khan was the lone applicant to support Denver’s approach. It doesn’t matter to most families whether their child’s school is run by the district or by a charter organization as long as it serves their child well, he said.

“While bureaucrats can get caught up in these different things, for families it’s about, ‘Is my kid getting the education I want for them?’” Khan said.

Audience members also asked the applicants their opinion of funding schools based on enrollment. Denver’s student-based budgeting system, which doles out extra dollars to students with higher needs, has come under fire as schools with low enrollment face closure.

Bañuelos said she’d like the district to scrap student-based budgeting for a model that ensures all schools, regardless of enrollment, have enough money to offer electives such as art and music, which often get cut when funding dips. Khan said that the district needs to “budget creatively” so that underenrolled schools have programming that will attract families.

Darnell said he supports giving extra funding to schools where the students have higher needs, while Lindsay and Diaz pointed out discrepancies in parent fundraising. Diaz said when he was a teacher, he and his students would sell tamales for $1 to raise extra money while other schools would bring in $10,000 from a single fundraising event.

All five applicants agreed that gentrification is the biggest issue facing northwest Denver, and several said they’d partner with city and state officials to advocate for rent control so that rising housing costs don’t continue to push working-class families out of the city.

Asked what new perspectives they’d bring to the board and how they’d work with current members, the applicants spoke about their strengths and the principles that guide them.

Lindsay said she’s skilled at bringing together people with opposing views. “Most people are partially right and partially wrong in every situation,” she said. “The whole objective has to be what’s the best thing for the community and what’s the best thing for the children.”

Darnell said he’s a consensus builder who values honesty. He said he would strive to be accessible to teachers and families. “I would represent the values of my community,” he said.

Diaz repeated a mantra he said would be central to his approach on the board: “Be brave, be tender, have high expectations, and be willing to pivot.”

Khan said he’s dedicated his working life to education and building relationships with students. “I have no allegiance but to kids, and I will put them first in every decision I make,” he said.

Bañuelos, who ran unsuccessfully for the board in 2017 and 2019, described herself as an outspoken advocate who is “fearless but not reckless.”

“While I can disagree with all board members,” Bañuelos said, “...you’ll know that I don’t bend my values. I stand with people, with my community, and what they ask for.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

How Denver is spending $9 million freed up by central office cuts

2022-05-06T16:27:16+00:00

Leer en español.

The millions of dollars that Denver Public Schools will save by cutting central office employees will be spent on four initiatives, including creating “community hubs” to provide services for families such as GED classes, mental health support, and help with job placement.

That’s according to a plan laid out by Superintendent Alex Marrero at a school board meeting Thursday. Two days prior, on Tuesday, the district told 131 central office employees their jobs were being cut. Because some positions are being reposted, in some cases with new job titles, the net reduction of central office positions is 76, a district spokesperson said.

Eliminating those 76 positions will save the district $9 million next year, officials said. The district’s total budget is about $1.2 billion.

Marrero told the school board that he plans to invest that $9 million in:

Opening six community hubs this fall in partnership with the city of Denver and community organizations, including the Denver Housing Authority, the Montbello Organizing Committee, Westwood Unidos, and others. The community hubs would use a two-generation approach, providing services to young students and their families.

Those services could include assistance with basic needs such as food, clothing, and housing; workforce development help such as resume building and interview preparation; GED, citizenship, and English language classes; and mental health services for adults, among other things.

The locations of the community hubs haven’t been finalized, Marrero said, but he hopes there will be one in every region of the city. The locations would likely be temporary as the district pilots the hubs next school year, he said.

Increasing wages for hourly workers, including paraprofessionals, food service workers, custodians, health technicians who help in school nurses’ offices, and others. Marrero said about 1,200 district employees currently earn the city’s minimum wage of $15.87, and this investment would boost that, though he didn’t say by how much. The goal, he said, is to raise wages over time to $20 an hour, a priority of board Vice President Tay Anderson.

Offsetting rising health care costs for all district employees. Premiums for the district’s largest health care plans rose by 10% this year, Marrero said. The district intends to use some of the central office savings to pay that down so employees won’t shoulder the entire cost.

Supporting schools with declining enrollment by supplementing their budgets. Denver schools are funded per student, and fewer students means less money to hire teachers and other staff. As the district debates how to close or consolidate small schools, Marrero said this money would help schools weather funding decreases.

Marrero’s presentation did not specify how the $9 million would be divided among the four initiatives. The school board is set to vote on next year’s budget in early June.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board vacancy draws 5 applicants

2022-05-05T00:24:34+00:00

Five people have applied to fill a vacancy on the Denver school board. They include two former Denver Public Schools teachers, the founding principal of a Denver charter school, a college administrator, and a family law attorney.

The applicants’ resumes and letters of recommendation were posted on the school district’s website Wednesday. The board is aiming to appoint a new member on June 9. The appointee will serve the last 17 months of member Brad Laurvick’s term. If they want to continue serving after that, they will have to run for election in November 2023.

Laurvick, a Methodist pastor who represents northwest Denver, is resigning from the board because his job is relocating him to serve as pastor of a church in Fort Collins.

The five applicants are:

Julie Bañuelos, a former bilingual teacher in Denver Public Schools who ran unsuccessfully for school board in 2017 and 2019. Bañuelos lost the school board seat representing northwest Denver to Laurvick in 2019 by just 302 votes. Bañuelos is active in education advocacy, and she currently works as a general accounting supervisor at Cold Front Distribution in Westminster, according to her resume.

Leonard Darnell, the assistant dean of academic services and extended studies at the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning. Darnell is also a board member of A.C.E. Mentor Colorado, which mentors high school students interested in careers in construction and design, according to his resume.

David Diaz, who owns a personal training studio called Fitness Together in Edgewater and coaches Denver youth sports teams. Diaz has three daughters who attend northwest Denver schools. His wife is a physical education teacher at Lake Middle School. Before opening his fitness studio, Diaz worked as a math teacher and baseball coach at North High School and Martin Luther King, Jr. middle school, according to his application.

Adeel Khan, a managing director of schools for the homegrown DSST charter school network. According to his resume, Khan was the founding principal at DSST: Conservatory Green High School, a charter high school in northeast Denver. School board policy prohibits district and charter school employees from serving on the board, so any DSST employee would have to resign to take the position.

Charmaine Lindsay, a family law attorney whose specialities include divorce, custody, and child support cases, according to her resume. Lindsay is currently a pro bono attorney and board member of My Brother’s and Sister’s Keeper Colorado, an organization that helps youth of color graduate. Her resume notes that she represented the mother of a child with disabilities charged with educational truancy.

The school board has already begun reviewing the applications. Residents of Laurvick’s board district, District 5, will be invited to participate in a session with the applicants on May 16 at CEC Early College, 2650 Eliot St., from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

The board will publicly interview the finalists on June 2 and provide an opportunity for the wider community to weigh in before voting on the appointment on June 9.

To be appointed, applicants must live in District 5, have been a registered voter for at least 12 consecutive months, and never have been convicted of certain crimes against children.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver school board member Brad Laurvick resigning

2022-03-14T01:26:43+00:00

Denver school board member Brad Laurvick plans to resign this summer.

Laurvick has served as the pastor of Highlands United Methodist Church in Denver for the last 10 years. He announced in church Sunday morning that he has been appointed to a new position in Fort Collins that will start July 1. Shortly afterward, he sent a letter to Denver school board members informing them that he would no longer be eligible to serve on the school board as of June 30.

“An unusually large wave of retirements has placed a strain on our system this year, leading the bishop to ask that I take this new appointment despite our shared hope I would not move during my service on the board,” Laurvick wrote. “I am grateful for the opportunity to serve Denver in this way and trust my board colleagues will find a community- and student-focused appointee to fill this seat.”

Laurvick was elected in 2019 as part of a slate of union-backed candidates who “flipped” the Denver school board, which had previously been controlled by supporters of education reform. Laurvick played an active supporting role in the Denver teachers strike earlier that year.

The November 2021 election further consolidated the shift in board control. Union-supported members now have a 7-0 majority.

Just a few months after Laurvick took office, Denver Public Schools, like districts around the state, shut its school buildings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In his letter, Laurvick said he was grateful to be part of the district’s COVID response, as well as recognizing the district’s first principals union and hiring Superintendent Alex Marrero.

Brad Laurvick

“I will deeply miss the relational work with my board colleagues, the superintendent, DPS staff, and the students and educators of this great district,” Laurvick wrote.

Laurvick’s tenure has also seen the board walk back many policies favored by previous reform boards, scrapping the district’s controversial school rating system, reuniting Montbello and West high schools, and reconsidering how much autonomy schools should have. The board is currently debating whether full union protections should be extended to teachers at innovation schools.

In the United Methodist system, bishops appoint pastors to serve congregations. In a letter to his congregants, Laurvick said Bishop Karen Oliveto determined he was the best person to lead First United Methodist Church, Fort Collins at this time.

“I did not expect to be leaving Highlands this year,” he wrote. “My family and I are caught between the grief of leaving and the excitement of this new invitation — both feelings are overwhelming. I ask for your prayers for this entire process.”

Laurvick’s school board term would have ended in 2023. The Denver school board will need to appoint a replacement to represent northwest Denver.

News of Laurvick’s resignation was first reported in the Denver North Star.

External manager MGT leaving Adams 14 school district

2022-02-07T21:00:00+00:00

MGT Consulting, the company that has overseen most day-to-day operations in the Adams 14 school district under a state order, is ending its work in the district effective Friday, Feb. 11.

The Adams 14 school board had already voted to terminate the relationship, but that termination wouldn’t have taken effect until April. In a special meeting late last month, the State Board of Education declined to take any action that would have forced the district to keep working with MGT.

District officials said MGT informed them on Friday that the company’s last day would be Feb. 11.

MGT’s announcement means the company is no longer fighting to maintain a relationship that has been intensely strained since Superintendent Karla Loria took over last summer.

In a press release, MGT officials said they made the decision with the goal of “protecting the safety, well-being, and reputation of our employees.”

“Given the current circumstances, it’s clear that we have accomplished as much as we can,” said Eric Parish, MGT’s executive vice president. “We leave with our heads held high, grateful for the support we received from the Adams 14 community and the partnerships we created to increase opportunities for students and families.”

In their own press release, Adams 14 officials said MGT’s decision “temporarily restore[s] all day-to-day decision-making authority to run the district to the duly elected Adams 14 Board of Education and its superintendent.”

“It is the shared commitment of the Adams 14 Board of Education, Superintendent Dr. Karla Loria, and the district’s senior leadership to minimize any disruption throughout this transition,” the district said. “Teaching and learning will continue as normal in every Adams 14 school, and faculty and staff can count on continued support.”

In 2018, Adams 14 became the first school district to be placed under external management under Colorado’s school accountability system, which rates schools and districts based on student performance on standardized tests and authorizes intervention in schools with persistent low test scores. MGT Consulting received generally favorable reports the first two years it was working in the district, and company officials list rising graduation rates and increased services for English language learners among their accomplishments.

When Loria was hired as the district’s first superintendent since MGT took over, she quickly raised concerns about MGT, including whether the company essentially had charged the district twice for services being performed by subcontractors. MGT has denied any wrongdoing. The district has not publicly released the results of a forensic audit it conducted last year.

The dispute has tested the accountability system, and it’s not clear what will happen next. The State Board of Education may issue new orders for the district, and some members have even raised the possibility of dissolving and reorganizing the district, the most drastic option available under state law.

The State Board could also order the district to work with a new external manager. Adams 14 officials say they want any new outside consultants to answer to the superintendent.

District officials said they will hold community meetings in the coming weeks to describe next steps and hear feedback from parents and teachers.

The State Board of Education is scheduled to get an update on Adams 14 at its regular meeting Thursday but is not expected to consider new orders until April.

A spokesman for the Colorado Department of Education confirmed Monday that the superintendent has authority to manage the district until the State Board approves new orders.

Officials with the education department will continue to monitor progress in the district, he said. An independent panel of experts is scheduled to present a report to the State Board in March, and the State Board will hold a hearing on next steps in April.

Campaign finance limits proposed for Colorado school board races

2022-02-01T21:09:40+00:00

In the aftermath of hotly contested, big money school board elections around the state, Colorado lawmakers are seeking to cap for the first time how much donors can give to candidates in those races.

But legislation that passed a House committee Monday won’t affect spending by independent committees that play a significant role in some contests.

House Bill 1060 would limit individual donations in school board races to $2,500 and donations by small donor committees to $25,000 per candidate. School boards are among the few elected offices in Colorado without limits on campaign contributions, and the caps proposed in the bill are higher than those for many other offices.

“Our election system should provide a level playing field so that every candidate has a shot, not just those with a handful of wealthy friends,” bill sponsor state Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat, told the House State Affairs Committee.

Heated debates over COVID protocols, masking, teaching about race, and parents’ rights fueled unprecedented interest in Colorado school board elections last year. More than $2.8 million flowed into 213 school board campaigns, and independent expenditure committees spent $2.1 million more on school board races, according to campaign finance reports.

The measure would have had the biggest impact on individual giving last year. Of those giving more than $2,500 to a candidate, 29 people donated more than $622,000 to 34 candidates. That’s more than a fifth of all individual contributions in school board races. Nearly half that cash went to four conservative Douglas County candidates who won their contests.

Lone Tree real estate developer Eric Garrett donated $30,000 each to four Douglas County school board candidates — Mike Peterson, Christy Williams, Becky Myers, and Kaylee Winegar. Mike Slattery, who co-owns The Emporium in Castle Rock with his wife, Andrea, gave $20,000 each to the same candidates, while Andrea Slattery gave $10,000 each.

R. Stanton Dodge, who lives in Castle Pines and is the chief legal counsel for DraftKings, gave $12,500 to each of those four Douglas County candidates.

Stephen Keen, a Fort Collins lawyer, donated $40,000 to Jefferson County school board candidate Paula Reed and $10,000 each to Mary Parker and Danielle Varda in the same district. The candidates, who also received financial support from the teachers union, won their election.

And in the Cherry Creek School District, Terrance Bates gave $41,400 to incumbent Kelly Bates, who won a three-way race against two more conservative challengers.

Small donor committees contributed more than $524,000 to 80 candidates. But in only six instances did those donations exceed $25,000 per candidate. Each of those donations went to four successful candidates for the Denver Public Schools board and were from two committees representing teachers unions: the Public Education Committee, funded by Colorado Education Association members, and the DCTA Fund, funded by Denver Classroom Teachers Association.

The District Twelve Educators Political Action Committee spent nearly $122,000 on Jackson Dreiling’s unsuccessful campaign in the Adams County school district. The bill would treat political committees like individuals, limiting them to $2,500 per candidate.

The law already limits donations from political committees to other types of candidates. For example, they can’t donate more than $2,000 to county commissioners or more than $400 to state Senate candidates.

A series of school board candidates, some successful, some not, told legislators that the need to raise so much money deterred many people from running for office and took control of school board elections away from the community. They also said it made school board races more politicized.

“There is an idea that if you’re funded by the union you’re left and if you’re funded by something outside the union you’re right, and I was funded by neither,” said Beth Niznik, who said that she took pride in winning a three-way race for Boulder Valley school board despite raising the least money. “That is the public perception. These are nonpartisan races.”

The bill is supported by Common Cause and Clean Slate Now, groups that advocate for transparency and campaign finance reform, as well as by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, the League of Women Voters, Education Reform Advocacy Now and the Colorado Association of School Boards.

Candidates who benefited from large donations in the most recent election didn’t testify.

Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, hasn’t taken a position on the bill. In an emailed statement, CEA President Amie Baca-Oehlert noted that educators voluntarily give money to support candidates who agree with union positions.

“Regardless of what happens with this bill, we will continue to ensure that hard-working educators who actually serve students, not corporate interests, have a way to support pro-public education candidates,” she said.

The bill wouldn’t limit spending by independent expenditure committees, which are protected by the U.S. Supreme Court decision Citizens United. Independent expenditure committees may take unlimited donations and spend unlimited amounts, but they can’t give directly to candidates and aren’t supposed to coordinate with candidate campaigns.

Such committees don’t participate in most school board races, but in Denver Public Schools, independent expenditure committees accounted for about 67% of the $1.8 million spent last fall. Groups more supportive of education reform outspent groups affiliated with the teachers union, but failed to persuade voters. That $1.2 million in independent spending on Denver contests accounted for nearly 57% of the $2.1 million total in such spending on school board races last year.

Nor would the bill limit how much candidates could spend on their own campaigns. Denver school board member Scott Baldermann spent more than $300,000 of his own money to get elected in 2019.

“I think this bill is going to have the opposite effect, and we’re going to see an increase in dark money [coming into elections], we’re going to see an increase of outside national influence,” said state Rep. Patrick Neville, a Castle Rock Republican who voted no. “I think we should be free to donate to the candidate, and then the candidate can be held responsible for whatever literature, whatever campaign material is put out, whereas independent expenditure committees are not held accountable.”

Democrats on the committee said they shared those concerns, but didn’t see that as a reason to have no limits on individual contributions. The bill passed 6 to 4 with Democrats in favor and Republicans against. It still needs to pass the full House and Senate before going to the governor’s desk.

Sirota acknowledged the bill won’t take money out of politics, but the change still feels valuable.

“Anyone who follows these school board races, it’s hard to imagine it getting any nastier,” Sirota said. “We aren’t going to fix a broken system, but this is one step we can take.”

Despite concerns, Denver school board renews charter schools

2022-01-14T18:14:15+00:00

Denver’s first school board in recent history to be backed entirely by the teachers union renewed the district’s contracts with 16 charter schools Thursday, despite some members expressing concerns with the independent public schools.

Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán was the only one of seven board members to vote “no” on renewing the charter contracts, though board Vice President Tay Anderson characterized his “yes” vote as a reluctant one. Board member Scott Baldermann voted for the renewals but said the board should undertake “a full review” of its charter renewal policy.

This was among the board’s first major decisions since three new members, including Gaytán, were elected in November. All seven members are now united in their criticism of education reform, a set of strategies favored by past school boards that included closing struggling district-run schools and expanding high-performing charter school networks. The teachers union has also been critical of charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently run.

The Denver school board renewed its agreements with these 16 charter schools Thursday. The length of a school’s renewal was based on several factors, including academic performance, school culture, and financial health.

Girls Athletic Leadership School: Five-year renewal

DSST: Byers Middle School: Five-year renewal

DSST Middle School at Noel Campus: Five-year renewal

Highline Academy Southeast: Five-year renewal

STRIVE Prep - Green Valley Ranch: Five-year renewal

Denver Language School: Two-year renewal with the opportunity for a three-year extension

Compass Academy: Two-year renewal with the opportunity for a two-year extension

Denver Justice High School: Two-year renewal with the opportunity for a two-year extension

KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy: Two-year renewal with the opportunity for a two-year extension

KIPP Sunshine Peak Elementary: Two-year renewal with the opportunity for a two-year extension

Monarch Montessori: Two-year renewal with the opportunity for a two-year extension

Rocky Mountain Prep Berkeley: Two-year renewal with the opportunity for a two-year extension

STRIVE Prep - Montbello: Two-year renewal

STRIVE Prep - Westwood: Two-year renewal

5280 High School: Two-year renewal

RiseUp Community School: Two-year renewal

REACH Charter School surrendered its charter after learning the district was going to recommend the board not renew it. The school will close at the end of this school year.

But most board members spoke neutrally about charter schools Thursday, neither praising nor condemning them. They said they had faith in Superintendent Alex Marrero’s recommendations for renewing the charters’ contracts for periods ranging from two to five years depending on the strength of the schools’ academic performance, culture, and financial health (see box).

