Chalkbeat

Emily Griffith Technical College to buy $11 million building for move out of DPS headquarters

2026-09-01T23:55:19+00:00

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An $11 million building purchase, and millions more in renovation costs, are key to a plan for Emily Griffith Technical College to move out of Denver Public Schools headquarters and expand.

The move comes at a time of rising popularity for career and technical education nationwide.

Founded in 1916, Emily Griffith Technical College is the adult education arm of DPS, and some of its programs are housed at the district’s downtown headquarters. But limited and expensive parking is a barrier for students, many of whom can’t afford to live nearby, officials said.

“If you’re going to school and working toward economic mobility, $40 to $60 a week is a big hit,” said college President Sarah Heath, referencing the cost of parking.

The Denver school board voted in April to buy a different building, called Centennial Hall, from the Urban Land Conservancy. It’s located on the former campus of Johnson & Wales University in east Denver, which Heath said has more parking and better public transportation access.

DPS bought four other buildings on that campus in 2021 for $30 million, in part for an expansion of the Denver School of the Arts magnet school.

Emily Griffith Technical College is funded by a mix of tuition and state higher education money. The college serves about 7,000 students per year, and their average age is 29, Heath said.

The $11 million for Centennial Hall won’t come out of DPS’ main budget, officials said. About $6 million will come from the college’s share of a bond measure Denver voters passed in 2020. The other $5 million will come from the college’s budget reserves.

The college will also use its budget reserves to pay for an estimated $17 million renovation of another DPS-owned building on the former Johnson & Wales campus called Aspen Hall. The timeline calls for renovations to begin in January so students can use it by early 2028.

The college’s information technology, healthcare, and esthetician programs will move to Aspen Hall, Heath said. The workforce development and career coaching services will relocate to Centennial Hall, which until recently housed a private school. Emily Griffith’s adult English language acquisition classes are already taking place at that campus.

Emily Griffith’s student-run businesses, including a cafe and barbershop, would likely stay downtown, Heath said. The college’s skilled trades programs, such as welding and automotive repair, are located in a leased space in west Denver.

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

Four Denver schools are safe from closure under a new district policy because they boosted their ratings

2026-08-31T23:54:25+00:00

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Denver Public Schools will not close any schools this year under a new policy that calls for shuttering persistently low-performing campuses.

Four schools that were at risk under the policy boosted their state ratings, saving them from a closure recommendation, according to preliminary data released Monday by the Colorado Department of Education. The ratings are largely based on state test scores.

The higher ratings are a boon for those schools. They may also be a positive sign for Superintendent Alex Marrero’s carrots-and-sticks strategy of providing extra support to a cohort of struggling schools but threatening closure if they don’t improve.

“Yes, the threat prompted a response,” Marrero said in an interview. “But I wouldn’t say the threat by itself is the reason.”

Rather, he attributed the progress to how the threat mobilized the community to get involved and the district to deploy “the who’s who” of leaders to help the schools.

Only one of the four schools, Oakland Elementary, was part of last year’s extra-support cohort, called the Elevate Schools Network. Oakland improved its rating from orange, the third-highest of four ratings, to yellow, the second-highest, preliminary data shows.

The largest of the four schools, John F. Kennedy High, increased its rating from orange to green, which is the highest possible rating. Kennedy wasn’t part of the Elevate Schools Network, but its leaders participated in another district improvement strategy called the Data MINE that is part help desk, part accountability hearing.

Two independently run Denver charter schools were also facing a possible closure recommendation. Rocky Mountain Prep Noel boosted its rating from orange to yellow. Academy 360 earned a green rating for the second year in a row. Because Academy 360 has a history of low ratings, it could have been at risk for closure if its rating had dipped.

Marrero introduced the School Transformation Process last year as a way to beat what’s known as the state accountability clock, which ticks toward intervention. After five years of low ratings, the State Board of Education can order an intervention.

Marrero doesn’t want the state to step in. Instead, his policy calls for Denver Public Schools to take action after four years of low ratings, preempting any state orders.

Although the four schools are safe for now, three of them — John F. Kennedy High, Oakland Elementary, and Rocky Mountain Prep Noel — could be at risk for intervention next fall if their ratings were to backslide to orange or red, which is the lowest.

The preliminary ratings show another three schools could be at risk next fall, too: Ashley Elementary, Cheltenham Elementary, and Traylor Academy. All three earned preliminary orange ratings this year, marking their third year of low ratings.

Schools can appeal their preliminary ratings to the state by presenting additional academic data. The state will finalize the ratings later this fall.

But if those orange ratings stick, and if the three schools earn orange or red ratings next fall, they could be subject to closure under the School Transformation Process.

Under the policy, a school with one to three years of low ratings could be “renewed” or “reconfigured,” which means the principal could be fired, the teachers could have to reapply for their jobs, or the district could cut some grade levels from the school.

After four years of low ratings, a school could be “reimagined,” a euphemism for closure. The school could be permanently closed or replaced with another school.

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

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero reveals his favorite DPS school on first day of class

2026-08-25T00:21:40+00:00

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The principal of Goldrick Elementary had a question for the “super, super smart third graders” lined up on the playground on the first day of school Monday.

“Raise your hand if you remember one of the rules about being on the swings at Goldrick,” Principal Taryn Rawson said. “Bella, loud and proud. What’s one of our rules?”

“No swinging side to side,” the girl said. A classmate offered another rule: No twisting.

Two grown men — one in cowboy boots, the other in dress shoes — hopped on the swings. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston twirled around until the metal chains of his swing were knotted up. Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero did the same.

“Noooooo!” the third graders cried in unison.

The playground rules demonstration was one of the most lighthearted moments on Marrero’s back-to-school tour as he visited classrooms and spoke with students at the start of the 2026-27 school year. Colorado’s largest school district faces several changes and challenges this year, including a new bell-to-bell cellphone ban, the potential for more school closures, a pair of fights with the Trump administration, and whether Denver voters will approve a $44 million tax increase for public schools in November.

There is also simmering tension between Marrero and the school board, which is responsible for hiring and firing him. Only board President Xóchitl Gaytán and member Marlene De La Rosa accompanied Marrero as he visited CMS Community School, Goldrick Elementary, Rocky Mountain Prep Westwood, DSST College View, and Denison Montessori in southwest Denver.

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero gives high fives to students at Goldrick Elementary on the first day of school.

At Goldrick, Marrero listened as fifth grade teacher Craig Sellers went over his classroom rules. Rule number one? No touching. Rule number two? Stay in your seat. Rule number three? No cussing.

“I’ll try,” a boy sitting in the front row said quietly.

Marrero said he wanted to visit Sellers’ classroom because his students had shown tremendous growth on the state standardized math and literacy tests last spring. Johnston, a former teacher, called Sellers “the LeBron James of reading instruction.”

“You all drew the lucky class,” Marrero told the students.

Marrero also visited two charter schools, which are authorized by the district but overseen by independent nonprofit organizations. The stops were part showcase, part information sharing, as Marrero asked charter leaders about their start dates and student-to-staff ratios. Marrero has at times taken a hard line with charter schools, pushing low-performing ones to close.

Rocky Mountain Prep Westwood offered Marrero and the board members fruit smoothies, breakfast burritos, and branded T-shirts and frisbees. The school put a children’s book that Marrero wrote, called “Ask My Amigos,” in its book vending machine by the front door.

Charter schools create their own calendars, and Rocky Mountain Prep Westwood had already been in session for a week. Marrero watched as sixth graders defined the word “authoritarian” and seventh graders wrote about how China portrayed the Cultural Revolution in propaganda. The teacher awarded them an extra point if they used the word “pernicious” in their answer.

At DSST College View, Marrero and the board members met with a roundtable of eighth graders before a trio of seniors led them through the charter school.

De La Rosa asked one of the seniors how he felt about the new cellphone ban. She said she’d gotten several emails from upset parents in the past week.

“I think it’s helped me a lot because I’m focusing,” said the senior, Angel. “I don’t have my phone in my pocket. Nothing is going to distract me.”

One of the eighth graders had a question for Marrero: “What’s your favorite DPS school?”

“What I’m supposed to say is that I don’t have a favorite, just like when they ask you who is your favorite child,” said Marrero, who was wearing a jersey with the logos of district-run high schools — but not charters — on the back. “But I answer the question. … It is Northfield.”

He ticked off several reasons, including that Northfield High, a district-run school that opened in 2015 in northeast Denver, “puts colleges to shame.” Marrero also said that he lives near Northfield and sometimes walks the grounds, and that the school had recently been ranked the best high school in Colorado by U.S. News and World Report.

The DSST principal handed Marrero a gift: a DSST College View baseball jersey.

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

Denver’s test scores are up, but not high enough to meet all of the superintendent’s strategic plan goals

2026-08-20T23:06:27+00:00

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Denver Public Schools’ standardized test scores have gone up under the watch of Superintendent Alex Marrero, but not enough to meet all of his goals.

In 2022, a year into his tenure as superintendent, Marrero released his first-ever strategic plan. Among the plan’s academic goals: to increase the number of students scoring at grade level on math and literacy tests by 10 percentage points by 2026.

None of Denver’s overall scores improved by 10 percentage points, data released this week shows. The district’s early literacy score came the closest. In 2022, 60% of kindergarten through third grade students scored at grade level or above in reading. In 2026, 69% did.

Marrero wanted to accelerate the growth of certain student groups even more. At the time, Denver had the largest test score gaps by race in the state.

That’s still true. Black and Latino students’ scores have gone up in the past four years — some by 10 percentage points or more — but big gaps remain between them and their white peers.

The comparison comes as Marrero’s future with the Denver district has been called into question, partly because of friction with the school board responsible for hiring and firing him and partly because he’s been a candidate for at least two jobs in other cities that he didn’t get.

As has been the case with past superintendents, some people want Marrero to stay, and some don’t. He said recently that he’s “unapologetically committed” to Denver and close to finalizing a new strategic plan that will take the district through 2030.

When last spring’s standardized test scores were released earlier this week, Marrero characterized Denver’s results as a mix of pain points and all-time highs.

“There’s still a whole lot of work we need to do,” he said in an interview. “For my lovely critics out there, this is me celebrating the work of our educators. And I will never hold back from continuing to be the cheerleader for Denver Public Schools.”

District-run schools met the early literacy goal

Denver has had the most success with early literacy. It’s where Marrero has focused several of his signature initiatives, including a Black Student Success Team launched in 2023, a Latine Student Success Team launched in 2024, and the Elevate Schools Network, launched last year to help a cohort of low-performing elementary schools boost their test scores.

“It’s not a cheat code but a smart way of investing your talent and energy and resources,” Marrero said of the focus on the district’s youngest students. “Our youngest scholars become, ultimately, our oldest scholars.”

In the past four years, Denver also adopted a new early literacy curriculum aligned to the science of reading, a large body of research on how children best learn to read. And the district invested in teacher training and a new intervention program for struggling readers.

A state law called the READ Act requires school districts to test the literacy skills of all kindergarten through third grade students each year. Denver has used different tests over the years, but the one that most district-run schools currently use is called DIBELS.

Just counting district-run schools, 71% of kindergarten through third grade students were reading at grade level or above this past spring, according to district data — a number that surpasses the goal in Marrero’s strategic plan.

That number doesn’t include scores from Denver’s independent charter schools or the schools in its semi-autonomous innovation zone, neither of which Marrero directly oversees.

In a press release, the district called out “significant milestone achievements in district-run schools.” Marrero said he’s also proud of the progress made by students of color. In 2022, 48% of Black and Latino students in kindergarten through third grade were reading at grade level or above. In 2026, those numbers jumped to 58% for Black students and 63% for Latino students.

Big test score gaps by race remain

A similar pattern emerged in elementary and middle school. Colorado students in grades 3 through 8 take literacy and math tests called the Colorado Measures of Academic Success, or CMAS. Students in grades 9 and 10 take the PSAT, and 11th graders take the SAT.

Districtwide, 39% of students met or exceeded expectations on the CMAS literacy test in 2022. To meet Marrero’s strategic plan goal, 49% would have had to score that way in 2026. Only 42.5% of students did.

But among district-run schools, the district calculated that the number was 43.4%, which it said in a press release was an all-time high. CMAS math scores were also higher for district-run schools than for charter schools, the district said.

On the SAT, Black students’ reading and writing scores improved by 11 percentage points districtwide from 2022 to 2026. But districtwide SAT scores in both literacy and math grew by less than the 10-percentage-point target, as did the scores of Latino students.

Yawning test score gaps remain between students of color and white students in Denver. About 27% of Black students and 25% of Latino students met or exceeded expectations on the CMAS literacy test this past spring, compared with 76% of white students. That’s about a 50 percentage-point gap, which was once again the largest in Colorado.

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

At retreat, Denver school board members discuss trust, agenda setting, ‘convoluted’ governance framework

2026-08-18T01:49:35+00:00

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The Denver school board was polite Monday as the seven members and Superintendent Alex Marrero publicly discussed some of the underlying reasons why, in the words of the paid facilitator, “the last month or two has not been super smooth.”

The most animated discussion centered on how the board sets its meeting agendas, a sore spot for some members who said they’ve struggled to get their priorities heard. Board members also talked in general terms about how to restore broken trust, the importance of working together even if they disagree, and the steep learning curve experienced by new members.

No one raised their voice or pointed any fingers. But tension was at times palpable in the silences. Some board members spoke so softly that it was hard to hear them from 10 feet away.

“This is the most collaborative I’ve ever seen the board,” member Amy Klein Molk said near the end of Monday’s eight-hour board retreat. “I am so proud to be here right now and so grateful for this conversation. We need more of this in general.”

The retreat comes after Marrero wrote a letter to board President Xóchitl Gaytán in June detailing several frustrations, including that board members are too involved in administrative matters. Marrero’s letter said he is caught in the crosshairs of a “litany of ongoing interpersonal issues amongst board members,” some of whom he said have canceled two-on-two meetings with his staff “because of who they are paired up with.”

A day after he sent the letter, Marrero told the board he had applied for another job in Miami. He didn’t get the position. Seven months earlier, his name was leaked as a finalist for the top schools job in Chicago. At the time, he said he was committed to Denver.

Marrero and the board met behind closed doors last month to discuss their working relationship. They emerged from that meeting striking a more conciliatory tone, although tensions between board members bubbled up in the brief public portion.

Similar tensions have surfaced at previous board meetings, with some members accusing Gaytán of rejecting their requests to add items to the meeting agendas. The policy framework that the board uses, called policy governance, is often at the center of the disagreements because board members interpret its rules differently.

“Nothing is clearly defined,” board member DJ Torres said. “Everything is up for interpretation.”

Board members noted that the way the Denver school board interprets policy governance is different from the way other school boards do, with some members calling Denver’s version “convoluted,” strict, and too black-and-white. But board members didn’t have a clear answer when facilitator Keith Gruen asked why the board hadn’t changed the framework.

“We skirt around this at every retreat we have,” board member Kimberlee Sia said.

Klein Molk added, “I feel very strongly that we lack trust. And I don’t think we can move forward until we figure out a way to move through that.”

Monica Hunter suggested the tension is because some of her fellow board members want things to stay the same while others are pushing for change.

“I’ve also heard that we’re ‘one voice,’” Hunter said, referring to a principle of policy governance. “No, we’re not. That’s why we’re elected — to be different voices.”

Gruen spent part of the retreat encouraging board members and Marrero to find common ground. They paired up for an activity where they shared details about their lives by finishing the sentence, “If you really knew me, you’d know…” They also did some lighthearted icebreakers, including naming their favorite home cooked meal and the first music album they bought.

Gruen was paid nearly $10,000 to facilitate, according to a district spokesperson.

By the end of the retreat, the board pledged to hold a public study session to workshop Marrero’s latest strategic plan for the district, his second since coming to Denver five years ago. They also discussed revising the board’s policy for agenda setting. Gruen gave them some homework, too: to get coffee or go on a walk with a board colleague, just to talk.

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

Denver school board hires outside law firm to represent it in superintendent contract, employment matters

2026-08-14T04:18:23+00:00

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The Denver school board voted Thursday to hire an outside law firm to represent it in legal matters involving the superintendent, whom the board is responsible for hiring, firing, and evaluating.

The vote comes at a tense time for Superintendent Alex Marrero and the school board, who met recently behind closed doors to discuss their working relationship.

The board will hire the firm Holland & Knight, which has locations across the country, including in Denver. The board could also ask the firm to conduct investigations or offer a second opinion on complex matters previously reviewed by the school district’s lawyers.

A contract hasn’t been finalized. But board member Kimberlee Sia said at the meeting that the cost was below the $250,000 threshold that requires the district to put a contract out for bid.

The district put out a request for proposals anyway, Sia said. But no law firms responded.

Instead, Sia said she reached out to firms to ask if they would be interested in the job. Of the two that responded, she and board President Xóchitl Gaytán chose Holland & Knight, Sia said.

The board voted unanimously to hire the firm without any substantive discussion.

The topic has generated debate in the past. Sia first proposed a policy on when and how the board should hire an outside lawyer in June 2025. Her thinking, she said, was to avoid conflicts of interest regarding the superintendent’s contract and performance evaluation.

Instead of having the school district’s general counsel represent both the board and the superintendent, Sia proposed each side should hire its own external attorney.

Gaytán pushed back on the proposal, arguing that it could displace Denver Public Schools General Counsel Aaron Thompson and policy governance attorney Marcus Johnson, both of whom are people of color. She noted that Marrero is also a person of color.

The board passed a slimmed-down version of Sia’s proposal in October. Gaytán was the sole no vote. The policy, called Governance Process Policy 18, says the board’s outside lawyer should report directly to the board president, who is currently Gaytán.

Marrero has expressed concerns about the arrangement. In a June 8 letter in which he outlined how he believes the board is overstepping its bounds, the superintendent wrote that he was “compelled to reiterate concerns regarding any efforts to create structures that function as a parallel legal advisory system separate from the District’s General Counsel.”

He wrote that such a move could “risk creating perceptions of retaliation, undermine established reporting structures, and further complicate governance responsibilities.”

The relationship between Marrero and the board has grown more tense since Marrero applied for an open position in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. He didn’t get the job.

Marrero and the board met in a three-hour closed-door session late last month to discuss the superintendent’s concerns and his contract, which says he’s entitled to a year’s salary if the board terminates him without cause. Marrero earned $346,529 this past school year. The two sides emerged from that meeting pledging to continue to work together.

An attempt by some board members to call a subsequent meeting to discuss Marrero’s employment didn’t garner enough support to be scheduled, the Denver Post reported.

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

Denver voters will consider $44 million tax increase to raise school employee pay, fund student services

2026-08-14T03:14:48+00:00

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Denver voters will be asked in November to approve a $44 million tax increase to benefit the city’s public schools. If passed, every Denver Public Schools employee would get a $1,750 raise.

The money would also be used to offer more career and technical education classes to students and expand mental health and special education services.

The Denver school board voted unanimously Thursday to put the measure on the Nov. 3 ballot.

The measure would increase property taxes by about $72 per year for a Denver home valued at $624,800, the median home price in the city, according to the school district.

Denver Public Schools is the state’s largest school district, with about 89,000 students and a $1.5 billion budget. But it’s facing serious funding pressures, including from declining enrollment. Because Colorado schools are funded per student, fewer kids means fewer dollars.

The rising costs of employee health insurance and utilities are also causing financial strain for the district, and an increase in the number of students needing special education services means DPS is spending more to support them, officials said.

The $44 million tax increase would be split like this:

$25.8 million for employee raises. Each full-time DPS employee would get a $1,750 raise, while part-time employees would get a prorated amount. The flat $1,750 would mean lower paid employees would get a larger percentage raise than higher paid ones.
$4 million for career and technical education. Denver voters passed a bond in 2024 that included $51 million to build career and technical education classrooms. The $4 million would pay for programming, equipment, and transportation for those classes.
$2.9 million to expand student mental health support.
$2 million for special education services.
$9.3 million for the district’s charter schools. State law requires that school districts share mill levy override revenue with district charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently run by nonprofit organizations.

Thursday’s vote comes as tension between the superintendent and the elected school board has sparked some community concern about the district’s leadership. But Denver voters have a long track record of approving school tax increases regardless of any political strife.

The type of tax increase that will appear on the November ballot is called a mill levy override. It can only be spent on educational programming. A bond measure, like the one passed in 2024, is used to build new schools or renovate existing ones.

Denver voters last passed a mill levy override in 2020 for $32 million. Similar to the current proposal, that funding was earmarked for staff salaries, special education services, and mental health support, plus hiring more school nurses.

Teachers and students implored the board Thursday to support the $44 million override. Joshua Cardenas, a soon-to-be sophomore at Abraham Lincoln High School, said he wished his school had done more to help him after his grandfather died. He stressed that students need more mental health support than an “I’m sorry.”

“When students have the support they need, they have a better chance to learn, participate, and thrive,” Cardenas told the board.

Amber Wilson, a veteran English teacher at Thomas Jefferson High School, said she helped welcome hundreds of new teachers to the district earlier this week. Offering competitive salaries is key to ensuring those teachers stay for years to come, she said.

“DPS can recruit talented educators,” Wilson said. “The problem is retaining them.”

District data shows nearly 91% of Denver teachers union members stayed in DPS last school year. That’s up from nearly 85% in the 2017-18 school year, the data shows.

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

After closed-door meeting, Denver superintendent, school board agree to keep working on relationship

2026-07-27T22:43:55+00:00

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Having spent months at odds over their working relationship, the Denver school board and Superintendent Alex Marrero emerged from a three-hour closed-door meeting Monday striking a more conciliatory tone.

Marrero and board members said they were committed to continuing discussions about how to work together and manage district governance.

“I appreciate the conversation,” said Marrero. “I’ll see it as a start towards seeking clarity and perhaps a frame for moving forward with positivity and hope for the district.”

Monday’s special board meeting was called to address concerns raised by Marrero in a June email in which he alleged the board is overstepping its authority and that “the current trajectory” has become “increasingly untenable.” A day after he sent the letter, he informed the board he was vying for the superintendent job in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, a position he didn’t get.

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero to school board: ‘I can no longer ignore these concerns’

Policy governance is at the center of the tension between Marrero and the board. The framework is meant to set clear expectations for both sides. Marrero’s contract says the board sets district goals but “will avoid telling the Superintendent or staff what to do or how to do it.”

Marrero, who’s led the district for five years, earned $346,529 this past school year.

Monday’s closed session was to get legal advice about Marrero’s contract and to discuss the board-superintendent relationship with Marrero, according to the meeting agenda.

It’s not clear what specifics the board and Marrero covered during the session, but there seemed to be a bit of detente during the short public discussion afterwards.

Some board members said adjustments might be needed to the policy governance model but expressed general support for the approach.

Board President Xóchitl Gaytán said she’s open to having conversations at the board’s August retreat about changes to or flexibility in the model.

Board member Marlene De La Rosa said, “I’m fully committed to trying to do better as my part on this whole.”

Board member Kimberlee Sia suggested the board should do a self-assessment at an upcoming board work session.

Marrero said that he’s looking forward to seeing how the board assesses itself and that he’s willing to entertain changes to how the board governs the district.

“Organizations evolve and agreements evolve,” he said. “If that’s a desire and the will of the board, then that’s what shall happen, and we’ll adjust accordingly.”

Monday’s board meeting was bumpy at the start, with Marrero questioning whether information would be kept private with some members attending remotely.

The meeting was advertised as a virtual meeting, and none of the members or Marrero appeared on the video during the public portion together, though some were in the same building.

Vice President Monica Hunter said it was ableist to assume every board member could be present in person, especially because July is the month when the board does not usually hold any meetings.

“I just want to caution that tone of just like saying we’re not present,” she said. “Everyone is here. Everyone made it on the call.”

Gaytán, who has been supportive of the superintendent, thanked Marrero for making the effort to attend in person, saying, “I know he dropped everything he was doing. You know, left his family and his kids to be here with us today.”

When she started to apologize “on behalf of the whole board that we’re not all here together in person,” board member DJ Torres jumped in, saying repeatedly “Point of order.”

“You are the president. You do not speak on behalf of everybody,” Torres said. “Do not apologize on my behalf.”

Board member Amy Klein Molk said it should be respected that some people can meet in person and some can’t.

“We are here to make sure that we are doing the very best thing for our kids,” she said. “And time and again, we get pulled into these other conversations and I am tired of it.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

A trip to Scotland with 75 teenagers: This Colorado theater teacher wants to make memories

2026-07-20T19:16:41+00:00

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In August, theater teacher Shawn Hann will accompany 75 Denver high school students to a massive theater festival in Scotland called the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. When they’re not putting on the musical Legally Blonde, Jr, they’ll be soaking in performances from around the world.

“I truly believe in curating experiences and life memories,” she said. “The Fringe is exactly that.”

Hann, who teaches sixth- through 12th-graders at the prestigious Denver School of the Arts, said the trip is such a big deal that students and their families start saving up four years in advance and school fundraisers start two years ahead.

Hann was recently named the 2026 Stephen Schwartz Musical Theatre Teacher of the Year by the Educational Theatre Foundation and the ASCAP Foundation, which promotes music education. The award is named for the Broadway veteran who wrote the music and lyrics for Wicked, Godspell, and Pippin, among others.

Hann talked to Chalkbeat about what she looks for when students audition for a spot at Denver School of the Arts, why she teaches the physical acting method of Polish theater director Jerzy Grotowski, and how a student’s devoted mother inspired her.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Was there a moment when you decided to become a teacher?

I remember the exact moment. I was finishing my freshman year at Cottey College, a small two-year women’s school in Missouri. I was looking at the University of Northern Iowa’s course book as I was deciding to transfer. I was thinking about all the general education courses I had taken that year: Which ones were easy, what did I enjoy? Theatre, speech, psychology. I flipped through that course book and landed on the Theatre/Communication Education major. I wanted to take every single course that was listed.

Tell us about a favorite lesson to teach.

Several years ago, I got to participate in a two-week course in New York City about the physical theatre methods of Jerzy Grotowski. Most high school acting approaches are based in the Stanislavski tradition of method acting, where students analyze the intellectual side of a character. You leave your own problems and desires outside the rehearsal room and immerse yourself mentally in the character’s life.

Not many high school students get to learn about Grotowski’s methods, but I teach a unit on them to my upperclassmen. I love how it makes students who approach theatre intellectually all of a sudden flip to approaching a character physically. The question we ask is, “What is your already?” Then, through a series of physical exercises, which remind many people of yoga, students explore where in their bodies certain emotions live. They are given permission to play like children, unjudged and uninhibited, to find true emotions in their own lives and then transfer those feelings into a character’s world.

When students audition for a spot at Denver School of the Arts, what do you look for?

Potential and positivity. We have students who audition who have Broadway credits, and we have students who have only done a historical “play” in fifth grade. I want to see a spark in a student who wants to learn as much as they can. I will always prefer a student who works hard and tries versus someone who feels they already know it all. And kindness. Kindness above all else.

You’ve brought students to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe several times. Tell us about it.

The Fringe festival is such a large undertaking I only do it once every four years so that all the students in the seven-year program get a shot at going during high school.

This summer, I am taking 65 acting majors and 10 stagecraft/design majors. We’ll be part of the American High School Theatre Festival alongside 30 other U.S. schools that were selected to participate.

The Fringe is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Students get to go to as many shows as they possibly can over two weeks and see world theatre: a dance show from Poland, a physical theatre troupe from France, comedy from Italy. British humor, Scottish humor, and food. They see how the United States is viewed internationally as well. This summer we have two alumni who traveled there with me in 2008, returning with their own original shows.

Tell us about a memorable time — good or bad — when contact with a student’s family changed your perspective or approach.

In my second year of teaching, I had a student who was somewhat shy. Her mom was the No. 1 volunteer and adamant about her daughter being in plays. Not being the star, just being a part of them.

As time went on I realized why: Her child had a health condition where she was only supposed to live to 14 and had to survive by plugging into an IV every night for nutrition. The mom was trying to build extraordinary memories as fast as she could since the clock was ticking.

I changed my approach by trying to truly know my students, their circumstances, and their families so I could help curate life memories no matter what. The way my student’s mom showed up for her daughter was beyond inspiring. She became a lifelong friend until she unexpectedly passed a year ago. Her daughter is now in her mid-40’s. I credit her mother for teaching her how to survive and manage so well.

What is a common misconception about your job as an educator?

That we get the summers off. I revise my curriculum for weeks every summer. I also take my students to a national theatre conference for a week. This summer, I took two weeks in June to direct the show that we are taking to the Fringe Festival, then will spend three days getting the show ready in July before taking 75 students to Scotland for two weeks in August. That is also unpaid. In fact, it will cost me money as I will spend my own money to go to shows with students as a chaperone. It is MY choice to do these trips, but it is because I believe in how it will shape my students’ lives.

What are you reading for enjoyment?

I live 40 miles from my school; that equates to about two and a half hours a day commuting. So I listen to books on tape or TV shows in the car. I just finished re-”listening” to West Wing. So great.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

This closed Denver school building is the new home of a French immersion charter school

2026-07-16T20:52:27+00:00

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A French immersion charter school and two community arts organizations will move into an elementary school building that Denver Public Schools shuttered last year.

This fall, the French American School of Denver will occupy the northeast Denver building that once housed the International Academy of Denver at Harrington, which was one of 10 schools that closed or partially closed in spring 2025 due to low enrollment.

“We feel a great sense of pride and a great sense of being humbled by this opportunity to have a building where we can truly thrive,” said Principal Kathy Durán.

The Art Students League of Denver and New Cottage Arts, two local organizations that offer art classes and more, will also move into the Harrington building in 2027.

How to repurpose vacant school buildings is a hot topic that’s expected to heat up as Denver grapples with continued declining enrollment and the likelihood of more school closures. The Denver school board has been debating a new facility usage policy for more than a year.

The French American School of Denver applied to move into Harrington through a process specifically for charter schools. Opened in 2021, the charter elementary school had outgrown the space it was renting in a former Catholic school, Durán said. As the only public French immersion school in Denver, it wanted to grow its enrollment, she said.

“The school has really sparked a connection with other Francophone African families, which has been beautiful to foster that part of my daughter’s bicultural identity,” mother Kelda Polomik-Tene told the Denver school board in March. “We would love to have a bigger facility so that more kids could be a part of our community.”

Like other charters that rent district-owned buildings, the French American School will pay a per-student fee to DPS. Next year, that’s expected to total $289,926 for 234 students, according to a district memo. Eventually, the school could pay $371,700 for up to 300 students.

Separately, DPS issued a request for proposals this past winter to turn part of Harrington into a community center for the surrounding neighborhoods. The Art Students League of Denver and New Cottage Arts won the bid. Both run existing programs in Denver.

The Art Students League offers classes in painting, drawing, photography, and more to adults and children for a fee, though the organization also provides scholarships and some free programming, according to its application.

New Cottage Arts offers music and art classes, a drumline program, mural projects, and leadership development opportunities to youth for free, according to its application.

DPS is currently negotiating leases with each organization, said Andrew Huber, the district’s executive director of enrollment and campus planning. The timeline calls for them to move into the Harrington building next summer at the earliest.

In addition to Harrington, the district has four empty elementary school buildings: Columbian, Fairview, Schmitt, and Remington. The plans for those buildings are still up in the air, Huber said. But district leaders have provided some details.

The district also issued an RFP for the Columbian building in northwest Denver this past winter. It was looking for an organization to run a childcare center for infants and toddlers that would be willing to share space with an early education workforce training program.

But Huber said in a statement that DPS received few applications. The district still sees value in turning Columbian into a childcare center, he said, so it is working with several organizations to conduct a feasibility study in the hopes of re-releasing the RFP.

The district is considering multiple possible uses for the Fairview building in west Denver, Huber said. Since it closed in 2023, the building has housed a special education program.

Among the proposals DPS is considering is one to relocate its Florence Crittenton High School for teen mothers to Fairview and partner with affordable housing nonprofit Mercy Housing so students can live and learn in the same neighborhood.

DPS is also considering a proposal to turn Fairview into a childcare center, Huber said. The district is vetting the ideas alongside the city and the Denver Housing Authority, which runs several affordable housing projects around Fairview.

Last year, the district put out a preliminary “request for information” for ideas to repurpose several schools, including Remington, which closed in 2008 and most recently housed a charter school. Albion SC Denver, a soccer club founded in north Denver, proposed turning Remington into an indoor-outdoor sports complex with turf fields, a gym, and a cafeteria.

Huber said DPS is “actively exploring the financial and operational feasibility of this concept.”

The district received fewer ideas for Schmitt in southwest Denver. Huber said there are no updates on how that building will be repurposed.

DPS has already repurposed two of the elementary schools that it closed last year. Palmer is now a district preschool center. Castro is the new home of Summit Academy, a district-run middle and high school that serves students at risk of dropping out.

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

Zero charter schools have applied to take over the Denver schools that might close for low performance

2026-07-14T22:10:41+00:00

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Denver is set to announce this fall which schools are at risk of closure or replacement because of low test scores. And there won’t be any charter schools waiting in the wings to take over.

Denver Public Schools solicited applications from charter schools to serve as replacements but none applied, district officials said.

A few charter schools asked about the process, said Paige Neuharth, the district’s director of authorizing and accountability. But it’s likely that the high level of uncertainty, coupled with the hard task of reversing a school’s academic trajectory, meant that charter schools decided not to raise their hands this time, she said.

“We anticipate there might be more interest in the future,” Neuharth said.

Denver has long been friendly to charters, encouraging high performers to add more schools as districtwide enrollment grew. But now that enrollment is shrinking and the political winds have shifted away from education reform, more charters have closed recently than opened.

Superintendent Alex Marrero unveiled a new policy last spring that calls for “reimagining” charter and district-run schools that have four years of low state ratings.

Persistently low-scoring charter schools could be closed. Persistently low-scoring district-run schools could be closed or replaced, meaning the school would get a new staff, programming, and curriculum, and potentially a new name or operator, which could be a charter school.

Four schools could be at risk under the policy, called the School Transformation Process, when a new round of state ratings are released this fall. They are:

Rocky Mountain Prep Noel, a charter school
Academy 360, a charter school
Oakland Elementary, a district-run school
John F. Kennedy High, a district-run school

To prepare for the possibility of replacing the district-run schools, DPS put out a call for charter schools interested in serving that role. The district also submitted applications for a new district-run elementary school and a new district-run high school.

The school board was supposed to vote in June on the applications that met its bar for quality, pre-approving them to serve as potential replacements. But since no charter schools applied, the district withdrew its own applications.

“Once there was no competition, it seemed unnecessary for the district to have a standalone application in a competitive process against nobody,” said Joe Amundsen, the district’s executive director of school transformation.

If the school board votes to replace a district-run school, Amundsen said the district would bring its application back and work with that school community on a redesign.

“It felt premature for us to say we have a fully baked plan to replace those schools when we’re doing everything we can to improve those schools so they don’t get there,” he added.

Separate from the School Transformation Process, homegrown charter network DSST Public Schools submitted applications to open three new schools: a DSST College View Elementary, a DSST Elevate Elementary, and a DSST Gateway Elementary, according to emails obtained by Chalkbeat in a public records request.

But the emails revealed that DSST notified DPS it was withdrawing the applications this spring, before the school board could vote.

“After careful consideration, we determined that withdrawing the applications was the best decision to support our strategic priorities and ongoing commitment to students and families,” DSST spokesperson Daniela Di Napoli said in a statement.

The three schools would have been the first elementary schools for DSST, which has seven middle schools and seven high schools in Denver and one of each in neighboring Aurora.

DSST has a College View middle and high school in southwest Denver and an Elevate middle and high school in northeast Denver. Gateway is a northeast Denver neighborhood, and it’s an outlier. While lower birth rates and high housing prices are causing student enrollment to decline in most other parts of the city, Gateway is the only neighborhood where the student count is expected to grow as new houses are built.

DPS is predicting that it will need a new elementary school in Gateway by 2028. When DSST withdrew its Gateway Elementary application, the network’s head of growth confirmed that DPS would solicit applications for a new elementary school in that neighborhood next year.

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

Denver school board to hold special meeting to discuss superintendent’s concerns

2026-07-08T22:18:18+00:00

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The Denver school board will hold a special meeting later this month to discuss concerns raised by Superintendent Alex Marrero, who alleged in a June email that the board is overstepping its authority and that “the current trajectory” has become “increasingly untenable.”

In the email, obtained by Chalkbeat in a public records request, Marrero wrote that board members are too involved in administrative matters, that he is caught in the crosshairs of disputes between members, and that the board is failing to hold itself accountable as required.

Board President Xóchitl Gaytán said in a statement that she scheduled a July 27 special board meeting after several board members requested a discussion of Marrero’s concerns.

Gaytán said some board members wanted to meet earlier than July 27. Marrero’s contract says that if the board materially alters its governance policy, he can deem it a termination of his contract. Before doing so, the contract requires him to provide the board president written notice of his concerns and enter into good-faith discussions to resolve them within 30 days.

Gaytán said Marrero “confirmed that his email raising concerns about board overreach was not intended to invoke” that clause in his contract. She said meeting on or before July 8 — 30 days after Marrero sent his email on June 8 — was unnecessary.

If the board terminates Marrero without cause, his contract says he would receive 12 months’ salary. He earned $346,529 during the 2025-26 school year.

Marrero declined to comment for this story. He recently applied for the superintendent job in Florida’s Miami-Dade County Public Schools but was not named a semifinalist.

Board member Amy Klein Molk said she agreed the board should hold a meeting to discuss Marrero’s concerns, and she’s not worried about the clause in his contract.

“For me, it’s really about getting us all in alignment, getting the board working as one, and figuring out our path forward,” she said. “I want to be able to make sure we’re able to get to that place where he feels good about our response to his concerns.”

Board member DJ Torres said he hopes the discussion will address both the superintendent’s concerns “and some that we may have.”

“What I hope we discuss is a shared interpretation of the elements of his contract,” Torres said.

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

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero no longer in the running for top schools job in Miami

2026-07-08T19:35:16+00:00

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero is out of the running for the top job in Florida’s Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the Miami Herald reported Wednesday.

The Miami-Dade school board whittled a pool of 21 applicants down to six semifinalists, the Herald said. Marrero is not among them.

In a statement, Marrero said he remains fully committed to Denver, where he has been superintendent since 2021.

“My former candidacy for the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent position does not diminish my focus on Denver or the work we have led together,” Marrero said.

“I entered that process as exactly who I am, with a record and a set of values I will never minimize, sanitize, or rewrite for another opportunity,” he added.

Marrero said the Denver district has “unapologetically invested in Black and Latino student success,” supported immigrant and LGBTQ+ students, and focused on equity.

“I recognize that these values may not align with the increasingly conservative ideology shaping public education in certain parts of this nation,” he said. “If that made me less attractive to Miami-Dade, I can live with that. Although I feel for the historically underserved communities.”

Miami-Dade County is an increasingly Republican-leaning part of Florida, with 55% of county voters casting ballots for President Donald Trump in 2024. The Herald had previously reported that Marrero did not appear to meet the school board’s requirement that the next superintendent of the 345,000-student district have public school teaching experience.

Before coming to Denver, Marrero was interim superintendent of a much smaller school district in New Rochelle, New York. He previously served as assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in New Rochelle and as an assistant superintendent in East Ramapo, New York.

Marrero began his career in the country’s biggest school district, New York City, where he served as a guidance counselor, assistant principal, and principal.

Marrero’s name has been floated for other high-profile superintendent jobs in the past. Earlier this school year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that he was a finalist for Chicago Public Schools’ CEO position. But Marrero said he was staying in Denver. There was also speculation that he might be in line to lead New York City Public Schools, but he did not get that job.

In his statement, Marrero touted his record in Denver, including all-time high graduation rates, climbing test scores, and a “green” state rating, which is the second-highest a district can earn.

During his tenure, Marrero has also overseen unpopular school closures, disagreed with the school board about school autonomy, and faced pushback from parents over school safety.

“Denver knows exactly what it has in me,” Marrero said. “Our progress is real. Our work is worthy of celebration. And our work is not done.”

Marrero’s contract runs through 2028. His salary for the 2025-26 school year was $346,529.

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

Conservative law firm sues Denver Public Schools over its school board voting map

2026-07-02T23:55:05+00:00

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A conservative law firm is alleging that Denver Public Schools’ voting map was “drawn with illegal racial intent,” according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

At issue is a map adopted by the Denver school board in 2024. The seven-member board had to redraw its districts to ensure its members represented roughly the same number of residents. According to the 2020 Census, District 4 in northeast Denver had too many residents, while District 2 in southwest Denver had too few.

In its lawsuit, the Virginia-based Public Interest Legal Foundation argued that “DPS intentionally and brazenly drew district boundaries to ensure Black and Latino racial majorities achieved race-based representation over Denver’s increasing White population.”

White residents held a majority in three of the five regional school board districts in 2024, according to a district presentation that was attached to the lawsuit as an exhibit. Latinos made up about half the population of District 2. Black voters did not hold a majority in any district. The new map — represented in the presentation as Scenario C — didn’t change that.

The lawsuit comes in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision, which significantly raised the bar for using racial considerations in drawing voting maps. That case involved congressional maps, but legal experts have said that the decision could have implications for school boards and other local bodies.

One voting rights expert told Chalkbeat the lawsuit misrepresents aspects of the law, but the outcome of the case will depend heavily on the specifics of how Denver arrived at its maps.

The lawsuit claims DPS’ actions violated the Fifteenth Amendment, which says citizens can’t be denied the right to vote based on race, and the federal Voting Rights Act.

The board’s new 2024 map shrunk the size of District 4 but kept the historically Black neighborhoods of Five Points and Whittier in the district, which has long been represented by a Black board member. That change slightly increased the percentage of Black residents in District 4 by .8%, according to a district presentation.

The map expanded District 2, long represented by a Latino board member, by adding several neighborhoods, including Sun Valley and La Alma/Lincoln Park. But it reduced the percentage of Latino residents in District 2 by 3.25%.

A DPS spokesperson said Thursday that the district “has not been able to review the lawsuit and is not able to comment at this time.” DPS is Colorado’s largest school district and serves 89,000 students, three quarters of which are students of color.

The 18-page lawsuit quotes heavily from Denver school board meetings at which members discussed map options. Former board member Scott Esserman said at one meeting that “our students being represented by people that look like them is really important.” Former board president Carrie Olson said adopting the map was an act of resistance and empowerment in the face of the gentrification that has affected many Denver neighborhoods.

At the time, Latino community groups and other advocates pushed the board to adopt maps they felt better represented their constituents. One proposal would have decreased Latino representation in District 2 by as much as 6.5%, setting off alarm bells in that community. The school board was responding to those concerns in part when it adopted the map it did.

Board presentations from those meetings show that district officials were mindful of Voting Rights Act requirements. That included not diluting the votes of minority communities and drawing compact, contiguous districts.

The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965 during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. The aim was to give people a tool to challenge discriminatory voting maps that reduced the power of communities of color. Nationally, more than a fifth of Voting Rights Act complaints since 1982 have involved school board voting maps.

Most often, activists called for the creation of regional voting districts, such as Denver has, to replace at-large school board seats. This ensured that Black and Hispanic voters concentrated in a particular part of a city could elect the representative of their choosing.

But a series of court cases culminating in Callais have cast more scrutiny on maps intending to promote racial representation. Conservative legal groups, among them the Public Interest Legal Foundation, have indicated they’ll use the Callais decision to challenge both local voting maps and state voting rights acts that are more expansive than the federal law.

Public Interest Legal already has sued the state of Illinois over its voting law.

In a May interview about the implications of the Callais decision, J. Christian Adams, the president of Public Interest Legal, told Chalkbeat that open discussion of racial balancing such as what occurred in Denver was illegal in his view, especially in cases where there is no recent history of explicit voting discrimination.

“Any school district that has used racial redistricting is going to be in the crosshairs,” said Adams, a former Justice Department official who served on President Donald Trump’s failed 2017 voter-fraud commission.

But Justin Levitt, an election law expert and professor at Loyola Marymount University, said some conservatives are trying to do more with Callais than the text of the decision supports. The decision does not prohibit racial considerations, he said.

“Talking about race is fine,” said Levitt, who served as an adviser to the Biden administration on voting issues. “Race cannot predominate among other factors.”

Levitt compared drawing voting maps to driving. Drivers know they shouldn’t speed so they keep an eye on the speedometer as they also watch traffic, weather, their GPS, and other factors.

“Did Denver stare at the speedometer so much that it crashed? Or did they just look at it from time to time?” Levitt said. Whether Denver crossed the line is “going to depend on more facts than are laid out in the complaint.”

The DPS lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court and lists Denver residents Susan Moore and Valdamar Archuleta as plaintiffs. Archuleta said he had no comment on Thursday. Archuleta ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2024 and is a member of the Log Cabin Republicans of Colorado, a group representing LGBTQ Republicans.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with comments from Loyola Marymount law professor Justin Levitt.

Chalkbeat National Editor Erica Meltzer contributed to this story.

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

Inside two Title IX investigations in Colorado that reflect a ‘new way of doing business’ under Trump

2026-06-26T23:01:12+00:00

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An all-gender bathroom in a Denver high school was at the center of the first sex discrimination investigation of the second Trump administration. A year and a half later, the federal Office for Civil Rights has taken no enforcement action.

Neighboring Jeffco Public Schools, meanwhile, has been threatened with the loss of federal funds after investigators said they found boys’ names on girls’ sports rosters. Citing policies on locker room access and overnight field trips, the Education Department is pursuing enforcement even after the district said the names belonged to managers, trainers, and mascots.

Documents obtained through public records requests shed new light on how the Trump administration approached the two Colorado cases. Investigations that once might have involved in-depth interviews consisted of email back-and-forths. Inconsistent follow-up left districts unsure what to expect after being found in violation. And the alleged violations of Title IX, the federal law banning sex discrimination, were based on untested interpretations.

“More aggressive enforcement” could be on the horizon under a new partnership between the Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Justice. That could raise the stakes for school districts and students in how OCR approaches its investigations and arrives at its conclusions.

“This is a new way of doing business,” said Seth Galanter, an attorney who worked for OCR under the Obama and Biden administrations and is now a senior fellow at the Edley Center on Law and Democracy at the University of California Berkeley School of Law.

“There’s no nuance,” Galanter said. “There’s no inquiry into whether there’s a hostile environment. They say, ‘You have a policy, and the policy violated the law and yeah, you’re in trouble now.’ That is not something that prior administrations would have done.”

OCR is increasingly focused on undoing protections for transgender students through investigations it initiates itself. Amid massive staffing cuts, OCR has dismissed thousands of pending cases, according to a January U.S. Government Accountability Office report. Historically, most OCR cases stemmed from disability discrimination complaints filed by families.

The federal education department did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

But in a news release this month, the department claimed the Trump administration has made “historic progress” in enforcing Title IX.

“Under the Trump Administration, no woman or girl will have to fight alone to secure her basic protections, and we will not relent until Title IX is restored to the fullest extent of the law,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in the news release.

The Trump administration’s first investigation was in Denver

The civil rights office launched its Denver investigation several days after a local television news station aired a story in January 2025 about how the conversion of a girls’ restroom at East High School to a multi-stall all-gender one had “caused a stir.”

A district spokesperson said students requested the all-gender restroom.

“They were running out of time, being late to the next class because the one or two single stall bathrooms that they had to accommodate this just wasn’t enough for the need that was out there,” spokesperson Scott Pribble told 9News.

To investigate, OCR sent Denver Public Schools a request for 12 pieces of information, according to documents obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request. That information included the district’s bathroom policy, a floor plan showing all of the bathrooms at East High, and any complaints the district received about the conversion.

“To our knowledge, OCR did not interview any DPS staff,” a DPS spokesperson said.

Denver provided 17 emails it had received, Pribble said. Nine expressed concern about the restroom, seven were supportive, and one asked for more information, he said.

The civil rights office also asked for the number of students who were tardy to class because of restroom availability before and after the creation of the all-gender restroom.

Denver told OCR that it doesn’t track that specific information. But the district did share data showing the total number of tardies at 2,400-student East High went down, not up, after the all-gender restroom was added, the documents show.

Seven months into the investigation, Denver did something that district officials hoped would neutralize the Trump administration’s claim that the restroom was discriminatory toward girls: It converted a boys’ restroom at East High into another all-gender restroom.

That didn’t help. Days later, OCR found that Denver had violated Title IX. In an 11-page letter to the superintendent, the federal office wrote that the all-gender restroom “had significant deleterious effects” on students and that East High had received “many complaints,” including about boys leering at a girl in the bathroom and pounding on the door of a stall. The letter references written complaints but gives no indication investigators spoke with students.

In a statement to Chalkbeat, Denver refuted that reasoning.

“They requested all emails on the topic and made their findings based solely on a handful of negative emails,” a district spokesperson wrote. “They did not include the comments from positive emails that had also been shared with them.”

OCR’s findings also appear to have been influenced by outside factors. OCR’s letter included a full page of examples from other states, including a 16-year-old in Minnesota who reported seeing a boy in the girls locker room and a 14-year-old in Wisconsin who said she was “exposed to the genitalia” of a transgender student.

OCR gave Denver 10 days to revert East High’s all-gender restrooms back to single-sex ones or “risk imminent enforcement action.” That was in August. The district hasn’t complied, nor has it heard anything further from the federal office, a district spokesperson confirmed.

The administration is threatening funding in neighboring Jeffco

Five months after launching its Denver investigation, OCR turned to neighboring Jeffco Public Schools. The district is home to a politically connected conservative parent group whose founder told local media she shared concerns about district policies with the federal department.

The Jeffco investigation also came after several families sued the district over its overnight accommodations policy. One family claimed their 11-year-old daughter was assigned to share a bed with a transgender student on an out-of-state trip. The lawsuit is ongoing.

Just like in Denver, OCR asked Jeffco for 12 pieces of information, including the names and contact information for all sports team coaches, documents obtained in a public records request show. But a district spokesperson said OCR never interviewed anyone in Jeffco, either.

OCR also asked Jeffco for girls sports team rosters, “identifying on each such roster any participants who are biologically male.” Jeffco sent OCR the rosters, “including the gender provided by students and/or their families,” the district told Chalkbeat.

In March, OCR issued a press release that said the rosters indicated “male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams.” Jeffco serves about 74,000 students.

A later version of the press release posted on the federal education department’s website walked back that language by adding the words “may” and “up to.” The department did not answer questions from Chalkbeat about why.

But Jeffco said recently that the 61 boys on the girls’ rosters were not athletes but “male managers, trainers, or mascots.” The district said OCR never asked to clarify any of the boys’ roles, and that Jeffco didn’t learn of “the confusion” until OCR issued its press release.

“OCR did not engage with District staff whatsoever in the eight months after receiving our data submission — contrary to the dialogue we would have expected during an investigation under OCR’s own Case Processing Manual,” Jeffco wrote in a letter to the office in early June.

Jeffco said it has “repeatedly and respectfully” asked OCR to correct the error, but the office has refused. The education department declined to comment on the matter to Chalkbeat.

The federal civil rights office also asked Jeffco for documentation of instances in which allowing boys to compete on girls sports teams adversely affected female athletes, including any injuries, forfeitures, or cases in which transgender athletes won. Jeffco said it had no such documents.

As in Denver, OCR found that Jeffco violated Title IX. And similar to Denver, OCR gave Jeffco 10 days to rescind its policies or risk imminent enforcement action. Jeffco didn’t do that. Three months later, on Friday, the education department announced it was making good on its threat.

Jeffco was anticipating it. On Wednesday, the Jeffco school board held a special meeting to authorize potential legal action, should the federal administration try to withhold funding.

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

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero to school board: ‘I can no longer ignore these concerns’

2026-06-26T01:43:55+00:00

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A day before Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero told the school board that he had applied for another job, he sent a four-page email of concerns about the Denver board.

“Respectfully, I can no longer ignore these concerns,” Marrero wrote in the June 8 email to board President Xóchitl Gaytán. He added that “the current trajectory” is “increasingly untenable.”

The email, which Chalkbeat obtained in a public records request, shows Marrero believes the board is overstepping its bounds. It could also shed light on why he’s looking to leave Denver Public Schools after five years at the helm of Colorado’s largest district. Marrero is a candidate for the top job in Florida’s Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

Marrero declined an interview for this story. But his email lists several concerns, including:

The board is getting too involved in administrative matters. Under DPS’ framework, the board sets policy and the superintendent carries it out. Marrero referenced several instances that he said blurred that line, including a proposed board policy that would require schools to use a certain approach to teach reading.
The board violated his contract. The example Marrero cited is from February, when the board voted to go into a closed-door executive session without him, which would have been against his contract. The board reversed its vote, and he was included.
He and his staff are in the crosshairs of disputes among board members. “Board members not speaking to each other, canceling 2x2 meetings because of who they are paired up with and a litany of ongoing interpersonal issues amongst board members puts me in a no-win situation,” Marrero wrote. The 2x2 meetings consist of two board members meeting with district staff so as not to violate open meetings law.
The board isn’t holding itself accountable. Marrero wrote that while he has had four formal evaluations, the board hasn’t done any self-assessments.
The board is trying to create “a parallel legal advisory system.” Some board members have been pushing for the board to hire its own attorney.

Other emails obtained in a public records request show that board members have recently accused each other of violating board policy and open meetings law, though none of the recent accusations have resulted in a public discussion or censure. The board last censured one of its members — John Youngquist — in November.

In interviews and written statements, some board members said they agreed with Marrero’s concerns, while others said they aren’t true. Two of the seven board members, Kimberlee Sia and Amy Klein Molk, declined to comment.

Gaytán, who was first elected in 2021, said in a statement that she hopes the board recommits to its governance model, which says members should stay out of day-to-day operations.

“Superintendents of the highest caliber choose districts where governance is predictable and professional,” she said. “When boards undermine that framework, we risk driving away the visionary leaders our students and families and families deserve.”

Marlene De La Rosa, who was elected in 2023, said she is committed to working with her colleagues to address Marrero’s concerns. As for the board’s dynamics, De La Rosa said, “Collectively, there’s room for improvement. It would benefit us to do some self-evaluation.”

Youngquist, who was also elected in 2023, had a different take.

“Any representation that our current board is grounded in dysfunction is false,” he said in a statement. He said recent accusations between board members are “fabrications.”

Board Vice President Monica Hunter, who was elected in November, mentioned one board member in particular but didn’t name them. She said in a statement that the member has “struggled to move beyond the dysfunction of their past, and that has been reflected in the many 6-1 votes, but the rest of us remain united in our work and clear about who we serve.”

Board minutes show at least three 6-1 votes this year. Gaytán has been the sole no vote each time. This is Gaytán’s second stint as board president. Her first, from 2021 to 2023, was also marked by personality conflicts among board members.

Gaytán said her votes have consistently reflected her values.

DJ Torres, who was elected in November, said he wasn’t surprised byMarrero’s email, because the superintendent alluded to these concerns before. Torres said some board members are also frustrated with the way the board conducts business. But Torres added that it’s opportunistic timing for Marrero to send such an email just as he’s applying for another job.

Policy governance is at the center of the tension between Marrero and the board. A previous board adopted the framework, which is meant to set clear expectations for both sides, in 2021 to help attract a new superintendent amid accusations that it had micromanaged the last one. Marrero was hired that same year.

Policy governance is written into Marrero’s contract. It says that the board sets goals but “will avoid telling the Superintendent or staff what to do or how to do it.”

In his email, Marrero wrote that he has “observed repeated efforts by individual Board members to become involved in academic implementation, instructional decisions, school operations, and administrative matters that fall squarely within the Superintendent’s delegated authority.”

He also raised concerns about board members questioning his recommendations. In April, the board rejected his recommendation against expanding the district’s innovation zone, which is a semi-autonomous group of schools. Marrero said adding another school to the zone would amount to self-segregation, because the zone students are whiter and wealthier.

The board voted to expand the zone anyway. Some board members were sympathetic to parents and educators who said they’d carefully followed the application process. Marrero asked if that meant he had to recommend a yes vote — a point he also raised in his email.

“The answer to that question has significant implications not only for Innovation applications but for every area where the Superintendent is expected to exercise professional judgment,” he wrote.

Marrero’s contract says that if the board materially alters its governance policy, he can deem it a termination of his contract. It says he should first provide the board president a written notice of his concerns and enter into good faith discussions to resolve them.

If the board terminates Marrero without cause, his contract says he receives 12 months’ salary. He earned $346,529 this past school year.

In a statement, Marrero said the board has not informed him that it has materially altered its governance policy, “nor has it responded substantively to the concerns I raised.

“Before discussing hypothetical remedies, it would be appropriate to first ask whether the Board believes its actions are consistent with the governance model it adopted and the contractual commitments it made,” he said. “I have honored my commitments and will continue to do so.”

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

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero is a candidate for the top schools job in Miami

2026-06-11T22:46:01+00:00

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Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero is a candidate for the top job in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, he confirmed Thursday.

Marrero is one of 21 candidates who applied to be superintendent of the 345,000-student district, according to the Miami Herald. The current leader’s contract is set to end in February, the Herald said. The application window closed Wednesday evening. The district shared the applicants’ names with the Herald in a preliminary response to a public records request.

In a statement Thursday, Marrero said his candidacy was “not a decision I made lightly” but one made “after thoughtful reflection on several personal and professional considerations.”

“Regardless of the outcome of the Miami-Dade superintendent selection, my commitment to leading Denver Public Schools, our students, staff, families, and the important work ahead remains unchanged,” Marrero said.

“My focus continues to be on successfully closing out this school year, preparing for the year ahead, and ensuring stability and continuity in service of our shared priorities to continue to advance the district,” he said.

Marrero, who identifies as Afro Latino and is bilingual in Spanish, has been superintendent of 89,000-student Denver Public Schools since 2021. His current contract runs through 2028. His salary for this past school year was $346,529.

Marrero’s name has been floated for other high-profile superintendent jobs in the past. Earlier this school year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that he was a finalist for Chicago Public Schools’ CEO position. But Marrero said he was staying in Denver. There was speculation that he might be in line to lead New York City Public Schools, but he did not get that job.

Denver’s graduation rates have risen in Marrero’s five-year tenure, and the district’s state rating jumped to green, the second highest, for the first time since 2019, before the pandemic.

But concerns about school safety have sown discontent among some parents. Marrero has also overseen unpopular school closures and disagreed with the school board about school autonomy.

Before coming to Denver, Marrero was the interim superintendent of a much smaller district in New Rochelle, New York. He was previously the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in New Rochelle and an assistant superintendent in East Ramapo, New York.

Marrero began his career in the country’s biggest school district, New York City, where he served as a guidance counselor, assistant principal, and principal. It’s also where he attended school as a child growing up in the Bronx.

This story has been updated to add a statement from Superintendent Alex Marrero.

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

Cellphones, smartwatches, and other personal devices will be banned in Denver schools

2026-06-09T01:21:43+00:00

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Denver students won’t be allowed to use cellphones, smartwatches, or other personal devices during the school day when they return to class this fall.

The Denver school board unanimously passed a new bell-to-bell ban Monday. A 2025 state law requires each Colorado school district to adopt a policy on student cellphone use by July 1, but doesn’t require a ban. However, many districts nationwide have decided to limit cellphone use in an attempt to minimize distractions in class and improve students’ mental health.

The Denver policy says:

Cellphones, smartwatches, wireless earbuds and earphones, personally owned tablets and laptops, and any other devices not issued by the district must be out of sight and turned off during the school day while students are in school buildings.
Exceptions should be made for students who need devices for physical or mental health reasons or as part of a special education plan or disability accommodation. Exceptions should also be made for multilingual students who need devices for language access.
The district isn’t responsible for the loss, theft, or destruction of devices at school.

The policy is officially known as Executive Limitation 23. Executive limitations are rules for the superintendent. This policy says the superintendent should ensure the implementation of the policy is “consistent, transparent, simple, accountable, and equitably enforced.”

It also says the superintendent should ensure the ban doesn’t prevent or impede the delivery of emergency notifications. While a majority of parents who took a district survey were supportive of a ban, some were concerned about not being able to reach their child in an emergency.

No more scrolling at lunch: Officials from 3 Colorado school districts discuss their cellphone bans

The policy also requires the superintendent to conduct an annual review of the policy’s effectiveness and outcomes. Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero said on Monday that the first review would likely be released in October 2027.

A 17-member committee of students, parents, and educators commissioned by the school board had recommended a bell-to-bell cellphone ban. In the district survey, support for the ban was strongest among school staff and weakest among students.

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

After vying for top Chicago job, Sito Narcisse lands interim role in Denver Public Schools

2026-06-03T19:02:24+00:00

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Denver Public Schools has hired Sito Narcisse, a school administrator who recently was a finalist for the top job in Chicago Public Schools, to fill a high-ranking role on an interim basis.

Narcisse joined the district May 1 as interim chief of schools, a position that has not existed since cuts to administrative office positions a year ago, according to a district spokesperson.

Narcisse brings about 15 years of education administration experience, including as superintendent of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, District of Columbia Public Schools’ chief of secondary schools, and Metro Nashville Public Schools chief of schools.

Narcisse’s tenure as East Baton Rouge superintendent split community opinions. Supporters praised his initiatives that linked high school students with college-level courses, while others raised concerns about his communication style and pointed to low employee morale. The school board voted narrowly in late 2023 to not renew his contract.

After leaving East Baton Rouge, Narcisse launched an education consulting company. He also hosts an education podcast called Unlearned and Unlimited, where he has interviewed education experts and former superintendents.

Narcisse was a finalist for the Chicago Public Schools CEO role, which after a prolonged search went in March to an internal candidate who had been serving as interim CEO.

In Denver, Narcisse’s interim job responsibilities include “providing vision, strategic direction, and driving educational excellence,” the spokesperson said. The chief of schools also leads initiatives that support school leaders in helping students. Information on Narcisse’s salary was not immediately available; Chalkbeat has filed a public information request for it.

Narcisse declined an interview request.

Superintendent Alex Marrero announced in April he would realign central office positions and reestablish the chief of schools position. The district did not provide a timetable for posting the permanent job, for which Narcisse could be a candidate, the spokesman said.

Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

10 years and 16,800 students short: What went wrong with Colorado’s youth apprenticeship program?

2026-05-27T21:57:25+00:00

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Treyvon Greenwood thought he would go into the trades after graduation. A senior at Aurora’s Smoky Hill High School, he was interested in becoming a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning technician.

His trajectory changed when his English teacher heard Greenwood talk about his passion for tutoring other students. The teacher told his school counselor, who suggested Greenwood try a teaching apprenticeship instead.

At first he was reluctant, but Greenwood has grown to love splitting his time between his classes at Smoky Hill High and apprenticing in a fifth grade classroom at nearby Sunrise Elementary School. The 18-year-old works much like a student teacher would and earns more than $18 an hour.

Fifth grade students at Sunrise Elementary School work with Treyvon Greenwood, a first-year Future Educator Pathway apprentice, on Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.

“I help them with their writing, and I just feel like they trust me,” Greenwood said of the fifth graders. “I think they know that if ‘I’m struggling with something, I can come straight to Mr. Trey.’”

Greenwood’s experience is what state and business leaders had in mind when they launched the CareerWise Colorado youth apprenticeship program in 2016. But it’s also rare: Only 1,200 students statewide have taken part in CareerWise programs, according to its founder, who had envisioned 20,000 students participating in its first decade.

The organization also takes credit for about 2,000 more apprentices who have participated in programs originally started by or inspired by CareerWise. Even including those students, that means CareerWise fell short by about 16,800 apprentices.

There are myriad reasons why: Some businesses have found they’re not well-equipped to work with teenagers and left the program. School officials across the state say they’ve struggled to convince families of the value of apprenticeships, which require students to commit to two to three years of balancing school and work. Apprenticeships also compete for students with an increasing variety of other educational options, from college preparation to internships to less time-intensive career education programs.

Noel Ginsburg, a Colorado businessperson who founded CareerWise, described his original goals for program participation as “well-intentioned and ill-informed.”

Ten years in, CareerWise offers an important case study in the challenges of offering robust on-the-job training for high school students, an idea that has widespread bipartisan support and increasing investment from the public and private sectors but can be difficult to execute on a large scale.

First-year Future Educator Pathway apprentice Amyah Santiago hangs up words inspired by "The Gift of Words" by Peter Reynolds at Sunrise Elementary School. The book was part of a read-aloud project and activity for the school in December.

Youth apprenticeships viewed as an idea that could create its “own natural momentum”

Backed by $9.5 million from JP Morgan Chase and Bloomberg Philanthropies, Ginsburg envisioned students being trained in such fields as healthcare, banking, finance, and the trades. (Bloomberg Philanthropies is a supporter of Chalkbeat.)

Juniors and seniors would earn their high school diploma and job training, plus valuable industry certifications or time spent working toward a two-year college degree. A post-graduation year would be spent getting more work experience and could include college enrollment. CareerWise would help build a trained workforce in Colorado while offering some students a cheaper alternative to a two- or four-year degree. Others, like Greenwood, might spark an interest in a different-than-expected career path that still requires a college degree.

The idea for CareerWise came from Switzerland. There, youth apprenticeships are embedded in the culture. About two out of every three young people participate, and businesses line up to recruit those students into nearly 250 different occupations.

Ginsburg visited Switzerland in 2015 to see this model in action. At the time, he headed Intertech Plastics, a Denver-based plastics manufacturer he founded, and he was struggling to hire skilled mid-level workers.

Ginsburg was so impressed with what he saw that he led a delegation of 50 Colorado business and civic leaders, including then-Gov. John Hickenlooper, to Switzerland the following year. The globe-trot laid the groundwork for the creation of CareerWise.

Youth apprenticeships weren’t new in the United States; Wisconsin’s pioneering program was established in 1991. But by the end of the trip, Hickenlooper said he was convinced that Colorado could take the lead, mainly because of Ginsburg’s dedication and vision.

“If we do this properly, in three years there should be as deep a foundation and rooting of this that it will have its own natural momentum,” Hickenlooper said in a video documenting the trip.

Ginsburg didn’t want CareerWise Colorado, the nonprofit he eventually created, to run the programs. Instead he wanted to connect schools and employers with the know-how to prop up two- to three-year apprenticeship programs and ensure they received crucial but difficult-to-earn federal recognition for program quality.

Students in four school districts — Denver Public Schools, Cherry Creek School District, Jeffco Public Schools, and Mesa County Valley School District 51 — began apprenticing in 2017.

Today, only three of the four districts are still involved with CareerWise, and their success rate varies. District 51 continues to offer youth apprenticeship programs through a partnership with its local chamber but without CareerWise’s support in the last two years. About 65 apprentices have completed Jeffco’s program. Denver has had 272 students complete apprenticeships but is reworking its agreement with CareerWise.

Cherry Creek offers some of the most robust CareerWise options, including in information technology, advanced manufacturing, hospitality, and teaching.

Graham Thatcher worked in Cherry Creek School District's SalesForce apprentice program. After learning on the job for almost three years, she was hired full time in 2025. Thatcher works on her computer on Dec. 16, 2025 at Cherry Creek School District's Instructional Support Facility in Aurora, Colorado.

But getting students interested in apprenticeships is hard, even for a district as successful as Cherry Creek, school counselors said.

“I do think that parents sometimes have reservations, just because they’ve grown up in this: They should go to college,” said Cady Hobbs, a counseling coordinator at Grandview High School.

Some apprenticeships can lead to college, as it has for Greenwood, who plans to attend Metropolitan State University of Denver and participate in a program for Black educators. But that type of path might not be as easily understood by parents.

Meanwhile, districts like Denver and Cherry Creek offer so many career-related opportunities, from career exploration classes to summer internships, that it creates competition with their own apprenticeship programs.