Several board members referenced Denver Public Schools’ declining enrollment, and thanked the charter school community for a recent commitment to participate in a districtwide process to develop criteria for when to close or consolidate small schools. Anderson said in an interview that he was planning to vote against some of the renewals but changed his mind after the charter schools agreed to participate in consolidation talks.

“For me personally, that was my line in the sand,” he said. “When I saw them make the good-faith effort to say, ‘We’re willing to come to the table,’ that says a whole lot for me.”

Denver schools are funded based on how many students they have. Previously, high enrollment made it easier to support a large number of schools, including new charter schools, but now Denver faces financial pressure to close small schools. While some charter schools already have closed because they had too few students, some community members have said it’s wrong to consider closing district-run schools without looking at charters through the same lens.

But the school board can’t close charter schools solely for enrollment reasons as it can with district-run schools. That decision is up to the charter schools themselves.

Carol Bowar is the founder of Girls Athletic Leadership School, a charter middle school in west Denver, and serves on the district-charter collaborative council, the group that made the commitment. She said the council had been talking for months about whether to participate in the consolidation talks, and that its recent agreement wasn’t directly related to the renewal votes, though charter leaders hoped the move would build trust with the new board.

So far, the charter schools have agreed to participate in a committee that would develop common criteria for when to close under-enrolled schools. They’ve requested that 23% of committee members come from charter schools given that 23% of Denver’s 90,000 students attend charters, and that all committee members understand how charters work.

“We hope that demonstrating our commitment to this district, to the family of schools of which we are a part, and to our work together to make all of DPS a great place for all of our students will enable you to vote for the recommended renewals with a greater peace of mind,” Bowar told the school board Tuesday during a special public comment session on the charter renewals.

For 3½ hours Tuesday, board members heard from students, parents, teachers, and principals asking that the board renew their schools’ charter agreements.

Eighth grader Lubombo Jedidia Kabeya talked about how her charter middle school, Compass Academy, treats students with care, kindness, and respect. She told the board about a time in sixth grade when she was sitting alone in the lunchroom and the dean came by.

“She sat next to me and asked me one question: ‘Are you OK?’” the eighth grader said. “No one at my old school had ever bothered to ask me that simple question. For the first time, I felt like I was finally wanted and needed in a community.”

Sahar Ebrahimy, an eighth grader at Girls Athletic Leadership School, said her teachers encourage students to use their voices, even if they’re reluctant at first.

“Everyone participates in our school, and everyone is seen and valued,” she said.

In voting against the renewals Thursday, Gaytán said she was not pushing back against the students and parents who love their particular charter schools. Instead, she criticized charter schools more generally, especially what she called the “corporatized charter networks” for siphoning students and funding from district-run schools, denying their teachers arbitration rights, and “not playing by the same rules as neighborhood schools.”

Gaytán said she grappled with how to vote, and she thanked her six fellow board members for voting yes so she could have the “safe space” to voice her frustration and vote no. If the Denver board were to have denied a charter school its renewal, the school could have appealed to the State Board of Education, which has been friendly to charters. But Gaytán said denying renewals, shutting down schools, and sending families scrambling is “not the answer right now.”

“This is not a board that is cruel and callous,” Gaytán said, “but rather a board that seeks to weave equity into the policy we write going forward. We’re all committed to doing the work to protect public education [and] to strengthen district-run schools.”

Tay Anderson files defamation lawsuit against accusers

2021-11-20T01:05:37+00:00

Two months after a third-party investigator found that claims of sexual assault against Denver school board member Tay Anderson were unsubstantiated, Anderson has filed a lawsuit against people and organizations who made the sexual misconduct allegations last spring.

Anderson, 23, is suing the civil rights organization Black Lives Matter 5280 and four people associated with the group, which alleged in March that Anderson had sexually assaulted an unnamed woman. Anderson is also suing two other people, one of whom, Mary Katherine Brooks-Fleming of Denver, accused Anderson of more than 60 instances of sexual misconduct against other people without naming him directly.

The defamation lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Denver District Court and seeks damages of at least $1 million. In the lawsuit, Anderson said he lost out on job opportunities and earnings as an influencer and incurred significant legal expenses as a result of the accusations, in addition to the impact on his mental health and the well-being of his family.

In a statement Wednesday, Anderson said he believes in restorative justice — a process that focuses on repairing harm — but when that fails, “I am left with no choice but to take the necessary steps through legal action to clear my name and to do everything in my power to ensure our students feel safe in their schools regardless of which board member is present.”

The Denver school board hired Denver-based Investigations Law Group to look into the allegations. In September, investigators concluded as unsubstantiated the claim by Black Lives Matter 5280 that Anderson had sexually assaulted an unnamed woman.

Also unsubstantiated were claims by Brooks-Fleming that Anderson committed sexual assault or misconduct against 62 Denver Public Schools students.

Brooks-Fleming made the allegations while testifying before the Colorado House Judiciary Committee in May on a bill to allow underage victims of sexual misconduct to sue organizations. Brooks-Fleming did not name Anderson in her testimony, but the Denver school board released a statement saying Anderson was the subject of the woman’s allegations.

The lawsuit names Brooks-Fleming and four leaders of the Black Lives Matter group: Apryl Alexander, Ari Lipscomb, Amy Brown, and Michael Diaz Rivera. The lawsuit also names Jeeva Senthilnathan, a college student and recent candidate for Parker Town Council who made a Facebook post in October claiming knowledge of additional victims in the activist community.

In addition to alleging defamation, the lawsuit alleges the defendants conspired together to make false statements about Anderson and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.

On Friday, Senthilnathan issued a written statement in which she stood behind the claims in her Facebook video.

“This lawsuit is not only meritless, but it seems that its aim is to chill free speech by a citizen through abuse of judicial process,” she said.

The other defendants have not responded to Chalkbeat’s requests for comment.

Anderson remained on the school board during the investigation, though he did step back from most duties for a six-week period in June and July. After the investigation report was released in September, his fellow board members voted to censure him.

Even though the most serious allegations were unsubstantiated, Anderson’s fellow board members said other conduct uncovered by the investigation — including that he had flirtatious conduct with two high school students on social media — was unacceptable.

After the investigation was released, more than 1,000 Denver students walked out of school and demonstrated in front of district headquarters, calling for Anderson to resign.

In his statement, Anderson said he didn’t take the decision to sue lightly. But he said the unsubstantiated allegations have caused him harm, including lost job opportunities and a lost sense of safety for himself and his family, including his 7-month-old son. In addition, he said “the work of Denver Public Schools was sidelined” during the investigation.

“It pains me to once again bring attention to this traumatic experience, but I’m a victim of false allegations that almost took my life,” Anderson said. “I am hopeful that this process affords me the opportunity to find a path forward and to continue the work to heal our community.”

In the lawsuit, attorney Issa Israel writes that within months of the accusations, “the once sanguine and energetic young Anderson shrank into a dejected, listless version of himself struggling against the impulse to end his own life.”

Israel acknowledges the #metoo movement in the lawsuit and praises efforts to bring accountability to high-profile predators who previously went unpunished.

“Yet, in our fervor to hold these monsters responsible for their crimes, we have allowed a new kind of monster to emerge — one who in like fashion creeps in unawares beneath the cover of our fears and wreaks havoc upon the innocent,” he wrote. “Undoubtedly, plaintiff Tay Anderson is one such innocent.”

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include comment from Jeeva Senthilnathan.

The Sheridan district will pay its school board members

2021-11-01T22:44:02+00:00

The school board in Sheridan, just south of Denver, voted Monday to allow compensation for board members, becoming one of the first in Colorado to do so.

The five-member Sheridan board voted unanimously to allow its members to get paid $150 for a full day of board work — such as attending board conferences or retreats — or $75 for a half day of work for other board assignments. No public members showed up to comment.

“It’s to give people an incentive to run for the board,” said Sally Daigle, Sheridan board president, or to offer an incentive to attend board member training outside the district. “I learn so much. There are people out there that wouldn’t have the option to take the time off or have a whole lot of time off built up.”

Board member Maria Delgado, who is a full-time college student working part time, said she would benefit from compensation for days she skipped her job for board duties.

“I didn’t realize how much work goes into it, it’s a lot to take on,” Delgado said of becoming a school board member. “It’s hard sometimes to make the time.”

Board members said they did not intend for members to be paid for regular board meetings, and were more concerned about board work that interfered with their paying jobs.

Board members will have the option to not get paid for their work.

Colorado this year enabled districts to pay school board members if a board majority approved a resolution allowing it. Several school boards have discussed the issue, but have not yet approved a proposal.

In Aurora, school board members were interested in allowing board pay to encourage more diverse candidates to join the board. But after setting a special meeting and not receiving any public feedback in favor or against, the board decided to postpone any vote on a proposal. Denver’s school board has also discussed the idea, but has not scheduled a vote.

The Adams 14 school board discussed the idea last week, but board members didn’t agree on the pay issue. Some expressed interest in more creative structures such as allowing reimbursement for board members who need child care to attend meetings. That issue has come up for previous board members.

The Sheridan district has notoriously struggled with finding candidates for its school board. The district has done away with term limits. Despite that, one seat remained open for years. The district canceled this year’s election because the three board members whose seats are up for grabs had no opponents.

The district serves about 1,200 students, of which more than 80% qualify for subsidized lunch, a measure of poverty. The district has also had one of the highest percentages of students lacking permanent housing.

The Colorado law allowing board pay prohibits board members who vote to approve a pay proposal to benefit from it during their current term. Three board members, Daniel Stange, Maria Delgado, and Sally Daigle, will be eligible to receive pay after Tuesday’s election when their new terms begin. Board members Juanita Chacon and Karla Najera will be eligible to receive pay after the 2023 elections.

Union-backed candidates in Jeffco are outspending school board competitors

2021-10-26T00:50:35+00:00

As has been typical in recent school board elections in Jeffco, union-backed candidates are outspending opposing conservative candidates.

To date, the seven candidates have reported a collective total of about $255,000 in contributions, but only about $30,000 of that is for the conservative slate of Theresa Shelton, Kathy Miks, and Jeffrey Wilhite, which is against many union issues. The union slate of Paula Reed, Danielle Varda, and Mary Parker has received $224,796 collectively. David Johnson has only raised $200.

In addition, the union slate is benefiting from at least $36,708.72 spent by Students Deserve Better, which has raised $384,000 from teachers union groups to support races across the state.

Students Deserve Better, which is funded by Colorado teachers unions, is the only committee that has reported outside spending on the Jeffco race. Outside spending is when independent committees can spend as much as they want but can’t coordinate with candidates

Some teacher union dollars have also gone directly to the individual candidate’s campaigns. The campaign money that has been spent to date in Jeffco has largely gone to mailers, text messages, and online advertising.

Jeffco Public Schools is the second largest school district in Colorado, serving about 80,000 students. Three of its five school board seats are up for grabs in the Nov. 2 election, meaning the majority of the board could shift.

The district has a new superintendent and has been the center of some controversy over pandemic-related measures, including after the public health department announced, the day before school started, that masks would be required. The district is also seeing staff shortages that have led to cuts in bus and lunch services.

In the past, Jeffco’s 2015 school board election, which included a recall, was the most expensive in the state. At the time, conservative members held the majority on the school board. Its efforts to create a performance-based pay system for teachers and to review history curriculum to ensure it was patriotic enough, among other things, caused enough backlash that the three conservative board members were recalled.

About two weeks before that recall election, the group that was organizing the recall had raised about $252,000 and spent about $76,000. Another group supporting the recall had raised about $32,000. Groups opposed to the recall had contributed much smaller amounts, although one nonprofit group, Americans for Prosperity, that was not allowed to use money to campaign, but only to “educate voters,” announced it would spend six figures on television commercials.

Since then, the union-backed board has increased teacher pay, closed schools, pushed back against new charter schools, and helped the district pass a local tax increase to hire more mental health professionals in schools and to make improvements to old school buildings.

Critics of the board say those projects have gone above budget with little oversight. The conservative slate running this year has fiscal stewardship as one of its priorities.

Statewide, school board candidates have raised more in the Douglas County school board race, and in Denver. Another report on spending is due Nov. 1.

Jeffco candidates have raised and spent:

Danielle Varda, District 1

Total raised: $71,320.82

Total spent: $41,087.02

Big donors: Public Education Committee, associated with Colorado Education Association ($18,166.67); Stephen Keen, attorney ($10,000); The JCEA Small Donor Committee, associated with the Jefferson County Education Association ($24,000)

Jeffrey Wilhite, District 1

Total raised: $9,046.73

Total spent: $4,491.39

Big donors: Raymond German III, ($800); Mark Adcock, architect ($500)

Paula Reed, District 2

Total raised: $73,408.62

Total spent: $61,897

Big donors: Stephen Keen, attorney ($40,000); Public Education Committee, associated with Colorado Education Association ($3,166.67)

Theresa Shelton, District 2

Total raised: $10,913.74

Total spent: $3,553.17

Big donors: Sarah Bock, owner of Glacier Homemade Ice Cream & Gelato ($1,000)

David Johnson, District 2

Total raised: $200

Total spent: $0

Mary Parker, District 5

Total raised: $80,068

Total spent: $55,053.79

Big donors: Stephen Keen, attorney ($10,000); Public Education Committee, associated with Colorado Education Association ($18,166.67); The JCEA Small Donor Committee, associated with the Jefferson County Education Association ($24,000)

Kathy Miks, District 5

Total raised: $10,096.20

Total spent: $3,550.82

Big donors: Raymond German III, ($800)

Committee: Students Deserve Better

Total spent in Jeffco: $36,708.72

Funded by: Colorado Fund for Children and Public Education, affiliated with the Colorado Education Association ($257,000) and other teacher association groups.

Expenditures: $36,708.72 on mailers supporting Paula Reed, Danielle Varda, and Mary Parker.

Aurora and Denver school boards discuss pay for board members

2021-10-22T18:58:38+00:00

Update: The Aurora school board received no feedback from the public at its special meeting Thursday evening. Kayla Armstrong-Romero, board president, said taking a vote before Election Day would be too rushed and encouraged the board to find more ways to engage the community before trying to pass the proposal.

Aurora’s school board could become one of the first in the state to pay board members, while Denver school board members have started discussing a similar proposal.

In Colorado, school board members serve as volunteers, and have not been allowed to be compensated for their time. But a law passed in April changed that.

Proponents of paying school board members hope to remove a barrier so that more diverse candidates can consider serving, although some experts question whether pay itself will make a big difference.

The Aurora school board has drafted a proposal to pay board members $150 per day, for up to three days per month, when they show they’ve had official board duties.

The board now is seeking feedback from the community on Thursday night. If they proceed, they would schedule a vote before Election Day.

According to the new law, school boards can pass a resolution in a public meeting to compensate board members by up to $150 per day for not more than five days per week. Board members who vote to approve such pay could not receive it during their current term.

That’s part of the reason Aurora school board members want to hurry a vote on their proposal before the election. Four of seven seats are up for grabs, and only one incumbent is running for reelection. New board members could receive the pay, if the outgoing members vote to pass the resolution. Incumbent Debbie Gerkin would be eligible for the pay if re-elected. She said she would abstain from discussion and a vote.

Initially, the board considered enabling new board members to receive compensation right away, but that would mean only half of the board would be receiving pay while others could not.

An attorney for the district suggested that another option would be to approve the change before the election, but not have it take effect until two years from now, after the next election for the remaining three seats, so that all board members could start receiving pay at the same time.

“Some people have to work in the daytime, some people don’t,” said Kevin Cox, a proponent of board pay and an outgoing board member who’s not running for reelection. “Some people can make more phone calls because they’re not working a 12-hour shift or what have you. This is a good idea.”

Cox, who has worked as a truck driver, described how serving on the board has been a challenge.

“That first two years, I called in for every board meeting or I missed or I made a really hard struggle and it cost a lot of money,” Cox said. “If I know for a fact that’s not going to be a problem for the next generation of board members, that’s the best thing.”

The district’s attorney also told board members that their resolution should be clear and specific when it comes to board duties eligible for pay, to avoid problems, as he said board members would begin to be subject to scrutiny by the state’s ethics commission.

Aurora serves one of the most diverse areas of the state. Its seven-member board includes four Black members, and one Hispanic member.

The Denver school board discussed the potential for paying board members at a work session Monday. Many members agreed it could help diversify a seven-member board that is, at the moment, majority white and middle class or wealthy in a district where most students are Black and Hispanic and come from low-income families.

Tay Anderson, who submitted the topic for discussion, is a young Denver Public Schools graduate and one of two Black members on the board. He testified in favor of the legislation that last spring opened the door to compensation. In an interview, he said he’s had to turn down job offers because employers couldn’t accommodate his board meeting schedule.

The board has three public meetings a month that start at 4:30 p.m., in addition to smaller committee meetings, individual meetings with district staff, training sessions, and ceremonies such as graduations. Many board members also regularly visit schools and respond to crises. In addition, board members have said they sometimes get hundreds of emails each day.

“I strongly believe that not having the ability to be compensated blocks so many people of color from actually serving on this board,” Anderson told the board.

“Only privileged people can access this position of power. ... This is an opportunity for us as a district to open the access up to BIPOC communities and single parents who want to be able to serve their community,” he said, referring to Black, Indigenous and people of color.

But despite agreeing with that idea, several board members had questions.

Barbara O’Brien’s questions were the most pointed. O’Brien is a former Colorado lieutenant governor who has served on the board eight years and is barred by term limits from running again. She’ll leave the board after next month’s election.

“We have to really talk about what it would mean in terms of the loss of the integrity of the board if there’s any question that we’re doing any of our work to be able to generate a per diem,” she said.

Angela Cobián, the board’s treasurer, whose four-year term is nearly up and who is not running for reelection, said she’d want to understand the fiscal impact before voting. Denver is already facing financial challenges, including an expected decrease in state per-pupil funding.

“I am also extra sensitive to things that might require additional resources when we are already under-resourced — both from the cumulative impact of a drastically underfunded school system ... at the level of the state, on top of the declining enrollment that we’re seeing,” she said.

The Denver board debated but did not decide Monday when to vote on the matter. Brad Laurvick floated the idea of voting on the concept before the Nov. 2 election and then working out the details later so the board members elected next month could be paid in the near future.

Four of the seven board seats are up for election. Only one incumbent, board President Carrie Olson, is running for reelection and would be eligible for the pay.

This is what Jeffco school board candidates say about their priorities

2021-10-12T20:39:33+00:00

Jeffco voters will decide whether to change the direction of the district’s school board this year.

The Jeffco district, the second-largest in Colorado, has a five-member school board.

The three open seats are divided by district, meaning each candidate must live in that part of Jefferson County, but voters in the entire school district can vote in all three races.

Seven candidates are running for the three seats, and none of them are incumbents.

The school board will work with the district’s new superintendent to oversee a pandemic recovery, which includes improving academic performance. The district is also dealing with a declining student population, which has already resulted in school closures and will likely require planning how to deal with facilities in the long term.

Many parents and community members have also been calling for the district to improve its mental health support for students.

One slate of candidates includes Mary Parker, Danielle Varda, and Paula Reed, supported by the district’s teachers union, and is focused on improving neighborhood schools and improving recruitment and retention of staff.

Three other candidates, Jeff Wilhite, Theresa Shelton, and Kathy Miks, are running as an informal slate, hosting some events together and earning the support of the group Jeffco Kids First, a group that organized protests against masking requirements. They are more conservative candidates who say they want to prioritize better use of existing funds, and improve academic achievement on state tests.

For more information about this year’s school board elections, click here for our previous coverage.

To help voters weigh the candidates, Chalkbeat sent the same set of questions to each one. Below are their answers. We’ve edited them lightly for clarity.

Aurora school board candidates answer 9 questions about their priorities

2021-11-01T23:13:31+00:00

Aurora voters can pick four new school board members this year.

The school board for Aurora Public Schools consists of seven members. Only one incumbent, Debbie Gerkin, is running for re-election, and she is joined by five other candidates who want a seat on the board.

In Aurora, all board members are at large, meaning they all represent the whole district, and all voters can choose them. The top four vote-getters will win the seats.

Among the issues the school board will face in the next couple of years is overseeing efforts to improve student achievement, especially after the pandemic, and overseeing the rollout of Blueprint APS, the district’s facility plan that involves creating magnet schools, closing schools, and opening new ones where development is booming.

Many candidates say equity work is among their top priorities.

The new board will also oversee negotiations next spring for a new contract with the teachers union.

The teachers union has endorsed three candidates: Gerkin, Michael Carter, and Tramaine Duncan. For more information about this year’s school board elections, click here for our previous coverage.

To help voters weigh their decision Chalkbeat sent the same set of questions to all candidates. Below are their answers. We’ve edited them lightly for clarity.

Note: Marques Ivey appears on the ballot because he submitted signatures to run for reelection, but he later withdrew from the race.

Jeffco board candidates want better neighborhood schools, fiscal management

2021-09-22T23:53:15+00:00

Despite protests and vocal backlash at school board meetings, Jeffco board candidates say they are focused on what comes after the COVID pandemic rather than current COVID-related issues.

Instead, the candidates are focused on improving academic performance, increasing mental health support, and hiring and retaining quality teachers. Some candidates, however, believe removing mask mandates is part of improving mental health for students.

Seven candidates are running for three open positions on the five-seat Jeffco school board. The district is the second largest in Colorado with about 80,000 students.

The election has the potential to change the direction of the district. The majority of the current board includes members supportive of and endorsed by the teachers union. If critics of the district and the union win two of the three open seats, they would have the majority.

Candidates Mary Parker, Paula Reed, and Danielle Varda have formed a slate, now endorsed by the teachers union, and are prioritizing staff hiring and retention, and improving what they refer to as “neighborhood schools.”

“We want candidates that trust the professionals and the experiences of teachers and support staff,” said Brooke Williams, president of the Jeffco teachers union. “Our committee was really impressed with their commitment to students. Also, I think it’s really important that they have deep roots in the community.”

Opponents Theresa Shelton, Kathy Miks, and Jeff Wilhite seek improved fiscal management of the district’s budget, as well as protection of school choice. Another candidate, David Johnson, also is interested in district finances but wants to ensure that all aspects get covered including facilities, as well as better focusing money on mental health staff in schools.

School board elections are nonpartisan but politics have never been too far away. In 2015, three conservative school board members were successfully recalled after attempting to create a system of performance pay, and calling for a revision of U.S. history curriculum to ensure it was patriotic.

“We’ve seen what happens to our district when it becomes ground zero for political issues,” Williams said. “We just really want our focus to be on our students.”

Maria Martinez believes as a parent of three Jeffco students that the school district and the board should be creating more opportunities for students to be physically active as a way to support mental and emotional health. She believes lunch times are too short and wants to make sure the district leadership works on ways to make the district’s activities more inclusive of students of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

But Martinez, who used to work as a paraprofessional in the district, also sees another priority: paying staff more.

She said that she’s seen staff stress affecting students and believes the low pay also contributes to staffing shortages that caused cuts to bus service in recent weeks.

“Everything gets absorbed by students,” Martinez said. “The stress of a person or teacher can be transferred to students if they come to class and are worried about whether or not they will be able to pay their electric bill or rent. On the other hand, a better paid person with less stress can come to school happy and can have better ideas.”

Bus issues are also a high priority for Rachel Crass, a mother of three. Her two elementary-age children are being home-schooled this year — temporarily, Crass said she hopes — and her 15-year-old son opted into a program at Wheat Ridge High School.

Crass said she’s glad Jeffco parents can choose the school that’s right for their kids, but she feels the district isn’t making choices easy for parents by not providing transportation or better start and end times.

Before her children were home-schooled, she was shuttling them to and from school an hour and a half daily and Crass didn’t like her kids being in the car for that long. Despite her high schooler being dismissed 10 minutes earlier than his siblings, he had to wait while his mother picked up the other kids first.

“Parents, especially moms, we’re in this really crappy situation,” Crass said. Now, she feels she’s having to choose between being a working parent to help provide for her family, or a parent who does what her kids need. “I don’t feel like I can do both.”

She said she’s not sure what the school board or the district needs to do to attract more bus staff, although she’s curious if the district isn’t paying enough; she wants school board candidates to address the issue.

Katy Winner, another district parent who’s been active in several district committees including one pushing to change start times, said she wants candidates to focus on issues that were present before the pandemic including making schools safe, providing equitable resources to schools, and finding ways to get marginalized communities more involved.

“All voices need to be heard,” Winner said.

The candidates are:

District 1:

Danielle Varda — is a mother of three current Jeffco students, as well as a university professor, researcher, and business owner. She is worried about teacher retention. “Teachers today are struggling,” Varda said. “We are losing teachers to other districts. We’re not as competitive maybe or creative in the way we are trying to recruit teachers.”

Jeffrey Wilhite — has been a member of the district’s accountability committee and on the board of two charter schools. His priorities include better stewardship of finances, improving academics and school choice. “People are really unhappy and that causes a great deal of polarization between people,” Wilhite said. “One of the things the new board has to deal with is to try to disarm that polarization that has taken place. There’s a real disharmony and we have to fix that.”

District 2:

David Johnson — is a former history teacher who wants to help represent the mountain communities of Jeffco. His priorities are to be a nonpartisan voice that can bring people together. He is the father of one Jeffco student and a business owner. “My main goal is to continue to build collaboration and teamwork,” Johnson said. “My goal is to ensure everyone’s heard and collaboration is part of the process.”

Paula Reed — is a former teacher at Columbine High School. She wants to advocate for improved school funding and believes the district should have a greater say in whether new charter schools are opened in Jeffco. “I was very active in the recall of the board majority in 2015 and putting in the clean slate so I’m very, very aware of how important a school board majority is and how much damage can be done,” Reed said. “Jeffco schools mean a lot to me.”

Theresa Shelton — is an accountant and mother of two Jeffco students. Shelton Elementary is named after her husband’s parents. She is concerned about a downward trend in student performance on state tests before COVID. She believes more evidence was necessary for parents before masking was required in schools. “We all expected it to get worse,” Shelton said of academic achievement after the pandemic. “Now what are we going to do about it? I felt like I couldn’t keep complaining anymore, I had to do something.”

District 5:

Kathy Miks — is a manager at an insulation company and former volleyball coach at Columbine High School. Her priorities include fiscal responsibility, protecting parent choices, and supporting mental health and the “whole child.” She decided to run after an encounter with a group of “high-functioning homeless” at a shelter in California. “They just don’t have the skills necessary to get a job that pays enough. It broke my heart, and I started to think about our kids in Jeffco,” Miks said. “Whether they’re going right into a career or military or college, we need to make sure they have the skills to be successful.”

Mary Parker — is a child advocate who has worked for many years with foster children and also is a member of Moms Demand Action. She believes the school board should respect employee associations and focus on hiring and retention of staff. “Funding is a big, big problem,” Parker said. “It impacts our ability to recruit and retain good teachers. Support staff too. I’ve seen so many signs for ‘bus drivers needed’. Jeffco is in a bad spot.”

Denver school board votes to censure Tay Anderson

2021-09-17T23:59:10+00:00

Saying that Tay Anderson had violated expectations of board member behavior, the Denver school board voted 6 to 1 Friday to censure him. Anderson voted no.

It appears to be the first time the Denver school board has censured one of its own and comes after a five-month investigation into sexual assault and misconduct accusations that found the most serious allegations against Anderson could not be substantiated. The censure came at the end of a tense special board meeting with just this topic on the agenda.

At one point an emotional Anderson asked for a five-minute recess and abruptly left the hearing room. Board President Carrie Olson also stepped out before the vote to consult with an attorney. The last to vote, Olson sat with her head bowed for a full 12 seconds in the hushed room before voting in favor of censure.

While both Olson and Anderson pledged to keep working together for the good of Denver students, Anderson also said he has retained legal counsel and is considering his options. It remains to be seen how the school board will move past this divisive period.

Two days before the board meeting, the school board publicly released a 96-page report by outside investigators into allegations against Anderson. The most serious allegation — that he sexually assaulted an unnamed woman who declined to participate in the investigation — was not substantiated. Neither were allegations of sexual misconduct involving Denver Public Schools students.

However, board members expressed deep disappointment related to allegations that were substantiated, including that Anderson had flirtatious contact with Denver students on social media and made social media posts that could be perceived as intimidating witnesses in the investigation.

The resolution of censure specifically cited those incidents as not meeting the high standards of ethical behavior expected of school board members.

Fellow board members said at Friday’s meeting that Anderson’s behavior crossed lines. They also raised concerns about the many witnesses who told the independent investigators they feared retaliation for speaking against Anderson.

Board Vice President Jennifer Bacon noted that she had worked closely with Anderson to improve how the district serves Black students. As a Black woman, she said was painfully aware both of how Black men have been treated by the justice system and how Black women have been ignored and shunted aside. She spoke directly to Anderson and said she hoped he learned that his behavior was not appropriate for someone in a position of power or in elected office.

“Undoubtedly, you have been through the ringer, and you have been treated unfairly in a lot of respects,” Bacon said. “You have not been convicted of a crime. But I hope that you learn and know what is acceptable for what you can control and do with your own hands and mouth.

“I do not think you should be removed from the board, but I do think you should be held accountable and know the limits of your behavior.”

Board member Angela Cobián recalled being pursued as a young woman by a man in a position of power in an organization she was involved with and how it made her feel dirty and ashamed. While such behavior is common, the board needed to take a strong stand that it is wrong, she said.

“Regardless of their age, directors are held to a higher standard the moment they decide to run for public office, including at age 19,” she said.

Olson said the purpose of the censure was not to shame Anderson but to take a stance about what behavior is acceptable by elected officials. She said board members should be held at least to the same standards as district employees.

For his part, Anderson described painful personal attacks he had experienced after being accused of sexual assault, including his mother being confronted in the grocery store and his infant son being threatened “all because of the words of one white woman.”

He was referring to Mary-Katherine Brooks Fleming, a Denver parent who made explosive accusations that he had abused dozens of girls and young women, a charge that investigators found lacked credibility.

Anderson also read aloud from emails he had received filled with racial slurs, profanity, and violent threats.

“Nobody sitting on this board understands what it means to walk in the shoes of a Black man in America,” he said.

Tay Anderson addresses reporters in advance of a censure vote against him.

Anderson said that when he first read the report, he felt intense relief that investigators had not substantiated the accusations of sexual assault, only to feel sadness and confusion that his colleagues planned to censure him related to other conduct.

“This is unprecedented, and it reeks of anti-Blackness and is rooted in systems that uphold white supremacy,” he said.

The Denver school board launched the investigation after the civil rights group Black Lives Matter 5280 said on social media in March that a young woman had come to them and said Anderson raped her. Anderson denied that he had sexually assaulted anyone.

The woman declined to participate in the investigation, rebuffing repeated requests. Investigators found that certain evidence, including employment records, contradicted the version of the story that was presented by another woman claiming to represent the alleged victim in a media interview. Investigators did not substantiate the allegation.

The woman claiming to represent the BLM 5280 complainant — Brooks Fleming — also testified before a legislative committee that dozens of girls and young women, most of them undocumented, had come to her to report that a person in a position of trust had assaulted them. The school board later identified the accused person as Anderson. Conservative radio hosts and right-wing internet trolls seized on these accusations, but the investigators could not find any evidence to support them.

However, investigators substantiated claims that Anderson made unwelcome sexual comments, advances, and physical contact with former members of a youth anti-gun violence group called Never Again Colorado, of which Anderson was president in 2018. Most of this section of the report was redacted at Anderson’s request.

They also found Anderson had flirtatious communication with two high school girls while he was a candidate and school board member. One woman told investigators Anderson messaged her to flirt and suggest dates in 2018 when she was a senior in high school, but she felt uncomfortable and refused to meet him. Anderson told investigators he thought she had already graduated because she mentioned college plans. The more recent exchange happened last year with a girl who was 16 at the time. Anderson told investigators he didn’t know she was a teenager, and when he found out, he stopped messaging her.

In addition, investigators found that Anderson made two social media posts during the investigation that could have been seen as coercive or intimidating of witnesses. Anderson said Friday the social media posts had been made in frustration about ongoing racist harassment and that he took them down quickly when his mother told him he should not have posted them.

The Denver school board does not have a policy on censure, a spokesperson said. The last time it was considered was in 2010, when three board members were accused of violating the state’s open meetings law. That censure vote ultimately did not happen.

Anderson, 23, is two years into serving a four-year term on the board. He was elected to an at-large seat as part of a historic election that flipped the board away from supporting education reform policies.

Anderson began his campaign against the censure in social media posts and in an open letter to his board colleagues the day before the meeting.

He said he hadn’t violated the board’s conduct policy, which mostly prohibits board members from accepting gifts or benefiting financially from their office.

He also asked if the district would launch an investigation into accusations against any other board member extending “beyond the allegations themselves to also include scrutiny of the director’s behavior as a teenager.”

At a press conference before the meeting, Bishop Jerry Demmer of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance spoke in support of Anderson.

“Over 60 allegations and not one of them had any basis,” Demmer said. “It is an issue where there is one Black man on the school board, and everyone is together against him.”

Anderson said emphatically that he would not resign.

“I will stay on the board until 2023,” he said, “and we will finish the work we started in 2019.”

Melanie Asmar contributed reporting.

Aurora school board candidates see equity and academics as top issues

2021-09-16T01:17:51+00:00

A majority of the seats on the Aurora school board are up for grabs this November in the district’s first school board election since the pandemic disrupted education.

Six candidates, including one incumbent, will compete for the four open seats. All seats are at-large, meaning Aurora voters will select their top four candidates to join the seven-member board.

Of the four open seats, three are being vacated by school board members who chose not to pursue a second four-year term, including Marques Ivey, who turned in enough signatures to run again but now is withdrawing from the race.

The work of school boards has become increasingly difficult in the last two years. State politicians have left many decisions about reopening schools during the pandemic to the school districts and their boards, which have faced the anger of critical community members.

In Aurora, the stress of those decisions added to friction between the school board and the district superintendent as they struggled to define the board’s authority. The outgoing board has set up a structure for how to govern, leaving the superintendent to manage most daily decisions. They hope that the governance model will outlast them even as new board members step in with their own ideas for the district.

Some Aurora candidates note the friction and say they want the board to have a better relationship with the superintendent.

On the candidates' minds are some long-standing issues, such as a need to improve communication with Aurora’s diverse communities and the interest in guiding the district’s equity work.

But the pandemic has also reshaped other district conversations. Improving academic achievement now is more urgent as the pandemic seems to have slowed students' academic progress across the country and exacerbated existing gaps in achievement. The pandemic also revealed other factors that can stand in the way of student learning, such as food insecurity and limited access to the internet.

Although candidates are hesitant to talk about issues like mask or vaccine requirements, they all admit those are common questions among community members they meet while knocking on doors.

Two high school students who are helping to organize a forum for candidates next month said that their positions on COVID measures are also important to them.

“It shows the bigger picture: Does this candidate care about my health and my family’s health,” said Rediet Moges, 17. Moges’ mother was hospitalized with COVID earlier in the pandemic. She has since recovered. “Are they willing to listen to what health professionals are telling us and advising us?”

COVID mitigation, however, is not the top issue among students.

They also want to know how the district will help them catch up academically, improve mental health resources, and address racial and socioeconomic inequities.

Moges said that, as a student of color, she didn’t always feel supported by Aurora school leaders, who were mostly white, when she tried to report issues about inequities and disparities.

Jason Hoang, 17, said he also sees disparities in school program options available to students in Aurora, compared to other districts, and hopes school board members can guide the district to changes.

“Our college-prep programs are not as rigorous as other programs at other districts,” Hoang said.

Both Moges and Hoang said they want candidates who will listen to students.

“Do they have an understanding of the types of students in Aurora and their background and what we might need?” Moges asked.

The six candidates are:

Michael Carter — a military veteran, criminal lawyer, and father to three children in the school district. His priorities include improving communication between the board and the community and helping recruit and retain teachers of color. He is also concerned about the instability parents in the district felt at times during the pandemic, unsure whether or not school would resume in person.

Christy Cummings — a psychologist who also teaches in the Colorado Community College System and a mother of two district students. Her priorities include addressing student mental health by removing COVID-related restrictions and providing access to more after-school programming. “I want to represent moms,” she said.

Tramaine Duncan — a math teacher in a Denver school and parent of three Aurora students. He lives near one of the schools the district closed last school year and near Aurora Central, a school that has been struggling and is facing more changes. Duncan said his priority is to better engage the community and to ensure equity as changes happen.

Debbie Gerkin — a former school principal who has already served four years on the school board. Her priorities include student achievement, social and emotional supports for students and teachers, and continuing to roll out the Blueprint plan, which is the district’s long-term facilities plan to address shifts in enrollment.

Anne Keke — a teacher at a district charter school and the Community College of Denver, and mother of an Aurora student. She is also an immigrant from the Ivory Coast. Her priorities include helping to give a voice to immigrant communities in the district and closing academic achievement gaps. “The asset of Aurora lies in its diversity, in its people, and we have not tapped into it yet,” she said.

Danielle Tomwing — a software engineer originally from Trinidad and Tobago and mother of two Aurora students. Tomwing is also a board member at Vanguard Classical School, a charter her daughters attend. Her priorities include addressing equity issues in the district and pushing the district to be innovative.

Most serious sexual allegations against Tay Anderson unsubstantiated, report finds

2021-09-16T02:29:51+00:00

In a long-awaited report, a third-party investigator found that the most serious sexual misconduct allegations against Denver school board member Tay Anderson were not substantiated, but found enough for the board to consider censuring him.

Denver-based Investigations Law Group concluded as unsubstantiated a claim that Anderson had sexually assaulted an unnamed woman, according to the firm’s 96-page report. The woman’s allegation was made public by the civil rights organization Black Lives Matter 5280 in March.

However, the firm substantiated most allegations that Anderson, 23, had made “unwelcome sexual comments and advances” and “engaged in unwelcome sexual contact” toward members of a youth anti-gun violence group called Never Again Colorado, of which he was president in 2018.

The behavior was not connected to Denver Public Schools; the report notes that it took place off district property with non-Denver students. Anderson was not a district employee nor a school board member at the time. He was elected more than a year later, in November 2019.

But the firm substantiated that Anderson had “flirtatious social media contact” with a 16-year-old Denver Public Schools student while he was a board member. It also substantiated that he made two social media posts that were coercive and intimidating toward witnesses during the investigation, which the board commissioned in April.

Not substantiated were claims by a Denver woman in May that Anderson committed sexual assault or misconduct against 62 Denver Public Schools students. The firm also did not find that Anderson committed misconduct while he was employed in a support role at Denver’s North High School or Manual High School, his alma mater, before he was elected.

Investigations Law Group used a “preponderance of evidence” standard, which it explained in the report means that an allegation is substantiated if it is more likely than not to be true. Two invoices show the firm has billed Denver Public Schools at least $105,449 for its work.