“This landscape is a lot broader than I think anyone may have realized in 2016 or 2017,” said Theress Pidick, the Denver district’s youth career development director.

CareerWise’s revolving door of businesses

Another big hurdle to growing apprenticeships has been the revolving door of businesses that are willing and able to host and train a high schooler.

Ginsburg said in an April roundtable event that getting and keeping businesses engaged has been one of the hardest challenges for CareerWise.

“What we don’t have are the companies that see this as not just an imperative to do the right thing for their community but how important this is to their bottom line,” he said.

CareerWise launched with about 45 employers. By the second year, about 25 returned. The number of employers has ebbed and flowed over the years, with 29 actively working with apprentices. The reasons why they’ve stopped participating vary.

Some, like Mikron Denver, now run their own programs, separate from CareerWise.

Eagle County Paramedic Services tried CareerWise for a year before realizing students needed to have certain certifications that could be only earned when they turned 18. Insurance also wouldn’t cover student ambulance drivers.

“I think we really did go into it with the best intentions, but there’s no way to know everything it’s going to take,” said Katie Coakley, the organization’s marketing and communications specialist.

John Halloran, a regional manager with construction business RA Nelson, said his Eagle County company loved having an apprentice. The student worked full time over the summer, but once the school year got underway it became difficult to balance schoolwork with the constantly evolving schedules of construction.

“The hours and the pace didn’t really align,” Halloran said. “But I’d love to try it again and see if we can make it work.”

Vinz Koller, vice president of the Center for Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning at Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit focused on expanding economic opportunities, agrees not enough businesses see the importance, unlike in Switzerland.

“The chicken and egg challenge we have is until you have enough opportunities, it’s going to be very hard for the youth and for parents to feel like this is an option,” Koller said.

Amyah Santiago, a first-year apprentice in the Future Educator Pathway, facilitates a lesson on inspiring words based on the book "The Gift of Words" by Peter Reynolds on Thursday, Dec. 18. 2026, at Sunrise Elementary School.

Some places have made it work. In Eagle County, which has participated since 2017, the dedication of a single employee — a former teacher who coordinates business participation through the local chamber of commerce — has made a difference. CareerWise Eagle County and the school district have shortened its program from three years to two so students aren’t choosing between college and an apprenticeship.

Warren Barker, a manager of supply chain logistics at Vail Health Hospital, said he believes his company’s participation in CareerWise represents an investment in Eagle County. Vail Health has employed 27 apprentices to date, though not every student ends up staying.

“The best thing I get to do in my job, by far, is seeing the caliber of students who go through the program,” he said. “And then being able to help get them focused into whatever is next for them, be it with Vail Health, hopefully, or anything else that they want to do.”

CareerWise has changed its apprenticeship programs

In response to the challenges it’s experienced — and in a bid to meet the current demand for more workforce training programs — CareerWise has pivoted.

Instead of focusing just on 16- to 18-year-olds, CareerWise has started pre-apprenticeships that help younger students prepare for an apprenticeship. And it’s also helping grow post-high school apprenticeships for young adults up to age 24, similar to the Switzerland program, Ginsburg said.

Andrew Sutliff hopes to someday get hired on permanently at CoorsTek, but feels his apprenticeship has taught him valuable skills that will transfer elsewhere. Sutliff works on a CNC machine on Dec. 4, 2025 at the factory in Golden, Colorado.

One example is its partnership with CoorsTek, a manufacturing company in Golden that makes ceramic parts used in computers, tanks and armor, and wind turbines, among others. With the help of CareerWise and a $4.58 million state grant, the company is using its CoorsTek Academy, an in-house training program launched in 2021 as a regional training hub, to teach apprentices ages 18-24. The first cohort of five started last year to learn skills to become mid-level Computer Numerical Control, or CNC, operators.

They will graduate able to troubleshoot complex issues, fix the machine when necessary, and program it, which will help them earn higher pay.

Andrew Sutliff, a 19-year-old CoorsTek apprentice who graduated from Cherry Creek’s school district last year, said he’s learning a lot in a short time.

“It feels like they’re cramming a lot that some people who have been here for four years don’t even begin to learn,” he said.

Even if he doesn’t get hired by CoorsTek full time, Sutliff said it’s a good opportunity to make himself more valuable to other companies.

CareerWise has also shifted from trying to grow a big program in Colorado to sprouting a host of smaller programs in other states. Ginsburg has helped prop up apprenticeship programs in New York and Elkhart County, Indiana. And more locations are likely.

With a $12.5 million federal grant, CareerWise launched the Future Ready Apprenticeship Center in 2025. The center provides $200,000 grants to connect other states with the lessons learned here and elsewhere, including program design, policy expertise, and funding.

First-year Future Educator Pathway apprentice Treyvon Greenwood hugs a student on their way back to class on Thursday, Dec. 18. 2025, at Sunrise Elementary School.

In addition to government grants, CareerWise itself is receiving more philanthropic support than ever, including $7 million from MacKenzie Scott’s YieldGiving foundation in 2023.

Even if he didn’t meet his original participation goals, Ginsburg still believes in the potential of widespread apprenticeship offerings for youth in Colorado. He believes the next decade won’t be just about tough lessons but opportunities to grow youth apprenticeships.

However, his expectations about how fast the program can grow have changed.

“We have a long way to go,” he said.

Denver school board debates whether members should give 48 hours’ notice before visiting a school

2026-05-20T22:52:57+00:00

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Whether school board members should have to give 48 hours’ notice before visiting a school is a question that has split the Denver school board.

One side says the 48-hour notice is a sign of respect. The other says such a requirement can get in the way of transparency.

At issue is a three-sentence policy the board adopted in 2021. It says school board members should notify the Denver Public Schools chief of staff and the board liaison at least 48 hours before visiting any schools, that the superintendent can ask some of his staff to tag along, and that such visits should “not disrupt school operations.”

The policy came up for a review earlier this month, and a pair of board members suggested some minor tweaks. But on Wednesday, Vice President Monica Hunter, a former DPS teacher, proposed a bigger change: nixing the policy’s 48-hour requirement. After several rounds of debate, the board decided to postpone the decision until next month.

Hunter said earlier this month that she’s concerned the requirement could keep board members from visiting schools “that would love to have us.”

“As a classroom teacher, I can tell you I had folks — from the district, even — in my classroom all the time, often with no heads up,” Hunter said. “This is just that same level of transparency. It’s not made to have a gotcha moment or to try and disrupt the day.”

Board member John Youngquist, a former DPS principal, agreed. He went a step further and suggested revoking the entire policy and conducting visits “as the district had engaged for 145 years, prior to this being a policy” — an idea that didn’t gain traction.

But some board members pushed back, both on Wednesday and when they first discussed the proposed changes two weeks ago. Board member Kimberlee Sia, the former CEO of a Denver charter school network, said that even if current board members promise to be courteous on school visits, the rules should be in place in case future board members are not.

Board member Marlene De La Rosa said it’s disrespectful for a board member to visit a school without giving the principal advanced warning.

“It implies we are trying to show up to find something that’s negative,” she said.

Board President Xóchitl Gaytán said it’s especially disrespectful toward Latino principals. She used a metaphor to illustrate why, explaining that in Spanish, “tú” is used to address someone younger than yourself and “usted” is used to address elders or authority figures.

“When we remove the 48-hour notice, it’s also a sign of disrespect because we’re saying, ‘I’m going to speak to you in the tú form and I’m not going to have respect for you in the usted form,’” Gaytán said.

But board member DJ Torres cautioned against “speaking on behalf of a monolithic Latino community,” which he said doesn’t exist.

“I’m also Latino, and that’s not a value I share,” he said. “I also value and believe deeply in transparency. … How we all experience transparency is different.”

Moira Coogan, principal of the North Engagement Center and president of the Denver School Leaders Association, told the board earlier this month that the principals union supports keeping the 48-hour notice. A more informal approach to school visits “may unintentionally create confusion or operational challenges,” Coogan said.

The board is set to further discuss the policy, known officially as Governance Process Policy 9.5, at its June 4 meeting.

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

Denver superintendent: More school closures could be necessary before moratorium is up

2026-05-13T15:51:16+00:00

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After 65 slides that showed how Denver Public Schools could face budget deficits in the years to come, the school board president asked the superintendent to give it to her straight.

Would DPS need to close more schools, she asked at a meeting last week? And when?

The answer was yes. And possibly soon. After closing or shrinking 10 schools last year due to declining enrollment, the board put a four-year moratorium on school closures. But the moratorium had an out: If enrollment or funding shifted substantially, the superintendent could recommend closures before the four years were up.

Superintendent Alex Marrero said that will likely happen.

“We will not exhaust the moratorium,” he said on Thursday. “I can’t say it will be next year. I have good confidence that it could be the following year. Surely the year after that.”

Enrollment in DPS is shrinking, driven largely by lower birth rates and high housing prices that push families out of the city. Fewer students means less per-pupil state funding. And less funding means the district will face tough decisions on how to balance its budget.

Officials had estimated that last year’s school closures would save the district $6.6 million.

The board is set to vote next month on a proposed $1.49 billion budget for the next school year. It’s balanced, but a five-year forecast shows a cumulative $28 million deficit if the district were to take no action to address it — a scenario that Marrero and other officials said is unlikely to happen, in part because DPS could ask voters this fall for a tax increase.

Still, some board members seemed worried.

“We know this is coming,” board member Amy Klein Molk said to Marrero at the meeting. “What are we doing today to get us ready for the future?”

Among other strategies, Marrero pointed to administrative cuts as a way to reduce expenses. The district laid off the equivalent of about 61 full-time central office employees this spring, according to a presentation given to the board. It also added 12 employees, resulting in a net savings of $8.1 million. Coupled with 38 central office layoffs last year, the district has cut $12.7 million from its headquarters in the past two years, the presentation says.

But Marrero said there’s not much more to cut.

“We’re long gone from the days of being a bloated central office,” he said, “and now what we’re balancing is some requests from schools for support. The more that we trim, the more likely that we’re going to get yearnings from school sites saying, ‘Hey, we’re not getting support.’”

The district also faces increasing costs, officials said. Two of the biggest are rising prices for electricity, water, and natural gas and an increasing need for special education services.

Although DPS’ total enrollment was down 1,200 students this year from last year, the number of students who require special education services increased by 1.5%, according to the presentation. Over the past six years, the district has added 25 more programs for students with disabilities — which DPS calls “center programs” — at an average cost of $232,000 per classroom.

DPS will add another nine center programs next year, said Katie Hechavarria, the district’s executive director of finance. Much of the need is for programs that serve students with autism.

The district has also had to hire more paraprofessionals to work with students with disabilities, officials said. While the number of teachers in DPS decreased by 2% over the past six years and the number of central office staff and administrators decreased by 6%, the number of paraprofessionals increased by 28%, according to the presentation.

Next year’s proposed budget includes $29.1 million for 613 “dedicated adult supports,” which are paraprofessionals that work one-on-one or in small groups with students with disabilities.

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

Science of reading for all: Proposal would require Denver schools to use research-backed literacy lessons

2026-05-08T21:55:33+00:00

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Denver school board member Amy Klein Molk said she visited two schools recently. At one, she saw students working in small groups on lessons that align with the science of reading, which calls for phonics instruction and sounding out words. At the other, she didn’t.

The difference between the two schools? The first served more affluent students.

Klein Molk told that anecdote at a board meeting Thursday night during a discussion of a new policy that would require all Denver schools to use a science of reading-backed approach.

The proposed policy would also require “early identification” of students with dyslexia and mandate that the district provide all students with “high-quality digital apps” so they can practice their literacy skills at home, among other requirements.

“We, the board, can no longer ignore the huge disparities between proficient readers and readers who struggle,” said board member Monica Hunter, a former Denver Public Schools elementary school teacher who introduced the proposed policy.

Those struggling readers are more likely to be Black and Latino, Hunter and others pointed out. State data shows 67% of white third graders in Denver met or exceeded expectations on state literacy tests last year, while only 26% of Black and 25% of Latino third graders did.

The science of reading is a large body of research about how children learn to read. It’s also the most popular method for teaching literacy, and most states — including Colorado — have laws mandating that schools use scientifically based reading programs and teachers be trained.

Denver Public Schools rolled out a science of reading curriculum called Core Knowledge Language Arts to elementary students over three years, starting in 2022-23 and ending in 2024-25. To comply with a federal court order on how DPS serves English language learners, the district also introduced a new Spanish reading curriculum, called Caminos.

Denver has also been screening students for dyslexia. A state law passed in 2025 will require all Colorado districts to do so starting this fall.

Some school board members asked why a new policy would be needed, given that state law covers some of the same topics. Community members wondered that, too.

“What new action does it require that is not already mandated by the READ Act?” Tania Hogan, the executive director of the University of Colorado’s BUENO Center for Multicultural Education, asked during public comment at Thursday’s board meeting. The READ Act is Colorado’s landmark reading law, first passed in 2012 and amended several times since.

Leah Schultz-Bartlett, the principal at Denver’s Beach Court Elementary, questioned whether the school board should be making decisions about reading curriculum.

“It is not the board of education’s role to be involved in the daily operation of a school,” she said.

But Hunter and others said the quality of reading instruction varies from school to school, sometimes because parents at more affluent schools can fundraise to hire extra reading interventionists. Several parents and teachers urged the board to support the new policy.

“If you’ve ever been around someone who can’t read, they’re angry, they’re frustrated, because they can’t understand the world around them,” said parent Kayla Greathouse.

It’s not clear when the board might vote on the proposal. Some board members seemed supportive, while others were hesitant. Board President Xóchitl Gaytán said she agreed with holding the superintendent accountable for raising reading scores, but that Hunter’s proposed policy was “way too prescriptive, way too operational.”

The proposal is called Executive Limitation 22. Executive limitations are rules for the superintendent, who answers to the school board.

Klein Molk urged her fellow board members to help Hunter make the proposal better “because the intent behind this is 100% correct.” Hunter said the board should act quickly.

“Time is a luxury that, I just want to name, that a lot of students do not have,” she said.

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

Denver school board adds a school to the district’s last remaining innovation zone

2026-04-27T22:20:38+00:00

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The Denver school board voted last week to add another school to the district’s last remaining innovation zone, rejecting a recommendation from the superintendent who said that doing so would allow the schools in the zone to “self-segregate.”

Ultimately, the board voted 6-1 on Thursday to add Willow Elementary to the Luminary Learning Network innovation zone this fall.

Innovation zones are a reform-era invention that allow district-run schools to operate with charter-like autonomy. Zone schools are overseen by nonprofit organizations, and their principals are supervised by the zone’s executive director, not district administrators. Zone schools can also opt out of paying for some district services and spend the money another way.

The Luminary Learning Network was Denver Public Schools’ first innovation zone. It started in 2016 with four schools and currently has eight, though one of those schools — Ashley Elementary — is set to leave the zone and revert to district control at the end of the school year. Adding Willow will keep the number of zone schools at eight.

Two other DPS innovation zones were dismantled under the watch of Superintendent Alex Marrero in 2023 and 2024, leaving the Luminary Learning Network as the last zone standing.

Willow teachers and parents advocated to join the zone. Principal Catrina Pazo told the school board earlier this month that joining the zone was “an educator-led request,” and that a majority of Willow staff voted in favor of it, as is required by law.

Willow is already an innovation school, which allows it to choose its own curriculum and school calendar, for example. The school is whiter and wealthier than the district as a whole, and its students perform well on state standardized tests.

“Our strong performance should not be a reason to stand still,” Pazo said.

Marrero had questioned whether joining the zone would benefit Willow academically. He also argued that adding Willow at the same time that Ashley is leaving would make the zone into a collection of more privileged schools. About 75% of DPS students are students of color and nearly two-thirds qualify for subsidized meals, an indicator of poverty. By contrast, fewer than 60% of zone students are students of color and fewer than 45% come from low-income families.

Marrero said the board’s own policies direct him to avoid further segregating schools. But some board members questioned that logic. Amy Klein Molk asked if the policies are meant to prevent the segregation of students or to prevent “the professional collaboration between schools.”

Board member John Youngquist asked if DPS has a target for school integration.

“There isn’t a target because that’s not something we’ve discussed,” Marrero said.

Several board members said the district should examine why schools like Willow seek additional autonomy and how DPS could be more responsive to their needs.

“The work is figuring out: Why do folks want to choice out of our district?” board member Monica Hunter said. “Those are things I’ve actually heard from schools: ‘I ask for this, I get it. I don’t have to go back and forth. I don’t feel retaliated against when I bring up something that’s a problem.’”

The board took two votes on Thursday. In the first, the board voted 4-3 to defeat Marrero’s recommendation. Then the board voted 6-1 to allow Willow to join the zone.

Board President Xóchitl Gaytán was the sole no vote in the second round. She said adding Willow would increase racial, economic, and linguistic segregation, referring to the lower percentage of students learning English as a second language in the zone.

Hunter and board member DJ Torres changed their votes, shifting from opposing the addition of Willow to supporting it. Neither commented on why.

Willow was briefly part of another, now-defunct zone called the Northeast Denver Innovation Zone. Willow left that zone in 2021 amid concerns about the zone’s operations.

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

Competition or coexistence? Denver school board puts charter school next to district-run school

2026-04-24T22:41:17+00:00

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Despite pushback from parents, students, and teachers at a district-run elementary school that’s more than 100 years old, the Denver school board voted Thursday to allow a charter elementary school to move in next door.

KIPP Sunshine Peak Elementary will relocate this fall from a cramped rented church building to a newer, more spacious building that already houses KIPP’s southwest Denver middle school. The middle school building is so close to district-run Valverde Elementary that the two share a parking lot. Standing outside of KIPP’s middle school, it’s possible to see Valverde’s playground and hear the squeals of children at recess.

The close proximity of charter and district-run schools has long been a sore spot for charter critics in Denver, and the arrangement resurfaces familiar arguments in a difficult context.

Enrollment is declining sharply in southwest Denver, and schools are competing for the students that remain. Valverde families worry that KIPP’s relocation will spell the end of their neighborhood school, which has thus far survived closure threats.

“You don’t see a Home Depot next to a Home Depot,” said parent Averi Littlewolf, who has two children at Valverde. “So for an elementary school to be next to an elementary school that has already been there for over 100 years, it’s – I’m speechless.”

KIPP Sunshine Peak Elementary is located in a rented former church building. It doesn't have a gymnasium, and its cafeteria used to be a classroom.

But Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero said he’s confident the schools can co-exist. KIPP’s building only has the capacity to house 420 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. And as part of the move, KIPP agreed to give up its preschool classes.

Valverde will keep its preschool, which Marrero said gives Valverde an advantage because many young students end up staying at the elementary school where they went to preschool.

“This not only works for KIPP, for obvious reasons, but also the Valverde community because this will not allow KIPP to grow,” Marrero told the school board before the vote.

KIPP leaders also promised not to actively recruit Valverde students, a move that district officials said shows an unprecedented willingness to collaborate. But the promise could be difficult to enforce. Colorado law allows any student to apply to attend any public school in the state, and DPS can’t stop students from transferring.

“We want to partner, and we don’t want there to be a feeling of competition,” said Taamiti Bankole, KIPP Colorado’s chief external affairs officer.

To add an extra layer of protection for Valverde, Marrero said the district will buy the school a digital marquee sign to help with marketing. Valverde will also get a bit more money, though the exact amount is unclear. DPS owns KIPP’s middle school building, and KIPP pays a fee to use it. That fee will increase when more students move in, and DPS will give the extra money to Valverde for the remaining two years of KIPP’s contract, Marrero said.

KIPP is a national charter school network founded in Texas more than 30 years ago. The network has six schools in Denver, including three in the southwest. Denver school board member Kimberlee Sia was the CEO of KIPP Colorado Public Schools from 2013 to 2019.

KIPP’s willingness to give up its preschool, coupled with the space constraints of the newer building, were cited by a majority of school board members who voted for the relocation.

KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy's building has the capacity to house 420 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Board member Monica Hunter, a former teacher who works for the statewide teachers union, said she was also swayed by the poor condition of KIPP’s rented elementary school building. It has no gymnasium, and its tiny cafeteria used to be a classroom. Some of the school’s 146 students learn in trailers near the playground because there’s not enough space inside.

“While I will never be accused of being pro-charter,” Hunter said, “I do believe all children are our children. And every child deserves access to a high-quality building.”

Valverde Elementary School has been serving students in southwest Denver for more than 100 years.

Board President Xóchitl Gaytán was the only board member to vote no. Gaytán represents southwest Denver and has long accused charter schools of taking students from district-run schools. She said the same could happen to Valverde, which currently has about 350 students.

“Understand that will happen, and your vote will have those repercussions going forward,” Gaytán told her fellow board members.

Board member John Youngquist, who once served as principal of a different district-run elementary school in southwest Denver, called for DPS to come up with a longer-term plan for enrollment in that part of the city “so there’s a level of predictability.”

Two southwest Denver elementary schools, Schmitt and Castro, were shuttered at the end of last school year due to declining enrollment.

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

Denver school board approves policy to protect students from immigration enforcement

2026-04-24T03:39:09+00:00

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The Denver school board unanimously adopted a policy Thursday that aims to protect students from immigration enforcement at public schools and school-sponsored events.

The policy says Denver Public Schools’ superintendent should:

Not give any federal immigration enforcement agency access to property, records, or videos without a valid judicial warrant.
Not allow any student to be questioned, detained, or removed from school custody by federal immigration enforcement agents without a valid judicial warrant and prior approval from DPS’ attorney.
Safeguard the rights of students to have a parent or guardian present if they are searched, interviewed, or interrogated by federal immigration enforcement agents.
Not collect or disclose information about the immigration status of students or families unless it is required by a court order or by state or federal law.
Not allow school resource officers, who are Denver police officers assigned to schools, “to consult, communicate, or share student or family information” with federal immigration enforcement agents.
Provide “appropriate resources” to students and families who may be navigating potential immigration threats.
Ensure employees are trained to fulfill their responsibilities under the policy.
Ensure the policy is prominently posted for staff, students, and families to see.

The policy underwent several revisions from when it was proposed by board President Xóchitl Gaytán in February. The idea came from Latino community groups who were feeling a sense of urgency as immigration enforcement actions ramped up around the country.

“Immigrant students, and students who are related to immigrants, are scared and not coming to school,” North High School student Lidia Lopez told the board last month.

Board members on Thursday thanked the community groups for their advocacy, especially students involved with a longtime Denver group called Movimiento Poder.

“You need to stay on us, because this is how change gets done,” board member DJ Torres said.

The first draft of the policy contained several prohibitions that were already on the district’s books. Some board members thought other proposed prohibitions went too far.

Through several rounds of revisions, board members removed a controversial clause that would have prohibited school resource officers from ticketing or arresting a student if doing so would put that student at risk of deportation.

The school board doesn’t supervise school resource officers, and the officers likely wouldn’t know a student’s immigration status, district officials said. DPS already has a written agreement with the Denver Police Department that prohibits school resource officers from getting involved in routine school discipline matters, and board policy says the officers should avoid ticketing or arresting students unless there are no alternatives.

The board also removed from the proposed policy a clause that would have protected students from immigration enforcement action at school bus stops. DPS has many bus stops all over the city, and district officials said enforcing such a protection would have been near impossible.

The board also removed a clause that would have prohibited DPS from collecting information about its employees’ immigration status. Officials said the district is required to collect that information about employees who are in the United States on work visas.

The policy is meant to apply to both district-run and charter schools. Charter schools are independently run by nonprofit organizations that contract with DPS to run schools in the district.

DPS has long been vocal in its support of immigrant students. The district sued the Trump administration last year to try to reinstate a policy that treated schools as sensitive locations that were generally off limits to immigration enforcement. DPS dropped its lawsuit after a judge found there was little practical difference between that policy and Trump administration guidance for agents to use discretion “and a healthy dose of common sense.”

The policy approved Thursday is an amendment to an existing student conduct policy called Executive Limitation 10. Executive limitations are rules for the superintendent.

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

Colorado law that allows school shooting victims to sue may contain an unintended loophole

2026-04-22T00:00:37+00:00

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When Colorado lawmakers passed a law in 2015 allowing school districts to be held liable for school shootings, they intended to give both staff and students the opportunity to sue.

“Should our schools have a duty to protect our kids and those who work there? Should our schools provide ‘reasonable care’? Senate Bill 213 says yes,” former state Sen. Bill Cadman said at a 2015 hearing on the bill that created the Claire Davis School Safety Act, named after a Colorado student who was killed in a school shooting.

But more than a decade later, it’s not clear whether the law applies to school staff. Two deans who were shot and injured by a student at Denver’s East High School in 2023 are believed to be the first staff members to file lawsuits. Last month, a judge in one of the cases threw out the Claire Davis claim, spotlighting that the law may contain an unintended loophole.

Colorado has a high-profile history with school violence dating back to the deadly mass shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. The parents and classmates of Claire Davis, who was shot by a fellow student at Arapahoe High School in Littleton in 2013, advocated for the bill that bears her name in the hopes that it would curb the violence.

“If there is any state in the country that should be getting this issue right, that has the experience to help us get this right, it should be Colorado,” former state Sen. Andy Kerr said in 2015.

But in removing the immunity provisions in state law that protected school districts from lawsuits and clearing the way for staff members who are seriously assaulted to sue, it appears lawmakers may have overlooked a hurdle: the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act.

In a March ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Gordon P. Gallagher ruled that former East High dean Eric Sinclair can’t sue Denver Public Schools under the Claire Davis law. The law allows individual victims to collect up to $505,000 and multiple victims to split a total of $1,421,000.

Even though Sinclair’s attorneys argued that blocking the former dean from suing under the Claire Davis law would make the law “meaningless or absurd” to school staff, the judge was not convinced. Because Sinclair was injured on the job, Gallager ruled that his claims fall under the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act.

“Mr. Sinclair would not have been injured but for the fact that he was engaged in employment-related duties,” Gallagher wrote.

Sinclair’s attorneys declined to comment for this story.

Did state lawmakers foresee this problem?

Workers’ compensation doesn’t appear to have come up when state lawmakers were debating whether to enact the Claire Davis law. Instead, much of the discussion focused on protecting students and ensuring that victims’ families had access to information about what happened.

That discussion was likely driven by Davis’ death. The 17-year-old was shot in the head while she sat on a bench eating a cookie between classes. The 18-year-old student who shot her had exhibited threatening behavior and said he wanted to kill his debate coach.

At the time the bill was being debated, Davis’ parents were in the midst of arbitration with the Littleton school district to gain access to information about the circumstances surrounding her death. In return, the Davises agreed not to sue.

“Please don’t make the next mother beg for answers as to why her child was killed in a public school in the state of Colorado,” Claire’s mother, Desiree Davis, told lawmakers in 2015.

Even though the scenario of teachers and other school staff being shot didn’t come up much in the debate, the law clearly intends to protect them. It says school districts and charter schools have a duty to exercise reasonable care to protect “students, faculty and staff” from reasonably foreseeable acts of violence, including murder and first degree assault.

Former state Sen. Mark Scheffel, who co-sponsored the bill, said faculty and staff were purposely included. But he said he doesn’t remember any discussions about how the law would interact with workers’ compensation, likely because the issue wasn’t top-of-mind at the time.

“In the testimony and the committees that followed, all of the discussion did tend to center around students,” Scheffel said in an interview this week.

Joe Goldhammer, an adjunct professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and a longtime labor law attorney, said that if state lawmakers wanted to allow school staff to essentially double dip by getting hundreds of thousands in damages on top of their workers’ compensation money, they should have made that clear in the bill.

Cadman, the other co-sponsor of the bill, declined to comment for this story. So did the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. Several local and national school safety and gun violence prevention experts said they haven’t followed the implementation of the law.

Scheffel said he’d be hesitant to encourage state lawmakers to tweak the law just yet, after only one ruling in one lawsuit. He said the law was “delicately drafted” with input from the Davis family, and he wouldn’t want any changes to create more unintended consequences.

“Working on this bill was one of the more gratifying moments I had as a senator,“ said Scheffel, who served in the state legislature for eight years. “It was heartbreaking and gratifying to try to wrap our brain around something we thought would make a difference.”

Few lawsuits have been filed under the law

Few lawsuits have been filed under the Claire Davis law, and it’s not clear how many have resulted in monetary damages.

The family of Kendrick Castillo, an 18-year-old student killed in a 2019 school shooting, sued under the law and collected $387,000 from the charter school their son attended, according to court documents. Kendrick died after he lunged at a fellow student who had pulled a gun in class at STEM School Highlands Ranch.

But the courts denied the Castillos part of what they wanted: a jury trial and public airing of the facts. The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled last year that a trial wasn’t necessary because the family had already collected the maximum amount of money allowable under the Claire Davis law. The school had deposited that sum in the court’s registry early in the case.

Other lawsuits filed under the Claire Davis law have been dismissed.

They include a lawsuit filed by the family of Luis Garcia, who sued Denver Public Schools after Luis was fatally shot while sitting in his car outside of Denver’s East High School in 2023. A judge dismissed the lawsuit because she found that Luis, a 16-year-old junior at East, was not killed on school grounds because his car was parked on a public street.

Attorney Igor Raykin said several of the lawsuits he’s filed under the Claire Davis law have also been dismissed. His cases mostly involved bullying, including one where a student with autism was allegedly pushed down a flight of stairs by a classmate. All but two of the handful of lawsuits Raykin has filed have been thrown out, he said. The other two are ongoing.

“It is still very, very difficult to sue a school for an injury to a child at the school,” Raykin said. “This is one of the things that pisses me off. Schools are going around and saying, ‘We’re going to get sued, and this is awful.’ No. It is still really hard to sue school districts under state law.”

That’s not to say the Claire Davis law hasn’t had any effect. School safety experts say that in the wake of the law, schools sharply increased how often they conduct threat assessments to determine whether a student’s threats are credible and how the school should intervene.

Chris Harms, director of the Colorado Office of School Safety, said the office provided about 20 threat assessment workshops to school districts in the six years before the Claire Davis law was passed. In the 10 years since, it has done more than 200.

Harms declined an interview for this story. But she said by email that “even if (the law) hasn’t resulted in successful lawsuits, it has certainly resulted in trained threat assessment teams in our schools, which we believe has prevented targeted violence.”

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

Denver Public Schools could ask voters to approve a $44 million tax increase

2026-04-20T20:09:31+00:00

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Denver Public Schools is considering asking voters in November to approve a $44 million tax increase to benefit the city’s schools at a time when enrollment and funding are uncertain.

How that $44 million would be spent is an open question, district officials said. But the district plans to float several options at a series of community meetings starting this week.

Attendees will be asked to prioritize the options, which include:

Pay raises for all DPS staff.
Bigger pay incentives for teachers and other staff to work at high-poverty schools where 60% or more of students qualify for subsidized school meals.
Bigger pay incentives for teachers and other staff to work in hard-to-fill roles, such as high school math teachers, bilingual teachers, school psychologists.
Reducing employee health insurance premiums.
Funding for career and technical education, including classes in aviation mechanics, animation, welding, and more that will be offered at new regional hubs.
Funding for teacher training and alternative teacher licensure programs that allow aspiring teachers to work for DPS while earning a degree.

If voters say yes, it would increase property taxes by about $77 per year for a Denver home valued at $630,000, the median home price in the city.

Like many districts in Colorado, Denver Public Schools is facing serious funding pressures. Lower birth rates and higher housing prices are causing the district’s enrollment to drop, which means it could get less per-pupil funding from the state. Federal funding uncertainties coupled with a tight state budget puts the district in a precarious position, officials said.

The district’s health insurance and utility costs are rising, officials said. And an increase in the number of students with disabilities has meant the district is spending more to support them.

Denver voters have a track record of approving school tax increases. In 2024, voters approved a $975 million bond measure to benefit DPS. Four years earlier, voters had approved both a $795 million bond measure and a $32 million mill levy override.

Bond measures are used to build new schools or renovate existing ones. Mill levy overrides pay for programming. Past overrides have funded elementary school art teachers, tutoring programs, and increased mental health services for students, for example.

Voters’ past generosity meant DPS was already raising the maximum amount of override funding allowable under state law. But two years ago, state lawmakers increased the cap. DPS can now raise an amount equal to 29% of its state funding, up from 25%.

In real dollars, that’s an estimated $332 million, up from $288 million, according to a district presentation. DPS has about 89,000 students and a total budget of about $1.5 billion.

Not all Colorado school districts are as lucky. Many struggle to convince voters to approve tax increases, creating vast inequities in school funding across the state.

The Denver teachers union supports another mill levy override. It was even part of the union’s last contract with the district, signed last year. The contract included a memorandum of understanding in which the district acknowledged that educators “serve a vital role” and agreed to consider asking voters in 2025 or 2026 to raise taxes. Overrides can help pay for teacher salaries.

DPS has tasked a nine-member committee with recommending whether to put a mill levy override on the November ballot and how the money should be spent. That committee will consider feedback from attendees at six regional meetings. The meetings are scheduled for:

Tuesday, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Gust Elementary
April 27, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Westerly Creek Elementary
May 4, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Holm Elementary
May 6, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Trevista at Horace Mann
May 12, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Responsive Arts & STEAM Academy
May 14, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., at Whittier ECE-8

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

Superintendent says expanding Denver’s last innovation zone would increase school segregation

2026-04-17T00:43:11+00:00

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Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero has long been critical of semi-autonomous innovation zones, and he doubled down this week by recommending that an elementary school not be allowed to join the district’s last remaining zone, the Luminary Learning Network.

The students at Willow Elementary School are whiter and wealthier than the district as a whole, as is the case at half of the schools in the zone. Marrero said Willow’s request to join the zone was “privilege coded as innovation.”

“It’s very clear that I should not allow certain parts of our community to self-segregate,” he said.

Speaking more bluntly than usual and with a tinge of frustration in his voice, Marrero laid out his case at a school board meeting Wednesday night. The decision of whether to expand the zone is up to the school board, which is set to vote next week.

Marrero’s recommendation is another sign that school reform is dying in Denver. In his nearly five years as superintendent, Marrero has pushed for a more centralized approach to school improvement, which differs from the philosophy of past superintendents.

The Luminary Learning Network was Denver Public Schools’ first innovation zone and is now the last one standing. It started in 2016 with four schools and has since expanded to eight, though it’s set to shrink to seven next year.

Parents and teachers supportive of Willow’s request to join the zone urged the school board to say yes to the expansion. Teachers said being connected with likeminded schools would allow them to share successful strategies.

“Our students deserve more than a one-size-fits-all system,” said Outara Murer, a parent and paraprofessional at Willow.

Marrero said there’s nothing innovative about innovation zones. He said he believes the benefits include “shopping for your supervisor,” the ability for the nonprofit to raise money from private foundations, and protection from district decisions about school closures.

“Board members, you’ve been to these schools,” Marrero said. “Have you seen something that says, ‘My goodness, I have never seen that before. Let’s scale it.’ No.”

When he asked a principal — whom he declined to name — what they got from being in the zone, the principal smirked, Marrero said. He said the principal told him “it’s always great when we have something unexpected” and then made “the money sign” with their hand.

Luminary Learning Network Executive Director Bailey Holyfield said the zone occasionally applies for grants that benefit its schools. As for the zone schools not being innovative, Holyfield said structural or operational innovations are not always obvious to external observers.

Two other innovation zones were dismantled under Marrero’s watch, including one that briefly counted Willow Elementary as a member. But Marrero said he’s not against all school flexibility. About 20% of Denver schools are innovation schools, which means they can choose their own bell schedule or curriculum, for example. Marrero’s children attend an innovation school, he said. But unlike schools in zones, standalone innovation schools are overseen by the district.

The student demographics at Willow, which is located in the more affluent Central Park neighborhood in northeast Denver, are at the center of the disagreement. Nearly half of the students at Willow are white, and about 35% are from low-income families.

While parents and teachers said Willow is becoming more diverse, Marrero said the school is still disproportionately privileged and would decrease the diversity of the innovation zone.

That’s especially true, Marrero said, because another school, Ashley Elementary, is poised to leave the zone at the end of the school year and revert back to district control. Nearly all of the students at Ashley are Hispanic or Black and come from low-income families.

“You all are asking me to avoid at all costs decisions that increase segregation,” Marrero said to the school board, referring to policies that direct him to prevent segregation.

“This definitely moves further away from what you all are asking,” he said of Willow’s request. “Even if I would (approve it) — which I would not, because this is aligned to how I feel, as well — I simply cannot recommend approval, based on the policy.”

Marrero also questioned whether joining the zone would benefit Willow academically. Willow does well on standardized tests, and Marrero said that would continue no matter what, partly because of “the student body.” White students in Denver score near the top in the state.

Willow parents pushed back on that argument.

“High achievement is not a reason to withhold support,” said Nicole Winchester, who has a fourth grader, a second grader, and a preschooler at Willow.

Principal Catrina Pazo said Willow is currently an innovation school, but “not all of our flexibilities are consistently being honored.” Joining the zone “formalizes these conditions and connects us to a network with a strong track record of improving outcomes,” Pazo said.

Parent Tara Gallagher said the Willow PTA has raised nearly $120,000 this year to pay for support staff positions and events such as movie nights and a trunk-or-treat. But she said the PTA is “increasingly concerned at how we can sustain this level of support,” especially as more students from low-income families enroll at the school.

Zone supporters argued that Willow followed all of the steps required to join the zone, including that a majority of its staff voted in favor of joining. School board members Kimberlee Sia and John Youngquist also pointed that out. But Marrero said following the steps guarantees that a request will be considered, not that it will be granted.

Holyfield said the district’s process for approving zones has shifted from reliable to discretionary.

“That should be a concern to every board member,” she said.

However, it was clear that the board was split, with some members supporting Marrero.

“As a board, it is absolutely our responsibility to disrupt systems and structures that perpetuate inequities,” said board Vice President Monica Hunter, a former DPS teacher who once taught at Willow but is opposed to the school joining the zone. “And I don’t see how adding in a school where the PTA can easily raise $100,000 and there’s a lot of privilege (does that).”

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

Denver school board resurrects proposed policy on what to do with empty school buildings

2026-04-16T16:36:46+00:00

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The Denver school board is once again considering a proposed policy on reusing or selling vacant school buildings after it abandoned a previous proposal a year ago.

The new proposal, introduced Wednesday by two board members, is different from the previous one in several ways. The previous version said the top three reuses of vacant buildings should be to permanently house new or relocated schools, to temporarily house them, or to lease the buildings to charter schools. The current version contains no mention of charter schools.

Instead, it lists the top three priorities for vacant buildings as: educational program use, other strategic district use, and community partnership use.

How to repurpose empty school buildings is a growing issue in Denver and other Colorado districts as declining enrollment forces more schools to close. DPS closed or partially closed 10 schools at the end of last school year. Those closures left five buildings vacant.

The district has already repurposed two of them: The former Palmer Elementary is now a preschool center, and the former Castro Elementary is the new home of Summit Academy, a district-run middle and high school that serves students at risk of dropping out.

“I have three empty school buildings in my district, so we wanted to make sure we evaluated this policy,” said board member Marlene De La Rosa, who represents northwest Denver and introduced the proposal along with board member Kimberlee Sia.

Last year, DPS issued a pair of preliminary “requests for information” seeking ideas for reusing empty buildings. One request asked for “affordable educator and staff housing solutions.” The other asked for “innovative proposals” to improve student well-being, expand access to child care or health care, or offer cultural enrichment.

Seven community organizations, two charter schools, and one district-run school submitted ideas for reusing the buildings, according to information Chalkbeat obtained in a public records request. Fifteen real estate companies submitted ideas related to teacher housing.

In February, DPS followed up by issuing requests for proposals for two of the vacant schools. The district wants to turn the former Columbian Elementary into a child care center for babies and toddlers. And it’s looking to turn the former International Academy of Denver at Harrington into a community center offering food and housing help, after-school enrichment, and more.

Those proposals were due in March. DPS declined to release them in response to a public records request from Chalkbeat, on the grounds that a premature release “could negatively impact the fairness and integrity of the process.”

The current proposed policy says that the superintendent should ensure that any empty buildings have a “reasonable and timely plan” for use or disposition, and that the buildings should be reused or sold within two years of becoming vacant.

It also says the superintendent should consider “current and future educational needs” before repurposing a property and exhaust all other options before selling it.

The proposal would also require the superintendent to produce an annual report on the status of all vacant or underutilized properties, the duration of any vacancies, and planned actions.

The proposed policy on vacant buildings is called Executive Limitation 20. Executive limitations are rules for the superintendent, who answers to the school board.

Former board member Michelle Quattlebaum first proposed an Executive Limitation 20 last April. But it never got a vote, and Quattlebaum lost her bid for reelection in November. Quattlebaum’s proposal was more prescriptive than the one the board is now considering.

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

Bell-to-bell cellphone ban recommended by Denver Public Schools committee

2026-04-16T02:14:48+00:00

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Denver Public Schools could adopt a bell-to-bell cellphone ban if it follows the recommendation of a community committee.

DPS formed the 17-member committee in response to a new state law that requires all Colorado school districts to adopt a policy on student cellphone use by July 1. The law doesn’t require a ban; rather, it allows each district to come up with its own rules.

Cellphone bans are increasingly common nationwide as schools try to reduce distractions in class and improve students’ mental health. Some educators are expanding technology prohibitions even further by dropping laptops from their classrooms, too.

While other Colorado districts already have policies in place, Denver, the state’s largest district with more than 89,000 students, does not. The committee of parents, educators, and community members was tasked by the Denver school board with coming up with recommendations, which the board heard for the first time Wednesday night.

A majority of the committee members recommended that the DPS cellphone policy include:

A ban on smart phones, smart watches, earbuds, and other technology not issued by schools from the start to the end of the school day for all students.
A rule that phones must be inaccessible during school.
Exceptions for students who need their phones for medical reasons or as part of a special education plan or disability accommodation.
Training for parents on the district’s emergency notification process.
Revised student discipline rules that include consequences for violating the ban.
That if educators don’t implement the policy consistently, “there is an intersectionality with their evaluations.” The recommendations don’t say how their evaluations could be affected.

The last point is in response to teachers who said bans are hard to enforce if the teacher next door is more lax, said Sarah Almy Moore, a parent and former DPS employee who was on the committee. That inconsistency is partly what inspired the idea of a bell-to-bell ban, she said.

“The policy of putting the phones away just for in-class doesn’t seem to be working effectively, even though the students themselves might like it,” Almy Moore said.

Abraham Lincoln High School principal Néstor Bravo was also on the committee. He said he supports a blanket ban because allowing students to have their phones at lunch or during bathroom breaks can become an opportunity for them to get “a quick hit of Instagram.”

“As we try to address the problem of cell phones as an addiction that compromises social interaction, we were thinking of a K-12 policy that is standard but it also prepares our children for when they become teenagers,” Bravo said.

School board members Marlene De La Rosa and Kimberlee Sia will take the lead on crafting a proposed policy based on the recommendations. The current timeline calls for them to introduce the policy next week, and for the board to take a final vote on June 11.

The district plans to survey families about the proposed policy in May. The board will also hear public comment about the proposal at its May and June meetings.

One teacher and three parents spoke at Wednesday’s public comment session. Two were in favor of a proposed ban and two were opposed.

Katie Sams, a teacher at one of the district’s alternative high schools, said her students are often older and dealing with complicated factors in their lives. They may need phones to communicate with employers, child care providers, or even parole officers, she said.

But parent Jamie Chesser said she wants her children, ages 12 and 14, to build strong friendships with classmates and relationships with teachers at school, not be isolated on a screen.

“We need to remove cell phones from schools for the sake of our children’s futures,” she said. “This is not punishment. It is for their good health. This is about love for the kids.”

Correction, April 17: This story has been changed to reflect that the committee was tasked by the school board, not the district, to come up with recommendations.

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

Judge rules that East High school shooting lawsuit can move forward, calling DPS’ conduct ‘baffling’

2026-04-02T21:52:01+00:00

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A lawsuit filed against Denver Public Schools by one of the deans shot by a student at East High School in 2023 will move forward, a judge has ruled.

U.S. District Court Judge Gordon P. Gallagher wrote that “DPS appears to have exhibited a shocking disregard” for the risk that the student posed to his peers, the East High staff, and himself. The student took his own life after the shooting.

Gallagher cited the student’s prior expulsion from a high school in Aurora after police found guns in his bedroom and DPS’ decision to remove police officers from schools. He also referenced a general rise in students bringing guns to school and the fatal shooting of an East High student outside the school a month before the deans’ non-fatal shootings.

Taken together, Gallagher wrote that DPS seems to have “knowingly opened the door for a mass shooting and/or outbreak of gun violence at East High School. This conduct is illogical, baffling, and plausibly conscience shocking.”

In a statement Thursday, DPS noted that at this stage in the lawsuit, the judge was required to view the facts in the light most favorable to the former dean, Eric Sinclair. The judge’s ruling doesn’t mean that the district violated the law, DPS said, but that the lawsuit can move forward to the next stage, which involves presenting evidence.

“Denver Public Schools is confident that the evidence will demonstrate that its actions in this case were consistent with legal requirements and looks forward to the opportunity to present its arguments in court in the near future,” the statement says.

Michael Mihm, an attorney for Sinclair, said his legal team had no comment Thursday.

Judge’s ruling provides more details about shooting

The judge’s March 25 ruling provides more details about how the shootings of Sinclair and fellow East High dean Wayne Mason unfolded three years earlier.

The shooter, Austin Lyle, had enrolled at East High in January 2023 because he was living in the school’s boundary. He’d previously been expelled from Overland High School in Aurora “after police found an AR-15 assault rifle, two fully loaded magazines, a zip-lock bag with spent shells, boxes of ammunition, and a silencer in his bedroom,” the ruling says. Overland is part of the Cherry Creek School District.

After Lyle started at East High, an assistant principal, Shawne Anderson, created a safety plan that required Lyle to verbally check in with Anderson each day, the ruling says.

The check-ins escalated to a daily backpack search after another student reported what appeared to be a gun in Lyle’s pocket on March 2. When a campus security guard tried to search Lyle, he “became agitated and fled the school,” according to the ruling. Lyle’s father refused to let police search his son’s bedroom.

On March 23, Anderson didn’t respond to radio calls to search Lyle’s backpack. Sinclair, who didn’t know about Lyle’s history with guns, offered to do the search instead, according to the ruling. He noticed a bulge in the front pocket of Lyle’s hooded sweatshirt.

Lyle implied it was a phone and “grabbed Mr. Sinclair’s hand and put it on the outside of the hoodie, saying ‘here, touch it,’” the ruling says. “Upon feeling the object, Mr. Sinclair immediately knew it was a gun and became alarmed.”

Hundreds of students were across the hall at a school assembly. When Lyle tried to leave the office where Sinclair was searching him, Sinclair blocked the exit and Lyle pulled a gun.

Sinclair radioed for help and Mason responded, the ruling says. Lyle then fired multiple shots at Sinclair, hitting him in the abdomen, chest, and thigh. He also shot Mason.

Judge finds that risk of violence was obvious

Sinclair and Mason each sued DPS last year, alleging that the district’s safety policies and practices were too lax. DPS asked the court to dismiss the lawsuits, arguing that the risk posed by Lyle was not “immediate and proximate,” which is the legal standard to find DPS liable.

Gallagher disagreed, finding that the risk that Lyle would use a gun at school was obvious.

“He had been expelled from Overland High School for possessing guns and ammunition, he was suspected of having a gun on March 2, and no measures aside from a daily backpack search conducted by an untrained staff member were implemented to prevent him from bringing a gun into the school,” Gallagher wrote.

“It is not hard to imagine the terror that students and the parents of other students at East High School would have felt if they had known of this chain of events,” he added.

Sinclair named DPS, the Denver school board, and Anderson in his lawsuit. Gallagher dismissed the claims against the school board and Anderson but not against DPS.

Gallagher also dismissed Sinclair’s claims that DPS violated a state law called the Claire Davis School Safety Act. Named for the victim of a Colorado school shooting, the law says districts can be held liable if they fail to exercise “reasonable care” to protect students and staff from “reasonably foreseeable” acts of violence at school. But Gallagher ruled that Sinclair’s claims fall under the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act instead, since Sinclar was injured on the job.

“Mr. Sinclair would not have been injured but for the fact that he was engaged in employment-related duties,” Gallagher wrote.

Mason’s lawsuit is ongoing. The judge in that case has not yet ruled.

The family of the student who was fatally shot outside of East High several weeks before Sinclair and Mason were injured dropped its lawsuit against DPS earlier this year. The judge in that case ruled that the district was not liable because 16-year-old Luis Garcia was on a public street in front of East High when he was shot inside his car.

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

Denver school board could reexamine holiday named for César Chávez after abuse allegations

2026-03-20T02:42:51+00:00

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In 2003, the Denver school board named a district holiday after civil rights leader César Chávez.

On Wednesday, a New York Times investigation alleged that Chávez abused women and girls. On Thursday, board members said they may discuss what to do about the district holiday.

Member Marlene De La Rosa said the board received an email from former board member James Mejía about the holiday. News stories from 2003 say Mejía led the charge for Denver Public Schools to honor Chávez with a holiday starting in 2005.

Concerns about the cost of an additional holiday led the board in 2003 to choose the last Monday in March because it coincides with the district’s spring break, the news stories say.

De La Rosa said the current board needs to research how the holiday was created. She suggested the board discuss it at its April meeting.

“I believe that would be an opportunity to share with everybody exactly what the board did at that time and if we desire to modify that,” De La Rosa said.

Board President Xóchitl Gaytán asked De La Rosa to email her with a formal request to add the discussion to the April agenda.

Denver Public Schools’ spring break is set for March 30 through April 3. The district’s official calendar notes that March 31 is César Chávez Day. President Barack Obama designated March 31 a federal holiday named for Chávez in 2014.

Mejía did not respond to a request for comment.

Denver city leaders said on Thursday that they will rename the city’s late March holiday from César Chávez Day to Sí Se Puede Day. The city will also rename a park that bears Chávez’s name and take down a bust of the civil rights leader.

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

‘Mamma Mia!’ performance becomes a symbol of hope for a Denver high school that could face closure

2026-03-19T21:11:35+00:00

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For senior Ivan Marquez, his school’s spring musical feels like a dream come true.

Marquez wanted to do theater when he came to John F. Kennedy High School as a freshman. But since there was no program, he joined the choir instead. Now, three years later, he has a lead part in “Mamma Mia!” and has been rehearsing after school and on Saturdays.

“Knowing what’s happening to the school, I feel like that’s just pushing us to work harder,” Marquez said, “so that the school can continue to be open for the future students.”

This week’s production of “Mamma Mia!” is happening at a difficult time for Kennedy High, located in southwest Denver. The school is one of four that could face closure under a new Denver Public Schools policy that calls for shuttering schools with persistently low state ratings.

But a closure wouldn’t happen until next spring. And the students at Kennedy said they aren’t giving up.

“‘Mamma Mia!’ is kind of giving the school a little hope, because you’re seeing everything start to get revived,” said Heaven Tafoya, a senior who’s on the student board of education.

Tori Southworth, right, and other students rehearse "Mamma Mia!" Southworth plays Donna, the mother of the bride-to-be.

The last time Kennedy put on a musical was nearly a decade ago. Back then, the school had 1,000 students, which was not enough to fill its 1,500-seat auditorium but more than the 675 it has today. Theater teacher Kristen Martin had to rope off the back half of the auditorium in order to push the audience toward the stage for a play the students did in the fall.

Martin, whom everyone calls KMart, was hired last year by Principal Victoria Wyatt to restart Kennedy’s theater program. She said she arrived to find that the school was storing its gym mats in the theater department’s prop shop, and her office was full of computers.

The first thing she did was recruit five students from the school’s overflowing art classes who’d expressed an interest in theater. Their job was to help her physically dig the program out.

“I found kids who wanted to be here, and I made sure they wanted to be here by putting them to work,” said Martin, who previously worked in the Aurora and Littleton school districts.

Alex Stanton illuminates the stage during a dress rehearsal for "Mamma Mia!"

But while five students was enough to put on a few showcases last spring and “The Odd Couple” in the fall, it wasn’t enough for a spring musical. Vocal music teacher Julia Wirth said she knew that to make a musical work, she’d have to pull in her choir students.

Junior Aspen MacDonnell remembers the pitch: Instead of a spring concert, Wirth told the choir they’d be part of the musical instead. And if they wanted a big part, they’d have to audition.

Not everyone was thrilled. Most of the students had never heard of “Mamma Mia!,” a jukebox musical featuring songs by the Swedish pop group ABBA about a bride-to-be who invites three men from her mother’s past to her wedding on a Greek island. ABBA was popular in the 1970s and “Mamma Mia!” premiered in 1999, before the students were born.

“Some people were feeling like they were forced,” MacDonnell said of the auditions, “but once we got into it, I feel like everybody loves it.”

Brihani Posas prepares for a dress rehearsal of "Mamma Mia!" Posas plays a tourist in the musical.

Sophomore Brihani Posas said being cast in “Mamma Mia!” made her feel like a missing crayon who’d finally found her box. Tori Southworth, also a sophomore, said she’s heartbroken to think that she might lose her new friendships if the school were to close.

“I think ‘Mamma Mia!’ has really shown that we can still fix this,” Southworth said.

Any closure decision will likely hinge on academic factors like the school’s PSAT scores and graduation rate, not on the strength of its performing arts or athletics programs. But those are often the things that make a school feel successful. Students and staff can tick off a list of Kennedy’s recent accomplishments, including that its girls basketball team won the city league championship this winter and its JROTC team is competing at nationals.

Students wait for their turn on stage during a dress rehearsal of "Mamma Mia!"

“In the broader school, it is a lot of tension and fear,” said social studies teacher Kade Orlandini, who helped build the sets for “Mamma Mia!” “I feel like the musical is trying to show we’re not dead yet, and hopefully we won’t be. There’s still a lot of great things happening at Kennedy.”

On a recent call with a reporter, Wyatt, the principal, held the phone up to the school’s loudspeaker. There on the morning announcements were the students who’d never before put on a musical, singing to the whole school to encourage them to buy tickets. The cast has also been making video clips, one of which has more than 70,000 likes on Instagram.

“Take a chance on meeeeee,” the students sang on the morning announcements, “and join us in the auditorium on Friday and Saturday at 6 p.m.”

“Our kids are pretty relentless,” Wyatt said.

Students rehearse a song in "Mamma Mia!"

In that auditorium earlier this week, students dressed as Greek tourists sat in the front row, sharing a box of McDonald’s fries before a dress rehearsal. A girl and two boys mimed choreography between bites. A kid on the technical crew frantically looked for AAA batteries. The sound of a backstage vocal warmup was muffled by thick stage curtains.

By 5:30 on the dot, the dinner break was over and everyone was in place. The lights went down, and a medley of ABBA songs came streaming through the speakers.

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

Denver school board meeting detours into dispute over agenda items

2026-03-06T06:24:01+00:00

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Tensions flared at a Denver school board meeting Thursday when two members accused the board president of rejecting their requests to add items to meeting agendas.

“I believe you have unjustly and unilaterally made decisions to withhold things from the agenda,” board member DJ Torres said at one point to board President Xóchitl Gaytán.

Board Vice President Monica Hunter agreed, saying she was “very concerned” that Gaytán “is not fulfilling her duties.” Hunter said that disputes over agenda items had happened several times in the three months since she and Torres were elected in November and Gaytán was chosen as board president for a second time in December.

Gaytán said the board president has the final say over the meeting agendas. She also implied that Torres wasn’t clear in his emails about what he wanted to add.

Thursday’s argument recalled a particularly contentious era of the Denver school board. Gaytán’s first stint as board president, from 2021 to 2023, was marked by personality conflicts, power struggles, and tense debates among members. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, then a mayoral candidate, called the board dysfunctional. Voters cited that dissatisfaction when they ousted two incumbents in the 2023 school board election.

“We have to show the public that we can become a fully functioning board that they would like to see,” Gaytán said in an interview after that election.

Thursday’s heated conversation began when Torres asked for a “point of order.” Gaytán attempted to cut him off and ask the school district’s lawyer, Aaron Thompson, to intervene.

“Excuse me, I would like to finish my point of order,” Torres said. “He can respond after I’m done.”

What followed was a convoluted back-and-forth between Torres, Gaytán, and Thompson about board policy and procedure.

Torres said he asked Gaytán on Monday to add a discussion to Thursday’s agenda about the policy for setting meeting agendas. Gaytán said she didn’t add it because she didn’t think that a two-member working group, including Torres, was ready to bring a proposal to the full board.

Throughout the discussion, Torres and Gaytán accused each other of violating procedure.

“Dr. Torres, you are out of order,” Gaytán said at one point.

“No, you’re out of order,” Torres responded.

The conversation wound down after Thompson reiterated the proper way to address an alleged policy violation by a board member. There are three steps: A private conversation about the potential violation, a public discussion at a board meeting, and finally a public censure.

“I can settle with that,” Torres said. “Because this feels like a clear violation.”

The debate ended when another member called for a short break. The vote was unanimous. The board meeting resumed after a five-minute break.

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

Denver schools policy already aims to shield students from ICE. Latino advocates say more is needed.

2026-03-05T01:33:49+00:00

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Many of the prohibitions in a proposed policy meant to protect Denver students from immigration enforcement are already on the school district’s books, scattered across a handful of rules put in place by the superintendent.

But backers of the proposal say it’s important for the school board to adopt the policy, even if it is duplicative. Doing so would send a clear message of support to immigrant families at a time when the Trump administration has ramped up arrests across the country, they said.

“Our biggest concern is that children are afraid, and parents are afraid to send their children to school, and we need the board to come out and tell them, ‘We’re creating the safest learning environment we can for you and this is what we’re putting in place,’” said Milo Marquez, chair of the Latino Education Coalition, a local advocacy group.

The school board is set to discuss the proposed policy at a meeting Thursday. The proposal would designate all school buildings, buses, and bus stops as “safe zones” and bar staff from cooperating with federal immigration agents without a judicial warrant, among other provisions.

But some proposed provisions go further than the current rules and may test the limits of the school district’s authority. At a meeting last month, several board members pushed for a legal review.

“I don’t want to give any false hope or false protection,” said board member Marlene De La Rosa, “because that is also very, very harmful for our students and our families when they believe something and it’s not possible to have it.”

The proposed policy was written by advocacy groups including the Latino Education Coalition and Movimiento Poder. The latter group has for years raised concerns about how students getting ticketed or arrested at school could lead to their deportation.

“We want to be proactive and ensure that doesn’t happen,” said Berenice Aguirre, the organization’s interim executive director.

DPS has consistently backed immigrant students

Denver Public Schools has long been supportive of immigrant students, even suing the Trump administration to try to reinstate a federal policy that previously treated schools as generally off limits to immigration enforcement. DPS dropped that lawsuit in June after a judge found there was little practical difference between that policy and the Trump administration’s guidance.

After the school district experienced an influx of immigrant students from Venezuela and other South American countries in 2023 and 2024, Superintendent Alex Marrero put in place a new administrative policy detailing how staff should respond to federal immigration officials.

The policy, known as Administrative Policy KLG, complemented prior administrative policies that barred U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from district property unless they had a search warrant, for example.

The policy also prohibits the district from collecting information about a student’s place of birth or citizenship status. It says the district won’t share student records unless required by law. And if an ICE agent shows up at a school, the policy directs staff to collect the agent’s name, badge number, and copies of any warrants and subpoenas, and then contact the district’s lawyer.

All of those provisions are also in the policy being considered by the school board. But advocates and district staff said there’s a key difference between the superintendent’s policies and policies passed by the board. The latter, they said, are harder to change.

Whereas a superintendent has the sole authority to write and rewrite administrative policies whenever they want, changing a board policy requires a public discussion and a majority vote by board members, who must ultimately answer to Denver voters.

“In this sense, redundancy is not necessarily a bad thing,” DPS General Counsel Aaron Thompson wrote in an email to Chalkbeat. “It can be an intentional governance decision.”

Marquez, of the Latino Education Coalition, also said the policies should be in place regardless of who the superintendent is.

“If the superintendent has these policies, that’s great,” Marquez said. “If the superintendent leaves tomorrow and a new superintendent comes in, then those policies could be gone. But if the board puts them into place, then they’re protected.”

He pointed to an executive order from Denver Mayor Mike Johnston last week that declared schools “protected spaces” from ICE as an example of a high-profile move that signaled support for the immigrant community, even if not all of the provisions were new.

Proposal could require DPS to renegotiate deal with police

The proposal would be an addition to an existing school board policy called Executive Limitation 10. Executive limitations are rules for the superintendent, who answers to the school board.

But as written by the advocacy groups, the proposal says school-based police officers and independent charter schools would have to follow the rules too. That could require the superintendent to revise the district’s contracts and agreements with the Denver Police Department and each charter school, Thompson said.

For instance, the proposed policy says the superintendent should not allow school resource officers, who are Denver police officers assigned to work in DPS schools, to arrest or ticket a student if doing so would put them at risk of deportation.

It also says the superintendent should not allow school resource officers to share student information with ICE agents or “any law enforcement officers not assigned to the school.”

The school board doesn’t supervise school resource officers, Thompson said, and “cannot direct (Denver Police Department) arrest decisions in real time through board policy.” But the board can direct the superintendent to negotiate and enforce expectations for the officers through the district’s written agreement with the police department. That agreement already says officers should not get involved in routine school discipline.

The board can also ban school resource officers altogether, as it did in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd and concerns about racist policing before reinstating them in 2023.

A spokesperson for the Denver Police Department said its officers do not help enforce civil federal immigration law but declined to answer specific questions about the proposed policy. Thompson said DPS school resource officers “generally will not know a student’s immigration status, and DPS does not want an SRO attempting to determine it.”

Aguirre, of Movimiento Poder, said the board’s 2020 decision to remove school resource officers shows it has authority over the officers’ presence and scope. She said her organization believes officers should only get involved in situations involving weapons or violence.

“We don’t think we’re asking for anything radical or that hasn’t been done before,” Aguirre said.

The proposed policy also seeks to add a new provision prohibiting DPS from cooperating or complying with ICE detainer requests. Such requests are usually made by ICE to jails to hold someone who has been arrested so that ICE may take custody of them. Thompson said that to his knowledge, DPS has never received an ICE detainer request.

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

Denver Public Schools Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith to take a top schools job in Oregon

2026-03-04T20:14:07+00:00

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Tony Smith, the deputy superintendent of Denver Public Schools, will leave his post as the second-in-command of Colorado’s largest school district to take a superintendent job in Oregon.

The Beaverton School District announced Tuesday that its school board had chosen Smith to be the district’s next superintendent. Smith will stay in Denver through the end of this school year and start in Beaverton on July 1, according to announcements from both districts.

Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero wrote in a letter to staff Wednesday that, “While we are sad to see him depart, this appointment is a testament to Dr. Smith’s exceptional vision, dedication and the impact he’s made here in Denver Public Schools.”

Smith, who holds a doctorate from the University of Denver, was a principal and principal supervisor in DPS before becoming the district’s chief of equity and eventually the deputy superintendent under Marrero. Notably, Smith was principal of Montbello High School when it was closed in 2010 for low performance and deputy superintendent when it reopened in 2022. Smith also previously worked for the KIPP charter school network in Texas.

The Beaverton district is smaller than Denver, with 37,000 students compared to Denver’s 89,000. But the two districts face similar challenges, including declining enrollment, potential funding cuts, and responding to the possibility of immigration enforcement activity near schools.

Marrero said DPS will begin the search process for a new deputy superintendent “in the coming weeks and months” and pledged to keep the community updated on the progress.

Marrero’s name had been leaked late last year as a finalist for the job of Chicago Public Schools’ next CEO. But a DPS spokesperson said last week that Marrero is not a candidate.

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

Denver asked for proposals for reusing vacant school buildings. Here’s a sneak peek at some ideas.

2026-03-03T03:25:43+00:00

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After controversial school closures last year, Denver Public Schools wants to turn one of its shuttered elementary schools into a child care center and another into a community center.

That’s according to two requests for proposals issued by the district last month. DPS would like Columbian Elementary, in northwest Denver, to become a child care center for babies and toddlers, as well as a training site for early childhood workers.

And it wants to turn the International Academy of Denver at Harrington into a community center for underserved neighborhoods in northeast Denver, offering food and housing help, after-school enrichment, adult education classes, and more.

The bids for both requests for proposals are due next week.

Meanwhile, DPS is working on developing requests related to teacher housing with the help of a company that specializes in turning municipal properties into homes for essential workers. Andrew Huber, the district’s executive director of enrollment and campus planning, said those requests will drop “once we have identified the right sites at which to pilot this concept.”

School closures are contentious, and parents often want to know how a district will repurpose a building that many consider the heart of the community. But the answer is rarely clear right away. The decision process can take years, leaving buildings vacant and families wondering.

Documents that Chalkbeat obtained through public records requests offer some clues.

Before DPS issued the recent requests for proposals, it put out a pair of preliminary “requests for information” last year. Chalkbeat obtained those documents, as well as 25 responses the district received from outside groups and real estate developers. Together, they shed light on how DPS and the community are thinking about repurposing closed schools.

One request for information asked for “affordable educator and staff housing solutions.” The other named five empty buildings — the former Fairview, Schmitt, Columbian, Harrington, and Remington elementary schools — and asked for “innovative proposals” to improve student well-being, expand access to child care or health care, or offer cultural enrichment.

“The District is only open to lease(s) or partnerships,” that request said. “Ideas that require sale of District assets will not be considered.”

Ten community organizations submitted ideas for reusing the buildings, the records show. Fifteen real estate companies submitted ideas related to teacher housing.

The companies were a mix of local and national. A few proposed turning the empty schools into apartments or townhomes. Others wanted to build new housing on the fields around them.

One Denver-based developer submitted an idea to move the tennis courts at North High School to a nearby park and build a four-story apartment building in their place, with 30% of the apartments reserved for educators.

Two companies offered to help teachers save for down payments to buy a house. Another developer that’s already building affordable housing in Denver proposed setting aside some of its apartments for teachers and offering them a month of free rent.

Those solutions are similar to ones DPS has already tried. The district has in the past partnered with an organization that helps teachers with down payments. And 26 DPS educators have gotten free rent in the past two years due to agreements with local developers, according to the Denver Public Schools Foundation, which brokered the giveaways.

DPS is now working with one of the companies that responded, Adaptive Commons, to develop a teacher housing strategy and issue one or more requests for proposals, Huber said.

Community centers were a popular response to earlier request

Last year’s requests for information also influenced the district’s strategy for the Harrington building, which DPS wants to turn into a community center, Huber said.

In response to the request seeking “innovative proposals” for the empty schools, six organizations submitted ideas for community centers, the records show. The details varied, with one organization focusing on mental and physical health for the Black community, while another focused on the arts. Two proposals promised intergenerational programming.

The Denver Public Schools Foundation, which raises money for the district, said it has since withdrawn its idea for a multi-use event space at Harrington. A foundation spokesperson said the proposal is “not a fit for our organization’s current capacity.”

But other organizations said they’re still in talks with DPS and eager for the process to continue.

Young Aspiring Americans for Social & Political Activism, or YAASPA, proposed replicating a project it did in Aurora, where it won a contract from the school district to turn shuttered Paris Elementary into the ABC Community Hub, which hosts several youth-serving organizations.

Even Denver school board members have floated ideas for the shuttered buildings.

At a meeting last month, member John Youngquist brought up transforming part of Harrington into a space for school board meetings. The meetings are currently held in a small conference room at DPS headquarters, and some members are worried that the size constraint is discouraging people from showing up to give public comments. Superintendent Alex Marrero said the district would calculate a cost estimate.