A possible censure

The school board said in a statement Wednesday that it would consider a censure against Anderson on Friday and that it would have no further comment until then. Board members cannot remove a fellow member, given that the board is elected by voters. But the board can censure or reprimand a fellow member or remove that member from board committees.

“The most grievous accusations were not substantiated and the board is grateful for that,” the board’s statement says. “However, the report reveals behavior unbecoming of a board member.

“As elected officials, we must hold ourselves and each other to the highest standards in carrying out the best interests of the district. Director Anderson’s behavior does not meet those standards.”

Anderson is serving a four-year term on the school board. He is a Denver Public Schools graduate and has long been an activist, leading protests against racism and police brutality, which has made him a target of conservatives.

Statement from Anderson

In a tweet that featured the words “let’s get back to work!” Anderson issued a statement emphasizing his cooperation with the investigation and expressing hope for community healing.

“I believe the most important message that can be conveyed at this time is that the finding of unsubstantiated claims against me is in no way a victory over survivors, but rather an opportunity to reconsider how we view and create not only restorative, but also transformative justice, for survivors, falsely accused, and correctly convicted,” the statement said.

Anderson said he planned to “address the report in its entirety” at a press conference after he’d had a chance to review the document with his attorney.

The other six board members received the results of the investigation Monday. Anderson got them Tuesday, a day before they were publicly released. Parts of the report are heavily redacted, including a section about student-related allegations.

Portions of a section about Never Again Colorado were redacted “because Director Anderson asserts that they violate his privacy interests,” according to the board’s statement. The board said it believes the report should be “as transparent as possible” and plans to ask a judge to determine whether it’s appropriate to release the redacted information.

Details of the findings

The report begins with an acknowledgement of the complicated context of the investigation, given “the history of racism in relation to allegations of sexual assault, the historical mistreatment of sexual assault survivors, and the volatile landscape of social media.”

“These three constructs combined to create a difficult environment for witnesses to feel safe in coming forward, and for Director Anderson to feel that he has obtained a fair process,” it says.

“Our team is trained in working in this challenging environment, and our process provided for checks and balances to ensure fair treatment of all parties and fair analysis of all evidence.”

Investigations Law Group interviewed 63 people for the investigation, the report says. It did not interview the alleged victim of the sexual assault allegation, despite repeated attempts. The report says the alleged victim declined to participate in the investigation.

Instead, the alleged incident was described to investigators by an intermediary — the same woman who made the claim about the 62 alleged victims. The woman told investigators that the sexual assault happened in May 2017 when Anderson and the alleged victim worked at a now-closed Krispy Kreme donut shop on Denver’s 16th Street Mall.

But investigators said the credibility of the woman’s secondhand account was “not strong.” They cited inconsistencies in her story, among other issues. Investigators were also not able to confirm that Anderson worked at Krispy Kreme in May 2017. Records from the company that did payroll for the store show he stopped working there a month prior, the report says.

Investigators did interview 11 people associated with the now-defunct Never Again Colorado group. Evidence showed Anderson made unwanted sexual comments and advances toward women in the group, most of which Anderson admitted, the report says.

“Nearly all of this behavior was not welcomed by the recipients,” the report says. “The dynamic was heavily influenced by the power disparity between Director Anderson, as a well-known and influential activist, and these high schoolers, many of whom looked up to him.”

Anderson was 19 when he got involved with the group, but then turned 20. The other participants in the situation were 17 and 18 years old, the report says.

The report describes a “party atmosphere” within the organization, and notes that Anderson participated in it. But it says he did not solely create the atmosphere and later stepped down as the group’s president and apologized.

More details

Investigators said they found two instances of Anderson communicating with high school girls while he was a candidate and board member that were “objectively flirtatious.” The most recent exchange happened last year between Anderson and a girl who was 16 at the time.

In messages between them, Anderson told the girl they should be friends, asked her if she lived with family or had her own place, asked her what she did for work and if she knew how to make pizza. When she said yes, he said, “You’ll have to teach me I know that’s basic but still.”

Anderson said he didn’t know the girl’s age when they started messaging. When he found out she was a teenager, he stopped, he said. He called the messages “a mistake,” the report says.

Anderson also made two social media posts during the investigation “that could reasonably have been interpreted as coercive or intimidating against witnesses,” the report says.

One post involved a meme of Bugs Bunny with a shotgun to his chest and the words “do it bitch.” Another post was a statement Anderson made on Facebook warning people who disparaged him not to speak to him again.

Witnesses could have seen the meme as threatening, and the second post as retaliatory, the report says. But investigators noted that it’s unlikely Anderson’s posts had a chilling effect on their work. “Most of the behaviors identified by witnesses as retaliatory fall into the realm of heated social media rhetoric,” the report says.

Aurora school board grants itself greater say in issues of school closures, layoffs, and more

2021-07-21T01:16:28+00:00

The Aurora school board will now have more say about some district decisions.

A board vote Tuesday requires Superintendent Rico Munn to communicate with the board and consider its input 60 days before asking for a vote on certain issues. The new rule will apply to decisions about the budget, school closures or boundary changes, labor negotiation agreements, contracts that will cost 5% or more of the district budget, and any request to reduce staffing. The board’s selection and evaluation of its superintendent and any changes to the district’s goals are also covered under the new process.

In public discussions, board members and the consultant they worked with described the new process as a tweak to the framework governing the relationship between the board and the superintendent; that framework was approved in the last year.

Big changes to board governance may determine whether Munn stays in the district. If Aurora’s board strays too far from its policy governance model, which grants the superintendent most managerial control, Munn could consider the changes a termination of his contract. He would have to give the board 30 days notice before leaving.

Over the past year, tensions have risen between the board and the superintendent, as the board overturned district plans and voted down Munn’s request to give employees notice that a reduction in staff could be coming, following existing policies. Instead, the district had to plan to create jobs for displaced employees who hadn’t yet secured employment.

Some board members said they didn’t like feeling pressured to approve all of Munn’s plans but were told that under the model of policy governance, the board is to entrust district operations to the superintendent and enforce their authority through creating policies, not by interfering in day-to-day plans.

A consultant from the Council of Great City Schools, AJ Crabill, helped craft the language approved Tuesday after talking with individual board members and realizing they actually wanted some tweaks and not to throw out the whole previous framework as had been considered earlier.

Joshua Starr, a former superintendent and the CEO of PDK International, a professional organization for educators, said Aurora’s new rules seemed “overly prescriptive.”

He added that communication between a superintendent and its board is necessary, especially with large issues as the ones flagged for additional board say. But that rigid timelines might cause delays in addressing issues.

“On the surface, you can say there’s some good stuff,” Starr said. “But it smacks to me of a bad relationship and the desire of the board to do a gotcha on the superintendent.”

One issue that the board will not have additional control over is the creation of new positions. Board member Nichelle Ortiz had requested that it be added to the list.

Crabill said the majority of the board did not want control over hiring or firing individuals and that some of this authority would already be built into the board’s approval of the budget.

Previously, the board had discussed whether they should have more say in vetting contracts or partnerships. Some on the board wanted the district to consider partnering with a local university that had approached individual members.

The consultant advised the board against vetting partnerships and contracts.

Tay Anderson, teachers union reveal more about allegations from Denver school board race

2021-06-11T03:05:17+00:00

More details were revealed Thursday about the Denver teachers union’s 2019 endorsement of Tay Anderson for school board and whether union leaders knew at the time about allegations of inappropriate behavior.

Denver Classroom Teachers Association President Rob Gould said in a statement Thursday that the union’s political arm “received an anonymous letter containing unsubstantiated, nebulous allegations that Mr. Anderson had misused board funds and acted inappropriately toward a woman on the board of directors of a local advocacy group.”

A union spokesperson confirmed that the local advocacy group was Never Again Colorado, a youth-led anti-gun violence group of which Anderson, 22, was president in 2018. Gould said the allegations were “not verifiable.” The union endorsed Anderson in 2019, and he won.

In a separate statement, Anderson confirmed Thursday that the union asked him during the 2019 campaign about his time with Never Again Colorado. He has since said some of his behavior as the group’s president was inappropriate. But Anderson has maintained that his behavior back then, or at any other time, did not include perpetrating sexual assault.

Anderson is currently the subject of a third-party investigation initiated by his fellow Denver school board members into allegations of sexual misconduct that surfaced this spring. The board said Thursday it expects findings from the investigation by the end of the summer. The district has spent more than $50,000 on the investigation so far, the board said.

The most serious allegations have been anonymous and secondhand.

In March, the local civil rights group Black Lives Matter 5280 said a woman who wished to remain anonymous told them Anderson sexually assaulted her.

In April, anonymous former members of Never Again Colorado wrote a letter alleging Anderson had made lewd comments and dared them to perform “sexualized actions,” among other things.

In May, a Denver activist said dozens of young women had come to her seeking protection from a specific man. The school board later said that those allegations were about Anderson.

And this week, Radhika Nath, who also ran for school board in 2019, said the teachers union asked her to switch from her race into Anderson’s at-large race because they were worried an allegation of sexual assault would be made public and knock him out of contention.

Gould said the union did ask Nath to move races in May 2019 but not because of an allegation against Anderson. However, Nath also issued a statement Thursday saying that on June 10 of that year, the union’s hired political consultant, Rachel Caine, told Nath and her campaign that sexual assault allegations against Anderson “would be a liability” to the union.

“I was uncomfortable with the position the union put me in and decided to share the information with Mr. Anderson’s campaign so that he could address the allegations head-on,” Nath said.

Anderson’s attorney, Christopher Decker, said in a statement Thursday that the assertion that Anderson “was approached by anyone in DCTA, or other candidates, specifically about any sexual assault allegations is categorically false.”

Chalkbeat was unable to reach Caine on Thursday.

Thursday’s statements follow reporting by Chalkbeat that the union’s political arm in charge of endorsements, called the DCTA Fund, knew of a letter in 2019 written by a young woman expressing that she was afraid of Anderson.

Earlier this week, Anderson denied that he knew about any letter in 2019. He said he was “deeply disappointed” that the union “hid this communication, if in fact it exists.”

But after the union provided more detail Thursday about the allegations it received in 2019, Anderson said the union had asked him about his time at Never Again Colorado. In a public apology he issued in April, Anderson described his misbehavior at Never Again Colorado as “various explicit comments I made as a teenager.” He acknowledged they were inappropriate and said he later resigned as the group’s president.

Gould said that after talking to Anderson in 2019, the union was satisfied that the allegations in the anonymous letter were unfounded.

“The letter provided no specificity about the allegations, and there was nothing to support that a minor could be involved so there was no duty to report,” Gould said. He added that “the Fund does not have the capacity to conduct background investigations for each and every candidate.”

Denver teachers union was told of allegation against Tay Anderson two years ago, sources say

2021-06-09T23:54:09+00:00

When Tay Anderson was running for an at-large seat on the Denver school board in 2019, the teachers union tried to persuade a candidate for a different seat to switch to the at-large race. Union leadership was worried allegations about Anderson’s behavior would become public and knock him out of contention, according to two people who were present for the conversations.

But Denver Classroom Teachers Association President Rob Gould denied that fears over possible allegations against Anderson, who is now the subject of a third-party investigation initiated by the school board, were the reason that the union’s political arm tried to get candidate Radhika Nath to switch from the southeast Denver school board race to the at-large race.

“The assertion that we asked Ms. Nath to switch races because of any allegations against Mr. Anderson is not true,” Gould said in a statement. “Early on in the process, as is always the case, multiple people can be sought out and can come forward as potential candidates for endorsement. DCTA was looking at all options. After navigating the endorsement process and receiving member input, Mr. Anderson is who we ultimately recommended.”

Nath declined to comment to Chalkbeat. However, two people in Nath’s campaign who asked to remain anonymous confirmed that DCTA asked Nath to move because leaders expected a sexual assault allegation against Anderson to surface. Specific details were not revealed at the time, and the Nath campaign was not provided with proof.

The two people said they were in the room for conversations between the union and Nath and also spoke with the union’s hired political consultant, Rachel Caine. The two people said Nath’s campaign also had a conversation with Anderson’s campaign about the allegation. Nath did not end up switching and lost her race for the southeast Denver seat.

Asked whether Anderson or his campaign knew about a sexual assault allegation in 2019, Anderson’s lawyer Christopher Decker said in an email, “That is not accurate and I do not believe there will be any evidence (contemporary in time) to support that.”

Caine did not return messages and texts from Chalkbeat.

Anderson, 22, won his election. Now, two years later, Denver Public Schools has hired a private firm to investigate multiple accusations of sexual assault and harassment against him. The investigation is ongoing, and the district has not announced its findings.

The most serious allegations have been anonymous and second hand, with adults coming forward to say young women confided in them. Chalkbeat has not been able to independently verify or disprove these allegations. Anderson has denied sexually assaulting anyone.

Endorsement concerns

A small group of elected and appointed teachers union members choose which candidates the DCTA Fund, the union’s political action group, will support.

A member of the DCTA Fund in 2019, middle school music teacher Priscilla Shaw, said concerns about Anderson also surfaced during the endorsement process via a letter that was read aloud to the Fund members.

Shaw said the letter allegedly was written by a young woman, but Shaw doesn’t know to whom it was originally addressed. The letter didn’t explicitly reference sexual assault, Shaw said, or specify what had allegedly happened between the woman and Anderson. But Shaw said she got the impression that the woman was traumatized by Anderson.

“The tone was fear, trauma, desperation: ‘I need help, but I don’t feel safe,’” Shaw said.

In a statement, Gould said the DCTA Fund “did receive anonymous information during this process about Tay Anderson that was not verifiable.” He said the Fund followed its official endorsement process in 2019, including in Anderson’s race.

Shaw said she and other members of the DCTA Fund were concerned about the contents of the letter, but she said they were not able to speak to the author nor verify what she’d written. Because of that, Shaw said, “some members of the Fund decided not to use that information when they decided in the endorsement process.”

After endorsing Anderson, the DCTA Fund contributed $40,000 to his school board campaign, according to state campaign finance records.

In his statement, Gould said the union respects the school district’s recent decision to hire an outside firm to investigate allegations against Anderson.

“It is not appropriate for us to provide any more comment during a pending investigation, but [we] look forward to reviewing the results when and if they are made public,” he said.

Anderson’s lawyer, Decker, said in a statement that the union never told Anderson about a letter in 2019. He said Anderson didn’t know about it until Chalkbeat asked.

“This is the first time Director Anderson has heard about this communication and to this date has never read it,” Decker said. “In 2019, there were various individuals trying to get other candidates to run against him and cited that he was unelectable due to his age and color of his skin. Director Anderson is deeply disappointed that the Denver Classroom Teachers Association hid this communication, if in fact it exists, from him.”

Despite repeated efforts and requests, Chalkbeat was not able to obtain a copy of the letter or any other documentation related to the meeting.

Four of the seven seats on the Denver school board were up for grabs in November 2019, including the at-large seat that Anderson won. The possibility of shifting the balance of power on the board led to a hotly contested race with a crowded field.

The pressure for Nath to move into the at-large race was referenced publicly during the campaign. In October of that year, one of Anderson’s opponents for the seat, Alexis Menocal Harrigan, said at a public candidate forum hosted by the local NAACP branch that the teachers union’s political arm had tried to recruit Nath into the at-large race.

Menocal Harrigan told Chalkbeat that at the time, she didn’t realize why DCTA was trying to recruit other candidates into the at-large race. At the forum, she implied the union’s maneuvering was unfair.

“I do think DCTA has been operating in a way that has been inequitable,” Menocal Harrigan said then. “DCTA asked Radhika to jump into the at-large race after Tay had already announced because they thought she had a better chance of beating him.”

But Menocal Harrigan said that later she learned another reason the teachers union was trying to recruit other candidates into Anderson’s race.

“After the 2019 races, I came to find out from Radhika’s campaign and from within the DCTA that the reason Radhika was asked to move over was to hedge the potential liability of sexual assault allegations against Tay Anderson,” Menocal Harrigan said.

Recent allegations

Anderson is a Denver Public Schools graduate who worked for the school district at two high schools after he graduated. He was a vocal supporter of the teachers union during a strike in February 2019, nine months before the election. He also has been an activist, helping to lead high-profile protests against racism and police brutality last summer.

Sexual abuse allegations against Anderson surfaced publicly in March, nearly a year and a half into his four-year term on the school board. The civil rights group Black Lives Matter 5280 said a woman told them Anderson had sexually assaulted her.

Anderson has repeatedly denied it. “I am not aware of any actions of mine that could be considered or construed as sexual assault,” Anderson said in March.

Separately, former members of youth-led anti-gun violence group Never Again Colorado said Anderson engaged in inappropriate behavior when he was the group’s president in 2018. A letter written in April by six former members of the defunct group says Anderson made them feel uncomfortable and unsafe. The former members asked to remain anonymous.

The letter says Anderson made lewd comments to female group members, dared them to perform “sexualized actions,” and had conversations comparing their attractiveness. It also says he pursued female group members romantically and sexually.

“Doing so abused many power imbalances,” the letter says.

In 2018, Anderson told the weekly newspaper Westword when he resigned as president of Never Again Colorado that he didn’t want to “hog the spotlight.” But in April, after the members’ concerns became public, Anderson gave a different explanation. He said that when confronted in 2018 about what he described as “various explicit comments I made as a teenager,” he acknowledged they were inappropriate and later resigned as the group’s president.

“I did so because I believe in the power of restorative justice, I believe in empowering survivors, and I believe in listening, reflecting, and making amends when I have caused harm,” he said.

After the Never Again Colorado concerns and the sexual assault accusation against Anderson from Black Lives Matter 5280, Denver Public Schools hired an outside firm in April to do a “thorough and independent fact-finding investigation.”

Most recently, Denver parent and activist Mary-Katherine Brooks Fleming testified before a Colorado legislative committee in May that dozens of young people came to her starting in August seeking protection from a specific man “in a position of trust.”

Brooks Fleming did not name Anderson in her testimony, but the Denver school board later said it was aware the allegations were against Anderson without providing more information.

Through his attorney, Anderson denied those allegations as well.

The school district has investigated Anderson before. In 2018, when Anderson was a paraprofessional at his alma mater, Manual High School, he was cited for violating the district’s policy against retaliation. A former Manual High employee reported that Anderson was retaliating against people who complained about the former Manual principal.

Aurora board will have greater say over some issues, but won’t take over all superintendent authority

2021-06-02T23:33:26+00:00

The Aurora school board wants to carve out specific topics where it can have greater say in how the district is run, but it held back on Tuesday from completely redoing the rules that govern their relationship with Superintendent Rico Munn.

On Tuesday, board members did not identify the topics they would have more control over. They directed the board’s consultant to draft a proposal including outlining how they would exercise more control.

The board doesn’t meet in July, but Munn suggested that rather than waiting until August, he would ask the board to schedule a special meeting next month to review the draft and vote.

How the board decides to govern may affect whether Munn stays with the district. His contract states that the board must follow a policy-governance model — which generally leaves management up to him — and that if board members adopt a new model, he may consider it a termination of his contract.

Munn did not react to the board’s decision during Tuesday’s meeting, but district lawyer Brandon Eyre advised the board that its direction was likely close enough to policy governance to not immediately trigger Munn’s departure.

The seven-member Aurora school board has grappled with its proper role for more than a year. In the fall, the board reaffirmed the long-standing practice of following a policy-governance model. That means the board sets goals and policies while allowing the superintendent autonomy to decide how to achieve those goals as long as he reasonably interprets board policy and limitations.

But in recent months, the board has voted down superintendent requests that fall within policy. Most recently, the board prevented Munn from initiating a process for layoffs, known as reductions in force, in response to decreasing enrollment and school funding.