Albion SC Denver, a soccer club founded in north Denver, proposed turning the former Remington Elementary into an indoor and outdoor sports complex with turf fields, a full gym, a cafeteria, and free access for youth until 4 p.m.

“I’m a big believer that every kid deserves an opportunity,” said Maribelia Avalos, the club’s founding director. “It doesn’t matter the circumstances of their life.”

Three other proposals came from schools.

The French American School of Denver, a charter elementary that offers French immersion, proposed moving to the Harrington building. Rocky Mountain Prep, a charter network with 12 schools in Denver, asked to expand its preschool offerings by moving into Columbian and Schmitt. And the nonprofit organization that helps run Florence Crittenton High School for teen mothers proposed relocating the district-run school to the Fairview building.

DPS is conducting due diligence on the ideas submitted for Remington and Fairview, Huber said. The district is still vetting ideas for the reuse of Schmitt, he said.

DPS is losing students due to lower birth rates and higher housing costs that push families out of the city. The school board closed or shrunk 10 small schools last year, five of which were in standalone buildings. DPS has already repurposed two of them.

The former Palmer Elementary is now a preschool. The former Castro Elementary is the new home of Summit Academy, a dropout prevention school run by the district.

Clarification, March 3: This story has been updated to reflect that Rocky Mountain Prep proposed expanding its preschool offerings by moving into two vacant buildings, spreading its 12 schools across 14 sites.

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

Schools should be ‘protected spaces’ from ICE activity, Denver mayor says in new executive order

2026-02-27T01:50:35+00:00

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As part of a wide-ranging executive order Thursday aimed at shielding Denver from a federal immigration enforcement surge, Mayor Mike Johnston emphasized that public schools should be “protected spaces” alongside churches, libraries, courthouses, and other public buildings.

“We’ve seen communities terrorized, we’ve seen schoolchildren taken, we’ve seen Americans like Renee Good and Alex Pretti killed for peacefully raising their voices,” Johnston said at a news conference, referencing two people shot in Minnesota by federal agents. “And Denverites ask me every day, ‘What will we do if that chaos comes to Denver?’”

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero and school board member Marlene De La Rosa stood behind Johnston at the news conference. A district spokesperson declined to comment on the executive order. So did school board President Xóchitl Gaytán.

De La Rosa said she attended to hear what Johnston had to say because the school board is considering adopting its own policy that would bar federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from school property without a valid warrant, among other actions. The board is set to discuss the policy at its March 5 meeting.

“We want to take a deeper look into what this executive order is and how it impacts our schools and our students,” De La Rosa said.

Denver Public Schools has long been vocal in its support of immigrant students. DPS already directs its employees to forward any requests from ICE to the district’s attorney. A policy put in place by the superintendent says the attorney won’t allow ICE on district property “unless required by law” and “will do everything in the District’s lawful power” to protect students’ rights.

The policy under consideration by the board would strengthen that commitment.

“The desire is to possibly codify it in policy in a public way so we can take an official stance,” Marrero said at a board meeting last week.

The district sued the Trump administration a year ago to try to reinstate a federal policy that treated schools as sensitive locations that were generally off limits to immigration enforcement. It dropped the lawsuit in June after a judge found there was little practical difference between that policy and Trump administration guidance for ICE agents to use discretion.

Schools were only briefly mentioned in Johnston’s executive order. The order directs Denver police to protect peaceful protestors, use their body-worn cameras to document the activity of federal immigration agents, and provide aid to anyone harmed by them.

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

Denver promised to expand and diversify its elite public arts school. It hasn’t happened yet.

2026-02-11T23:05:42+00:00

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Tenth graders in tights, cravats, and lacy breeches performed Moliére on a recent weeknight, reciting long soliloquies full of words like “repast,” “jest,” and “impertinent wretch.” An audience of their parents and peers roared with laughter at the play from 1668. If any of the teenage actors forgot a line or missed a mark, it was impossible to tell.

The actors were students at Denver School of the Arts, one of the most prestigious public conservatory arts schools in the country. The school, which serves grades 6 through 12, has a stellar reputation, sky-high test scores, and hundreds of applicants each year. It also has a problem that it’s been trying to solve since its founding 35 years ago: DSA is not very diverse.

A bold move in 2021 was supposed to change that storyline: The $30 million purchase of neighboring property that would allow DSA to grow from 1,100 students to 1,700.

Expanding access for low-income students and students of color was core to the vision. That meant deemphasizing auditions that favor students who can afford costly private lessons and creating a separate admissions track for talented students without formal training. A skeptical school board insisted on detailed plans and annual progress reports.

Almost five years later, the expansion has been scaled back and key initiatives to diversify the classrooms and stages of DSA haven’t come to fruition. All of the sophomores starring in the centuries-old French comedy had to audition for their spots at the school. So did students in DSA’s 10 other majors, including dance, orchestra, and visual arts.

The school has grown a bit more diverse in recent years: 38% of DSA students are students of color this year, up from 31% in 2020, and the share of students who qualify for subsidized school meals, a poverty indicator, increased from 11% to 14% in that period, state data shows.

Orchestra director Enrique Lasansky conducts a class on Denver School of the Arts’ south campus.

But DSA’s enrollment has been shrinking, not growing. And in a school district that prizes equity, its demographics are still wildly out of proportion to Denver Public Schools as a whole, where most students are students of color and the majority come from low-income families.

District leaders say they’re still committed to the original vision of a bigger, more diverse DSA and are partnering with a rapper and record producer on a program that would be housed on the newer property. But a lack of funding for renovations that ballooned in cost paired with turnover on the school board, in the superintendent’s office, and at DSA itself have contributed to a retreat from a grander plan that some thought was too ambitious from the start.

“I wish we had paused on such a large purchase,” former board member Scott Baldermann said in a recent interview. “We put the cart before the horse at the time.”

Denver’s version of New York City’s ‘Fame’ school

Students and parents have described DSA as the best school in the city, a private-school-caliber education in a public setting, a welcoming safe haven, and “like a family.”

“This place has altered the course of my life in ways I could have never predicted,” student Camilo Ayadi told the Denver school board in 2024. “A place that accepted a little Arab Latino fifth grader from the southwest part of Denver who just liked to sing and turned him into a national singing champion.”

DSA opened in 1991 as a 200-student magnet program inside Cole Middle School. It was modeled after the New York City performing arts school popularized by the 1980 movie “Fame.”

Concerns about demographics were always part of DSA. That very first year, so few Hispanic students auditioned that DSA held two extra tryouts just for them, news stories said.

“Part of the problem may have been that the initial application process was a little scary to some young Hispanics,” painter and sculptor Emanuel Martinez told The Denver Post at the time. “They may not have had the track record that some of the other kids had.”

In 1998, the district bought a former fine arts center in South Park Hill to be DSA’s new home. But questions remained about the school’s diversity. School board member James Mejía called for a task force in 2002 to examine why DSA’s student body was nearly three-quarters white when three-quarters of DPS students were students of color, according to news reports.

“It’s not that they don’t get in,” the principal at the time said. “It’s that they don’t apply.”

In 2007, three 13-year-old students practiced their lines in a hallway at DSA for a play they produced based on the theme "triumph and tragedy."

DSA’s new, bigger campus — with the black-box theater where the students performed Moliére — opened in 2003 after a $30 million investment by DPS. To satisfy the school board’s diversity concerns, DSA had its students perform at elementary schools to drum up interest, offered school tours, and spent $12,000 to bus students from poorer neighborhoods to auditions. It worked: More than half of the incoming sixth graders that year were students of color.

The diversity gains didn’t last. And for that reason, the school board said no to repeated proposals to expand DSA over the years. But a new opportunity arose in 2021.

A big property for Denver School of the Arts, and grand promises

That year, DSA Executive Principal Anthony McWright noticed the property across the street was for sale. The district set its sights on four buildings on the former Johnson & Wales University campus: three academic spaces and a 1960s-era chapel with stained glass windows.

McWright’s ideas included remodeling the chapel as a performance space, transforming offices into science labs, and turning lecture halls into band and orchestra rooms. An outdoor amphitheater would be perfect for performing Shakespeare in the park, McWright said.

At $30 million, the deal was a steal, district officials said. Denver voters had recently passed a $795 million bond — and while it didn’t include $30 million for DSA, the district proposed paying for the property with bond premium dollars, or extra cash generated from the bond sales.

Students were excited.

“It was a big thing for us to go to a whole new campus,” said Ashley Olson, now a junior at DSA.

Tamara Acevedo, then the deputy superintendent of academics, told the school board in 2021 that the project had two goals: to increase access to DSA for all students “with a particular focus on our low-income students and our students of color,” and to build a year-round community arts hub that could host city-wide band concerts and summer art camps.

To increase access, DSA would adopt an audition-free acceptance model for talented middle school students who hadn’t had specialized training. The plan called for expanding enrollment by 600 students: 175 at the middle school and 425 at the high school.

Junior Ari Cohen, 17, lifts a "flat," a scenic piece used in stage productions, during a stagecraft and design class earlier this month.

The board was both excited and skeptical. Some members asked for “more teeth” to the district’s promises and tangible diversity targets. A resolution the board passed in May cited the audition-free pathway, directed the superintendent to create “a detailed implementation plan,” and required the district to produce an annual report on its progress for the board.

District officials seemed eager to comply.

“You’re absolutely, 100% right,” Acevedo said at the time. “This will afford a great opportunity. That opportunity will only be great if it actually realizes those goals.”

Nearly five years later, the promises made in the resolution haven’t been kept.

Acevedo no longer works for DPS and declined to comment because she left shortly after the purchase. Other former top officials who were involved in the plan also declined to comment.

McWright left DSA at the end of last school year after students and parents publicly complained that his administration was absent and unresponsive. He did not respond to requests for comment. McWright is now principal at Responsive Arts and STEAM Academy, a DPS elementary school. District officials said they asked McWright to take the new position.

Three other administrators left DSA, too. None of them agreed to be interviewed.

The superintendent in 2021 was an interim leader who left when current Superintendent Alex Marrero started two months later. The entire school board has turned over, too. And a change in the board’s governance structure means that old resolutions are essentially null and void.

In 2022, when the district asked for more money for the renovations, some board members said they felt like they had to say yes. Scott Esserman, who was elected after DPS bought the property, called the purchase a short-sighted investment that would “feel like an albatross around our neck” if the district didn’t move forward.

Baldermann said he was disappointed that DPS wasn’t making the arts more of a priority districtwide. Auon’tai Anderson said he worried that the vision for diversifying DSA depended too heavily on McWright — and that if he were to leave DSA, the vision would be gone too.

Freshman Rachel Tang, 14, practices piano while wearing headphones in a high school piano class on Denver School of the Arts’ south campus.

Help Denver School of the Arts or the rest of the district?

DPS broke ground on the renovations in March 2023. Although officials once described the four buildings as “turnkey,” unforeseen problems and pandemic-era price increases meant it cost $22.5 million to bring just one of them up to the stricter safety code for K-12 schools, according to a district spokesperson. That’s as much as quadruple the $5 million to $10 million that district officials initially estimated it could cost to fund the entire project.

In 2024, the district proposed asking Denver voters for $18.2 million more for “phase 2.” But a community advisory board that makes recommendations on spending bond dollars said no.

Alejandra “Ale” Spray, the CEO and president of the Hispanic Contractors of Colorado, was among those who considered DSA’s request. She said by email that the rejection was partly due to DSA’s low “equity index” score, which is based on demographics and need. She also noted that while the bond is funded by Denver taxpayers, many DSA students are from outside Denver.

“The choice we had was to give them that money to add seats … or to spread that money across” other schools, Spray wrote. “I guess long and short, there was only so much money so we wanted to make sure the money got spent to benefit more kids.”

In early 2025, the district sent a letter to DSA families declaring that the construction on the expansion, dubbed DSA South, was complete. The letter listed improvements to just one of the four buildings, including a new art gallery, the creation or modernization of 23 classrooms, and updates to electrical and safety systems.

DSA parents had questions.

“Without additional budget and a clear commitment, the goals of the original expansion plan remain unmet, leaving the DSA community with buildings that are not fully usable and enrollment that has not yet expanded to increase access for low-income students and improve diversity,” Kara Penn and Lisa Davis, co-chairs of a parent-teacher committee at DSA, wrote to district officials.

Penn and Davis told Chalkbeat that they wrote that email because they were at a loss. DSA had laid off staff because enrollment was declining. When parents asked why, DSA administrators didn’t have answers, Penn and Davis said.

“They’d say, ‘We don’t know why. Go ask the district,’” said Davis, whose child is now in eighth grade at DSA. The answer from the district? A lack of money for the physical expansion.

Deronn Turner, who had three children graduate from DSA and is still involved in the school, said DSA’s elite reputation likely played a role in the decision not to fund it.

“The district, they want to help,” Turner said, “but at the same time … they get caught up in thinking that the only kids that go there are rich, white, elite kids.

“Granted, there is some of that,” she said. “But I also know that there are some incredibly talented kids that do incredibly well — and they don’t have the means to have a house here in Denver and a house up in the mountains somewhere.”

Senior Kayla Cudennec, 17, center, discusses a journal entry with dance co-directors Chloé-Grant Abel, left, and Terrell Davis, right, at the beginning of a class.

A new path for diversifying Denver School of the Arts

Without more voter-approved bond money to finish the renovations, DSA had to pivot.

The hopes to expand and diversify the school now rest largely on a new program called the Iovine and Young Center for Innovation that was co-founded by Andre “Dr. Dre” Young and record executive Jimmy Iovine. Starting next fall, students at DSA and Manual High School will be able to take classes that blend design, technology, business, and the arts.

But the district doesn’t yet have all the money to pay for that program, either. The Denver Public Schools Foundation, which raises money for the entire district, is helping fundraise for it. Spokesperson Ashley Muramoto said the foundation is “in the early stages of this initiative, working closely with the district to assess specific needs” and doesn’t have an estimated cost.

A student plays piano at Denver School of the Arts.

Andy Mountain, a DSA parent leader, said the idea to bring the Iovine and Young programming to DSA came from the school community itself. The district’s response was “tremendous and refreshing,” he said, and reinvigorated DSA’s stalled progress.

“The opportunity presented by Iovine and Young as a springboard for additional fundraising and funding for DSA South really is a jolt of energy for the school,” said Mountain, who chairs the DSA Friends Foundation, which raises as much as $500,000 each year to pay for visiting artists and private lessons but won’t be helping with the Iovine and Young program

The district hopes to house the new programming in one of the three empty buildings, officials said. The other two buildings won’t primarily be used by DSA. One will be a satellite location for a district-run technical college and the other will once again become a church.

The district has lowered its expansion ambitions, too. The new plan calls for DSA to grow to 1,400 students by 2030 instead of 1,700, said Melissa Boyd, DPS’ executive director of secondary schools. And auditions are staying for now.

“Auditions in itself aren’t necessarily a bad thing,” Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith said.

Smith said eliminating or reducing the emphasis on auditions wouldn’t necessarily improve diversity, noting that practice requirements and additional costs to families also are barriers.

“There’s a milieu of things that you could go through that really open the door,” Smith said, “and what we’re really challenging [the new principal] to explore is, ‘What does equity look like?’ Because the outcome is going to be a more diverse DSA. The inputs could be varied.”

The new principal, Brian Cochran, was hired permanently in December. He said he believes in the vision. But his ideas are more modest. In addition to the Iovine and Young program, he’s looking at reworking the school’s schedule to allow for more classes, better advertising, and advocating for additional bus transportation for students. Some DSA buses were cut in 2023, in part because the school had few low-income students.

Parents have been receptive — and relieved at what feels like momentum.

“All those puzzle pieces … have started to really fall into place to say, ‘Yes, we are moving forward with this goal of expansion,’” Davis said. “It may not look the same that it did when the board adopted it in ‘21. The vision is still there, but the details of it do look a little different.”

Davis and Penn, whose daughter is in 10th grade, are helping organize a meeting Thursday to offer tours of DSA South and update families on the expansion plan, which some said is overdue.

“To us, this is a culmination of effort and a show of faith,” Penn said. “It’s not perfect right now, but it is definitely in the right direction.”

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

Denver school board could consider policy to protect students and staff from immigration enforcement

2026-02-06T04:44:18+00:00

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Denver teachers would be prohibited from cooperating with federal immigration agents without a warrant, and school police officers would be barred from ticketing or arresting students if it would put the students at risk of deportation under a policy the Denver school board could discuss later this month.

A draft of the proposed policy was posted online Thursday before the school board’s late afternoon meeting. But the board didn’t discuss it, and the proposal wasn’t formally introduced.

The idea for the policy came from Latino community groups whom board President Xóchitl Gaytán said feel “a sense of urgency” as immigration enforcement activity has ramped up nationwide.

“All district-managed and charter school properties, including school buildings, grounds, bus stops, school transportation, and school-sponsored events, are designated as Safe Zones and Sensitive Locations for students, families, and employees,” the proposal says.

Gaytán wanted to add a special public comment session to Thursday’s meeting to allow two advocacy groups — Movimiento Poder and the Latino Education Coalition — to speak about the proposal, which she said they helped write.

But other board members said they hadn’t had a chance to read the policy, since it was only posted earlier that day. All six members besides Gaytán voted against holding the special public comment session. As such, Gaytán said the board couldn’t discuss the proposal Thursday. She implied it would happen at the board’s next meeting on Feb. 19.

The proposal says the superintendent and all employees of Denver Public Schools’ district-run schools and independently run charter schools should:

Not give federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “access to property, records, or video recordings without a valid judicial warrant signed by a federal judge.”
Not allow students to be questioned, detained, or removed from school custody by federal agents without a warrant and a review by the school district’s attorney.
Not comply with ICE detainer requests.
Not collect or disclose information about the immigration status of students, families, or employees unless it is required by a court order or by state or federal law.
Not allow school resource officers “to consult, communicate, or share student or family information” with federal agents or police officers not assigned to a school.
Not allow school resource officers to ticket or arrest a student “if the ticket or arrest would put a DPS student at risk of deportation.”
Help staff who have legal protections under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, navigate “potential legal, employment, and immigration challenges” if DACA is rescinded.

DPS has long been vocal in its support of immigrant students. The district sued the Trump administration a year ago in an attempt to reinstate a policy that treated schools as sensitive locations that were generally off limits to immigration enforcement.

DPS dropped the lawsuit in June after a judge found that there was little practical difference between the previous sensitive locations policy and the Trump administration’s changes, which directed agents to to use discretion “and a healthy dose of common sense.”

But lately, federal agents’ tactics have intensified across the country. While there have not been raids in schools, parents have reportedly been detained at bus stops and agents have reportedly tackled people and deployed chemical irritants on school grounds.

The proposal would be an addition to an existing policy about student conduct, discipline, and attendance called Executive Limitation 10. Executive limitations are essentially rules for the superintendent, who answers to the school board.

In voting against the special public comment session, board member John Youngquist said he respected the work of the community groups, but that introducing policies in that way wasn’t the board’s normal practice. Member Kimberlee Sia said that if the board was going to hold a special session, it should have been advertised before the meeting. Others agreed.

“My personal goal is to ensure that transparency is at the center,” board Vice President Monica Hunter said. “I fully support the mission of Movimiento (Poder) and I want to be able to honor their work and get a chance to review the materials.”

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

‘People shouldn’t live in fear’: Denver students and teachers protest Trump immigration actions

2026-01-31T00:26:10+00:00

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As hundreds of Denver students and teachers marched around the Colorado Capitol Friday in a crowd the length of several city blocks, two words dominated the protest. They were written in marker on signs, printed on T-shirts and flags, and shouted through bullhorns.

“F--- ICE!”

A construction worker in a neon vest stood in the back of a flatbed truck on Denver’s 16th Street Mall, filming on his phone. When the chant died down, he hollered, “Don’t get quiet now!”

“F--- ICE!” the students shouted again with renewed vigor, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Some Denver Public Schools students and 1,136 of the district’s approximately 5,000 teachers didn’t go to school Friday, a district spokesperson said, on a day of nationwide protests against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions. The “National Shutdown” was sparked by an immigration crackdown in Minnesota, where federal agents have made thousands of arrests and shot and killed two people.

More than 1,000 Denver teachers called out of work on Friday, with some joining students to protest recent actions by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Two metro area school districts — Aurora Public Schools and the Commerce City-based Adams 14 — canceled school Friday due to staff absences. Denver schools were open, but the start of classes was delayed by two hours at a half-dozen schools. The district also canceled preschool classes and center-based programs for students with disabilities.

Jay Morin, a math teacher at East High School, didn’t go to work Friday. But his wife did. She teaches at an elementary school that serves a lot of immigrant students, he said.

“Her job, and what she can do, is to be a comfort for those kids and for their families,” Morin said, marching alongside his teenage son. “All of our teachers care about our kids, especially our most vulnerable families, and we’re all going to show up in our own ways. But make no mistake about it — we’re all going to show up.”

Isa, a senior at East High, said he was protesting because his family is from Central America. Chalkbeat is not using students’ last names to protect their privacy.

“I felt so affected seeing my own people being taken away,” Isa said. He said his family’s struggles and hard work allowed him to stay in school, and he felt called “to use my privilege to speak out for the people that can’t speak out.”

Enzo and Haleakala, eighth graders from DSST: Montview middle school, marched while wearing matching anti-ICE T-shirts that Haleakala’s mother made.

“Recently, they’ve been taking … Native people, and it’s technically our land,” said Haleakala, who is Taos Pueblo and Lakota. “America was built off of immigrants. And also it’s very unfair how they’re killing everybody even though they’re U.S. citizens. In all reality, ICE agents don’t need to take this violence to our streets, to our homes. People shouldn’t live in fear.”

Friday's protest featured hand-lettered signs and chants of "This is what democracy looks like!"

Students and teachers held handmade signs with slogans including, “Your Borders Don’t Trump Human Rights,” “Colorado (heart) Minnesota,” and “Deport Melania Trump.” A dog wore a sandwich board-style poster that read, “Better Trained Than Most ICE Agents.”

Office workers whizzed by on downtown Denver’s ubiquitous electric scooters and shouted their encouragement. Police officers blocked the route. When a few of the students gave two motorcycle officers a friendly wave, the officers nodded back.

Kristen Hodel marched with her son Noah, a sophomore at George Washington High.

“I’m just 54 and on board and crying my heart out,” Hodel said as the high schoolers all around her chanted, “This is what democracy looks like!”

“I’m here because I love my school,” Noah said. “GW is my home. And we have a huge immigrant population. … I’m here because immigrants make America great.”

An East High chemistry teacher in a red Denver Classroom Teachers Association T-shirt walked with a colleague toward the back of the protest. The teacher said they didn’t want to give their name because of how East High has already been targeted by the Trump administration, which investigated the school’s all-gender restroom and concluded that it violates federal law.

Just as the teacher began to talk about why they called out of work, a man sitting near a bus stop yelled, “F--- all the immigrants! Get them out of here!”

“That,” the teacher’s colleague said. “That is why we’re out here.”

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

Appeal dismissed in wrongful death lawsuit related to fatal shooting outside of Denver’s East High

2026-01-24T00:20:23+00:00

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The family of a 16-year-old student who was shot and killed outside Denver’s East High School in 2023 has dropped a wrongful death lawsuit against Denver Public Schools.

The Colorado Court of Appeals dismissed the lawsuit Friday, a court order shows. DPS and the student’s family agreed to the dismissal, according to court documents. The documents do not give a reason. Each side will pay its own legal fees, the documents say.

An attorney for the family said he could not comment Friday. Denver Public Schools said in a statement that the district remains saddened by the death of the student, Luis Garcia.

“We respect the judicial process and the court’s decision to dismiss the appeal, marking the conclusion of this legal matter,” the school district’s statement said.

No one has been charged in connection with Luis’ death. The Denver Police Department said Friday that there are no updates in the case.

In their lawsuit, Luis’ family alleged that a juvenile male, identified only by a pseudonym, shot and killed Luis. The lawsuit alleged the juvenile male stole a white Kia Sportage, ran a red light near East High, drove the Kia “on a direct path straight to Luis,” and opened fire.

Luis was a junior at East and a talented player on the varsity soccer team when he was shot in February 2023 after dropping his cousin off at the school. Luis died of his injuries about two weeks later. His family sued DPS, East High, and the Denver school board in 2024.

They alleged that DPS “subverted and weakened” the security at East after the school board removed armed police officers from DPS schools in 2020, which the family said allowed “potential shooters to believe they would be able to execute an attack.”

Under a state law known as the Claire Davis School Safety Act, districts can be held liable for acts of violence at school if they fail to exercise “reasonable care” to protect students and staff.

But in 2025, a Denver District Court judge ruled that DPS was not liable for Luis’ death because his car was parked on a public street when he was shot.

Luis’ car was parked “where City Park Esplanade intersects East 17th Avenue, where both roads are used for the purpose of public transportation,” Judge Kandace C. Gerdes wrote. “The Court is not persuaded that these roads are ‘within the school facilities’ of East’s Property.”

Luis’ family appealed the ruling but has now agreed to dismiss that appeal.

DPS returned school resource officers to its schools in 2023 after Luis’ death and a separate shooting inside East High a month later. Two former East deans who were injured in that shooting are suing DPS as well. Those lawsuits are ongoing.

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

Denver school board approves expanding Monarch Montessori dual language charter school

2026-01-23T16:05:28+00:00

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The Denver school board approved an expansion of a charter school Thursday after Superintendent Alex Marrero changed his mind about opposing it.

The board vote was unanimous. Board members didn’t discuss the approval before voting.

Marrero had initially recommended that the board reject Monarch Montessori’s request to add sixth, seventh, and eighth grades to its elementary school in far northeast Denver. He said the school’s plans to build and pay for a new middle school weren’t sound enough.

But Marrero reversed course and recommended Thursday that the board approve the expansion as long as Monarch meets certain deadlines.

For instance, the school must have its construction documents finalized and its financing secured by November, according to a resolution the board approved Thursday. Monarch must also show that its student test scores are improving. The expansion will be delayed by a year if any one of those things doesn’t happen, the resolution says.

Charter schools face increasingly inhospitable conditions in Denver. Enrollment in Denver Public Schools is declining, and many schools of all types are shrinking. The political climate isn’t as friendly to charter schools as it once was. A majority of the school board members were backed by the Denver teachers union, which has been critical of charter schools. And Marrero has supported closing charter schools with low test scores.

Monarch earned a middle-tier state rating this year, signified by the color yellow. The school offers a dual language Montessori education unlike anything else in far northeast Denver.

School leaders said parents have been asking Monarch to expand to give its 280 elementary students the same opportunity to continue with Montessori that students have on the opposite side of Denver, where there is a Montessori middle and high school.

Far northeast Denver is the one area of the city where the student population is expected to grow as developers build houses on some of the last vacant land in Denver. The district’s enrollment analysis says it will need more middle school seats there by 2029. Monarch’s proposal would add sixth grade in 2027, seventh grade in 2028, and eighth grade in 2029.

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

Denver’s Lincoln H.S. improves state rating amid immigration enforcement fears, other challenges

2026-01-21T20:05:44+00:00

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Abraham Lincoln High School needed to track down 13 graduates.

That’s how many it would take to boost the southwest Denver school’s rating to a middle-tier yellow grade after years at the bottom. If Lincoln could prove to the Colorado Department of Education that at least 13 more graduates were enrolled in college, career training, or the military, the school could earn enough rating points to take a step toward exiting the state’s watchlist for low performance — a feat it hadn’t accomplished in more than a decade.

“It has always been a struggle for our school to (be) a place where the community is proud of, in terms of academic achievement,” said Principal Néstor Bravo. “I want to work really hard on making Lincoln a positive point of reference for the southwest.”

Lincoln has been on Colorado’s watchlist for low performance longer than any school in Denver. Located in a largely Hispanic, working-class neighborhood, Lincoln has a vibrant history, display cases full of athletic trophies, and notable alumni including Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova and Denver school board President Xóchitl Gaytán.

But enrollment has fallen from 1,900 students a decade and a half ago to about 830 students today. Lincoln has struggled academically for at least as long. And recent immigration enforcement actions by the Trump administration have made matters worse.

In the four days after President Donald Trump was inaugurated last January, Lincoln lost 100 students, many of them new immigrants from Venezuela and other countries, Bravo said.

“They disappeared,” Bravo said. “We couldn’t find a trace of them. They just didn’t show up.”

And attendance is spotty for many of the students who remain. More than 6 in 10 Lincoln students were chronically absent last school year, meaning they missed 10% or more of their school days. Bravo said it doesn’t help that federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents regularly park their vehicles at the car wash across the street and at a strip mall where students walk to buy lunch, though he said he hasn’t seen them this month.

As far as he knows, none of his students or their family members have been arrested by ICE, Bravo said. But as a Venezuelan immigrant himself who came to Denver to get a graduate degree and was hired to teach Advanced Placement Spanish classes at Lincoln before becoming a principal, Bravo said he understands the fear.

“They are gambling with their future in a sense,” Bravo said. “If I stay in school, if I keep coming here, I might be captured or they’re going to take me, so what am I going to do?

“The most important thing is to give kids a reason to be here and feel safe,” he said.

How Abraham Lincoln H.S. improved academic growth

Even under those difficult circumstances, Lincoln made academic progress. While the percentage of students meeting the state’s bar on PSAT and SAT tests remained low, Lincoln’s academic growth — a measure of how much students improved year over year — was the highest it’s been since before the pandemic.

Bravo credits a series of changes he made when he became principal last school year. They include twice-weekly SAT prep classes using the online platform Khan Academy, which has an AI assistant that can chat with students in Spanish.

He also prioritized improving the way teachers deliver their lessons, both by cutting administrators without that skillset and training teachers in a method meant to get students collaborating and talking in class, which he said can be intimidating for English learners.

“As a second language learner myself, if I don’t have to talk, I won’t,” said Bravo, who said he spoke Spanish and Portuguese, but not as much English, when he took a teaching job at Lincoln more than 15 years ago.

“We have a high percentage of multilingual learners,” he said. “We have kids who need to practice English, who need to speak in their native language, so let’s get them to talk.”

Students and staff at Abraham Lincoln High School talk to each other about ways they can stay on track academically this semester at a celebration of the school's "yellow" state rating.

Bravo is trying to improve the culture at Lincoln, too. A competitive athlete, Bravo warms up with the soccer team and shoots arrows with JROTC students at the school’s indoor range. He added big screen TVs to the main hallway to broadcast the students’ achievements, such as the boys baseball team winning the city league championship last spring. Posters advertising Lincoln’s upcoming school play, “Shrek the Musical,” hang near the TVs.

Last Friday, the school celebrated its academic progress. Staff decorated the gymnasium with yellow streamers. Bravo gave a pep talk. Guitar students played a cover of Radiohead’s “Creep.” The robotics team, wearing matching sweatshirts, showed off a robot. And students who had earned all A’s and B’s in the first semester were called up to get awards.

“I used to not really focus on my grades at all,” a senior named Gabe said, taking the microphone and addressing his fellow students sitting in the bleachers. “I used to try to just get past high school, you know? But that limited my opportunities.

“I would say just try your hardest, even if you don’t know what you’re going to do after high school, just so you have opportunities,” Gabe said. “Just don’t close any doors.”

Moving from orange to yellow

The data shows that more Lincoln students are following that advice. When the Colorado Department of Education released its preliminary school ratings this fall, Lincoln had earned the second-lowest rating, signified by the color orange.

But Bravo suspected he could get Lincoln’s score up to yellow. High schools are rated based on their PSAT and SAT scores, graduation rates, and how many of their students go on to college, the military, or a career training program.

It was in that last category where Bravo knew Lincoln could move the needle. The state’s data seemed incomplete, he said. Lincoln staff and the advisers who work at the Denver Scholarship Foundation’s in-house college and career planning center at Lincoln knew anecdotally of more graduates who had continued their education.

So the staff began contacting former students one by one to collect the proof they’d need, like a college class schedule, to show state officials that the graduates had matriculated. In some cases, it became a game of social media telephone: They could see that one graduate was connected with another who had gone to a small community college in the mountains. Could that graduate get in touch with their friend and tell them to call the staff at Lincoln?

In the end, Lincoln staff found more than the 13 students they needed to bump up the school’s rating. And the state officially upgraded Lincoln’s rating to yellow in December.

Now Bravo is focused on keeping it there, even in this challenging time.

“I was very proud to see that last year, we were able to show that we can grow,” Bravo said. “It’s overwhelming for a public school with the limited resources we have, trying to address a societal friction, where people have strong opinions about what to do or what not to do with immigrants.

“But we don’t back down.”

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

Some Denver school board members say they want to reconsider limits on public comment

2026-01-16T19:16:01+00:00

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Teacher Dez Baldonado began her remarks with an apology.

“First, allow me to apologize for speaking this rapidly,” she told the Denver school board at its meeting last week, leaning into the microphone so close that the board members could hear her gasp for breath between every sentence. “However, the limit of two minutes to address you makes it necessary, in order to share everything I would like.”

It’s been more than two years since the Denver school board put time limits on public comment at its meetings. The goal was to curtail the marathon sessions that occasionally lasted until midnight or later, when more than 100 people would sign up to speak about a controversial topic.

But now some board members are questioning whether the limits have shortened public comment too much. Board Vice President Monica Hunter, a former Denver teacher who was elected in November, said at last week’s meeting that she’d like to reconsider the time limits. Several other board members signaled that they agreed.

“People are just not signing up for public comment,” board member Kimberlee Sia said. “I think there’s this perceived notion that they’re not going to get on the list.”

Baldonado, who teaches science at Morey Middle School, was at last week’s board meeting to talk about health insurance for teachers. But she also said the board’s public comment policy “erodes whatever trust the community has that DPS wants to listen to its diverse community.”

Far fewer people sign up to speak

The Denver school board has long been criticized for not listening to the public, and most board candidates say they want to improve community engagement. At a forum this fall, no candidate said they agreed with the public comment limits — not even the incumbents who’d voted to put the rules in place.