Board members who voted against allowing the staff cuts said they were uncomfortable laying off school staff who work directly with students, without looking first for other cuts that wouldn’t directly impact schools.

In re-examining that decision Tuesday night, the consultant that the board hired last year to help it figure out how to govern said that if the board voted to violate its own policy without suspending that policy, the problem wasn’t the governance model — it was the board.

“If you in fact have policies that you did not follow that evening and then that created even worse repercussions, that sounds like a board problem to me, not a management problem,” said AJ Crabill, a consultant from the Council of Great City Schools. “You may have to go back and decide we don’t like our underlying policies. I would encourage you to do that rather than this conversation.

“At that point, your governance system isn’t the problem.”

Board member Nichelle Ortiz acknowledged her role in forcing the district to go against policy by voting against the staff cuts, but implied that the board lacked proper training to understand policies.

Four of the seven board seats will be up for election in November. The four incumbents are eligible to run again, but not all will seek re-election. Board members have said they want to clarify the board’s role, for candidates to understand, and to improve training for any new members.

Crabill said he and his staff will discuss individually with board members to identify the list of items they want more control over, and how they would exert that control.

He suggested that control may not require the board voting on each issue, but rather having advisory input early on.

Board member Marques Ivey said he wanted more say in pandemic issues, staff cuts, and perhaps in directing negotiations with the teachers union.

A part of the discussion Tuesday illustrated how Aurora board members sometimes struggle to understand their board roles. Board member Stephanie Mason asked about inviting Metropolitan State University of Denver to present partnership ideas to the board. Board President Kayla Armstrong Romero had already turned down Mason’s request before the meeting and suggested that if the university wants to partner with the district, it should go through district staff, not the board. Mason wanted a board vote to overturn Armstrong-Romero’s decision not to schedule the meeting, but the vote didn’t happen.

Crabill advised the board to avoid suggesting or vetting vendors. Some board members were dissatisfied with that advice, but when Crabill pressed the board to clarify if they wanted the authority to obligate the district to enter into contracts with particular vendors, board members were reluctant to answer.

Ortiz said that she wouldn’t want more control over partnership selections if she could trust the district’s vetting process. Ivey said he doesn’t want to vet vendors, but wants to stay informed about what the district decides so that he knows how to respond to community members who ask about partnerships.

Afterward, Crabill looked at the board and spoke firmly and slowly.

“Do not waste my time,” he said, asking board members to be sure about their interest in going in this direction.

If he drafts a revised governance model and the board approves it, he said the board must stick with it or risk losing credibility with the community.

Aurora board mulls taking more power from superintendent

2021-05-25T18:24:38+00:00

Following a tumultuous year, the Aurora school board is weighing whether to embrace a hands-on approach to managing the district or whether to defer to the superintendent, as their own guidelines say they should.

The upcoming vote, on June 1, stems from the latest instance of the board blocking the superintendent and his administration. The district wanted to start the process outlined in district policy for cutting staff, but the board said no.

The board overseeing the fifth-largest district in Colorado has struggled for years to define its role with Superintendent Rico Munn. Munn’s contract has always stated that the board must follow what is known as a policy governance model. That means the superintendent makes decisions guided by board goals and policy. Approximately 30 Colorado school districts have this version of oversight, according to the Colorado Association of School Boards.

But the seven board members, a majority of whom were elected with help from the teachers union, have favored a more active role, despite a consultant’s urging that they stick to what they approved. Board members vary from being unapologetic about overriding Munn when they disagree with him, to wanting more clarity on the limits of their power. Some began questioning whether they serve only to rubber-stamp the district’s decisions.

A board decision next week on whether to do away with their current governance model and adopt one that allows a more active role would represent a major change to the board’s relationship with Munn and could have implications for his future.

In November, four of the seven board seats will be up for election. So far, none of those incumbents has announced if they will seek re-election. Board members say they want to clarify the board’s role for themselves and any new candidates before the election, so people know what to expect.

Consultant and trainer A.J. Crabill from the Council of the Great City Schools, who has worked with the board this school year, has warned that lack of clarity about the board’s role hurts the district.

“It is harmful to your organization’s ability to be effective, to say as a board ‘this is how we will function’ and then function in a materially different fashion than that,” Crabill said at a board meeting this month.

Aurora’s governance model was in place even prior to Munn becoming Aurora’s superintendent in 2013. Under this model, the superintendent makes decisions guided by board goals and policy. The Aurora board in addition has set limitations, to set guardrails on his work, such as not making major decisions without seeking community input.

“What you said is it’s my job, my responsibility, to sort through all the choices, make the best determination I can, and bring that to you,” Munn said, explaining his interpretation of the model. “You will then evaluate if it’s a reasonable interpretation of your policy — not whether you like it — but whether it’s a reasonable interpretation. And if it is, you will approve it.”

The explanation seemed to be new information to at least some board members, including Nichelle Ortiz, who said she didn’t like the pressure she felt to always go along with what’s presented. “I can’t stay with that plan if I’m always expected to just say yes,” she said.

This school year, the Aurora board reaffirmed its commitment to the model, adopting a new framework with new goals outlining the priorities board members wanted to focus on. That included goals around early literacy, postsecondary workforce readiness, and closing achievement gaps.

Those goals are also used to evaluate the work of the superintendent.

Munn and the district would not comment on the implications of a possible change in oversight.

Munn’s contract, which goes through 2023, states that “should the board elect to materially alter the governance policy, such changes may be deemed by the superintendent a unilateral termination by the district.” If that happens before June 30, that would trigger a severance payment of $180,000. Munn would have to provide a written notice 30 days prior to exercising that right, and the board and the superintendent must have discussions during that period to attempt to resolve concerns.

The board created a schedule to track progress toward the goals throughout the year. But those first conversations have been hampered by limited data, because the state and district halted many tests during remote learning.

At least twice this school year the board has argued about whether the district was straying from board goals.

In July the board overturned Munn’s plans to reopen school buildings.

After that, Munn tried to get the board to clarify who would make the next decision to reopen. But board members felt uncomfortable taking on the sole responsibility of deciding when it was safe to reopen, and struggled with what factors should be considered. They concluded the decision should be shared, but in November again reversed one of his reopening decisions.

More recently, when district staff sought approval to prepare for staff cuts, the board, in a split vote, refused and instead decided the district should not lay off any employees this year.

In response to board member complaints that the administration hadn’t considered other options, and that the board didn’t have other options, Munn earlier this month presented alternatives to layoffs. The board approved one that could cost the district up to $2.7 million.

Following that decision, board President Kayla Armstrong-Romero suggested that the board discuss how to administer a survey, including to administrative staff, about their perceptions of the board and their work. The board will take that up, and also when to release it and which groups to survey, on June 1.

Joshua Starr, a former schools superintendent, said that it’s common for boards to have trouble following a governance-type model for long. But he agreed not having clear roles is harmful.

“It makes an already difficult job that much more impossible,” said Starr, CEO of PDK International, a professional organization for educators. “I certainly would advocate for a governance model, but frankly clarity is what’s most important.”

Starr said the damage caused is not just to the superintendent’s work, but that it can have an impact on classrooms and on the community as well.

For example, he said, if a school board is swayed by political rhetoric such as the recent trend to police how teachers talk about race, a board might vote on banning certain books from schools.

Besides that decision having a direct impact on classrooms, it could also affect how free teachers feel to do their job, and how comfortable they are to raise issues with the administration or with their board.

For the public, seeing the fighting and not seeing progress on stated goals is what’s harmful, he said.

“Whenever people are fighting like this it decreases people’s confidence in the system, which means it becomes that much harder to make changes,” Starr said.

But all of this is also on the superintendent to fix, not just boards, Starr said.

“Part of the job of the superintendent is to make sure that the board, and the public for that matter, really understand each other’s roles and really spend time on it,” Starr said.

Jeffco names Adams 12 administrator as its sole finalist for superintendent

2021-03-26T00:55:46+00:00

The Jeffco school board named a sole finalist Thursday to lead Colorado’s second-largest school district.

Tracy Dorland, a deputy superintendent in the nearby Adams 12 school district, is in line to become Jeffco’s next superintendent.

“I’m optimistic that our finalist candidate does have the background to lift our district up in terms of our academic performance,” said Jeffco board member Brad Rupert. “She’s got local experience, extensive familiarity with the context of Colorado and education budgets within Colorado and so I’m looking forward to working with our candidate assuming that the negotiations go well.”

The Jeffco school board began its search for a superintendent in December after hiring a consultant to lead the search. Former superintendent Jason Glass left the district after three years in the position to take a job in Kentucky.

Before her work in Adams 12, Dorland worked in Denver Public Schools in several roles including as a teacher.

Dorland holds a master’s degree in educational leadership and policy studies from the University of Colorado, Denver and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Dorland lives in Jeffco and has two children who attend Jeffco schools.

“I am deeply honored to have been selected as the finalist for Jeffco’s next superintendent. Jeffco has a long tradition of excellence and has consistently been seen as one of the outstanding school systems in the country,” Dorland stated in Jeffco’s released statement. “As a longtime resident of Jeffco, I look forward to continuing the tradition of excellence and working with our schools, staff, students and our entire Jeffco community to achieve even greater success in student learning.”

The district’s lawyers will now negotiate a contract with Dorland. The board expects to vote on that during a meeting April 14.

On Thursday, the board did not hold any public discussion about the choice or any other candidates. Board members did express optimism for the future, including improving transparency and accountability.

The board held several previous closed door meetings. The board unanimously selected Dorland as the sole finalist during a Tuesday meeting, according to a press release from the district.

Tuesday’s meeting was held behind closed doors in an executive session.

The district’s search firm of Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates “reviewed the candidacy of 43 individuals, of which 28 formally submitted applications” according to the district’s communication.

The press release also notes that the board reviewed all submitted applications and conducted initial interviews with seven candidates and follow-up interviews with four candidates earlier this week.

Two recent court cases — one involving another school district, the other involving the University of Colorado — center on members of the public challenging boards’ ability to name only one finalist in executive searches.

A district judge sided with the public stating that the school board for Academy District 20 in Colorado Springs was bound by law to have named all the finalists it considered, and must now release recordings of some of the meetings the board held in closed session.

In the University of Colorado case, a newspaper is asking for the Colorado Supreme Court to review its case after an appeals judge overturned an initial decision that the university should have named all of the finalists it was considering, not just one.

Two Colorado lawmakers introduced a bill in February to change Colorado open records law regarding superintendent finalists. The bill’s summary states that the bill “repeals a provision requiring that, if three or fewer candidates for an executive position meet the minimum requirements for the position, all of those candidates must be treated as finalists and their application materials are public records.”

On Wednesday, the Cherry Creek School District also named a sole finalist for its superintendent position. Several other school districts in Colorado are also searching for new superintendents, including Denver Public Schools.

Adams 14 board appoints bilingual teacher to fill vacant seat

2021-03-10T03:35:04+00:00

A bilingual teacher was appointed Tuesday night to join the Adams 14 school board.

The school board picked Janet Estrada to fill its fifth seat in a unanimous decision, noting that adding an educator perspective to the board will be a benefit.

“It’s a critical time,” said board member Maria Zubia. “We really want an educator voice at the table.”

Board members also said that the decision was difficult. The other three applicants all were longtime members of the community, with children in the district.

The board seat had been vacant since January, after Regina Hurtado moved out of the district and resigned from the board.

Estrada will have to run for re-election in November if she wants to complete the rest of Hurtado’s term to 2023. Three of the five board seats will be up for election this November.

Estrada, who is a bilingual teacher at PREP Academy in Denver, is also the parent of a preschool student in Adams 14. In a town hall meeting last week, where the board interviewed all four applicants, she described how being the daughter of immigrants, and growing up in a low-income family in southwest Denver, both help her understand and relate to the population of the Adams 14 school district.

In the same meeting, Estrada said that the challenges she’d like to help the district address are around achievement and equity gaps. She described her idea to create a community cabinet to increase communication between the board and the community.

The Adams 14 school board is overseeing MGT Consulting, a for-profit outside manager hired under state orders to improve student achievement.

The school board is also about to begin a search for a superintendent.

Four people, including a bilingual teacher, apply for the Adams 14 board vacancy

2021-03-03T23:38:56+00:00

Four people have applied to fill a vacancy on the Adams 14 school board.

The four letters of interest that were submitted to the district, along with recommendation letters, have been posted online.

The community will have a chance to meet the candidates in a virtual town hall meeting and provide input to the board’s four current members on Thursday. The board will vote to appoint one of the four applicants on Tuesday.

The four candidates are all longtime community members:

James Amador, who previously worked in various Denver Public School service departments, and most recently has served on the Adams 14 District Accountability Committee.
Chance Cox, who works as a dispatcher, and is also the founder of The Nonprofit Garage of Denver.
JoLeen Deaguero, who works as a clerk at the Adams County courthouse and is a parent of two high school students in Adams 14.
Janet Estrada, who is a bilingual teacher at PREP Academy in Denver, and is also a parent of a preschool student in Adams 14.

One of the letters of recommendation for Deaguero comes from a teacher who is on the board of the district’s teachers union. Union leaders said this was not an official endorsement from the association.

Estrada also has notable recommendation letters from state Sen. Dominick Moreno, who previously served on the district school board, and from Denver Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca.

The board vacancy was created when former member Regina Hurtado moved out of the district’s boundaries and had to resign her board position. Hurtado had been elected in 2019. The person appointed to the seat will serve until the next election, this November, at which point voters would elect who gets to serve out the remainder of the term.

Adams 14 school board members have been overseeing the management of the district by the for-profit MGT Consulting, and its efforts to improve student achievement under state orders.

The school board is also about to begin a search for a superintendent. MGT has filled that role for about two years, but has planned to slowly hand back responsibilities and management to the district.

Thursday’s town hall to meet the candidates starts at 5 p.m. via Zoom. The link and passcode are available on the district’s website.

Adams 14 school board member resigns

2021-01-22T21:13:40+00:00

For the third time in about three years, an Adams 14 board member has resigned midterm. Regina Hurtado, elected just over a year ago, stepped down Thursday because she has moved out of the district.

“While we still live in Commerce City, we no longer reside within district boundaries and the law is the law no matter how much your heart is in it,” Hurtado, also a district mother, stated. “I wish my fellow board members much continued success in the healing and redevelopment of Adams 14.”

The board will have to declare a vacancy and will have 60 days to appoint a new board member. Hurtado’s term would have gone through November 2023, but the person appointed to the vacancy would serve until the next election, this November, where the person would have to be elected to continue to finish out the term.

The Adams 14 school district is in the second year of a four-year state order that required hiring a for-profit consultant to help improve the low performance of students in the district.

One of the challenges the district has faced for many years — and contributed to the state order for outside management — is the high turnover in leadership. In recent years that has included turnover on the school board.

Since 2018, two previous Adams 14 school board members have resigned. In both cases, the board appointed replacements who served short terms and chose not to seek election to continue on the board.

The board last filled a vacancy in February. At the time, leaders called it a step toward improvement in governance to have all five board seats filled. All were women and included some parents.

The board has recently been working on setting goals for the district, and has been overseeing a plan to phase students back into classrooms next week, for the first time since March.

In the coming months, the board will launch a search for a superintendent. So far, the district has put out a call for bids from search firms to help in the process.

For about two years, the district’s external manager, MGT Consulting, has run the district, filling the top position with Don Rangel, former superintendent of Weld Re-1. The plan has been to slowly let Adams 14 take back more control over district operations.

Jeffco school board selects former board member to fill vacant seat

2020-12-09T22:08:33+00:00

The Jeffco School board voted Tuesday night to appoint Rick Rush, a former school board member, to fill a vacant position.

The board interviewed eight applicants, and ultimately favored Rush’s past experience on the board and his priorities, which board members said align with what the current board wants to work on. The vote was unanimous.

“He could hit the ground running at a time when we all know there is just so much and it’s all important,” said Susan Harmon, the board’s president. “We are jumping into budget discussions tomorrow. I can’t overlook that.”

Rush previously filled a Jeffco board vacancy from 2008 to 2009. He ran to continue serving on the board, but lost the election in 2009 to Paula Noonan. This time, Rush will serve the remainder of the term until November, when voters would determine the next board member. Rush said he may consider running next year to continue serving, but has not committed to it.

Rush, who is a consultant, described himself as semi-retired, most recently from his role as executive director and chief actuary for Kaiser Permanente Colorado. He has served on several committees and boards in the school district as well as with outside organizations such as the on the board for YMCA of Metro Denver.

During his interview, Rush identified creating trust with the community, making the district an “employer of choice,” and increasing student enrollment as three priorities for the Jeffco district.

“I’m looking for the right ways to advance ourselves and create programs that make students and families want to stay here and want to come here,” Rush said.

Among the pressing work the board faces in the coming months is hiring a new superintendent, and continuing to navigate the pandemic including school closures and reopenings.

Former board member Ron Mitchell resigned last month citing health and family reasons, leaving a vacancy for Jeffco’s District 5, which includes the southern part of the district bordering Denver and Arapahoe County.

Rush will be sworn in prior to a board meeting Wednesday.

Jeffco school board member resigns, leaving opening

2020-11-06T22:44:34+00:00

The five-member Jeffco school board soon will have an open seat.

Board member Ron Mitchell announced his resignation during a board meeting Thursday night citing health needs and a desire to spend more time with family.

“All of my past sins from a health point of view are beginning to catch up with me and one of the things I need to do is a better job of taking care of me,” Mitchell said, adding that he didn’t want the public to worry.

His resignation will be effective Thursday.

Mitchell, 75, represents Jeffco’s District 5 which includes the southern part of the district bordering Denver and Arapahoe County. Mitchell is serving a second term on the board which was set to run until next November.

Mitchell was first elected to the board after Jeffco voters recalled three conservative board members. He ran for reelection unopposed in 2017.

During his tenure, Mitchell served as board president and most recently as one of two board vice presidents.

His colleagues on the board praised him as they accepted his resignation.

Board member Stephanie Schooley recalled meeting Mitchell when she was a parent at a school meeting.

“You made our community feel heard and feel like we were a part of a conversation that mattered,” Schooley said.

Mitchell choked back tears as he recalled his long history with the district, first as a student, and later as a teacher, principal, then administrator and most recently on the board.

“It’s not easy for me, but I think it is time,” Mitchell said.

The school board, which is preparing to open a search for a superintendent this school year, now also will have to begin a process for replacing Mitchell.

The board is expected to declare a vacancy at its next meeting Wednesday allowing it to start accepting applications. It then has 60 days to vet and appoint a new member to serve out the remainder of Mitchell’s term.

In a split vote, Denver school board approves delayed opening of new DSST charter school

2020-10-23T20:32:00+00:00

A divided Denver school board gave conditional approval Thursday for the district’s largest charter school network to open a new high school. But the decision fell short of what DSST wanted, prompting the charter network CEO to call it a “no” disguised as a “yes.”

The 5-2 vote came after repeated delays and included a long list of conditions that DSST must meet before it can open a new school starting with grades nine and 10 in fall 2022.

The high school will serve as an extension of the high-performing DSST Middle School at Noel Campus in far northeast Denver. The 2022 opening date means 161 eighth-graders at Noel won’t immediately continue to an accompanying high school, as happens at most other DSST schools. DSST is not happy with the school board’s vote. A spokesperson said the network plans to appeal the decision to the State Board of Education.

“Justice delayed is exactly the same thing as justice denied in this case,” said DSST Noel middle school Principal Brandi Chin.

Back when the Noel middle school opened in 2018, educators and parents expected DSST would open a Noel high school three years later. Thursday’s vote and fraught discussion illustrates a significant political shift over the last year.

The vote touches on many issues this school board has wrestled with, including how to improve education for Black students, how to reconfigure schools in a part of the city that underwent drastic changes in the name of improvement, and whether to expand independent charter schools. The last issue is particularly political, given that several board members campaigned on opposing charter school expansion.

“I believe that we have done the best that we can in the resolution to find a ‘third-way solution’ that creates a pathway forward,” said board member Angela Cobián.

The divergent reasons that two board members opposed the resolution show the disagreement on this topic. Board member Barbara O’Brien voted no because she said it was unfair to delay the opening of the new high school until 2022. She offered an amendment that would have allowed the school to open in 2021, but the six other board members rejected it.

“One of the few things within our power is to act in a way that lets those eighth graders know what their path forward could look like and to give them a sense of stability,” O’Brien said.

Board member Scott Baldermann voted no because he said DSST did not uphold its agreement with the district — specifically, that existing DSST schools must meet the district’s academic expectations before the network opens new schools at the same grade level.

Baldermann and other board members previously expressed concern with the academic performance of DSST Cole High School in near northeast Denver.

DSST is a homegrown charter network that started in 2004 with a single school. It now has 14 in Denver and one in neighboring Aurora. The Noel high school will be its 16th school.

DSST schools serve a diverse population of students. The schools emphasize academic rigor and acceptance to college, and follow a dress code. Most DSST schools also post high test scores. The Noel middle school, where most students are Black and Hispanic and come from low-income families, earned stellar test scores in 2019.

Parents and educators said the middle school students deserve the chance to continue their education at a Noel high school.

“Why are you making 161 families collateral damage in some political game?” said Erika Garcia, whose daughter is an eighth grader at Noel middle school.

The resolution gives priority to the Noel eighth graders to enroll at other DSST high schools in far northeast Denver. But it doesn’t guarantee them seats.

DSST Chief of Staff Ashley Piche told the board that DSST “strongly” opposed the resolution, particularly the proposed solution for the eighth graders and the 2022 open date.

The resolution also requires DSST to meet several conditions before it can open the Noel high school. They include that certain staff at DSST Cole High School undergo diversity and equity training, that the school submit an academic improvement plan, and that district staff determine that DSST is doing a better job serving English language learners.

The resolution applies those same conditions to two DSST middle schools — Cole and Henry — about which the school board has similar academic concerns.

Piche said that while DSST is committed to providing diversity training and improving instruction for students learning English as a second language, the network disagrees with the “vague” requirement to submit improvement plans for the three schools.

DSST also disagrees with the conclusion that its Cole high school isn’t meeting academic expectations. Normally, the district would rely on school ratings to determine whether that’s true. But the district did not issue ratings this year. School ratings are largely based on the results of state standardized tests, which were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

DSST presented data last month to show that academic achievement is improving at Cole high school. District staff agreed. But some board members came to the opposite conclusion.

Even so, most of them voted yes on the resolution. Board member Brad Laurvick said the conditions included in the resolution made him feel comfortable supporting it. Board member Tay Anderson referenced a statement he made last year on the campaign trail that DSST Noel should be allowed to expand, and said he was going to “keep my word.”

Board Vice President Jennifer Bacon, who represents far northeast Denver, said she understood the resolution, which she helped craft, would disappoint DSST Noel families.

But Bacon also spoke about the bigger picture. She lamented the culture of competition among Denver schools and said the district needs a plan to reconfigure schools in far northeast Denver, where the closure of Montbello High School a decade ago created a landscape in which 11 secondary schools serve about 5,780 students there.

Community members have been calling for the district to reopen a comprehensive high school in Montbello, and the board voted Thursday on a resolution to do so.

“I do not believe that your excellence is solely tied to which school you go to,” Bacon said. “It deeply concerns me that our communities...have been positioned to think this way.”

Denver school board affirms state ban on discrimination against hair and hairstyles

2020-09-25T04:05:31+00:00

Denver school district policies that protect against discrimination based on race will now explicitly include protection from discrimination based on hair and hairstyle.

The school board on Thursday unanimously approved a resolution in support of a state law passed earlier this year that bans discrimination based on hair texture, hair type, or hairstyle such as “braids, locs, twists, tight coils or curls, cornrows, Bantu knots, Afros, and headwraps.”

The state law is called the Crown Act, which stands for the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act. The law already applies to public schools, but Thursday’s vote by the school board codified its language in school district policy.

“Wherever a district policy includes protection for students, staff, or community members on the basis of race, it will include protection for discrimination or harassment on the basis of hair and hairstyle,” the resolution says.

It also directs the district to “distribute information broadly to all schools, departments, students, and the community regarding the implementation of the Crown Act to ensure that all of our students and employees feel empowered to celebrate their natural hair and hairstyles.”

The school board resolution was sponsored by board Vice President Jennifer Bacon. “I grew up in a time where in order for me to get a job or be seen as professional, my hair needed to be straight,” Bacon said at a school board work session last week.

Connecting to Thursday’s meeting via Zoom from her home, she said, “I am glad to be here today with my degrees on my wall, with my headband and my braids.”

At hearings for the state law, lawmakers recalled incidents in which students were suspended for violating school dress code. In a high-profile 2015 case, a student at Denver’s Northfield High School was charged with assault and resisting arrest in an incident involving a purple bandana. The charges were eventually dropped.

Of the Crown Act resolution, board President Carrie Olson said, “We often bat ‘equity’ around, and I think this is an example of equity in practice.”

Denver students push the district to include Black, Latino, Indigenous history in curriculum

2020-09-18T23:46:08+00:00

On a school lawn in Denver Friday, four young Black women told the story of how they pushed an institution to make its curriculum more inclusive of Black, Latino, and Indigenous history.

It started last October, when a group of students from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College traveled to Washington, D.C., to visit the national African American history museum.

“Just seeing all of our history forefront, not in a section in the back of a textbook ... it’s just so empowering,” said sophomore Kaliah Yizar. “Learning our history is the first step to awakening that thing in us that makes us want to be proud and brave and speak out.”

When the students got back to Denver, that’s exactly what they did. And 10 months later, they sat front and center as school board members announced their intention to pass a resolution to add the “comprehensive historical and contemporary contributions of Black, Indigenous, and Latino communities” to the curriculum from kindergarten to 12th grade.

It’s a process that’s already underway in Denver Public Schools, in part because district leaders recognize the need and in part because students and educators have repeatedly and publicly pointed out the shortcomings of curriculum taught through a white, European lens.

“As a graduate of the Denver Public Schools, I never saw myself in anything I read, and I became a teacher because I wanted to make sure that we can change that,” said Superintendent Susana Cordova, a former district teacher and principal.

The aim of the resolution is to codify the curriculum revisions, said school board Vice President Jennifer Bacon. The resolution is called “Know Justice, Know Peace” after a podcast the students started this summer during nationwide protests of racism and police brutality. The full school board is set to discuss and vote on the resolution next month.

The students emphasized why the changes are important. Though teachers at their own school have taken steps to make the history curriculum in particular more inclusive, the students want to see those same shifts happen at schools across the city.

“They’re always only showing the negative parts of Black history,” said senior Alana Mitchell. “There’s so many positives from music to education to art. And that’s never, ever shown. It’s only slavery and oppression.”

That can affect students’ mental health, senior Jenelle Nangah said. “It can be really detrimental to a kid’s mental space to not be able to see anything positive, especially when in society there is so much underrepresentation and misrepresentation of Black people,” she said.

Sophomore Dahni Austin said students of color are rarely taught about role models that look like them. “They don’t teach us about the kings and queens that happened before slavery,” she said.

“It’s so important to see yourself in that position,” Nangah said. “We want our generation to feel empowered, to feel like they can speak their minds, to feel like they can stand up for themselves, to feel like they can call out injustice when they see it.”

DSST charter network wants to open a new high school. First, it needs to convince a skeptical Denver school board.

2020-09-15T23:01:00+00:00

Denver’s largest charter school network wants to open a new high school that would serve as a complement to its best-performing middle school, DSST Middle School at Noel Campus.

But first, DSST must convince the Denver school board that the low performance of some of its other schools shouldn’t be a barrier to opening a new one. That may be challenging given that several board members ran for election on a platform of stopping charter expansion.

At a meeting this week, board members asked pointed questions about DSST schools that have struggled with low test scores, and inquired about how opening a DSST Noel high school would affect plans to reconfigure the mix of school types in the far northeast part of the city.

“The opening of the Noel high school might be the 10th DSST in northeast Denver and Aurora,” said board Vice President Jennifer Bacon, who represents northeast Denver. “When I think about their success stories, I also want to start thinking about the success stories of all the students who don’t go to DSST, who want an option that is a good fit for them.”

DSST has 14 middle and high schools in Denver and one middle school in the neighboring suburb of Aurora. DSST is a homegrown network that started in 2004 with a single high school. Its schools serve a diverse student population, and most post high test scores. The schools emphasize academic rigor, push for acceptance to college, and follow a dress code.

As charter schools, the DSST schools are publicly funded but independently run. To operate within the Denver school district, they must be approved by the Denver school board.

In 2015, a prior Denver school board approved a dramatic expansion of DSST. But the network never intended to open all its new schools at once. Rather, the network has waited until it determined there was a demand to open a new school.

But there’s a catch written into DSST’s agreement with the district: To open a new school at a certain grade level — middle or high school — all of DSST’s existing schools at that grade level must meet the district’s academic expectations, based largely on state test scores.

DSST Cole High School, in the near northeast part of the city, fell short in 2019. So did two DSST middle schools, Cole and Henry. The school district declined last year to make a building available for a DSST Henry high school. It was the first time DSST did not immediately open a high school to complement one of its middle schools.

DSST hopes to avoid that with Noel. The network’s hurdle is to show that its Cole high school improved enough last year to justify opening the new Noel high school — a feat made trickier by the cancelation of state standardized tests last spring due to COVID-19.

To do that, DSST used other data. For example, DSST staff emphasized that students learning English as a second language had shown strong progress last year on a test measuring English proficiency. Nearly 70% of Cole students last year were learning English, and the district had previously flagged that Cole needed to better serve them.

In addition, more Cole students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses than in years prior, and the percentage of students passing AP classes rose from 49% to 59%.

Still, some school board members expressed concerns.

“It’s troubling to say let’s start another DSST when we haven’t even met the needs of the students we serve at the Cole campus,” said board member Tay Anderson.

Parents of students at DSST’s Noel middle school implored the board to grant DSST permission to open a high school. The Noel middle school, which opened in 2018, had stellar test scores in 2019. Parent Zoraida Juarez said her family chose it for her son because they liked the academic challenge and small-school feel. The school had about 300 students last year.

Now that her son is in eighth grade, Juarez said she worries about where he will attend high school next year if the board turns down DSST’s request. The closest DSST high school, DSST Green Valley Ranch High School, has few open spots and a long waiting list.

“Our growing community is crying out to you for more quality schools,” Juarez told the board.

Parent Danielle Rash referenced the controversial closing 10 years ago of Montbello High School, located just two miles from DSST Noel middle school. The district didn’t listen to the community back then, she said — and it has an opportunity to do so now.

But the fate of Montbello High School may actually be giving some board members pause on a DSST Noel high school. Community members have also been calling for the district to reopen a traditional high school in the neighborhood. Denver Public Schools has pledged to do so and will ask Denver voters in November to approve the funding.

District officials haven’t yet said whether some existing high schools would have to close to make way for a new traditional one. Board Vice President Bacon has repeatedly said the district needs to develop a comprehensive vision for high schools in Montbello and other neighborhoods in the far northeast part of the city. She said the same to DSST.

“Whatever it is we decide for DSST will impact other schools,” Bacon said.

Board member Barbara O’Brien was the most supportive of opening a new DSST high school. While she said she understands the need for a neighborhood plan, “I also believe we have an opportunity in front of us to take action to deliver another high-quality option.”

Scott Baldermann, one of the board members who campaigned on halting the approval of new charter schools, asked whether opening a DSST Noel high school would set a precedent that would allow other charter networks to expand, too.

“We’re not looking for a precedent to be set,” said Bill Kurtz, DSST’s chief executive officer. “We’re simply hoping to open our Noel high school.”

Denver school board member: If students meet in person, the board should too

2020-09-14T21:16:48+00:00

A Denver school board member is calling for his colleagues to resume in-person board meetings now that Denver students are gradually returning to classrooms.

Board member Tay Anderson said it seems hypocritical for the seven-member school board to continue to meet on Zoom while asking teachers and students to return to classrooms. Starting Monday, he said he plans to connect to the board’s Zoom meetings from a conference room at Denver Public Schools’ headquarters, where meetings were held before COVID-19.

It was not immediately clear Monday if the board would change its practice. The board was scheduled to meet virtually for a work session Monday afternoon.

“If it’s not safe for us to meet, then it’s not safe for us to put 35 kids in a classroom with a teacher,” Anderson said, referring to the maximum allowable class size.

Preschool students began returning to classrooms last week. Kindergarten and first grade students will follow later this month. Denver Public Schools expects its classrooms to be open to all students by Oct. 21, though middle and high schools will still have some virtual classes.

Denver students, with the exception of preschoolers, have been attending solely virtual classes since Aug. 24. A virtual option will remain available for families who prefer to stay online. The district is asking families to make a decision — in-person or virtual — by Friday.

Anderson said his inbox is full of emails from parents, about half of whom want school buildings to reopen and half of whom do not. He said some have criticized the board for continuing to meet remotely while asking teachers and students to meet in person.

The district has been requiring all adult employees to conduct meetings virtually. In early August, Superintendent Susana Cordova rolled out “The DPS Five,” a set of health protocols for anyone working inside a district building. No. 4? Adults should meet virtually with other adults.

A key part of the district’s plan to minimize the spread of COVID-19 relies on keeping people separated into small groups who only meet with each other. In a school, that means no in-person staff meetings. Then, if one teacher gets sick, only that teacher and the students she teaches would have to stay home — rather than having to shutter the entire school.

School board members are not district employees. Rather, they are elected volunteers. Anderson said there are ways to hold school board meetings safely — for instance, using a high school auditorium that has more space for social distancing than would a conference room.

“If our teachers have to put their lives on the line, then I’m willing to do the same,” he said.

Denver school board divided: Will providing more data empower families or drive competition?

2020-08-12T20:18:25+00:00

Parents in Denver could end up with easy access to a host of information about their children’s schools, from how many students were suspended to whether the buses ran on time. Or they could end up with a simplified version of what exists now: a school rating system that largely relies on standardized test scores.

A year after a committee set out to reimagine Denver Public Schools’ controversial school rating system, the Denver school board is divided over the next steps. The decision represents a test of how a new board majority will approach school choice policy in a district that has long prided itself on making it easy for parents to choose.

At the heart of the debate is whether information empowers parents or fosters unhealthy competition and comparison among schools.

“What I’m worried about is how parents could weaponize this data,” said school board member Scott Baldermann, who represents southeast Denver.

The idea for an information dashboard came from a committee of 30 parents, teachers, principals, and community members who spent nine months coming up with three recommendations for revising the district’s school performance framework, or SPF.

All seven school board members appear to support a recommendation to get rid of the current rating system, which has been criticized as confusing and costly. Instead, Denver would use more simplified school ratings developed by the state education department.

Every other Colorado district already uses the state’s ratings, which are free to districts. Districts and the state use the ratings to determine which schools are struggling and need intervention.

But the board members are divided on two other recommendations. Three board members support the idea of an information dashboard, along with a recommendation to use “a robust body of evidence” — read: not just standardized test scores — to diagnose schools’ challenges.

Four others either do not support a dashboard or are undecided. That means a decision could go either way; a majority of the seven must vote yes to move forward to a second phase where the details of the dashboard would be developed. The board is scheduled to vote on Aug. 20.

District administrators have made clear that they’d like to honor the committee’s recommendations. At a recent public meeting, Superintendent Susana Cordova said that if the district adopts the state ratings but doesn’t produce a dashboard, test scores will be the main public-facing metric by which parents can judge schools.

For example, she said parents won’t know how many students at a high school are taking college-level courses or how many earned a “seal of biliteracy” signifying that they can read and write in two languages. Those are also important data points, she said.

Board members Carrie Olson, Angela Cobián, and Barbara O’Brien agree.

“We want to stop the practice of a school being boiled down to only a color-coded rating,” board President Olson said in a statement.

Olson referenced a recent report from RootEd, an organization focused on educational quality and equity. RootEd has funded Denver charter and innovation schools, as well as community organizations. The report authors asked Denver parents which information they rely on to make school decisions — and which information they wish they had.

In addition to academic data, parents who participated said they want to know about a school’s culture: What is its approach to discipline? Do teachers stay year after year? Are there police at the school?

“It’s important to let parents know what the school is like,” said Antwan Jefferson, one of the report authors and a Denver parent himself. “Metrics don’t tell you that. They don’t tell you how the school feels. They don’t tell you if your child will be punished for talking too much in class.”

Board Vice President Jennifer Bacon has not explicitly said how she’d vote on a dashboard. Bacon said she wants parents to have access to information about their schools, especially low-income parents whose children have not always been well served. At the same time, she’s wary of how data has been used in the past. Ideally, parents wouldn’t have to make choices, she said, because every school would be high quality.

“Where I am on the dashboard is I want to work with everyone to actually walk our talk in moving off of this competitive model,” Bacon said at a recent school board meeting. “We need to do everything we can to level this playing field.”

Three other board members — Baldermann, Brad Laurvick, and Tay Anderson — have expressed reservations about a dashboard. Baldermann said he’s worried it reinforces the idea that schools should compete and parents should shop around.

“It’s going to drive competition and create winners and losers,” he said.

Anderson said he shares those concerns and is also worried that some parents were left out of the conversation. He suggested the board table a vote on the dashboard. Anderson said he’s still undecided.

The vote has already been delayed once. It was originally set for June, but the board postponed it to this month after parents with the advocacy organization Stand for Children and others asked the district to pause the school ratings discussion amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Stand for Children has since come out in favor of a dashboard.

“A dashboard designed by the community will provide the information parents and staff want to see,” parent Sarah Titus wrote in an op-ed for the Front Porch community newspaper.

Laurvick has said he’s a “not yet” on the dashboard. He’d like the district to first cement its definition of equity — an elusive goal the district has been working toward for some time — and develop a new master plan before approving the idea of a dashboard.

The Denver teachers union hasn’t supported the idea of a dashboard, either. The union’s board of directors voted to support the 30-member committee’s first recommendation to use the state’s ratings, but did not vote on whether to support the other two.

Committee member Karen Mortimer said she was blindsided by the pushback. The purpose of a dashboard would be to paint a broader picture of how schools are — or are not — serving students, not rank or shame them, said Mortimer, a parent of two Denver students.

She also thinks the district can put parameters around how schools use the data in the dashboard. “There is room for the district to get ahead of this and put things in place to say, ‘Schools, that’s not acceptable. You can talk up your strengths. But don’t rank yourself against any other school. You share your own story,’” Mortimer said.

Veteran Denver teacher Priscilla Shaw Rahn disagrees that the committee didn’t take diverse views into account. Shaw Rahn said the process also felt authentic; there was lots of disagreement among members but a majority supported the recommendations.

“We need the school board to say, ‘Yes, conceptually, this is a good idea,’” she said.

Some board members said there’s another good reason to do that, too. In a district with a history of being distrusted by the community, ignoring recommendations that a community committee spent nine months developing does little to rebuild trust, they said.