By Chalkbeat’s count, the number of people who signed up to speak during the board’s regular monthly public comment sessions dropped drastically after limits were put in place.

In 2022, before the limits, 653 people signed up for the 11 meetings. (The board meets every month except July.) In 2025, after the limits, the total was 145, a 77% decrease. Those counts don’t include the special public comment sessions the board occasionally holds on topics such as school closures or charter school renewals.

The board first curtailed public comment in September 2023 under then-board President Xóchitl Gaytán, who enacted a two-hour limit for the comment period. Gaytán said it was a “temporary solution” that would stay in place until the board agreed on new rules.

“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 in 2023. The two-hour cap was meant to respect the time of board members and district staff, she said.

After that, the number of speaker signups began to decrease, from 510 in 2023 to 339 in 2024, by Chalkbeat’s count.

In December 2024, the board voted to adopt new public comment rules. Instead of a blanket two-hour limit, the new rules restrict public comment based on topic. The board allows 30 minutes of comment on each proposed policy or item on its agenda, plus 30 minutes of unrestricted comment in which speakers can talk about almost anything.

The new rules also shorten each speaker’s time from three minutes to two, and restrict who can comment: A speaker has to have “an established relationship” with Denver Public Schools, as a parent or teacher, for example.

The new rules went into effect in January 2025, and the number of speakers dropped even more. In January and again in June, just one person signed up for public comment.

Schedule and venue pose more hurdles

Rob Gould, president of the Denver teachers union, frequently speaks during the public comment period. He has sat through meetings that stretched into the wee hours. But he said the board has gone “from one extreme to the other, and it’s better to find something in the middle.”

Cody Ostenson, the director of external affairs for an advocacy group called Denver Families for Public Schools that sometimes disagrees with the union, agrees with Gould on this.

“What we’ve heard from families and folks we’ve worked with is it seems like there’s more confusion about what families can talk to the board about, given the topic restrictions,” Ostenson said, “and that two minutes isn’t enough time to express their views.”

Advocates said speakers are also confused about when to sign up. In 2022, the board held public comment at its monthly voting meeting on Thursdays. In 2023 and 2024, the board moved public comment to its Monday work sessions, three days before the voting meeting. In 2025, it was moved back to Thursdays but two weeks prior to the voting meeting.

And then there’s the size of the room. Public comment was previously held in a large gymnasium on the ground floor of DPS headquarters. The gymnasium is primarily used by a charter school that shares the building. On days when the board held its meetings, the district would set up a dais, a speaker podium, and rows of black padded chairs.

But for the past year, the board has held all of its meetings in a much smaller conference room on the seventh floor. When the room fills up, would-be attendees are directed to an overflow room upstairs, where the meeting is livestreamed on a big screen.

“There’s hardly any seats,” Gould said of the seventh-floor conference room. “It makes the board more inaccessible.”

DPS spokesperson Scott Pribble said by email that the meetings were relocated because the gymnasium is managed by the Downtown Denver Expeditionary School and “it didn’t seem right to move the afternoon PE classes and after school care” for the school board meetings.

The seventh-floor conference room also has a better technology setup that allows board members to attend meetings virtually if necessary, Pribble said.

Gaytán is once again president of the school board. And although she enacted the first round of public comment limits back in 2023, she indicated last week that she’s heard the complaints and is open to revisions. It’s not clear when the board will next discuss it.

“I appreciate us being open to having that discussion and seeing where we make some language changes,” she said.

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

Denver schools blocking students’ access to ChatGPT over concerns about group chats, adult content

2026-01-13T23:10:53+00:00

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Denver Public Schools announced that starting this week, it is blocking students’ access to ChatGPT on school-issued devices and the district’s Wi-Fi network because of concerns about the artificial intelligence chatbot’s new features.

Those features include the ability for users to start a 20-person group chat and the planned addition of adult content to ChatGPT. In an email to families Friday, a top district official said DPS worries the new content could “potentially facilitate harmful interactions and/or the creation of content related to self-harm, violence and bullying.” The 20-person chat feature could lead to cyberbullying and academic misconduct, among other concerns, the email said.

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the organization that created ChatGPT, said on X this past fall that the new version would allow “erotica for verified adults.”

DPS Chief Information Officer Richard Charles wrote in the email to families that it’s the district’s “responsibility to ensure students are only engaging with age-appropriate information and systems.”

Schools across the country have been grappling for years with how and when to use AI in the classroom. Some districts, including New York City Public Schools, initially blocked ChatGPT over concerns about student safety and learning before reversing course.

Denver Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith said DPS never explicitly approved the use of ChatGPT by its 89,000 students, and this latest announcement solidifies that position.

Instead, the district uses Google Gemini, which Smith said is more compatible with DPS’ monitoring system and data privacy rules. The district also uses MagicSchool, an education-specific AI tool created by a former Denver charter school principal that can help teachers create lessons or give students feedback on their writing.

“It’s not that we are scared of this technology or we’re trying to be behind the curve,” Smith said. “We’re trying to be strategic and thoughtful about the implementation of this technology.”

A district AI committee will meet later this month to discuss blocking ChatGPT for DPS staff as well, the email to families said.

One of the biggest pitfalls of AI, Smith said, is the potential for it to undermine students’ ability to think critically and express themselves in their own voice.

“We’re trying to make sure kids think and can access their skill sets and not ChatGPT,” he said.

Safety is another top concern. Smith said district officials have read about the ways in which AI can affect children’s mental health. Families in Colorado and other states have sued AI companies, alleging that their children committed suicide after developing relationships with chatbots.

DPS uses a digital tool called Lightspeed to monitor how students are using the internet, Smith said. But “we just can’t monitor everything,” he said. Given that, he said, district officials felt it was best to err on the side of safety.

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

Denver’s last innovation zone could shrink as 1 school nears return to district control

2026-01-09T03:28:52+00:00

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Denver Public Schools’ only remaining innovation zone could soon shrink.

Innovation zones are a reform-era invention that allow district-run schools to operate with charter-like autonomy. Schools in zones are overseen by nonprofit organizations with executive directors who take on a supervisory role instead of district administrators.

But the number of zones in Denver has dwindled in recent years from three to one as a school board majority backed by the Denver teachers union has reined in school autonomy.

Now the last remaining zone, called the Luminary Learning Network, appears poised to go from eight schools to seven next year when one of its schools, Ashley Elementary, reverts to district control. And an effort to keep eight schools in the zone may not have support from DPS leaders.

A presentation posted on the school board’s website earlier this week said Willow Elementary had requested to join the zone for next school year. But district officials were recommending the school board vote no, according to the presentation, which is no longer on the website.

Their reasoning, the presentation said, was that the addition of Willow would make the zone into a collection of “more affluent” schools, which would contradict the zone’s commitment to equity and the school board’s emphasis on representation.

Willow has withdrawn its application to join the zone, district spokesperson Scott Pribble said Thursday. But the district anticipates Willow will resubmit it in the near future, he said. Willow Principal Catrina Pazo did not respond to requests for comment.

The Luminary Learning Network was founded in 2016 by four schools that wanted more autonomy over how they spent their time and money and the freedom to try new ideas. The district has consistently renewed its contract with the zone every three years. The latest contract is now up for renewal, and the school board is expected to vote later this month.

District officials told the board Thursday that the decision for Ashley Elementary to return to district control next school year was a mutual one between Ashley and zone leaders.

Paige Neuharth, the district’s director of authorizing and accountability, also cited Ashley’s “current academic performance trajectory.” Ashley’s test scores have declined recently and the school earned a red rating this year, the lowest on the state’s color-coded scale.

“A transition to district management is viewed as the most effective way to prioritize instructional coherence and operational stability for the Ashley community,” a district spokesperson said.

Superintendent Alex Marrero has pushed for a more centralized approach to school improvement in the four and a half years that he has helmed DPS. That approach is a departure from past superintendents who used flexibility as an improvement strategy.

Bailey Holyfield, the zone’s executive director, said the renewal period was a chance to evaluate whether the zone’s schools were aligned with its theory of action that flexibility from district curriculum, training, and other mandates empowers educators and better serves students.

In an interview, Holyfield said that “it makes the most sense for Ashley to rejoin district management” at this time. She said the decision was made with “mutual respect for and care for Ashley,” and she noted that the zone is open to working with any school, regardless of its rating.

Ashley Elementary Principal Janet Estrada referred questions to Holyfield.

Willow Elementary has the state’s highest rating, signified by the color green. But district leaders had other concerns about Willow joining the zone, according to the now-removed presentation.

The students at the zone schools are already whiter and wealthier than the district as a whole, and while the students at Ashley are nearly all students of color, Willow is almost half white.

Replacing Ashley with Willow would drop the zone’s percentage of students of color from 59% to 56%, according to the presentation. That’s far below the districtwide percentage of 75%.

Willow was briefly part of another now-defunct innovation zone called the Northeast Denver Innovation Zone. Willow left that zone in 2021 before it dissolved in 2024. Another zone, Beacon Network Schools, was dissolved by the school board in 2023.

The board has rejected innovation zone expansion requests before, though never for the Luminary Learning Network, which has grown over the years.

It’s unclear when the board might vote on adding Willow to the zone. The board is scheduled to vote on renewing the Luminary Learning Network’s contract, without Ashley, on Jan. 22.

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

Denver to contract with outside company to provide in-house substitutes for high-needs schools

2025-12-20T00:08:55+00:00

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Denver Public Schools is taking a new approach to finding substitute teachers for some of its highest-needs schools. The district is contracting with an outside company called TeachStart that places teachers-in-training at schools to help cover classes.

TeachStart bills itself as an earn-while-you-learn opportunity for people who want to become teachers. TeachStart fellows, as they’re called, are paired with a school where they’re paid as an in-house substitute for a year while studying for their teacher licensure exam.

The idea is that once the year is up, the school district could hire them as full-time teachers. The Denver TeachStart fellows would work with the University of Colorado Denver’s ASPIRE to Teach alternative teacher preparation program, district officials said.

“It is our goal to make sure that we keep the best,” Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero told the school board Thursday night.

But some board members were skeptical. The board approved a two-year, $3.5 million contract with TeachStart in a 5-2 vote. Board Vice President Monica Hunter and member Amy Klein Molk voted no. Both were elected in November with backing from the Denver teachers union.

Hunter said in an interview that her hesitation was related to workers’ rights.

“My concern is expanding a program without having protections in place, not only for the subs and educators but for the schools,” said Hunter, a former DPS teacher who now works for the statewide teachers union, the Colorado Education Association.

Other board members were supportive, though they asked the district to shorten the length of the contract. District officials had originally proposed a five-year, $9.5 million contract.

“As a former principal and knowing how hard it is to find substitute teachers at school, through a program like this, it is the same person coming to the school,” said board member Kimberlee Sia. “They’re able to have a little more consistency with that person.”

Like many states, Colorado has a shortage of both full-time and substitute teachers. But finding substitutes is even harder at schools with low test scores, DPS officials said.

Twelve district-run DPS schools piloted TeachStart this fall with 14 fellows, district officials said. All 12 schools already get extra support and funding from the district to help them improve.

Nick Bucy, a district administrator who works with the schools, said the feedback from principals has been positive. All but one who responded to a district survey said TeachStart was worth the cost, according to a copy of the results provided to Chalkbeat.

TeachStart fellows cost $288 per day, or about $50,000 per year, which is higher than the $275-per-day rate for a regular substitute teacher, according to a board presentation. Most of that money comes out of the schools’ own budgets, district officials said.

Néstor Bravo, the principal of Abraham Lincoln High School in southwest Denver, said in an interview that the TeachStart fellow at his school started by filling in when teachers were absent but is now the long-term substitute for the school’s comprehensive health class.

“It is really hard to find subs,” Bravo said. “Finding subs that are also qualified to teach the content and stay committed to teaching the content is even harder.”

Even more schools have requested a TeachStart fellow for the upcoming semester. The district is still finalizing its plans but expects as many as 22 schools to participate, a DPS spokesperson said.

Next year, DPS hopes to expand the program to 35 fellows, district officials said. Nationwide, about half of TeachStart fellows stay on to become full-time teachers, Bucy said. About 70% of TeachStart fellows nationwide identify as people of color, though Bucy said only about a third of the initial cohort of Denver’s TeachStart fellows were people of color.

“We’re certainly pushing on TeachStart to recruit a more diverse pipeline,” Bucy said.

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

Enrollment drop of 1,200 students may lead to what Denver superintendent calls ‘operational shifts’

2025-12-19T03:51:13+00:00

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Enrollment in Denver Public Schools dropped by about 1,200 students this year as the arrival of new immigrant students slowed, district officials told the school board Thursday night.

For the first time in three years, more immigrant students left the city’s schools than entered this summer and fall, district data shows. That outmigration is a sharp reversal and compounds the longstanding problems of falling birth rates and gentrification that have caused DPS enrollment to decline from a high point in 2019.

The district is predicting its enrollment will continue to decrease by an additional 8%, or more than 6,000 students, by 2029. The pattern sets the stage for some difficult decisions in the years ahead.

“This trend means more school closures will be needed,” a board presentation bluntly states.

But Superintendent Alex Marrero told the board Thursday that he does not plan to activate the policy for closing underenrolled schools, called Executive Limitation 18, this year.

“However, I believe that we would be negligent if we do nothing, considering the stark realities,” he said, referring to the enrollment drops.

Marrero said he may enact what he called “operational shifts” if some schools are facing difficult enrollment situations. That could look like cutting a grade level from a school if, for instance, only a single kindergartener or ninth grader is enrolled, he said.

School closures are controversial and often spark fierce pushback from the community. DPS has closed or partially closed 13 district-run schools for low enrollment in the past few years. Fifteen charter schools have closed in recent years for the same reason.

Earlier this year, the school board enacted a four-year moratorium on enrollment-based school closures. But the moratorium includes a caveat that allows the board to consider closures “if there is a substantial shift in student enrollment, funding levels, or an unexpected emergency.”

Board member Kimberlee Sia asked whether this year’s enrollment loss meets that bar. DPS was expecting to lose 500 students but lost 1,200 instead, a 700-student difference, officials said.

“To me, that’s a pretty significant number and particularly if we continue on that trend,” Sia said.

Board member DJ Torres requested that the superintendent define the terms in the caveat before recommending closures or cutting grade levels from schools. Marrero said he would “respectfully ask the board to consider defining [the terms] itself.”

“It’s very difficult to define that tipping point,” Marrero said. “But I would welcome that because then it takes the guessing game out for us.”

With the moratorium in place, district officials said they are looking at addressing declining enrollment through another policy the board passed earlier this year. Called Executive Limitation 19, it requires the district to adjust school boundaries every five years.

Any boundary changes would likely go into effect in the 2027-28 school year, Marrero said, though the district hopes to start internal planning and hold community meetings before then. What those boundary adjustments would look like is unclear.

But district officials said any boundary changes could also help balance class sizes, a priority of the Denver teachers union that was frequently mentioned during this fall’s school board election. While much of the push has focused on addressing overcrowded classrooms, Marrero said the district more often sees classrooms on the other end of the spectrum.

Andrew Huber, the district’s executive director of enrollment and campus planning, told the board that 109 elementary school classrooms, or 8%, have 30 or more students this year. About 21% of elementary classrooms, or 303, have 19 students or fewer. Those numbers are for district-run schools only.

Marrero also recently enacted a policy that allows schools to be closed for persistently low student test scores. That policy, called the School Transformation Process, went into effect this year, but the soonest schools could be closed for low scores would be spring 2027.

While that policy is separate from the district’s efforts to address declining enrollment, Marrero said “it is interwoven in what could happen in the landscape of Denver Public Schools.”

Correction, Dec. 18: This story has been updated to reflect that 303 elementary classrooms in district-run schools, not 345, have 19 or fewer students this year. The previous number, which was provided at the board meeting, was inclusive of charter schools.

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

2 Denver schools are safe from closure due to ratings bump, but 4 others remain at risk

2025-12-16T23:07:44+00:00

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Two Denver elementary schools are no longer at risk of closure for low test scores after a successful appeal bumped up the schools’ state ratings. But four others could still face that fate.

Cheltenham Elementary and Traylor Elementary are safe for now from what Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero euphemistically refers to as “reimagining.” A new DPS policy calls for closing schools with persistently low state ratings.

The policy, called the School Transformation Process, went into effect this year. But the soonest any DPS schools could close would be in the spring of 2027.

The Colorado Department of Education rates schools on a color-coded scale. Green is the highest, followed by yellow, orange, and red. The ratings are largely based on standardized test scores.

Cheltenham and Traylor were initially given orange ratings this fall. About 12% of Cheltenham students and 18% of Traylor students in grades 3-5 met or exceeded expectations on state literacy tests last spring. In math, those percentages were 4% and 14%, respectively.

DPS asked the state to reconsider both schools’ ratings. The district submitted early literacy test scores to show that Cheltenham and Traylor students who were too young to take state standardized tests were making academic progress, DPS officials said. DPS did not provide that data Tuesday.

The state education department granted DPS’ request, and recently increased Cheltenham and Traylor’s ratings to yellow, making both schools safe from the district’s new closure policy. That’s because the policy only applies to schools that have earned orange or red ratings for four years or more.

But four other schools are still at risk of closure under the policy: John F. Kennedy High, Oakland Elementary, Rocky Mountain Prep Noel, and Academy 360. The first three schools received orange ratings this year. Academy 360 got a green rating but because it has a longer history of low ratings, it could be at risk if its rating slips again.

If those four schools receive orange or red ratings next year, the superintendent will recommend them for closure. The school board could vote to close the schools for good at the end of the 2026-27 school year. Or it could vote to replace them with other, pre-approved school models.

Any replacement schools would open in the fall of 2027.

Marrero introduced the new policy as a way to beat what’s known as the state accountability clock, which ticks toward state intervention the longer a school struggles. After five years of low ratings, the State Board of Education can order a school to undergo an intervention. The harshest intervention is closure, but the State Board has rarely used it.

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

With nearly $2.4 million spent, the 2025 Denver school board election was the most expensive ever

2025-12-11T21:33:25+00:00

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November’s Denver school board election was the most expensive ever. Candidates and outside groups spent $2.35 million on ads, mailers, consultants, and other expenses, according to Chalkbeat’s tally of final campaign finance reports.

That total surpasses the nearly $2.3 million spent in 2019 and the $2.2 million spent in 2023.

Groups and donors supportive of charter schools outspent teachers unions by nearly 3 to 1 this year, according to Chalkbeat’s calculations. But the big spending didn’t pay off.

Propelled in part by a “blue wave” that swept the country, union-backed candidates won all four seats up for election, ensuring that control of Colorado’s largest school district remains in the hands of board members supported by the teachers union.

As has been the case for years, independent expenditure committees far outspent candidates. This type of spending is sometimes referred to as “dark money” because some of the organizations that fund the committees don’t have to disclose their donors.

Reports show that a committee called Better Leaders, Stronger Schools spent the most money at nearly $1.5 million in support of four candidates endorsed by a group called Denver Families Action: Alex Magaña, Timiya Jackson, Caron Blanke, and Mariana del Hierro. All four lost.

Denver Families Action is the political arm of the organization Denver Families for Public Schools. The group was founded in 2021 to elevate the voices of Denver charter school families, but its current platform is to push the district on issues that affect all students.

Denver Families Action contributed much of the funding to Better Leaders, Stronger Schools, reports show — dollars that the teachers union criticized as coming from “out-of-state billionaires.” Denver Families Action has received funding from an organization called City Fund Action, which has ties to Netflix founder Reed Hastings and Texas philanthropist John Arnold.

Individual donors also contributed to Better Leaders, Stronger Schools. Kent Thiry, the former CEO of dialysis provider DaVita, gave $192,495. That’s less than the $350,000 he contributed in 2023. Colorado billionaire Phil Anschutz gave $40,000 this year and Stanton Dodge, a top corporate attorney for DraftKings Inc., gave $25,000.

Better Leaders, Stronger Schools spent more than $300,000 on television ads, more than $300,000 on mailers, and more than $500,000 on digital ads, campaign finance reports show. Independent expenditure committees cannot coordinate with the candidates and are more likely to send attack ads about their preferred candidates’ opponents, as happened this year.

Another, much smaller pro-reform independent expenditure committee called Colorado Families for Great Schools spent more than $95,000 on mailers, digital ads, and text messages. Its funding came from the national organization 50CAN, the Colorado League of Charter Schools Action Fund, and the conservative advocacy group Ready Colorado.

An independent expenditure committee funded by local teachers unions spent about $286,500, reports show. Called Students Deserve Better, the committee paid for mailers and digital ads in favor of four candidates endorsed by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association: Amy Klein Molk, Monica Hunter, Donald “DJ” Torres, and Xóchitl Gaytán. All four won.

In total, Colorado teachers unions also gave more than $250,000 directly to those four candidates, according to campaign finance reports. The candidates received the most money from the Denver and statewide teachers unions.

But the candidates also got small donations — between $200 and $2,000 each — from other local unions in districts including Jeffco, Adams 12, Boulder Valley, St. Vrain, Cherry Creek, 27J in Brighton, Littleton, and Pueblo 60. Denver union President Rob Gould said the giving was a new strategy by Colorado teachers unions to fight back against out-of-state money.

The candidates themselves spent far less than the independent expenditure committees. Klein Molk, who successfully ran for an at-large seat representing the entire city, spent the most at nearly $80,250.

Former board member Michelle Quattlebaum, who ran for reelection in northeast Denver’s District 4 but lost her seat to newcomer Hunter, spent the least at just over $11,250.

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

Denver to end reform-era partnership of Grant Beacon and Kepner Beacon middle schools

2025-12-10T01:34:13+00:00

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In another move away from the practices put in place during the peak of education reform in Denver Public Schools, the school district will end a unique arrangement in which two middle schools with extra autonomy were overseen by an executive principal.

Grant Beacon and Kepner Beacon middle schools will join a network of other district-run middle schools next year and be overseen by an administrator who works for the district’s central office, according to a letter district officials sent to families Monday.

The two schools’ arrangement began in 2016 when former DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg tasked Grant Beacon Principal Alex Magaña with running a second school. Dubbed Kepner Beacon, it was a restart of a struggling southwest Denver middle school. Magaña served as executive principal over both schools, each of which had a regular principal of its own.

Boasberg borrowed the idea of linking the two schools and giving them extra flexibility from the charter school world. He called it an “innovation management organization.” The hope was that the strategies that had helped Grant Beacon boost its test scores would do the same at Kepner Beacon without causing Grant to lose its leader.

But nearly a decade and two superintendents later, DPS is dissolving the arrangement, according to a copy of Monday’s letter obtained by Chalkbeat. Current DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero has pushed for a more centralized approach.

“This shift will help us provide consistent services, strengthen daily supports, and offer long term stability for students, staff, and families,” says the letter, which is signed by Executive Director of School Transformation Joe Amundsen and Operational Services Director Christine Sylvester.

Magaña’s executive principal role will be eliminated after this school year, the letter says. The move comes about a month after Magaña lost a bid to serve on the Denver school board. He ran for an at-large seat representing the entire city, but voters elected Amy Klein Molk instead.

Magaña declined to comment for this story.

In a statement, DPS said the Beacon schools “have a long history of innovation, and that will continue.” The Beacon model involves blended learning tailored to each student’s academic level, character development lessons, and in-school enrichment activities.

The district said the decision to dissolve the innovation management organization was not based on test scores. Kepner Beacon and Grant Beacon will remain innovation schools, which gives them extra autonomy over things like their calendar and curriculum.

But DPS confirmed that the elimination of the Beacon organization and the executive principal role are indicative of a shifting approach to school management and improvement.

“The district is moving toward consistent, sustainable support structures across all DPS middle schools,” the statement said, adding that the new model “provides principals with direct instructional and operational support, opportunities to collaborate with other middle school leaders, and clear pathways for professional learning.”

“This shift is about aligning support, not reducing autonomy or innovation for either of these schools,” the district said in the statement.

DPS embraced education reform under Boasberg and his predecessor Michael Bennet, now a U.S. senator who is running for governor of Colorado. From 2005 to 2018, the district closed struggling district-run schools and approved more high-performing charter schools. It gave all schools more autonomy and paid teachers based on performance.

Whether those strategies helped or hurt depends on whom you ask. While graduation rates and test scores went up, the reform policies were unpopular with teachers. The backlash helped spark a 2019 teachers strike and flipped the school board to union control.

Today, four out of the seven Denver school board members are backed by the teachers union. Magaña was not endorsed by the union when he ran for a board seat this fall.

For the past six years, Denver’s union-backed school board has undone many of the reforms put in place by Bennet and Boasberg, including limiting the autonomy of innovation schools.

The Beacon schools have undergone changes, too. Grant Beacon and Kepner Beacon became an “innovation zone” under Boasberg in 2018, which granted the schools even more say over their curriculum, schedule, and the hiring and firing of teachers.

But in 2023, Marrero recommended the Beacon innovation zone be dissolved, in part because of low test scores at Kepner Beacon. The board agreed. Beacon sued the district, but a judge ruled in favor of DPS. The dispute was one of several in which Marrero and Magaña disagreed.

Monday’s letter thanks Magaña “for his leadership, vision, and steady commitment to both campuses.” Asked if Magaña would serve as principal at either Beacon school next school year, the district said it is looking for a longtime leader for Grant Beacon, which currently has an interim principal.

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

Xóchitl Gaytán elected as president of Denver school board for a second time

2025-12-03T01:54:19+00:00

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Xóchitl Gaytán, a Denver Public Schools parent who works as a real estate agent, was elected to a second nonconsecutive term as president of the Denver school board Tuesday.

Gaytán’s election by secret ballot means an experienced member will helm the seven-member board of Colorado’s largest school district at a time when it faces declining enrollment, the possibility of more school closures, and ultimatums from the Trump administration.

The other nominee for board president was Marlene De La Rosa, who served for the past two years as board vice president. The vote tally — determined by slips of paper filled out by board members and collected in a blue DPS baseball cap — was not made public.

Gaytán was reelected to the board last month, the only incumbent on the ballot to win a second term. First elected in November 2021, she previously served as board president from the time she was sworn in until November 2023. Her first term as president was marked by personality conflicts, power struggles, and tense debates among members.

A majority of Denver school board members are backed by the Denver teachers union, and Gaytán is the longest-serving union-backed member. Three other members backed by the teachers union — Amy Klein Molk, Monica Hunter, and DJ Torres — won election on Nov. 4 and were sworn in during a rare Saturday ceremony on Nov. 21 along with Gaytán.

Hunter, a former DPS teacher and current DPS parent, was elected vice president of the board Tuesday by a secret ballot. De La Rosa was also nominated for vice president.

The board was scheduled to elect a new president on Nov. 21. But after pushback from the community, the board moved the officers election to Tuesday.

Gaytán will take over as president from Carrie Olson, whose tenure on the board ended last month after eight years. Like Gaytán, Olson served two nonconsecutive terms as president, with Gaytán’s first term as president in the middle.

State law allows the use of a secret ballot to elect a school board president and vice president. Not all Colorado school boards use secret ballots, but Denver does. The president and vice president have significant power to set the agenda for the board, and they meet with the superintendent more often than other board members.

Torres was elected board treasurer and De La Rosa was elected board secretary. The secretary and treasurer votes were public and unanimous.

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

Denver class sizes: Teachers union alleges in grievance that not all schools are reporting the data

2025-11-21T23:44:45+00:00

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The Denver teachers union is alleging that Denver Public Schools is violating a new provision of the teachers contract that requires schools to publicly report class sizes.

The contract, which went into effect in September, requires each principal to report class size data to their school’s collaborative school committee, or CSC. The CSC is a group of parents, teachers, and community members who advise the principal on budget priorities and other decisions. State law requires every school to have one.

The latest Denver teachers contract says that by Nov. 1 each year, CSCs must publish meeting minutes on their school website that list the number of students in each class.

But President Rob Gould said that by the union’s count, just 43 out of 139 district-run schools reported class sizes in publicly posted CSC meeting minutes by Nov. 1. The Denver Classroom Teachers Association filed a grievance Wednesday asking the school district to ensure that principals are trained and schools comply.

“This is about reporting to parents and reporting to the community and making it very transparent what our class sizes are,” Gould said in an interview. “We can’t tackle class sizes unless we have an idea of what those class sizes actually are.”

In a statement, Denver Public Schools said it “looks forward to working with DCTA through the grievance process to resolve this alleged violation on class size reporting.” The district said it couldn’t comment on the content of the grievance because the process is confidential.

The Denver teachers union has long pushed for smaller class sizes, but it ramped up its advocacy during contract negotiations earlier this year. The union wanted strict caps on class sizes. Instead, the two sides agreed to a compromise that calls for the district to “make reasonable efforts to reduce oversized classes” and aim for elementary class sizes of 30 students by 2026-27, with the caveat that several factors “may impact compliance.”

The contract also requires the public reporting of class sizes through CSC meeting minutes and the formation of a committee to identify “patterns deserving of further attention and analysis.”

A spot check by Chalkbeat on Friday afternoon revealed wide variation in whether and how schools are reporting class size data. Some schools didn’t have a CSC webpage at all. Others had a CSC webpage but didn’t list any meetings or minutes for the current school year. Others had meeting minutes from this fall but no mention of class sizes.

Even among schools that reported their class sizes, how they parsed the data differed. South High School reported average class sizes, including an average of 24 students per English class and 25 students per math class.

West High School’s CSC minutes simply said, “Class sizes - 18.” Northfield High School listed class size averages by teacher and course, among other data. The grievance asks schools to report individual class size numbers, not averages.

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

Dr. Dre will provide the next episode of entrepreneurship and design classes at 2 Denver schools

2025-11-20T23:48:13+00:00

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An education program founded by rapper Andre “Dr. Dre” Young and record executive Jimmy Iovine and focused on entrepreneurship, technology, and design is coming to two Denver schools next fall, the school district announced Thursday.

“You know how Dre said ‘let me welcome everybody…’?” Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero said in a statement. “Well, this partnership welcomes our students into a whole new world of creativity, entrepreneurship, and future-ready learning.”

Manual High School and Denver School of the Arts will each host an Iovine and Young Center for Innovation. Students at the two schools will be able to take classes that blend “design, technology, business, and the arts,” the district said.

The programming will start with ninth graders in the fall of 2026, the district said. Denver School of the Arts will also pilot classes with middle school students. Melissa Boyd, an executive director of secondary schools with DPS, said the courses have names like Rapid Prototyping and Disruptive Innovation and are like nothing she’s ever seen.

“We look forward to working with Denver Public Schools to unlock the superpowers of these students,” said Iovine in a statement. “Together, we’ll empower young people — especially those from underrepresented communities — to think differently, dream bigger, and lead the next wave of innovation.”

Iovine and Young also cofounded the company that made Beats headphones.

Manual High is a district-run school open to all students. About 95% of students at Manual High are students of color. Denver School of the Arts is also district-run but admission is based on an audition. About 38% of students at Denver School of the Arts are students of color.

The Iovine and Young programming started at the University of Southern California in 2013. It has since expanded to high schools, including a standalone school in Los Angeles and a program at Frederick Douglass High School in Atlanta.

Denver’s programming will be paid for through philanthropy, the district said, with the Denver Public Schools Foundation taking the lead on fundraising.

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

Denver superintendent recommends against expanding a dual language Montessori charter school

2025-11-17T20:00:55+00:00

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Monarch Montessori has a plot of land picked out for the middle school it hopes to build: a field of tall native grasses, located just past the yurt where it holds music classes and a short walk from its outdoor solar oven and chicken pen.

But Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero is recommending that the school board reject Monarch’s application to add sixth, seventh, and eighth grades when it votes this week. Marrero said the charter school’s plan to pay for and build a new middle school wasn’t good enough.

“This is not in spite of the advocacy,” Marrero told the board last Thursday. “It’s based on our lived and hard-earned experience when it comes to granting expansion without a clear facility plan. We’ve been burnt in the past, quite frankly. It just simply doesn’t work.”

Marrero’s recommendation likely reflects the changing realities for publicly funded, independently run charter schools in Denver. Ten years ago, DPS was the fastest-growing district in the state and its board was keen to open new charter schools it deemed promising. Now, both of those trends have reversed. Enrollment in DPS is declining and the board has been closing charters, not opening them.

Monarch offers a bilingual Montessori education unlike anything else in far northeast Denver. It became a charter school in 2012, adding elementary grades to what had been a private Montessori child care center. The school board initially rejected Monarch’s charter application, a decision Monarch appealed to the Colorado State Board of Education. The state board sided with Monarch and ordered the Denver board to vote again.

Monarch serves about 280 elementary students this year. Its demographics closely mirror the district’s as a whole; nearly 60% of students are Latino, 17% are white, and 14% are Black.

Students are dismissed from Monarch Montessori at the end of the school day last week.

Monarch’s proposal calls for the school to add sixth grade in 2027, seventh grade in 2028, and eighth grade in 2029. Parents have been asking the school to expand to give students in a historically underserved part of the city the same opportunity to continue with Montessori as those on the opposite side of Denver, school leaders said

Executive Director Laura Pretty has been pitching the expansion as mutually beneficial to Monarch and DPS; it would fix some historical inequities at the school and address the district’s need for more middle school seats in far northeast Denver, she said.

Monarch is one of five public Montessori elementary schools in Denver and the only one without a sixth grade. That matters because Montessori classrooms are multi-age, and the “upper elementary” classrooms are traditionally a mix of fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders.

“Our kids have two pathways right now, which is, after fifth grade, they are wealthy and they get to go to a private school that fosters their independent learning,” parent Christina Williams told the board Thursday, “or they’re not so wealthy and they go to a traditional school, and that has a very different outlook. I am noticing our students are in panic.”

Although enrollment in DPS is declining overall, the far northeast is the one region where the student population is expected to grow because of new housing developments. The district’s enrollment analysis says it will need more middle school seats there by 2029, an issue that board members said even a modest Monarch expansion could help address.