“When those groups come to us with recommendations, it’s incumbent upon us to listen,” Cobián said.

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that board member Tay Anderson is undecided on how he’ll vote on a dashboard.

Denver releases progress report on steps to better serve Black students

2020-07-13T21:46:01+00:00

To improve education for Black students, Denver schools will be required to take a close look at their racial gaps: Are Black students overrepresented in special education? Underrepresented in gifted education programs? If so, why — and how will the school address it?

The district now requires these “student data audits” as part of the strategic plans school leaders write each year. The audits were created in response to a mandate from the Denver school board to better serve Black students.

That mandate — known as the Black Excellence Resolution — represents an effort to follow through on the recommendations of a series of studies and task forces over the years that identify persistent unequal treatment of the district’s Black students. At stake: the educational prospects of Denver students who, under the current system, are more likely to be disciplined and less likely to graduate on time than are their white peers.

A recent progress report lays out what steps the district has taken so far, including requiring the student data audits. Some community members are impatient and want the district to do more, faster. District officials say meaningful change in an institution as large as Denver Public Schools takes time, but they are committed to seeing it through.

“This is a very tremendous first step, but not the last,” board Vice President Jennifer Bacon said of the recent progress. “We have a lot of work to do on not only implicit bias, but explicit.”

About 13% of Denver students are Black. A report commissioned by the district in 2016 renewed a focus on inequitable treatment. In 2017, a task force came up with recommendations to address disparities. And in 2019, the school board passed the resolution, cementing the importance of improving how Denver serves its 12,000 Black students.

Though the district has diverse leaders and names equity as a core value, Bacon said these problems have gone unsolved, in part, because most district employees believe they’re already doing the work. It’s a conundrum she refers to as “unchecked liberalism.”

“I’m grateful we don’t have to have conversations that racism is real,” Bacon said, “but we have work to do to check ourselves to see if we’re living up to the expectations we set.”

Former Denver educator Vernon Jones has been critical of the district’s approach.

“If we keep saying we’re an equity district, then we want to see it,” he said — and in ways that are not just cosmetic. “We want to see it in outcomes,” said Jones, who works for FaithBridge, a nonprofit that mobilizes faith leaders to advocate on education issues.

For example, Jones said: Are more Black students reading on grade level? Have math scores gone up? Are Black students still more likely to be identified as needing special education?

“People are tired of just waiting for the right things to be done,” he said.

The work of responding to the resolution and task force recommendations falls to a nine-person team that Bacon and others said needs more support. In addition to limited capacity, the team has pointed to tangible barriers, including a district philosophy of decentralization that allows schools to opt out of certain curriculum or staff training if school leaders prefer an alternative.

Team members, some of whom are Denver Public Schools graduates themselves, said they’re optimistic about the progress thus far and realistic about the work ahead.

“The systems in place have taken decades of buildup,” said Danielle Harris, who oversees culturally responsive education. “We can’t break it down in one day or one bias training.”

Here are some of the steps the district has taken, according to the progress report:

* Launched mandatory implicit bias training for about 1,200 employees who work in the district’s central office, plus another 100 who opted in. The nine-month training, called the Equity Experience, consists of nine modules that employees complete on their own time.

The resolution requires all district employees to be trained on implicit bias, which refers to the unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that people hold. But instead of making the training mandatory for all 15,000 employees at once, the district is taking a phased approach. This fall, principals and other administrators will start the training.

* Committed to taking a hard look at the culture of the district’s central office with help from a Harvard Graduate School of Education program aimed at disrupting racism.

The resolution says the central office will review how it can prioritize Black student success.

* Continued efforts to recruit more Black teachers. For the first time this year, recruiters are conducting phone interviews with every candidate of color who applies to be a teacher.

The task force recommended the district find ways to attract and retain Black teachers. Past efforts have not substantially increased the number; most Denver teachers are white.

* Launched a student mentorship program called the African American Success Network. It began with 30 students who were paired with Black professionals to discuss career aspirations.

The task force recommended the district develop a plan to increase Black students’ access to “high-value learning opportunities,” such as student leadership and magnet programs.

* Created the African American Parent and Family Institute, which hosted in-person events honoring Black student activists and Black literature this past school year, as well as virtual listening sessions with Black families during remote learning.

The task force recommended the district create Black family councils to give voice to the goals, needs, and concerns of Black families, as well as to empower them.

* Begun continually reviewing curriculum to ensure it is culturally relevant. About two-thirds of Denver students are Black or Hispanic. Students and educators have raised concerns that the district’s history curriculum, for example, focuses too much on white stories.

The task force recommended the district ensure its curriculum is responsive to Black students.

The progress report also cites some recent accomplishments, including increased participation by Black high school students in college-level courses and career apprenticeships. Through grants and fundraising, the district also secured $101,500 for a summer program that aims to provide 50 boys of color with “meaningful remote work experiences.”

Denver schools to get ventilation upgrades to help stem spread of coronavirus

2020-07-10T19:50:13+00:00

In an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus, the heating, ventilation, and cooling systems in Denver schools will be upgraded before students return to class next month.

The school board on Thursday unanimously approved $4.9 million in HVAC upgrades. The district will contract with seven companies to complete the work, which will include assessing HVAC systems at more than 150 school buildings, making necessary repairs and upgrades, cleaning the equipment, and upgrading air filters.

“It’s one of the strongest things we can do within the schools in terms of helping the children and the staff,” said Michael O’Keeffe, the district’s deputy chief of operations.

Research shows COVID-19 is largely transmitted through contact with droplets from coughs and sneezes. But scientists are also seeing some evidence that the virus can linger in the air in crowded, indoor spaces.

The federal Centers for Disease Control recommends employers increase the ratings of air filters in their buildings to MERV 13. MERV ratings measure a filter’s ability to capture particles. The standard for air filters in Denver schools is currently MERV 8. The district plans to upgrade school filters to MERV 11 or 13, depending on what each school’s HVAC system can handle.

Denver Public Schools announced late last month that it plans to reopen its schools to in-person learning this fall. Denver moved all learning online in March to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Families can opt to continue online learning or send their children back to school in person. School is set to begin again on Aug. 17.

Superintendent Susana Cordova told the school board she’s gotten lots of emails from parents asking specifically whether the district plans to upgrade its HVAC systems.

The $4.9 million upgrade does not include installing air conditioning in the more than 50 Denver schools that still don’t have it. It also won’t pay for HVAC upgrades for Denver charter schools that are not housed in district-owned buildings. Charter schools are publicly funded but independently run, and some are located in private facilities.

It’s likely the district will be able to use federal coronavirus relief funds to pay for the HVAC upgrades, officials said, though they noted conflicting guidance on how the funds can be used. If the district can’t use federal aid, officials said it will use leftover funds from a 2016 voter-approved tax increase earmarked for school construction and renovation.

Though the impetus for the upgrades was to better protect students and staff from contracting the coronavirus, district officials noted the work will have long-term benefits, as well, including that school heating systems will function better in the winter.

Facing a big budget gap, Denver school district cuts spending but avoids layoffs

2020-06-30T01:53:29+00:00

The Denver school board unanimously approved a budget Monday that cuts $65 million while still giving raises to teachers and low-wage workers. Top district administrators will see their salaries reduced, with the superintendent taking a 10% pay cut.

School districts across Colorado are having to slash their budgets for next school year. Schools get significant funding from local property taxes, as well as state income and sales tax revenue, which has plummeted because of the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, state lawmakers cut by 5% the amount of per-student funding Colorado will send to districts next year.

Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest district with 92,000 students, had to cut its $1.1 billion budget by more than 5%. The cuts avoid layoffs and do not impact individual school budgets — key goals identified by both board and community members.

The biggest reduction — $18 million — comes from the district’s central office, which has long been criticized as top-heavy, even after a round of cuts last year.

But the size of the central office won’t shrink, according to a budget presentation; rather, the savings will come from canceling third-party contracts, adjusting school bell times so buses run more efficiently, delaying curriculum purchases, and other shifts.

Another $4.8 million in savings will come from shrinking some raises received by teachers, nurses, and others who belong to the Denver teachers union.

Teachers were guaranteed a 1.9% cost-of-living raise per a hard-won contract signed after a strike last year. But in a compromise with the district, the union agreed earlier this month to a 0.5% cost-of-living raise instead. That raise will be in addition to pay increases teachers can earn for longevity and training. Denver teachers make an average salary of $65,000.

The district is currently negotiating with the unions that represent workers making less than $25 an hour, including bus drivers and teachers’ aides. If the unions agree to the district’s proposal, Denver would save another $3.7 million through what it calls “progressive pay adjustments.”

Low-wage workers would get pay raises, while higher-wage workers would see their salaries reduced through a combination of pay cuts and unpaid furlough days.

The superintendent has committed to taking the biggest pay cut, at 10%. She currently makes $260,000 a year. Deputy superintendents would take a 5% pay cut, while other administrators who make more than $100,000 a year would take cuts of anywhere from 0.75% to 2.5%.

School principal salaries would stay flat. Principals make an average of $120,000 per year.

Under the district’s proposal, employees who make between $20 and $25 an hour, including bus drivers, would get a 0.5% pay increase. Employees who make between $15 and $20 an hour, such as custodians and teachers’ aides, would get a 1% pay increase. And employees who make less than $15 an hour, such as food service workers, would get a 1.9% raise.

Colorado school districts have until January to amend their current year budgets.

To help fill next year’s budget gap, the district will also use $10 million in federal coronavirus relief aid. That money can only be used on expenses related to COVID-19, such as training for teachers on remote learning, hiring more nurses and counselors to address students’ increased physical and mental health needs, and buying supplies such as face masks.

Altogether, those adjustments make up for about $37 million of the $65 million shortfall. The remaining $28 million gap will be filled, at least in part, by spending down the district’s budget reserves. The district has about $100 million in reserves.

If the school board decides to ask Denver voters in November to raise additional tax dollars for schools, and if Denver voters agree, the district would not have to dip into its reserves as deeply. Denver voters have in the past approved tax increases for schools, but the current economic downtown makes passage less certain this time around.

Denver reschedules vote on controversial school rating system

2020-06-12T21:12:10+00:00

The Denver school board is delaying until August a vote on overhauling the district’s controversial school rating system.

The board was originally set to vote Thursday on scrapping the district’s system, known as the school performance framework, in favor of using the state’s school ratings. A proposal called for the state ratings to be paired with additional information meant to give families a more nuanced picture of Denver schools.

Board President Carrie Olson said she delayed the vote because of two factors: the coronavirus pandemic, which some parents said interfered with their ability to weigh in on the issue, and the protests in Denver and nationwide sparked by the police killing of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis. The death of George Floyd was a catalyst for the school board to unanimously vote Thursday to phase police officers out of Denver schools.

“Particularly in the context of COVID-19 and the racial trauma that is 100 years in the making, right now is not the right time to bring this forward, even though it is absolutely the right work to do,” Olson said Thursday of the proposed school ratings changes.

The district’s ratings have been criticized as costly to produce and complicated to understand. Others say they foster unhealthy competition among schools and limit a school’s narrative to a single color-coded rating. Both the state and district ratings are largely based on standardized test scores, though Denver’s ratings take more factors into account.

The Denver school board and the State Board of Education use school ratings to decide when to intervene in low-performing schools. Some Denver families use the ratings to decide where to enroll their children in a district that encourages school choice.

Denver would save money by using the state’s ratings, which are calculated at no cost to districts, wrote the 30-person committee tasked with “reimagining” the ratings. Using the state’s ratings would also provide “clarity and consistency” for families, it wrote.

The committee also recommended the district share a trove of other information about each school’s academics, culture, and student well-being. That information could include average class sizes, the ratio of mental health staff to students, or even the reliability of a school’s buses.

State ratings are usually released in December, based on standardized test data from the previous spring. State tests were canceled this spring due to COVID-19, and the Colorado Department of Education has said it won’t issue school or district ratings this year.

Denver school board votes to phase police out of schools

2020-06-12T03:47:50+00:00

Police officers will be phased out of working in Denver’s public schools over the next year, with all school resource officers gone from middle and high schools by June 2021.

The Denver school board voted unanimously Thursday to end Denver Public Schools’ contract with the Denver Police Department to provide school resource officers.

The vote comes after weeks of local and nationwide protests against racist policing sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis.

“What we saw in our streets was a reaction to what we will no longer tolerate,” said board Vice President Jennifer Bacon, who drafted the resolution to end the police contract along with board member Tay Anderson. “This topic is not new or knee-jerk.”

The vote represents a victory for community activists who have pressed the district for more than a decade to remove sworn officers from campus because of the higher rate at which students of color are referred to law enforcement.

Denver Public Schools’ $720,000 contract with Denver police provided the district with 18 school resource officers this past school year. The district also has its own force of more than 100 unarmed and armed campus security officers who will continue to provide security for Denver schools.

Before the board voted Thursday, it heard both from educators, parents, and community members who support removing police from schools and those who don’t.

Derek Hawkins, a dean at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College, said the process to remove police — which went from a public announcement to a vote in six days — was rushed. He and others said school resource officers are role models for students.

“Some have made it seem the SROs are wearing helmets and riot gear, coming to our schools to issue tickets,” Hawkins said. “I see something different.”

TaNesha Carter, who graduated from the former Montbello High School in 2012, said she had a positive relationship with the officer at her school.

“Officer Henry was not like a police officer in our eyes as students,” Carter said. “He was there to protect us. Even when there were situations where students needed to go to jail, he was there to mentor them through that process.”

Others spoke about negative encounters with police at school. Graduate Tiera Brown said being referred to law enforcement as a 13-year-old middle schooler was traumatizing. Priscilla Sandoval said her teenage son was repeatedly searched by police who found nothing.

Eloisa Palacio said her 10-year-old son, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ended up in court after contact with police at school. The court dismissed his case, she said.

“Students need support, not to be treated as criminal,” Palacio said.

Jen Jackson, principal at Academy of Urban Learning, said her school decided several years ago to redirect funding for a school resource officer to hire more counselors.

“When we employ police in our schools over mental health counselors, over nurses, over arts education, we are saying as a district that’s where our values lie,” Jackson said.

The resolution passed by the board reduces the number of school resource officers — police officers who are specially trained to work with youth — by 25% by Dec. 31, which would eliminate at least four officers. The rest will be removed by June 4, 2021.

The resolution also directs the superintendent to “redefine school safety” in Denver Public Schools and clarify the role that law enforcement should play.

It says the superintendent and community members should craft a district policy that ensures students will no longer be ticketed, arrested, or referred to law enforcement “unless there are no other available alternatives for addressing imminent threats of serious harm.”

And the resolution directs the superintendent to create a monthly school discipline report that would include the number of students ticketed and arrested, the number of students handcuffed, and the number of times police are called to schools, among other information.

State data shows Denver’s Black students are disproportionately referred to law enforcement, ticketed, and arrested at school. One in four tickets or arrests in the 2018-19 school year involved Black students, even though only about one in seven students are Black, according to data from the Colorado Department of Criminal Justice.

“We have the capacity to respond, not just with a raised fist or a cardboard sign,” said board member Brad Laurvick, “but as an institution, we can respond with policy for change.”

Black students in Denver are much more likely to be ticketed or arrested at school

2020-06-11T00:52:41+00:00

As Denver school board members make their case for removing police from schools, elected officials and advocates are pointing to strong data that shows Denver’s Black students are disproportionately funneled into the criminal justice system through tickets and arrests at school.

Removing police would lessen the likelihood that students of color end up with a criminal record, supporters say. Equally important, they say, is ensuring students of color feel safe at school given the long history of police brutality against Black men and women.

“What we are trying to address is to help our students not have to continue to internalize that they need to be closely monitored by law enforcement,” said school board Vice President Jennifer Bacon — and “that in an instant, their life may not matter.”

Bacon and fellow board member Tay Anderson announced Friday their plans to propose a resolution that would end Denver Public Schools’ contract with the Denver Police Department to provide school resource officers to work on 18 middle and high school campuses.

The full school board is set to vote Thursday, a quick turnaround that highlights the pressure to address this issue. Denver is verging on a third week of protests sparked by the police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an unarmed black man. The call to remove police from schools is gaining traction nationwide. Locally, other Colorado districts are considering it, too.

“What we saw over the last couple of weeks was our community being very loud and clear and saying, ‘This is the time in which we need to talk about this,’” Bacon said.

A pattern of disproportionality

The data is clear that Black students have disproportionate contact with police at school.

In the 2018-19 school year, the most recent year for which state data is available, Denver Public Schools reported 657 law enforcement referrals, or instances in which an educator called the police or asked a school resource officer to step in. Nearly a third of those instances, 29%, involved Black students. But only 13% of Denver students are Black.

The same pattern exists for Denver students ticketed or arrested by police at school. One in four tickets or arrests in 2018-19 involved Black students, even though only about one in seven students are Black, according to Colorado Department of Criminal Justice data.

That disproportionality does not exist for white or Hispanic students. White students are far less likely than either Black or Hispanic students to be arrested or ticketed.

News articles from 1998, when Denver won a federal grant to hire police as school resource officers, show some school board members expressed concerns about it, at least initially. Bennie Milliner, the only Black member at the time, said he worried students of color might be singled out by police.

“There’s still that tension that exists and will continue to exist,” he said in 1998.

Twenty-two years later, the resolution now on the table says that “to fulfill its responsibility for undoing the systemic racism that Black children and children of color face,” the school board should direct the superintendent to remove all police from schools by June 4, 2021.

Originally, Anderson and Bacon said they wanted police out of schools by Dec. 31. But the final resolution, posted publicly Wednesday afternoon, calls for reducing the number of school resource officers by 25% by Dec. 31, which would eliminate at least four officers.

The resolution also directs the superintendent to “redefine school safety” in Denver Public Schools and clarify the role that law enforcement should play. It says the superintendent and community members should craft a district policy that ensures students will no longer be ticketed, arrested, or referred to law enforcement “unless there are no other available alternatives for addressing imminent threats of serious harm.”

The resolution has support from a majority of the seven school board members. But opponents argue that without school resource officers, who are specially trained to work with youth, the problems the board hopes to eradicate could get worse.

“You take the school resource officers out of DPS and the schools are still going to call [the police] and they’re going to have somebody responding to the school who then might not have that training,” said Stacey Collis, a retired school resource officer from suburban Lakewood and past president of the Colorado Association of School Resource Officers.

“They’re going to see even greater problems than they think they have with the SRO.”

More tickets at schools with SROs

But state data indicates the presence of a school resource officer might increase the likelihood that a student is ticketed or arrested. In Denver, 52% of the arrests and tickets issued in the four school years from 2015-16 to 2018-19 happened at the fewer than 20 schools with school resource officers, according to data crunched by the advocacy organization Padres & Jóvenes Unidos.

“There are many ways in which our public institutions regularly harm our children and youth, but there may be no better of an example of this ... than over-policing our students,” said Elsa Bañuelos, executive director of Padres & Jóvenes Unidos.

Denver Public Schools already has a progressive inter-governmental agreement with the Denver Police Department that says officers should focus on de-escalating incidents and differentiate between discipline problems and crimes. That disparities persist is evidence that the school resource officer program must end, supporters of the resolution say.

Police are much more likely to issue a summons than arrest a student. In 2018-19, there were 679 tickets issued to Denver students and 65 arrests, according to state data. Most of the incidents involved marijuana, assault, and fighting or disorderly conduct. But even a ticket can lead to bigger legal issues if a student doesn’t pay their fine or misses a court date.

Denver Public Schools has its own force of more than 100 armed and unarmed campus security officers who don’t issue tickets or make arrests. The resolution would not remove them.

Chief of Safety Mike Eaton, who oversees the security officers, said he doesn’t think the district should remove school resource officers, who he said work closely with campus security officers. Rather, he said the district should revise what school policing looks like, with particular attention paid to “how do we end systemic racism in that approach.”

He noted that principals help select school resource officers for their schools, and they have chosen officers who reflect the student body. Eight of the current school resource officers are Hispanic, seven are Black, and two are white, he said. One position is vacant.

About 54% of Denver’s 92,000 students are Hispanic, 13% are Black, and 25% are white.

‘A red light in our minds’

Superintendent Susana Cordova said she has heard from school principals about the positive relationships school resource officers develop with students.

“They use words like ‘trust,’ ‘connection,’ ‘role model,’” Cordova said Friday at a press conference. That input is important, she said, and the district must balance “the desperate need for safety resources” with students’ mental health needs.

Research on whether school resource officers make schools safer is limited — and mixed. But studies show most Black students do not feel safer in the presence of police. Studies have also found that adding police to schools can lead to declines in high school graduation rates.

Chalkbeat asked several principals at schools with school resource officers to comment for this story. Most did not respond. Amy Bringedahl, principal at Northfield High School, wrote in an email, “All I will say is that our SRO is a strong Black leader/role model in our school. He has relationships with many students and is often their ‘trusted adult’ in the building.”

Veda Miles, an incoming senior at Northfield High, said she and her classmates have a good relationship with the police officer assigned to their school.

“It shows that not all cops are bad cops,” said Miles, 16. “The one we have is a good cop.”

Still, Miles, who is white, said she’s in favor of ending the school resource officer program.

“I think it’ll help students of color feel more safe there knowing that the police who tend to mistreat them are not going to be involved with our schools,” said Miles, who helped organize a student-led Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Denver Sunday.

Hola Maka, who will be a sophomore at Northfield this fall, agrees. Maka, 14, identifies as Pacific Islander. She also helped organize the protest, which drew a crowd of thousands.

“It can be intimidating to walk on campus and see a bunch of cop cars,” Maka said. “It can set off a red light in our minds. … I’d like for my school to be a second home for students. I don’t know if having lots of security and lots of police on campus would help create that same image.”

As protests continue, Denver to start conversation about role of police in schools

2020-06-03T03:59:02+00:00

Following nationwide protests of racist policing, the Denver school district is expected to begin a conversation about the role of police officers in Denver schools — with some district leaders pushing to remove them entirely.

School board member Tay Anderson tweeted Tuesday evening that board members and Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susana Cordova would gather Friday morning “to announce the future of Denver Public Schools and the Denver Police Department.”

He said in his tweet that he and board Vice President Jennifer Bacon would ask the community to help them draft a resolution that would end the district’s agreement with the city “as it relates to police in schools.” Bacon could not immediately be reached Tuesday evening.

“Our schools will no longer be ground zero for the school to prison pipeline!” Anderson tweeted.

Currently, the school district and the city split the cost of providing 18 police officers to work as “school resource officers” in some of the district’s secondary schools.

It’s not clear yet if this process will result in removing police from schools. Denver Public Schools spokesperson Winna MacLaren confirmed that the superintendent would attend Friday’s announcement. She characterized the announcement as relating to “beginning a conversation with the community about police in schools.”

The move comes more than a week after a white Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, an unarmed black man, sparking protests across the country, including in Denver. The officer has been charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter.

On Tuesday, the Minneapolis school board voted unanimously to end Minneapolis Public Schools’ contract with that city’s police department to provide school resource officers. The Advancement Project, a national education-focused civil rights group, is pushing for all school districts to cut ties with police.

At protests in Denver, police have used tear gas and foam bullets on demonstrators. That use of force prompted Anderson, who has helped lead the protests, to renew his call to remove police from schools, he said last week. Denver City Council members have also called for an investigation into police use of force during the protests.

Denver Public Schools was slated to pay $721,403 for the school resource officer program this school year. Community groups have said the district should reallocate that money for hiring more school nurses and counselors, an idea with which Anderson agrees.

Students of color face disproportionately harsh discipline in school. District statistics show black students, who make up 13% of students in Denver, are far more likely than white students to be suspended, expelled, handcuffed, or referred to law enforcement.

Looming budget cuts revive debate about the size of Denver’s school administration

2020-05-15T00:41:24+00:00

Faced with having to cut tens of millions of dollars from the school district budget next year, some Denver school board members are asking questions about the size of the district administration and just how much the superintendent shrunk it last year to pay for teacher raises.

After a three-day teacher strike, Superintendent Susana Cordova said she would cut $17 million and 150 positions from the Denver Public Schools central office. The district did cut millions of dollars in staff positions and saved millions more through consolidating different functions.

But skepticism about the depth of the cuts has remained. Many central office employees were rehired into new jobs, sometimes with higher pay, as part of a broader reorganization. Critics who long accused the district of being top-heavy don’t think enough has changed.

The issue has gained urgency as the coronavirus decimates the Colorado economy. School districts are bracing for steep decreases in state education funding next year, and the Denver school board is discussing drastic budget cuts, including possibly freezing teacher pay.

“Unless we can get this cleared up, it’s going to overshadow everything we do with the budget,” school board President Carrie Olson said of the central office cuts.

Denver Public Schools is Colorado’s largest school district, and it operates on a $1.1 billion budget. A Chalkbeat analysis based on historical data found that Denver had more administrators than the statewide average in the 2016-17 school year and had gotten more top-heavy over time.

The Denver teachers union went on strike in February 2019 for higher wages and a different pay structure. They won both. Cordova, a former teacher who’d been hired as superintendent just a month earlier, vowed to cut from the top to pay teachers.

By June, the school board approved a budget for this school year that included $17 million in cuts from the academics division of the central office and an increase of $53 million in school budgets, most of it for teacher salaries, according to documents provided by district finance officials.

Almost immediately, teachers and community members began checking whether the district had done what it said. Retired Denver teacher Margaret Bobb, in particular, filed several open records requests in search of information about the administrative cuts. She spent over a year analyzing the data, and recently posted her findings on social media.

Bobb compared a list of people whose jobs were cut to a list of people who currently work in the central office. She found that more than 90 administrators who were cut are still there. In addition to getting new jobs and titles, she found that many of them got raises.

All in all, Bobb calculated that the staff cuts were less than $17 million. She found that the salaries of the central office employees who left the district for good added up to just $6 million. Other central office employees whose salaries accounted for $4 million got jobs in schools as teachers and principals. Total staff cuts to the central office added up to $10 million, she found.

Already distrustful of the district, Bobb said her findings only further cemented that belief.

“They claim they’re poor, they claim they’ve streamlined, they claim they’ve cut, and they’re giving each other raises down in the executive level,” Bobb said.

Bobb’s salary data is correct, and her count of employees is close to the district count. But district officials said her analysis doesn’t account for other savings that add up to more than $17 million.

In the end, Denver cut the equivalent of 117 full-time positions from the central office, said Jim Carpenter, the district’s chief financial officer. That number is lower than the 150 positions originally cited because some people worked part-time and other positions were funded by grants. Cutting 117 positions from the district’s general fund saved $10.8 million, Carpenter said.

Another $6.9 million in cuts came from savings other than district salaries, officials said.

The central office cuts were part of a bigger administrative reorganization by Cordova, who made streamlining the organization one of her objectives. For instance, she collapsed several departments in the academics division into one.

Those changes resulted in sizable savings, said Chuck Carpenter, the district’s executive director of finance. Instead of rolling over the previous year’s budget, each streamlined department started at zero and built a budget from there. Certain third-party contracts were canceled, and fewer employees meant less money allocated for travel, technology, and copying.

The first statement a district spokesperson made about the cuts in February 2019 mentioned streamlining. “We will consolidate or realign central office teams to align with Superintendent Cordova’s vision and core beliefs and eliminate redundancies in our work,” it said.

But while the cutting of positions got a lot of attention, including from central office employees who felt vilified by the call to cut them to pay teachers, the non-salary savings did not.

A department-by-department comparison of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 budgets recently prepared by district finance officials and provided to Chalkbeat shows the changes.

But that document wasn’t available at the time. Instead, district officials summarized the budget changes in slide decks they reasoned were more understandable for the general public.

“We thought it was more digestible to move to the more summarized schedules,” said Chuck Carpenter. But he acknowledged that sharing more detail is sometimes necessary: “The more that folks question things, the more you need to get into the raw detail.”

Board members have been frustrated by how difficult it’s been to sort this out — and at least some of them still have questions about how Bobb’s analysis compares with the district’s explanation. Olson said she spent the better part of a recent Saturday trying to understand it.

“I have a Ph.D. in quantitative research. I sat here and I thought, ‘I don’t get it,’” she said.

“At the end of the day, I don’t believe that the people in the budget department are trying to pull a fast one on us,” Olson said. But when she started digging into which positions were cut, she said she found herself wondering, “Is this really what we intended?”

Olson and board Vice President Jennifer Bacon said Bobb’s detailed analysis drew their attention to aspects of the reorganization that hadn’t been as clear before, including that, on average, lower-paid central office workers were laid off while higher-paid administrators were hired back into new positions as part of Cordova’s reorganization.

As the board looks to slash what could be as much as $60 million from next year’s budget in the face of decreased state funding, it has enlisted the help of a budget advisory committee made up of teachers, principals, parents, and community members. While further cuts to the central office weren’t initially identified as a possibility, the district is now listing it as an option.

“What we spend money on is a demonstration of our values,” Bacon said. “Have we seen what we want to see from that investment? That, for me, is what this whole conversation has opened up.”

Denver charter that received $2.5 million grant to open high school gives up its plan

2020-05-01T21:12:39+00:00

A Denver charter middle school that received a multimillion-dollar investment from a national school reform initiative won’t expand into high school after struggling with low test scores.

In a compromise with the school board, Compass Academy Middle School will continue to operate after surrendering the part of its charter that would have allowed it to expand.

Compass serves about 300 students in southwest Denver, more than 60% of whom are learning English as a second language. The school prizes bilingual education and tending to students’ social and emotional needs. But it has struggled with academic achievement, posting low standardized test scores since it opened in 2015.

Though the school showed improvement last year, it continued to earn scrutiny from the Denver school board, which has the power to open or close charter schools.

On Thursday, the board voted to renew Compass Academy’s charter with Denver Public Schools for two more years. But first, it passed a resolution that says the renewal is only for grades 6-8. It does not include grades 9-12, which were part of the original charter approved in 2014.

The decision is notable because Compass won a $2.5 million grant in 2017 to design and launch an innovative high school. The money came from an ambitious nationwide school reform initiative called XQ that’s backed by Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple’s Steve Jobs. At least three other schools supported by XQ have failed to open or had to close.

The school board resolution says district and Compass leaders “agree that the priority is to support Compass Academy’s existing 6-8 grades and students.”

Board members were vague about the negotiations that led to the resolution, though they gave the impression the talks were difficult. Board President Carrie Olson said the two sides were at an impasse less than a week before reaching a “win-win” solution. If Compass hadn’t given up its high school, Olson said a majority of board members may have voted to close its middle school.

Compass Executive Director Marcia Fulton called it “the right decision today.” But she said it is heartbreaking to have to tell families that Compass won’t open a high school.

“The only way I can justify a dream deferred for our students is because I believe that given the political context we find ourselves in, surrendering our high school is the only way we can ensure that our middle school will continue to thrive for the students we love,” Fulton said.

A majority of Denver’s seven school board members have said they oppose opening more charter schools in the 92,000-student district. But that wasn’t always the case; when Compass was first approved, a majority of then-board members supported charter expansion.

Charters are publicly funded but independently run. They are also controversial: Supporters say charters provide families with choices and incubate innovative practices, while critics argue they siphon students and money from traditional public schools through unhealthy competition.

In a Facebook post earlier this week, board member Tay Anderson said he’d vote to close Compass unless it gave up its ability to open a high school. Part of his reasoning, he wrote, was because the district still hadn’t “fixed the current schools in southwest Denver.”

Community members critical of charters have long implored the district to invest in improving existing traditional schools before opening new charter schools.

In the end, the vote to renew the Compass middle school contract was unanimous. The resolution says Compass agreed not to appeal the decision regarding its high school to the State Board of Education, which is the school’s right by law.

“There are signs that Compass is on the right track,” board President Olson said, “and I am glad to see that they are going to focus on their middle school.”

This Colorado proposal could send charter-district disputes to the courts

2020-02-21T02:08:02+00:00

For more than two decades, the Colorado State Board of Education has had the final word on disputes between charter schools and the school districts that authorize them.

A bill expected to be introduced soon in the Colorado General Assembly would change that by allowing appeals to district court. State Rep. Shannon Bird, the bill’s sponsor, said she wants to provide an independent review in a process that has often been perceived as political.

“If there is a dispute, the parties in the dispute should have an opportunity for review if they believe the laws have not been applied fairly,” she said. “To me, it is fundamental.”

Bird, a Westminster Democrat, said her bill is not “anti-charter.” Nonetheless, it represents the first test this session for how the current Democratic-controlled legislature views the balance of power between districts and charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently operated.

Some school districts are applauding the potential change, while charter leaders fear they would be at a disadvantage if disputes over whether a school should be approved or receive a renewal of its contract were to go to the courts.

“As a small charter we don’t have the resources that a district does to put into a legal battle,” said Miguel In Suk Lovato, vice chair of the board of Vega Academy, a charter school that was recently involved in a dispute with the Aurora school district. “I think it would have stretched us to the limit and maybe the breaking point.”

Aurora Superintendent Rico Munn, meanwhile, believes the opportunity for appeal would make the process fairer.

“It’s an option for many decisions of administrative agencies,” said Munn. A former member of the State Board of Education, Munn said he doesn’t understand why its decisions should be different.

State laws limit the grounds that school districts can use to turn down a charter proposal. If a local school board rejects an application or renewal request, the charter school can appeal to the State Board of Education, which can either uphold the district decision or send it back. Charters schools can appeal again, with a second State Board decision being final.

The State Board of Education consists of seven elected, partisan members, but in charter school appeals it often doesn’t split along party lines. In the past decade, the State Board has upheld local board decisions 13 times and sent them back for reconsideration 18 times. In five cases, it’s ordered the establishment of a school against a local board’s wishes, and in three, it’s overturned a decision to revoke a charter.

The bill would also make existing non-discrimination requirements clearer and change other aspects of the appeals procedure, including:

Making it explicit that charter schools must enroll students through random selection, with no consideration for disability, English learner, or gifted status
Requiring charter schools to lay out exactly how they’ll meet the needs of special student populations
Banning parties in a dispute from having contact with board members outside formal channels
Requiring the State Board of Education to create a written record that lays out how and why it arrived at its decision.

The State Board of Education won’t take a position on the bill until after it’s introduced.

Many of the bill’s provisions don’t represent a dramatic change from current practice for most charter schools. For Bird, these issues of equity are important enough to make explicit in statute, but they leave some charter operators wondering whether they’re being held to a different standard than district-run magnet programs and options schools.

“What problem are we trying to solve here?” asked Dan Schaller of the Colorado League of Charter Schools.

As a whole, Colorado charter schools serve higher percentages of English language learners and students in poverty than the statewide average, but lower percentages of students with disabilities. Some parents of students with disabilities report being discouraged from enrolling their child, often because he’s not a “good fit” for the school’s educational model, while in other cases, districts tell charters they cannot enroll a student because the school doesn’t offer the right services.

The education of students with disabilities was at the heart of Aurora’s dispute with Vega. After the State Board overruled Aurora’s decision to shut down the school, the district allowed the school to keep operating provided it met certain conditions. An independent review found that Vega was not complying with all the requirements to serve special education students but also found fault with aspects of Aurora’s investigation.

Lovato said he believes the district and the school have a stronger relationship now, and Vega has improved its record-keeping for special education students. He’s not sure that would have happened if the two sides had ended up in court.

For her part, Bird said her bills aims to ensure charters fulfill their potential.

“We decided a long time ago in Colorado that charter schools are part of our family of public schools, and I believe in that,” she said. “They’ve done innovative things and opened doors of opportunity, and I want to make sure those doors of opportunity are open to all kids.”

The Adams 14 school board now includes a district parent, and she speaks Spanish fluently

2019-04-24T02:48:57+00:00

A mom of three district students was appointed Tuesday night to fill a board vacancy on the Adams 14 school board.

Four Adams 14 school board members voted unanimously to appoint Laura Martinez to fill the board’s fifth seat, vacated in February when Bill Hyde resigned after an investigation found he was violating district policy visiting classrooms where his wife taught.

Board member Dominick Moreno, who nominated Martinez, said the board lacked the point of view of someone who has children in the district.

“That would be a really invaluable perspective to have,” Moreno said.

Martinez, an alumna of Adams City High School, has been involved in the district as a leader with the Colorado Industrial Areas Foundation, a coalition of progressive religious and community organizations that often aligns with the teachers union. She also is involved in the community through her church.

She was selected from five applicants to fill the seat, although one, Cynthia Sawaya Meyers, withdrew early on. The board interviewed the remaining applicants Tuesday afternoon, but waited until the end of its meeting Tuesday to select a new member.

During interviews, Martinez said her goal in being on the school board would be to inspire students.

“To remind them it doesn’t matter where they came from,” Martinez said. “I also want to contribute to bringing the district and the community together so we can work as one and make it a district that can exemplify what success looks like.”

Martinez addressed the community as soon as she took her seat on the board, and speaking first in English, then in Spanish, invited anyone to reach out to her.

Moreno pointed out that the board needs to have a member who speaks Spanish, the native language of most district parents.

Hyde resigned in February after a district investigation found he was violating district policy by visiting his wife while she was substitute teaching. The board had banned him from district classrooms during the investigation which resulted after an incident in which he grabbed the arm of a student he said was misbehaving.

Martinez’s appointment will be effective immediately. Her term extends through November, when Hyde’s term would have ended. Martinez would have to run for election to maintain the board seat.

Adams 14’s board has had a busy year, often meeting multiple times a week to discuss the State Board’s order to hire an outside manager. Tuesday the four-member board chose Florida-based MGT Consulting to run the district, after the State Board turned down an earlier selection.

Five people have applied to fill a vacant seat on the Adams 14 school board

2019-04-10T23:40:41+00:00

Five people including newcomers and active parents have applied to fill a vacancy on the five-member Adams 14 school board. They are:

Joseph Dreiling, who previously served on the Commerce City Planning Commission and for about one year from late 2016 to 2017 in an appointed seat on the Adams 14 board.
Luz Molina Aguayo, a parent who served on the community review team for the district’s external management applicants.
Cynthia Sawaya Meyers, a former teacher who applied for a different seat on the board last year then withdrew her application.
Laura Martinez, a leader with the Colorado Industrial Areas Foundation, a coalition of progressive religious and community organizations often aligned with the teachers union.
Austin Rollison, who is also running for city council in November’s election against the wife of current school board member Harvest Thomas.

The board will interview the candidates on April 23 and can make a decision during the same meeting.

The vacancy was created last month when Bill Hyde resigned after a district investigation found he had violated district policy in regularly joining his wife when she worked as an Adams 14 substitute teacher, and in physically handling an elementary student during one of those visits.

Last summer five candidates also applied to fill a different board vacancy created when the board president abruptly resigned.

Now the board faces a challenging task as the district works to hire an external manager to take over much of its operations for at least four years. The district’s selected manager did not win the approval of the State Board of Education. The state board will review the situation again Thursday.

The open position this year has a shorter life span. By Colorado law, an appointed school board member serves only the remainder of the vacant seat’s term. To continue beyond that the person would have to run for re-election this November.