“If there are 30 kids that are staying at Monarch Montessori, those are 30 kids we don’t have to provide seats for,” board member Scott Esserman said.

But the board also seemed receptive to Marrero’s reservations about the expansion. District staff described Monarch’s expansion timeline as “too compressed” and dinged the school for not yet having the loan to pay for it, according to a presentation given to the board.

Pretty said Monarch faces a Catch-22. The school can’t get financing from its lender until the district approves the expansion, which is estimated to cost between $6.5 and $7 million, she said. And the district won’t give the approval without the financing.

“It’s like saying you can’t start school until you’ve graduated,” Pretty said. “To me, the argument for us is very strong and the arguments the district is making against it, I feel, are incredibly weak.”

Several board members implied that it would be a tough decision. The board is set to vote on Monarch’s proposed expansion at its next meeting Thursday.

“I stand behind the idea of a strong dual language Montessori school,” board President Carrie Olson said. “And I’ve learned from the years on the board that opening schools without a good plan leads to closure later, and that’s heartbreaking for the families.”

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

Denver school board censures member John Youngquist after investigation into his behavior

2025-11-14T02:20:48+00:00

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The Denver school board censured member John Youngquist Thursday after an independent investigation found he was likely “belittling, dismissive, and condescending” toward some Denver Public Schools staff of color, but that his behavior was not deliberate.

Before censuring Youngquist in a 5-1 vote, several board members said two things could be true at the same time: that the longtime DPS educator and former principal of East High School had done good things in his career and that, as a board member, he treated some DPS staff poorly.

“Our students, staff, and community are watching us,” board member Michelle Quattlebaum said. “They need to see that this board dares to confront bias, to learn from it, and to grow through it.”

Board member Kimberlee Sia was the sole no vote but otherwise made no public statement. Youngquist abstained. Quattlebaum voted for the censure along with board President Carrie Olson, Vice President Marlene De La Rosa, and members Xóchitl Gaytán and Scott Esserman.

Youngquist asked a few technical questions before the censure vote but did not make any other comments. Last month, he said in a statement that the investigation was retaliatory and he intends “to take legal action at the appropriate time.”

In a statement released after the vote, Youngquist said there “is a lot more to this story than the public has been made aware of through the biased and limited context of the investigation report.” He called the investigation “a personal and professional attack.”

A censure is a formal reprimand of a board member’s behavior. The board cannot remove one of its members; only voters can do that through a recall election. Youngquist was elected in 2023 to a four-year term on the seven-member board.

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero asked the board to censure Youngquist after raising concerns about Youngquist’s behavior earlier this year.

The school board ordered an investigation into Youngquist’s behavior in May and hired the Denver law firm Garnett Powell Maximon Barlow & Farbes to conduct it. A 29-page report, released last month, says investigators found no evidence of “overt racism.” However, they concluded that Youngquist likely exhibited bias in interactions with some district leaders of color.

The report notes that the 27 witnesses who were interviewed had differing opinions about whether they had “experienced biased conduct from Mr. Youngquist.”

“We noted white staff members — even those who present on data and issues Mr. Youngquist has identified as a priority — largely did not feel they received inappropriate or disrespectful pushback from Mr. Youngquist,” the report says. “In contrast, several staff members of color … described feeling Mr. Youngquist treated them less favorably than white staff members.”

Youngquist told investigators that he feels it’s his responsibility to ask tough questions, the report says. Youngquist “described himself as interested in ensuring transparency and engaging critically at a level that allows him as a board member to understand what is going on, question what results mean, and not just be ‘responsive to and led by the superintendent,’” it says.

The investigation was partly prompted by a letter that Marrero sent to Olson in April, alleging that Youngquist “has consistently demonstrated a pattern of hostility, policy violations, racial insensitivity, and unethical conduct.”

Marrero wrote that Youngquist’s behavior “aligns with someone who is threatened by diverse leadership and equity-centered progress.” Marrero, who is Afro-Latino, wrote that Youngquist, who is white, has “an obsession” with removing him as superintendent.

Youngquist has said that he does not want to be superintendent. He applied once, in 2021, but Marrero was hired instead.

Youngquist said in his statement Thursday that Marrero’s interest has been “in damaging the strong and positive presence of my character, based on 35 years of effectively serving the diversity of children” in Denver.

The board first discussed the report’s findings at a public meeting last month. At that meeting, Youngquist said that while he understands he has unconscious biases and can do better, the accusations that he treated staff of color poorly were meant to damage his credibility, in part because he will be a witness in at least one school safety-related lawsuit against Denver Public Schools.

Youngquist said he offered to meet with two people who were reportedly offended by his behavior, but he doesn’t know who else felt that way because the report doesn’t include names. For that reason, he said, “a blanket level of accountability is not something that makes a great deal of sense to me.”

This article has been updated to include a statement from John Youngquist after the vote to censure him.

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

Denver schools foundation restarts pandemic-era food fund to help feed families during SNAP delays

2025-11-11T03:59:30+00:00

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To help feed students and their families during the federal government shutdown, the foundation for Denver Public Schools has restarted a fundraising effort it began during the pandemic.

Back in 2020, the Food Security Fund paid for grab-and-go meal bags prepared by district staff and handed out to families at locations across the city while schools were shuttered because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Now, the Denver Public Schools Foundation is using the fund to buy grocery gift cards for families affected by the delays in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, payments and to help stock school food pantries, which have reportedly seen an uptick in visitors.

More than 600,000 Coloradans use SNAP benefits to buy food. The Department of Agriculture halted funding for the program on Nov. 1 because of the government shutdown.

Conflicting and fast-moving court rulings mean the vast majority of SNAP recipients haven’t gotten their full benefits this month.

“Luckily, kids are still receiving breakfast and lunch at school, but we know families are food insecure,” said Sara Hazel, the president and CEO of the Denver Public Schools Foundation, a nonprofit organization that raises money for the 89,000-student district. “We are hearing from schools … that parents are just asking the front desk, ‘What resources do you have?’”

So many schools are asking for help that the foundation can’t fully fund every request, leaders said. Since reactivating the Food Security Fund on Oct. 31, the foundation has given more than $100,000 to DPS schools and the district’s six community hubs, which run food pantries in addition to other services, said foundation spokesperson Ashley Muramoto.

But the foundation has gotten more than $200,000 worth of requests, Muramoto said — and they keep coming, even as some federal food benefits are starting to trickle in.

About 32,000 Coloradans — or 5% of recipients — got their full SNAP benefits this past weekend before new guidance put a stop to it, according to Gov. Jared Polis’ office. The state was working on Monday to deliver partial benefits, even as the Trump administration again asked the U.S. Supreme Court to keep full payments frozen.

On Monday, the Senate passed a bill that would reopen the government; that measure now must be approved by the House.

In the meantime, the foundation is hoping to fill some of the gap left by the delayed SNAP distribution.

“We’ll keep the fund open as long as it’s needed,” Hazel said.

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

Superintendent Alex Marrero says he’s staying in Denver after report he’s finalist for Chicago job

2025-11-08T00:40:29+00:00

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Superintendent Alex Marrero said in a statement Friday that he doesn’t intend to leave Denver Public Schools after the Chicago Sun-Times reported that he’s one of two finalists for the job of Chicago Public Schools’ next CEO.

“While I have great respect for Chicago Public Schools and appreciate the professional recognition implied by recent speculation about my potential candidacy for superintendent, I want to be clear that my dedication remains firmly with Denver Public Schools where I am proud to continue serving as superintendent,” Marrero said.

One finalist for the Chicago job is Meisha Ross Porter, who led New York City Public Schools in 2021, three sources with direct knowledge of the situation told Chalkbeat.

Finalists are set to interview with Chicago Board of Education members, a community panel, and the mayor next week. Chicago’s selection will mark the first time its new 21-member school board chooses a new leader for the nation’s fourth largest school district.

Earlier on Friday, Denver Public Schools sent a statement saying Marrero “has no plans to leave the district.” The statement said he was attending the Global Cities Symposium in Asia “and will be extending his trip for a brief, but well deserved vacation prior to returning to Denver.”

Marrero is excited to work with the newly elected Denver school board members, the earlier statement said. Three candidates backed by the teachers union were elected Tuesday to the seven-member board.

Marrero has been superintendent of the 89,000-student Denver Public Schools since 2021. Graduation rates have risen in his four-year tenure, and the district’s state rating jumped this year to “green,” the second highest, for the first time since 2019, before the pandemic.

But concerns about school safety and a string of shootings in and around Denver’s largest high school have sown discontent among some parents. Unpopular school closures and cuts to the central office have hurt morale among district employees, according to Marrero’s latest performance evaluation.

Marrero identifies as Afro Latino and is bilingual. More than half of the students in Denver are Latino and about a third are learning English as a second language.

Marrero’s contract with Denver Public Schools runs through 2028. The board has extended it twice, most recently in May, which was five months before his latest performance evaluation in October. The board also voted in 2023 to give Marrero a raise. His salary this year is $346,529.

Marrero is the president of the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents and serves on the executive committee of the Council of Great City Schools.

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

Union-backed candidates sweep Denver school board election

2025-11-07T17:09:16+00:00

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Denver school board candidates backed by the teachers union won all four open seats Tuesday, unofficial election returns show, making it likely the board’s current balance of power will hold.

Eleven candidates were vying for four seats on the seven-member Denver school board.

Union-backed candidates won by commanding leads in three of the races and a solid lead in the fourth, according to unofficial returns. Two of the three incumbents who ran for reelection, Michelle Quattlebaum and Scott Esserman, lost their seats.

Teachers union-backed board members have controlled the board of Colorado’s largest school district for the past six years. Members who support charter schools and other education reform strategies gained a bigger foothold in 2023 and had a chance to flip the board majority this year.

Now, the board will continue to be composed of four members who were endorsed by the teachers union and three who were backed by reform interests.

Denver Classroom Teachers Association President Rob Gould called the early returns on Tuesday a victory of “people over money.” Like in past elections, reform groups were on track to outspend the teachers union, according to the latest campaign finance reports.

Candidates from different factions often sounded similar themes during the campaign, making it harder for voters to distinguish them. Gould said that because the messaging was often similar, voters looked more closely at “who was supporting them and why.”

“They said, ‘These people are being their authentic selves and they have teachers supporting them and labor supporting them,’ and Denver is very pro-labor and that shone through,” Gould said of the union-backed candidates.

Amy Klein Molk, a DPS parent who founded a now-closed educational technology company, won over Alex Magaña, a Denver Public Schools principal whose children went to DPS, for an at-large seat representing the entire city.

In southwest Denver’s District 2, incumbent Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán won over Mariana del Hierro, a DPS parent who leads a food security nonprofit organization.

In central-east Denver’s District 3, Donald “DJ” Torres, a DPS parent and former special education teacher, won over incumbent Esserman and newcomer Caron Blanke, a DPS parent who previously oversaw a Denver preschool.

In northeast Denver’s District 4, Monica Hunter, a DPS parent and former teacher, won over incumbent Quattlebaum and newcomers Timiya Jackson, a DPS parent who works in dropout prevention, and Jeremy Harris, a funeral director and DPS parent.

The election comes at a key time for Denver Public Schools. The 89,000-student district faces declining enrollment, the possibility of more school closures, pressure to raise state test scores, and ultimatums from the Trump administration.

In DPS election politics, groups supportive of charter schools and education reform are on one side, while the Denver Classroom Teachers Association is on the other.

The teachers union endorsed four candidates: Klein Molk for an at-large seat, Gaytán in District 2, Torres in District 3, and Hunter in District 4.

A group called Denver Families Action with ties to charter schools endorsed a different set of four candidates: Magaña for the at-large seat, del Hierro in District 2, Blanke in District 3, and Jackson in District 4. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston endorsed the same candidates.

Clarence Burton Jr., CEO of Denver Families Action, said Tuesday night that he was reserving judgment on the election results until more ballots were counted.

Three candidates weren’t endorsed by either group: newcomer Harris in District 4, incumbent Quattlebaum in District 4, and incumbent Esserman in District 3. Quattlebaum and Esserman were elected in 2021 with the backing of the teachers union. But the union didn’t endorse them this year because it wasn’t happy with the way they voted on a few key issues, union leaders said.

Quattlebaum and Esserman were endorsed by former Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb. Quattlebaum was also endorsed by city council members Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez and Shontel M. Lewis. Esserman was endorsed by Lewis and council member Sarah Parady.

The election was expensive. As of last week, candidates and outside groups had spent more than $1.6 million on ads and mailers. Outside groups have spent the most.

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

Why teachers union-backed school board candidates won in Denver — and what it might mean

2025-11-06T23:42:39+00:00

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A “blue wave” swept across the country on Election Day. But in Denver, all the school board candidates were Democrats.

So, faced with similar choices, voters bubbled their ballots for the candidates endorsed by a Democratic stalwart: the teachers union.

“If you’re in a blue city and you’re a blue voter, you’re going to vote for the true-blue candidates — and the true-blue candidates were the union candidates,” said Van Schoales, a longtime supporter of the Democratic brand of education reform.

For many years, Denver Public Schools was considered a national exemplar of the type of education reform that favors school choice and charter schools but not private school vouchers. A 2019 teachers strike sparked in part by pushback to reform policies helped flip control of the school board back to members who had union support. The board has been chipping away at the district’s reform policies ever since, though some are coming back under new names.

Denver voters on Tuesday elected one union-backed incumbent, Xóchitl Gaytán, and three newcomers: Amy Klein Molk, DJ Torres, and Monica Hunter. All were decisive wins.

Hunter was at The Abbey Tavern, an Irish pub on Colfax Avenue, on election night. A former teacher with a blended family of six children, she said she was shocked when the first returns came in at 7 p.m. and showed her ahead of her three opponents.

Hunter hadn’t prepared a victory speech. She entered the race late and had been outspent by deep-pocketed pro-reform groups. She wasn’t expecting to win. On Wednesday, she said she attributes the union sweep partly to “the state of the world.”

“People don’t have food right now,” Hunter said, referring to the millions at risk of losing SNAP benefits due to the federal government shutdown. “They’ve seen so much on a global and federal level and they’re worried about their kids. They know they can trust teachers.”

Research shows teachers union endorsements carry great weight in school board elections. But they haven’t always translated to victory in Denver. Two years ago, three candidates backed by organizations that support charter schools and education reform won all of the seats up for grabs, ousting two union-backed incumbents and the newcomer on the ticket with them.

The 2023 election was a clear call for change. Voters were mad about a string of high-profile shootings at Denver’s largest high school. They were also mad about infighting on the school board that got so bad the now-mayor said the board had made DPS “more of a public embarrassment than a source of pride."

But that election wasn’t enough to take control of the seven-member board away from union-backed members. And Tuesday’s results solidified that majority.

“The union’s messaging clearly resonated with voters,” said Parker Baxter, the director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the University of Colorado Denver, whose research found that DPS’ reforms were effective.

“It is possible that people who voted in this election thought they were voting to protect public education in Denver,” he said, referring to attempts by the Trump administration to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. “It’s very difficult to disentangle the atmospherics.”

Different factions interpret Denver election results differently

The teachers union and the pro-charter organizations have different takes on the results.

Denver Classroom Teachers Association President Rob Gould said voters “are sick and tired of billionaires coming in and trying to steal elections.” The pro-charter group that spent the most toward political ads, Denver Families Action, has ties to Netflix founder Reed Hastings and Texas philanthropist John Arnold.

Although the big spending isn’t new, more media coverage of so-called dark money, plus word of mouth spread by teachers, meant voters were more aware of that factor this year, Gould said.

“Our educators really stepped up and reached out,” Gould said. “We told our educators, ‘Call everybody you know. … Talk to people about what’s going on.’”

The head of Denver Families Action said Wednesday that it’s too early to draw conclusions about whether the election was a rebuke of that spending. Clarence Burton Jr., the group’s CEO, said he sees the results as a continued call for change.

Even though the four candidates endorsed by Denver Families Action lost, so did two incumbents, Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebaum. Both were previously backed by the teachers union but lost that endorsement this year because the union disagreed with some of their positions on teacher pay and union contract rights.

“People like their public schools,” said Burton, whose organization led a massive door-knocking effort in which paid canvassers talked to voters for more than a year. “They say, ‘We like Denver Public Schools.’ They say they don’t like the current board.”

Quattlebaum declined to speculate about the results. “The election is the election,” she said.

Gaytán, the only incumbent to win reelection, said that when she was knocking on doors in her southwest Denver district, her message of protecting teachers and paying them more resonated with voters, many of whom were new to the gentrifying neighborhoods.

“When I shared my values and accomplishments, especially in support of our teachers, I earned those votes from people,” Gaytán said.

A phenomenon noted by almost all observers was that the reform-backed candidates sounded more like the union-backed candidates this year. Burton said that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“When we’re also focused on issues of increasing funding, decreasing class sizes, increasing mental health supports — you want to hear all candidates talking about that,” Burton said. “It’s reflective of what the community actually believes.”

But Gould said that when the candidates sound similar, endorsements really matter.

“The voters looked at who was supporting them and why,” he said.

Both sides hope new DPS board is more civil

While voters’ preferences were clear, it’s less clear what the new board will mean for the direction of DPS.

In Chalkbeat’s candidate questionnaire, the union-endorsed candidates gave Superintendent Alex Marrero higher marks than the candidates endorsed by Denver Families Action did. But it doesn’t appear they’ll back his every move. Gould said the union is “not wholeheartedly against” and “not wholeheartedly in support” of the superintendent.

“There are things Dr. Marrero can do better, period,” Gould said. “With this new board, they can have more of a critical lens at what the policies are, what we’re doing, and ways to shift resources and funds to make sure all dollars are maximized and support students in the classroom.”

One hope winners and losers from the election both share is that the new board will be more civil.

The public disagreements and social media sniping that characterized some board members’ interactions several years ago have died down. But a just-released investigation into the behavior of member John Youngquist and a possible censure vote have reignited concerns about division.

“We’ve all watched a lot of the infighting,” Hunter said. “My mentor sat me down and said, ‘You can’t pass a resolution alone. You better figure out how to get along.’

“That is my goal, truly, to figure out how we can all work collaboratively,” she added.

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

Denver school board adopts policy on when to hire an outside attorney

2025-11-04T17:00:00+00:00

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The Denver school board last week passed a policy prohibiting the school district’s attorney from representing the board or the superintendent in legal matters between the two.

For example, the board and Superintendent Alex Marrero may each have to hire their own outside attorneys when negotiating Marrero’s contract or evaluating his performance. The board approved its latest evaluation of Marrero last week after it extended his contract in May.

Board member Kimberlee Sia, who wrote the policy, said the goal is to avoid any conflicts of interest since the board is the boss of the superintendent and the superintendent is the boss of Denver Public Schools’ general counsel.

An earlier draft of the policy would have ordered the general counsel to provide the school board with a list of lawsuits DPS is involved in and a tally of how much it spends on external legal costs.

That requirement was stripped out because the board isn’t allowed to give orders to the general counsel, Sia said. The only person the board can give orders to is the superintendent. But to do that, the board would have to pass a type of policy called an “executive limitation.” The legal counsel policy is a different type called a “governance process policy.”

These rules and jargon are part of policy governance, which is the governance structure the board uses. A previous board adopted it in 2021 to help attract a new superintendent after some board members were accused of micromanaging the previous one.

But policy governance has proven controversial at times.

Sia said she may propose an executive limitation that would compel the district to disclose information about its lawsuits and legal costs because “it is still something that people ask about.”

The new legal policy, officially called Governance Process Policy 18, says most legal issues should be handled by the district’s general counsel. But when it comes to the superintendent’s evaluation or contract negotiations, the board may choose to hire an outside attorney.

The board can hire or fire an outside attorney with a majority vote, the policy says. The board president is responsible for directing the outside attorney. Three or more board members can also make a request of the outside attorney in writing.

The policy passed in a 5-1 vote Thursday. Board member Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán was the sole no vote. Gaytán had previously raised concerns that the policy would displace the district’s current attorneys, who she noted are people of color.

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

Six Denver schools could be closed if they don’t improve or maintain their test scores

2025-10-31T19:09:37+00:00

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Six Denver schools could face a closure vote next year if they don’t improve or maintain their test scores, according to a presentation at Thursday night’s school board meeting.

John F. Kennedy High, Oakland Elementary, Cheltenham Elementary, Traylor Elementary, Rocky Mountain Prep Noel, and Academy 360 could be at risk of what Superintendent Alex Marrero euphemistically calls “reimagining” if they earn one of the state’s two lowest ratings — signified by the colors orange and red — next fall.

The state ratings are largely based on standardized test scores.

Some of the six schools are safer from closure than others. Academy 360 earned a yellow rating this year. If it’s yellow again next year, it’s safe. If it’s red or orange, it’s at risk.

The other five schools earned orange or red ratings this year. Denver Public Schools leaders said they appealed some of those ratings to the state but didn’t say which ones. If the state decides to upgrade a school’s rating to yellow, it’d be in the same position as Academy 360. The appeals decisions will be announced in December.

Four of the schools at risk are run by the district. Rocky Mountain Prep Noel and Academy 360 are independently run charter schools. The district is the sole authorizer of charter schools within its boundaries and can effectively close them by not renewing their charters.

All six schools are currently on the state “accountability clock,” so called because it ticks toward state intervention. The harshest intervention is school closure, but the state has rarely deployed it. A new policy unveiled by Marrero earlier this year is meant to avoid state intervention by closing low-performing Denver schools before the state gets involved.

The Denver school that has been on the accountability clock the longest, Abraham Lincoln High, will not be subject to closure under the district’s policy. That’s because Lincoln is already undergoing state intervention and district leaders said they intend to see that through.

The district’s policy is called the School Transformation Process. Marrero told the board Thursday that while the policy allows for closing schools due to low test scores, he hopes it won’t come to that. The district has launched a new program called the Elevate Schools Network to support struggling schools. Oakland, Cheltenham, and Traylor are participating.

“We are prepared to engage in those tough conversations, but we are not desiring to make those decisions,” Marrero said.

According to the school board presentation, the timeline for the new policy will work like this: In December, the district will solicit applications from school operators interested in replacing schools that might be closed for low test scores.

Those operators could be charter schools, community groups, or anyone else who’d like to run a school, officials said. The district itself will submit applications as well, officials said. The school board will decide which applicants meet its bar for quality, giving them pre-approval.

In the spring of 2026, students will take a new round of state standardized tests. In the fall of 2026, the state will issue a new round of ratings based on those test scores.

After the state issues its ratings, the superintendent will recommend schools for closure based on the ratings. Schools on Year 4 or Year 5 of the accountability clock — which means they’ve earned low ratings for at least four or five years — will be recommended for closure.

If those schools also have low enrollment, the school board could vote to close them for good.

If the schools have healthy enrollment, the board could vote to replace them.

To decide on replacements, the district would use a “community matching process.” The pre-approved schools would have to submit a more detailed plan for how to specifically serve the students at the school that’s being closed.

The low-rated schools would close at the end of the 2026-27 school year. The replacement schools would open in the fall of 2027.

Board members didn’t have many questions Thursday. Several said test scores are not the only way to measure school success. President Carrie Olson said she was mindful that the schools on the list are “filled with students and families and educators.”

“I just want to be sure that we’re including them in these discussions so they understand what could be coming and how we’re helping them,” Olson said.

A few board members praised Academy 360, a charter elementary school in the Montbello neighborhood that previously faced closure in 2023 but has since improved its rating.

Academy 360’s yellow rating means it is considered “on watch” by the state. Another year of a yellow or green rating would allow Academy 360 to exit the accountability clock altogether.

But if Academy 360 backslides and earns an orange or red rating next year, it could be closed. Because it’s a charter school, Academy 360 would go through a different process, district officials said. Charter schools must be renewed periodically by the district that authorizes them. Officials said they would recommend that low-rated charter schools not be renewed.

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

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero met some goals, missed others in latest performance evaluation

2025-10-31T01:53:48+00:00

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The Denver school board on Thursday unanimously approved Superintendent Alex Marrero’s latest performance evaluation, which found that he earned 73.5 points out of a possible 100.

The 22-page evaluation from the board says Marrero met his goals last school year related to boosting the number of young students reading at grade level, increasing the percentage of older students enrolled in rigorous courses, and recruiting diverse staff.

Marrero met some goals related to academic achievement, including increasing by two percentage points the number of third through eighth graders who met or exceeded expectations on state math tests. In 2023-24, 31% of students scored that way. In 2024-25, 33% did.

The evaluation says Marrero successfully carried out the board’s policy for closing schools with low enrollment. Ten such schools closed or partially closed at the end of last school year.

But Marrero missed his goals related to the percentage of third through eighth graders who met expectations on state literacy tests. He also missed goals related to the sense of well-being and belonging reported by students and staff in district surveys. Marrero’s goal was to increase it for both groups. While the metric for students was unchanged, it declined for staff.

“The decline was most pronounced among teachers and central office staff, who cited fatigue from reorganization, enrollment decline, and school closures,” the evaluation says.

School board members praised Marrero Thursday for his focus on raising the academic achievement of Black and Latino students, most of whom made gains on state tests last year even if their scores were lower than the goals set by Marrero.

Board member Kimberlee Sia asked how Marrero would continue that trajectory. Marrero said that while some might characterize the progress as insignificant, he would call it incremental, which he said “can become monumental if we all row in the same direction.”

Board member Scott Esserman thanked Marrero for reducing costs in the district’s central office in order to direct more funding toward schools. Board President Carrie Olson praised the superintendent for “taking on” President Donald Trump.

In February, Denver Public Schools sued the Trump administration in an attempt to protect students from immigration enforcement in and around schools. The district has also refused to get rid of its all-gender restrooms despite an order from the Trump administration to do so.

Those actions “strengthened public trust, safeguarded student rights, and solidified Denver Public Schools’ reputation as a national model for equity-driven leadership,” the evaluation says.

In past years, Marrero got a bonus based on his performance. But he won’t this year. The school board got rid of the bonus when it extended his contract in May.

The teachers union and others had decried the bonus structure as unfair. Marrero earned an $8,200 bonus in 2023 and a $17,300 bonus last year.

The contract extension was controversial, too. Some board members thought the board should have waited until after Marrero’s performance evaluation to decide whether to extend his contract. Under Marrero’s old contract, the board had until Jan. 1 to make that decision.

Marrero had far fewer performance goals in the 2024-25 school year than in prior years. In 2023-24, Marrero’s goals included more than 230 metrics. In 2024-25, there were just 27.

The evaluation includes a quote from Marrero’s self-evaluation noting that he considers the “degree of board influence” in shaping his goals this past year to be “outside the norms” of the governance structure that the board uses, known as policy governance.

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

Elecciones a la junta escolar de Denver 2025: En qué coinciden y en qué discrepan los 11 candidatos

2025-10-30T20:13:23+00:00

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Chalkbeat Colorado es un noticiero local sin fines de lucro que informa sobre las escuelas públicas.

Puede resultar difícil distinguir las diferencias entre los candidatos a la junta escolar en una ciudad tan demócrata como Denver. Los 11 candidatos que se disputan los puestos este año coinciden en que la prohibición de libros es mala, que los baños para todos los géneros son buenos y que las escuelas necesitan más financiación.

Sin embargo, hay desacuerdo entre los candidatos sobre si creen que las Escuelas Públicas de Denver van por buen camino y si el superintendente Alex Marrero está haciendo un buen trabajo. Y esos desacuerdos suelen seguir líneas familiares, con los candidatos respaldados por el sindicato de profesores por un lado y los respaldados por organizaciones vinculadas a las escuelas concertadas por el otro.

Guía del votante: Candidatos para el consejo escolar de Denver 2025

El 4 de noviembre se disputarán cuatro escaños de los siete que componen la junta escolar de Denver. Uno de ellos es un escaño general que representa a toda la ciudad. Los otros tres escaños representan regiones específicas de la ciudad. Las elecciones podrían cambiar la composición política de la junta, que durante los últimos seis años ha estado controlada por miembros respaldados por el sindicato de profesores.

Es un momento clave para el distrito, que se enfrenta a una disminución de las matriculaciones, la posibilidad de más cierres de escuelas, la presión para mejorar las calificaciones de los exámenes estatales y los ultimátums de la administración Trump.

Las líneas políticas se han difuminado con el paso de los años y algunos candidatos se acercan más al centro que otros. Pero por mucho que los defensores afirmen que la reforma educativa ha muerto en Denver y que el enfrentamiento entre unos y otros ha terminado, los cientos de miles de dólares que gastan grupos externos para apoyar a unos u otros candidatos sugieren lo contrario.

El gasto de los sindicatos de profesores y los grupos a favor de las escuelas concertadas ya ha superado los 1,2 millones de dólares, según los informes de financiación de la campaña, y los grupos a favor de las escuelas concertadas han gastado tres veces más que los sindicatos.

¿Cómo pueden los votantes diferenciar entre los candidatos? Hemos revisado las notas de las entrevistas, las grabaciones de los debates y foros, y las respuestas de los candidatos al cuestionario de Chalkbeat para resumir en qué están de acuerdo y en qué discrepan.

Los candidatos discrepan sobre el desempeño de Marrero

Los candidatos Alex Magaña, Mariana del Hierro, Caron Blanke, Timiya Jackson, y Jeremy Harris dieron las calificaciones más bajas a Marrero en el cuestionario de Chalkbeat.

Magaña, del Hierro, Blanke y Jackson han recibido el respaldo de Denver Families Action, un grupo de defensa con grandes recursos económicos y vínculos con las escuelas charter.

“En términos del rendimiento académico y los resultados de los estudiantes latinos, no creo que el superintendente esté haciendo un buen trabajo”, dijo del Hierro en un debate celebrado en octubre y organizado conjuntamente por Chalkbeat, CBS Colorado y el grupo de defensa Educate Denver.

Las puntuaciones más recientes de las pruebas estandarizadas, de la pasada primavera, muestran que el 25 % de los estudiantes latinos de tercero a octavo grado cumplieron o superaron las expectativas estatales en alfabetización, en comparación con el 75 % de los estudiantes blancos. Más de la mitad de los estudiantes del DPS son latinos.

Los candidatos Scott Esserman, Michelle Quattlebaum, Amy Klein Molk, Xóchitl Gaytán, y Donald “DJ” Torres otorgaron a Marrero las calificaciones más altas en el cuestionario de Chalkbeat.

“El superintendente Dr. Alex Marrero se identifica como afro-latino y bilingüe en español”, dijo Gaytán en el debate. “Cuando viene a mi distrito y habla con los niños, lo hace en español. Y los niños se animan mucho, se emocionan y se ponen muy contentos”.

Klein Molk, Gaytán y Torres cuentan con el respaldo de la Asociación de Profesores de Denver. Gaytán, Esserman y Quattlebaum son miembros actuales de la junta que han apoyado a Marrero y han votado a favor de prorrogar su contrato. Gaytán también votó a favor de concederle un aumento de sueldo.

La candidata Monica Hunter, que también fue respaldada por el sindicato de profesores, le dio al superintendente una puntuación mediocre en el cuestionario de Chalkbeat. Sin embargo, se mostró crítica tanto con la junta actual como con el superintendente en el debate coorganizado por Chalkbeat.

“Muchos candidatos intentarán manipularte para que sientas que las cosas van muy bien”, dijo Hunter. “Podemos hacerlo mejor, él puede hacerlo mejor y yo lo haré mejor”.

Los candidatos tienen opiniones diferentes sobre las escuelas autónomas

Marrero fue contratado en 2021 por una junta escolar respaldada por un sindicato. El sindicato no se ha mostrado favorable a las escuelas autónomas, que algunos consideran que compiten con las escuelas tradicionales gestionadas por el distrito por los alumnos y los fondos por alumno que les permiten contratar más personal y ofrecer más programas.

Marrero tampoco ha defendido las escuelas autónomas, y ha recomendado que se cierren las que tienen un bajo rendimiento y se impida la apertura de otras nuevas, dado que la matrícula del DPS está disminuyendo.

De entre los candidatos, Gaytán ha sido la más crítica con las escuelas autónomas y la libre elección de escuela, que permite a los alumnos solicitar la admisión en cualquier escuela pública que deseen. Ha calificado a las escuelas autónomas de «escuelas de gestión privada respaldadas por fondos oscuros o motivos lucrativos» y ha luchado para impedir que se abran escuelas autónomas en edificios vacíos del distrito.

Hunter y Klein Molk han dicho que darían prioridad a la inversión en las escuelas gestionadas por el distrito.

“Si una escuela autónoma no atiende a todos los estudiantes de forma equitativa o está agotando los recursos de las escuelas del barrio, eso es un problema”, escribió Klein Molk en el cuestionario de Chalkbeat.

Torres dijo en el cuestionario que la junta debería asumir “un papel firme” en la supervisión de las escuelas autónomas e incluso considerar el cierre de aquellas que no atienden a los estudiantes de forma equitativa.

Los titulares Esserman y Quattlebaum respondieron a las preguntas sobre las escuelas autónomas criticando las propias preguntas por ser divisivas e inútiles.

“Esta cuestión se refiere a problemas de adultos, no de niños”, afirmó Esserman en el debate coorganizado por Chalkbeat. “A los niños no les importa si van a una escuela concertada, a una escuela innovadora o a una escuela pública”.

Magaña, Jackson y Harris a menudo han adoptado una postura intermedia, señalando que las escuelas concertadas forman parte del conjunto de DPS, pero deben rendir cuentas por el buen servicio que prestan a los estudiantes.

Jackson ha trabajado en escuelas concertadas y formó parte de la junta directiva de Academy 360, una escuela concertada de Denver que el superintendente recomendó cerrar por sus bajos resultados en las pruebas, pero que la junta escolar votó mantener abierta. Magaña es el director ejecutivo de dos escuelas de innovación de Denver, que son escuelas gestionadas por el distrito con cierta autonomía similar a la de las escuelas autónomas.

Blanke ha sido la que más ha apoyado a las escuelas autónomas. Ha dicho en repetidas ocasiones que las calificaciones de las pruebas estandarizadas muestran que las escuelas autónomas hacen un mejor trabajo en la educación de los estudiantes de color.

Según los datos del distrito, las escuelas gestionadas por el distrito obtuvieron mejores resultados que las escuelas autónomas en las pruebas estandarizadas estatales de la pasada primavera. Un análisis independiente realizado por el grupo de defensa Denver Families for Public Schools reveló que, en lo que respecta a los estudiantes tradicionalmente desfavorecidos, las escuelas autónomas obtuvieron resultados “superiores o iguales a los de otros tipos de escuelas”.

Los candidatos abordarían el cierre de escuelas de manera diferente

El cierre de escuelas es otro tema controvertido en el que algunos candidatos discrepan. La mayoría de los candidatos han dicho que se oponen al cierre de escuelas debido a las bajas calificaciones en los exámenes o al bajo número de matriculados. Entre ellos se encuentran los tres titulares —Gaytán, Esserman y Quattlebaum— que el año pasado votaron a favor del cierre de escuelas por bajo número de matriculados. Los tres afirmaron que dichos cierres deberían ser “el último recurso”.

Sin embargo, Blanke y del Hierro afirmaron en el cuestionario de Chalkbeat que cerrarían escuelas por esos motivos. «La realidad es que nos enfrentamos a una disminución de la matriculación en el distrito y hay escuelas que no están educando a los alumnos al nivel de competencia que deberían», escribió Blanke.

En un foro organizado por los demócratas de Denver, del Hierro mostró una copia impresa de las calificaciones estatales de las escuelas del suroeste de Denver, la región que aspira a representar. La mayoría de las escuelas recibieron una calificación roja, la más baja en la escala de colores del estado.

“Creo que los niños del suroeste de Denver se merecen algo mejor”, afirmó en el foro.

Los candidatos difieren en cuanto a la policía escolar y la prohibición de los teléfonos móviles

La mayoría de los candidatos han dicho que apoyan la presencia de agentes de policía en las escuelas. Dos de los titulares, Esserman y Quattlebaum, no lo hacen. Ambos votaron en contra de la reincorporación de los agentes escolares tras una serie de tiroteos en la escuela East High School de Denver y sus alrededores en 2023.

Los candidatos también están divididos sobre si se deben prohibir los teléfonos móviles en las escuelas. Una nueva ley estatal exige que todos los distritos escolares de Colorado aprueben políticas sobre el uso de teléfonos móviles y relojes inteligentes antes de julio de 2026. Actualmente, el DPS no cuenta con una política para todo el distrito.

Klein Molk, Blanke, Jackson y Torres afirmaron en el cuestionario de Chalkbeat que los teléfonos móviles deberían prohibirse en las escuelas. El resto de los candidatos se oponen a la prohibición. Un estudio reciente de un gran distrito escolar urbano de Florida reveló una modesta mejora en las calificaciones de los exámenes en el segundo año de la prohibición de los teléfonos móviles en el distrito, tras un aumento de las suspensiones en el primer año.

Melanie Asmar es la jefa de la oficina de Chalkbeat Colorado.

Traducido por Juan Carlos Uribe para The Weekly Issue/El Semanario.

Denver school board election spending tops $1.6 million less than a week from Election Day

2025-10-30T19:23:47+00:00

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Less than a week from Election Day, spending by candidates and outside groups in the Denver school board election has topped $1.6 million, campaign finance reports show.

That’s higher than the nearly $1.4 million that had been spent at this point in 2023, which was the last time Denver school board seats were up for election. In 2023, three of the board’s seven seats were up for grabs. This year, four seats are on the ballot.

Voter guide: 2025 Denver school board candidates answer 6 questions

The election is high stakes, with political control of the school board of Colorado’s largest district at play. Teachers union-backed board members have controlled the board for the past six years. But members who support charter schools and other education reform strategies gained a bigger foothold in 2023 and could flip the board majority in this year’s election.

As in the past, outside groups have been the biggest spenders this year. Pro-charter groups are outspending teachers unions by more than 2 to 1.

An independent expenditure committee called Better Leaders, Stronger Schools has spent the most: more than $1 million on mailers, digital ads, and TV ads as of Monday, according to campaign finance reports. The committee is largely funded by an advocacy group called Denver Families Action that has ties to local charter schools.

An independent expenditure committee called Colorado Families for Great Schools that’s funded by the Colorado League of Charter Schools and a pro-charter national organization called 50CAN has spent $81,900 on mailers and digital ads.

An independent expenditure committee funded by teachers unions called Students Deserve Better has spent about $286,000 on mailers and digital ads, according to the reports. Teachers unions have also contributed more than $200,000 to Denver candidates directly.

The 11 candidates themselves have spent far less. Candidate Donald “DJ” Torres, who is running for a seat representing central-east Denver’s District 3, had spent the most as of Monday at just over $65,000. Incumbent Michelle Quattlebaum, who’s running to keep her seat in northeast Denver’s District 4, had spent the least at about $7,700.

Pro-charter group has more individual donors this year

All of the spending by Better Leaders, Stronger Schools has been to support the four candidates endorsed by Denver Families Action: Alex Magaña for an at-large seat representing the entire city, Mariana del Hierro in southwest Denver’s District 2, Caron Blanke in central-east Denver’s District 3, and Timiya Jackson in northeast Denver’s District 4.

Denver Families Action is the political arm of the organization Denver Families for Public Schools. The group was founded in 2021 to elevate the voices of charter school families in DPS, and its board of directors includes leaders with ties to charter schools. Its current platform is to push the district on issues that affect all students, such as safety and mental health.

Independent expenditure committees cannot coordinate with the candidates. They are also more likely to send out attack ads about their preferred candidates’ opponents. This year, that includes ads by Better Leaders, Stronger Schools claiming that at-large candidate Amy Klein Molk replaced teachers with AI at her former company. Klein Molk said it’s not true.

Independent expenditure committees are sometimes referred to as “dark money.” That’s because some of the organizations that fund them don’t have to disclose their donors.

Denver Families Action has contributed $895,000 to Better Leaders, Stronger Schools this year, campaign finance records show. Critics, including Denver Classroom Teachers Association President Rob Gould, paint those dollars as coming from “out-of-state billionaires.”

Denver Families Action has received funding from City Fund Action, which is the political arm of an organization called the City Fund, the vice president of a public affairs and political consulting firm that works with the City Fund said. The City Fund has in the past been funded by Netflix founder Reed Hastings and Texas philanthropist John Arnold, both of whom sit on the boards of the City Fund and City Fund Action.

Local donors have also given money to Better Leaders, Stronger Schools this year, campaign finance records show. Billionaire Phil Anschutz gave $40,000. David Younggren, a former oil and gas executive, gave $15,000. Kent Thiry, the multimillionaire former CEO of dialysis provider DaVita, contributed $350,000 in 2023 but hasn’t given this year.

Dan Aschkinasi, the registered agent for Better Leaders, Stronger Schools, said the committee attracted donations from more individual donors this year than in 2023. However, campaign finance records show most of this year’s donations are smaller.

“A lot of people are rooting for us to set a marker in these education races,” Aschkinasi said. “This is kids’ education we’re talking about here. If you can do that through getting new leadership in and the right leaders, it’s worth every penny.”

Other unions are giving to Denver and vice versa

The spending by Students Deserve Better has been in support of the four candidates endorsed by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association: Klein Molk for the at-large seat, Xóchitl Gaytán in District 2, Torres in District 3, and Monica Hunter in District 4. The committee has also run attack ads against Magaña in the at-large race and del Hierro in the District 2 race.

Students Deserve Better gets its money from the statewide Colorado Education Association and spends it in school board races across Colorado, including in Denver. The statewide union and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association also give money directly to the candidates.

DCTA has given about $25,000 to each of the four candidates it endorsed. So has CEA.

The unions’ money comes from teachers’ dues, Gould said. Teachers can request that their dues not go toward political causes, but Gould said he expects fewer than 100 of the Denver union’s more than 3,800 members to do so this year. That number includes teachers who are not U.S. citizens; the union doesn’t use their dues for political causes, he said.

This year, other local teachers unions have also given money to the Denver candidates. The teachers unions in Jeffco Public Schools, Littleton Public Schools, Adams 12 Five Star Schools, Cherry Creek School District, and St. Vrain Valley Schools gave between $1,000 and $2,000 to all or some of the union-endorsed candidates in Denver, records show.

Gould said it’s a new strategy born out of monthly meetings with the presidents of the metro teachers unions to fight back against out-of-state money trying to “infiltrate” local elections.

“The same fight here in Denver is the same fight in Colorado Springs, in Woodland Park, in Jefferson County,” Gould said.

Denver is doing it, too. The Denver teachers union gave $4,000 each to two union-endorsed candidates in Jeffco, $2,500 each to two candidates in Cherry Creek, $2,000 each to two candidates in Adams 12, $2,000 to a candidate in Littleton, $1,000 to a candidate in 27J Schools in Brighton, and $400 each to two candidates in Pueblo School District 60.

Correction, Oct. 31: This story has been updated to reflect that City Fund Action, not the City Fund, gives money to Denver Families Action.

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

Some Denver school board members ‘disappointed’ in Youngquist’s response to bias investigation

2025-10-30T01:31:05+00:00

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Denver school board members said Wednesday that they were heartbroken, disappointed, and discouraged by what they perceived as member John Youngquist not accepting accountability for his behavior toward school district staff of color.

“I don’t hear any acknowledgement in your words,” board Vice President Marlene De La Rosa said to Youngquist at a public meeting to discuss the findings of an outside investigation into his behavior. “I thought that I knew you to be a different person than that.”

But the board did not censure Youngquist. Board President Carrie Olson said members will address the issue again on Nov. 13, at which time they could decide to vote on a censure.

The purpose of Wednesday’s meeting was to discuss the investigation’s findings that Youngquist more likely than not engaged in “belittling, dismissive, and condescending behavior” toward some DPS staff and exhibited bias in interactions with some district leaders of color.

The investigation, which included interviews with 28 people, was inconclusive on whether Youngquist’s behavior was deliberate.

The discussion happened less than a week before voters will decide the fate of four school board seats. Youngquist’s seat is not on the ballot. The longtime educator and former principal of Denver’s East High School was elected in 2023 to a four-year term.

Youngquist told his fellow board members that while he understands he has unconscious biases and can do better, the accusations that he treated staff of color poorly were “a personal and professional attack on me” meant to damage his credibility, in part because he will be a witness in at least one school safety-related lawsuit against Denver Public Schools.

“I will be undeterred to testify truthfully,” Youngquist said.

Youngquist noted that the investigation found no evidence of “overt racism,” such as the use of slurs. He said he offered to meet with two people who were reportedly offended by his behavior, but he doesn’t know who else felt that way because the report doesn’t include names. For that reason, Youngquist said, “a blanket level of accountability is not something that makes a great deal of sense to me.”

Board member Michelle Quattlebaum, who is Black, held back tears as she told Youngquist that while he may have meant well with his behavior, “that wasn’t the impact.”

“The person that causes the harm has the responsibility and the duty to repair that harm,” Quattlebaum said. “And what breaks my heart is I didn’t hear accountability. And if there’s not accountability, restoration cannot happen.”

Board member Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, who is Latina, said white people rarely have to be accountable for the harm they cause. Youngquist is white.

“I believe that white people never learn, never had to, never will have to unless they choose to, bear witness to the pain that people of color deal with due to the racism, biases, and microaggressions that impact us,” Gaytán said.

No board members rejected the findings of the investigation. But member Kimberlee Sia said the report included “mixed perspectives from staff and other witnesses who did experience inappropriate conduct and others who did not have the same experience.”

Sia said the report is an opportunity for the board to strengthen how it poses questions so members can “get better at asking and receiving tough questions and tough answers.”

The 29-page investigative report by the Denver law firm Garnett Powell Maximon Barlow & Farbes describes Youngquist as a board member who feels it’s his responsibility to ask questions.

“Mr. Youngquist described himself as interested in ensuring transparency and engaging critically at a level that allows him as a board member to understand what is going on, question what results mean, and not just be ‘responsive to and led by the superintendent,’” the report says.

The board first raised concerns about Youngquist’s behavior in December, when three board members accused him of “behavior unbecoming of a board member towards DPS staff.” Youngquist’s fellow board members chastised him for that behavior at a public meeting in January, but did not disclose details of what he was alleged to have done.

In April, Superintendent Alex Marrero wrote a letter to board President Carrie Olson asking that the board censure Youngquist. Marrero accused Youngquist of “belittling, dismissive, and condescending behavior toward district staff, especially employees of color,” among other allegations.

Marrero said Youngquist’s behavior “aligns with someone who is threatened by diverse leadership and equity-centered progress.” Marrero, who is Afro-Latino, wrote that Youngquist has “an obsession” with removing him as superintendent.

Youngquist has said that he does not want to be superintendent. He applied once, in 2021, and did not get the position. Marrero was hired instead.

In May, the board ordered an investigation into the allegations against Youngquist.

Several witnesses told investigators that Youngquist addresses staff of color in a “‘nice nasty’ tone” and implies that they don’t know how to do their jobs, the report says.

Witnesses also said Youngquist ignores staff of color, cancels meetings with them, or raises his voice when speaking with them. One board member said Youngquist “immediately goes to a place of distrust instead of professional courtesy,” the report says.

Youngquist said in a statement Monday that the investigation was retaliatory and he intends “to take legal action at the appropriate time.”

The board last investigated one of its own members in 2021. The board censured then-member Auon’tai Anderson after the investigation found he flirted with a student on social media and made posts that could be perceived as intimidating to witnesses in the investigation.

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

Ad claims Denver school board candidate replaced teachers with AI, but candidate says it’s not true

2025-10-28T23:34:38+00:00

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An attack ad in this year’s Denver school board election claims that candidate Amy Klein Molk replaced teachers at her former company with artificial intelligence.

The organization behind the ad says it’s highlighting for voters what Klein Molk has said in the past. Klein Molk says the ad is a lie that takes her words out of context.

Klein Molk is running for an at-large seat on the Denver school board. That seat, which represents the entire city, is one of four up for grabs on Nov. 4. The election could shift the political majority on the board of Colorado’s largest school district, which has been controlled for the past six years by members backed by the teachers union.

Klein Molk was endorsed by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. She is the mother of two Denver Public Schools students and worked last year as a special education paraprofessional at Denver’s Park Hill Elementary School.

Before that, Klein Molk worked in the entertainment industry and founded an educational technology company called Beanstalk. The company launched in 2020 and provided free live, virtual lessons over Zoom for children ages 3 to 6.

Klein Molk said the lessons were developed by experts who held doctorate degrees in early childhood development and delivered by content creators and actors. In some media interviews and promotional videos from the time, Klein Molk referred to the people delivering the lessons as teachers. But she told Chalkbeat that the content creators were not licensed teachers.

A mailer, digital ad, and website funded by a group that’s supporting Klein Molk’s opponent say Klein Molk decided to fire all of the teachers at Beanstalk and replace them with AI. The website links to a podcast on which Klein Molk told the host that she let the Beanstalk production staff go in order to fund “a pivot with AI.”

On the podcast, Klein Molk described the pivot as “creating AI-powered real-time animated kids’ characters” that would allow preschoolers to “interact and engage with a character who talks back, who sees them, who hears them.” She said the pivot was needed because preschoolers were returning to in-person learning and could no longer join the live lessons during the day.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Klein Molk said Beanstalk folded in late 2022, and the AI pivot never happened.

The podcast was a “hopes and dreams conversation,” Klein Molk said, in which she was “talking about an opportunity to pivot, which as an entrepreneur and as somebody who never gives up, there’s always hope that maybe you’re going to find the answer so you can live one more day. Unfortunately for me, and 90% of other startups, that was the end. We didn’t live another day.”

Klein Molk said the attack ad uses clips from the podcast to take what she said out of context. The ad uses a clip of Klein Molk saying she “was really proud” and implies that’s how she felt after letting staff members at Beanstalk go. On the podcast, Klein Molk said she was proud of her failures because failure is how people learn and grow.

The mailer, ad, and website were funded by an independent expenditure committee called Better Leaders, Stronger Schools. The mailer says of Klein Molk and her previous comments on AI that “Denver teachers and students deserve better.”

Better Leaders, Stronger Schools is largely funded by an advocacy group called Denver Families Action. That group has endorsed Klein Molk’s opponent, Alex Magaña, who is a longtime educator and the executive principal of two middle schools in Denver.

Dan Aschkinasi, the registered agent for Better Leaders, Stronger Schools, said that the committee took Klein Molk’s own words and amplified them for voters.

“I think it’s important for voters to know what these candidates have done in their past and what their decisions have been in pressure situations related to budgeting and the direction of an entity,” Aschkinasi said.

“I can’t think of a more interesting time in education right now to be having this discussion of when push comes to shove related to AI technologies and how you’ve used them and what you’ve done,” he said.

Klein Molk said the ad and mailer are “dark money lies that are fueled by out-of-state billionaires who are pouring money into this race.”

Denver Families Action has received funding from an organization called City Fund Action, which is the political arm of an organization called the City Fund, the vice president of a public affairs and political consulting firm that works with the City Fund said. The City Fund has in the past been funded by Netflix founder Reed Hastings and Texas philanthropist John Arnold, both of whom sit on the boards of the City Fund and City Fund Action.

Campaign finance reports show Better Leaders, Stronger Schools has spent more than $120,000 on ads and mailers opposing Klein Molk. Students Deserve Better, an independent expenditure committee funded by teachers unions, has spent $100,000 on an ad opposing Magaña. Independent expenditure committees cannot coordinate with the candidates.

Correction, Oct. 31: This story has been updated to reflect that City Fund Action, not the City Fund, has given money to Denver Families Action.

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

Investigation finds Denver school board member John Youngquist likely exhibited bias

2025-10-28T02:48:41+00:00

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An independent investigation found that Denver school board member John Youngquist more likely than not engaged in “belittling, dismissive, and condescending behavior” toward some Denver Public Schools staff members and exhibited bias in interactions with some district leaders of color, according to a summary released Monday.

However, the investigation was inconclusive on whether Youngquist’s behavior toward the district leaders was deliberate, the summary says.

The Denver school board is set to meet Wednesday to discuss the full report, which was produced by the Denver law firm Garnett Powell Maximon Barlow & Farbes. In a statement Monday, board President Carrie Olson said she will carefully review the findings. She described this moment as a “difficult and consequential” one for the board.

Youngquist said in a statement Monday that he may take legal action. He said his attorney sent a letter to the investigator and the school board’s attorney “articulating our concerns about the investigation and the context on why it was being conducted.” He said that context suggests “a retaliatory motive for which I intend to take legal action at the appropriate time.”

Youngquist’s statement said his attorney advised him not to comment further.

The announcement of the findings comes a week before voters decide the fate of four school board seats. Youngquist’s seat is not among those on the ballot. The longtime educator and former principal of Denver’s East High School was elected in 2023 to a four-year term.

In an April letter to Olson, Superintendent Alex Marrero accused Youngquist of “belittling, dismissive, and condescending behavior toward district staff, especially employees of color,” among other allegations. Marrero asked that the board censure Youngquist.

In May, the board ordered an investigation into the allegations against Youngquist.

In his letter, Marrero wrote that Youngquist’s behavior was “destructive” and “aligns with someone who is threatened by diverse leadership and equity-centered progress.”

Marrero also accused Youngquist of wanting to harm the school district “in pursuit of personal ambition.” Marrero wrote that Youngquist has “an obsession” with removing him as superintendent.

Youngquist has said that he does not want to be superintendent. He applied once, in 2021, and did not get the position. Marrero was hired instead.

The 29-page report describes a board member who says it’s his responsibility to ask tough questions and staff members of color who say the way he asks those questions is hostile and condescending.

Investigators conducted 28 interviews, including with Youngquist and Marrero, 18 current and two former district employees, and the other six school board members. Other than Marrero and Youngquist, the witnesses are not identified by name in the report.

Several witnesses said Youngquist treats staff of color differently than white staff, addressing staff of color in a “‘nice nasty’ tone” and implying that they don’t know how to do their jobs.

Youngquist told investigators that the questions he asks are appropriate.

In a letter to the board Monday, Marrero said he was “deeply disappointed” by the findings of the investigation but not surprised, according to a copy of the letter provided to Chalkbeat.

“The details outlined in the report confirm what many have experienced firsthand: a sustained pattern of behavior that is both damaging and unacceptable in any professional environment. No one should be expected to work under such conditions,” Marrero wrote to the board.

Youngquist was one of two board members who voted in May against extending Marrero’s contract and making it more difficult to fire him. Youngquist said he voted against extending the contract because he disagreed with the timeline. Under the contract, the board had until Jan. 1 to decide whether to extend it. Youngquist said he supported waiting.

Fellow board members had raised concerns about Youngquist’s behavior before Marrero wrote his letter. In December, three board members accused Youngquist of “behavior unbecoming of a board member towards DPS staff” but did not discuss any details.

Youngquist previously said that he knows of three instances in which DPS staff of color said they took offense at something he said or did. But he said his conduct wasn’t deliberate.

“I’ve worked in diverse communities of color over the course of 30-plus years in Denver and beyond,” Youngquist told Chalkbeat in May. “I know and understand the importance of listening to people.”

The board discussed Youngquist’s behavior in vague terms during a January public meeting. Board members told Youngquist his behavior was disappointing and questioned whether he was taking accountability. Youngquist said he appreciated their feedback and committed to following district policy on board member conduct.

That meeting occurred after Youngquist accused the board of violating open meetings laws. Youngquist said he was improperly excluded from a closed-door executive session where the board discussed state pension rules that limit how much former district employees like him can be paid by the district for official school board duties.

The investigation found that Youngquist’s behavior “has not changed despite it being noted in public and private settings by staff and board members,” according to the summary.

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

Denver school board election 2025: Where the 11 candidates agree and disagree

2025-10-27T20:14:41+00:00

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It can be hard to tell the difference between school board candidates in a heavily Democratic city like Denver. The 11 candidates vying for seats this year agree that book bans are bad, all-gender restrooms are good, and schools need more funding.

But there is disagreement among the candidates on whether they think Denver Public Schools is headed in the right direction and whether Superintendent Alex Marrero is doing a good job. And those disagreements often fall along familiar lines, with candidates backed by the teachers union on one side and those backed by organizations tied to charter schools on the other.

Four seats on the seven-member Denver school board are up for grabs on Nov. 4. One is an at-large seat representing the entire city. The other three seats represent specific regions of the city. The election could change the political makeup of the board, which has been controlled for the past six years by members backed by the teachers union.

It’s a key time for the district, which faces declining enrollment, the possibility of more school closures, pressure to raise state test scores, and ultimatums from the Trump administration.

The political lines have blurred over the years and some candidates walk closer to the middle than others. But as much as advocates claim that education reform is dead in Denver and the us-versus-them is over, the hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent by outside groups to support one slate of candidates or the other suggests otherwise.

Spending by teachers unions and pro-charter groups has already topped $1.2 million, according to campaign finance reports, with the pro-charter groups outspending the unions 3 to 1.

How can voters differentiate between the candidates? We combed through interview notes, footage from debates and forums, and the candidates’ answers to Chalkbeat’s questionnaire to summarize where they agree and disagree.

The candidates disagree on Marrero’s performance

Candidates Alex Magaña, Mariana del Hierro, Caron Blanke, Timiya Jackson, and Jeremy Harris gave the lowest marks to Marrero in Chalkbeat’s questionnaire.

Magaña, del Hierro, Blanke, and Jackson have been endorsed by Denver Families Action, a deep-pocketed advocacy group with ties to charter schools.

“In terms of Latinx students’ academic performance and outcomes, I don’t think that the superintendent is doing a good job,” del Hierro said at an October debate co-hosted by Chalkbeat, CBS Colorado, and the advocacy group Educate Denver.

The most recent standardized test scores, from this past spring, show 25% of Latino students in grades three through eight met or exceeded state expectations in literacy, compared to 75% of white students. More than half of DPS students are Latino.

Candidates Scott Esserman, Michelle Quattlebaum, Amy Klein Molk, Xóchitl Gaytán, and Donald “DJ” Torres gave Marrero the highest marks in Chalkbeat’s questionnaire.

“Superintendent Dr. Alex Marrero identifies as an Afro-Latino, bilingual in Spanish,” Gaytán said at the debate. “When he shows up to my district and he’s speaking to the children, he’s speaking to them in Spanish. And the children get really lit up and so excited and so happy.”

Klein Molk, Gaytán, and Torres are endorsed by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. Gaytán, Esserman, and Quattlebaum are current board members who have supported Marrero and voted to extend his contract. Gaytán also voted to give him a raise.

Candidate Monica Hunter, who was also endorsed by the teachers union, gave the superintendent a middling score in Chalkbeat’s questionnaire. But she was critical of both the current board and the superintendent in the debate co-hosted by Chalkbeat.

“Many candidates will try and gaslight you to make you feel like things are going great,” Hunter said. “We can do better, he can do better, and I will do better.”

The candidates hold different views on charter schools

Marrero was hired in 2021 by a union-backed school board. The union has not been friendly to charter schools, which some see as competing with traditional district-run schools for students and the per-pupil dollars that allow them to hire more staff and offer more programming.

Marrero has not championed charter schools either, recommending that low-performing charters be closed and new ones be blocked from opening as DPS’ enrollment declines.

Of the candidates, Gaytán has been the most critical of charter schools and school choice, which allows students to apply to attend any public school they want. She has called charter schools “privately run schools backed by dark money or profit motives” and has fought to prevent charters from opening in empty district buildings.

Hunter and Klein Molk have said they would prioritize investing in district-run schools.

“If a charter school is not serving all students equitably or is draining resources from neighborhood schools, that’s a problem,” Klein Molk wrote in Chalkbeat’s questionnaire.

Torres said in the questionnaire that the board should take “a firm role” in overseeing charter schools and even consider closing charters that are not serving students equitably.

Incumbents Esserman and Quattlebaum responded to questions about charter schools by criticizing the questions themselves as divisive and unhelpful.

“This question is about adult issues and not kid issues,” Esserman said at the debate co-hosted by Chalkbeat. “Kids don’t care whether they go to a charter, whether they go to an innovation school, or whether they go to a district-run school.”

Magaña, Jackson, and Harris have often struck a middle ground, noting that charter schools are part of the mix in DPS but must be held accountable to serving students well.

Jackson has worked at charter schools and was on the board of Academy 360, a Denver charter that the superintendent recommended closing for low test scores but the school board voted to keep open. Magaña is the executive principal of two Denver innovation schools, which are district-run schools with some charter-like autonomy.

Blanke has been strongest in her support of charter schools. She has repeatedly said that standardized test scores show charter schools do a better job of educating students of color.

According to district data, district-run schools outperformed charter schools overall on state standardized tests this past spring. An independent analysis by the advocacy group Denver Families for Public Schools found that when it comes to traditionally underserved students, charters performed “above or on par with other school types.”

The candidates would approach school closures differently

School closures are another controversial issue where some candidates disagree. Most of the candidates have said they oppose closing schools due to low test scores or low enrollment. That includes the three incumbents — Gaytán, Esserman, and Quattlebaum — who voted to close schools for low enrollment last year. All three said such closures should be a “last resort.”

But Blanke and del Hierro said in Chalkbeat’s questionnaire that they would close schools for those reasons. “The reality is that we are facing declining enrollment in the district and there are schools that are not educating students at the proficiency levels they should,” Blanke wrote.

At a forum hosted by the Denver Democrats, del Hierro held up a printout of the state ratings for the schools in southwest Denver, the region she is vying to represent. Most schools were rated red, which is the lowest on the state’s color-coded scale.

“I think our southwest Denver kids deserve better,” she said at the forum.

The candidates vary on school police and cell phone bans

Most candidates have said they support police officers in schools. Two of the incumbents, Esserman and Quattlebaum, do not. Both voted against bringing back school resource officers after a spate of shootings in and around Denver’s East High School in 2023.

The candidates are also split on whether cell phones should be banned in schools. A new state law requires all Colorado school districts to enact policies regarding cell phone and smartwatch use by July 2026. DPS doesn’t currently have a districtwide policy.

Klein Molk, Blanke, Jackson, and Torres said in Chalkbeat’s questionnaire that cell phones should be banned in schools. The rest of the candidates are opposed to a ban. A recent study of a large urban school district in Florida found modest improvements in test scores in the second year of the district’s cell phone ban, after an increase in suspensions in the first year.

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

Mayor Mike Johnston endorses four candidates for Denver school board

2025-10-27T19:25:47+00:00

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Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has endorsed four candidates for Denver school board.

Johnston, a former educator, is backing:

Alex Magaña for an at-large seat representing the entire city.
Mariana del Hierro for a seat representing southwest Denver’s District 2.
Caron Blanke for a seat representing central-east Denver’s District 3.
Timiya Jackson for a seat representing northeast Denver’s District 4.

“These four leaders represent the bold, thoughtful and experienced leadership we need on the Denver school board,” Johnston said in a press release.

“They bring deep roots in our communities, a track record of putting students first, and a commitment to working in partnership with families, educators and the broader community to ensure every child in Denver has the opportunity to thrive,” he said.

Johnston was a principal in suburban Mapleton Public Schools and served as an education adviser to Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Before that, he taught in Mississippi for two years through Teach for America, a nonprofit that recruits college graduates to teach in low-income communities.

Johnston is also a former state senator who authored Colorado’s teacher effectiveness law and co-sponsored a bill that grants undocumented students in-state tuition.

Four seats on the seven-member Denver school board are up for grabs Nov. 4. The election comes at a key time for Denver Public Schools, which is facing declining enrollment, ultimatums from the Trump administration, and pressure to raise student achievement.

Political control of the school board is at stake. Board members backed by the Denver teachers union currently hold a majority, but the election could change that.

Johnston’s endorsements line up with those made by Denver Families Action, a deep-pocketed advocacy group with ties to charter schools. Campaign finance reports show an independent expenditure committee largely funded by Denver Families Action has already spent more than $900,000 in support of the candidates it endorsed and in opposition to those it didn’t.

This is the second time Johnston’s endorsements have mirrored those of Denver Families Action. In 2023, after calling the previous school board “a public embarrassment,” Johnston endorsed John Youngquist, Kimberlee Sia, and Marlene De La Rosa. All three won.

The Denver Classroom Teachers Association has endorsed a different slate of candidates this year: Amy Klein Molk for the at-large seat, incumbent Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán in District 2, Donald “DJ” Torres in District 3, and Monica Hunter in District 4.

Three candidates have not been endorsed by either group or by Johnston: newcomer Jeremy Harris, incumbent Michelle Quattlebaum, and incumbent Scott Esserman.

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

Guía del votante: Candidatos para el consejo escolar de Denver 2025

2025-10-24T03:16:46+00:00

Read in English.

Los votantes elegirán a cuatro integrantes del consejo escolar de Denver el 4 de noviembre.

Once candidatos se han postulado para cuatro puestos. Las Escuelas Públicas de Denver (DPS, por sus siglas en inglés) forman el distrito escolar más grande en el estado, y las elecciones se realizarán en un momento clave. DPS está enfrentando disminuciones en la cantidad de estudiantes inscritos, amenazas del gobierno de Trump y presión para aumentar los logros de sus estudiantes.

El control político del consejo de siete integrantes está en juego. Integrantes del consejo respaldados por el sindicato de maestros de Denver actualmente forman la mayoría, pero las elecciones podrían cambiar eso.

La Asociación de Maestros de Salones de Clases en Denver ha respaldado a los candidatos Amy Klein Molk, Monica Hunter, Donald “DJ” Torres, y a la integrante actual del consejo Xóchitl Gaytán.

Una organización llamada Denver Families Action conectada a escuelas charter, ha respaldado a los candidatos Alex Magaña, Timiya Jackson, Caron Blanke y Mariana del Hierro.

Tres candidatos adicionales — los integrantes actuales Scott Esserman y Michelle Quattlebaum y el recién llegado Jeremy Harris — no han sido respaldados por ninguna de esas dos organizaciones.

Para ayudar a los votantes a tomar sus decisiones, Chalkbeat les envió a todos los candidatos la misma serie de preguntas. Sus respuestas aparecen a continuación.

Importante: La excandidata Deborah Sims Fard abandonó su candidatura, pero su nombre igual aparecerá en la boleta electoral. Los votos a favor de Sims Fard no se contarán.

Pregunta: ¿Cuál es el mayor problema que DPS enfrenta y cómo lo abordarías?

Amy Klein Molk: DPS está perdiendo la confianza de las familias y educadores, y esa pérdida de confianza está alimentando la disminución de [estudiantes inscritos], ampliando las brechas del logro y fragmentando comunidades. Reestablecer la confianza, a través de fuertes escuelas en los vecindarios, apoyando a los educadores, la participación comunitaria constante y la equidad en el centro de cada decisión, es la base para resolver todo y cada desafío.

Alex Magaña: El mayor problema que DPS enfrenta son las inequidades en el logro estudiantil. Debemos establecer metas claras para cada grupo de estudiantes y apoyar a los maestros que ayudan a que los estudiantes crezcan. En Grant Beacon, usamos datos en tiempo real y la colaboración de los maestros para aumentar los resultados de preparación entre todos los grupos. Traeré ese mismo enfoque al distrito—metas claras, decisiones impulsadas por datos y apoyo a maestros para que cada estudiante triunfe.

Mariana del Hierro: El problema más apremiante que enfrentamos es la falta de voces comunitarias significativas en la toma de decisiones, lo cual alimenta directamente otros desafíos como los salones con demasiados estudiantes y las brechas que persisten en el logro. Cuando las familias, los educadores y los líderes comunitarios son excluidos de las conversaciones, terminamos con normas que no reflejan lo que nuestros estudiantes realmente necesitan. Lucharé por un proceso participativo en la toma de decisiones, procesos de planeación transparentes y estructuras comunitarias para rendir cuentas. Cuando centramos las voces comunitarias, no solo fortalecemos la confianza, sino que también fortalecemos mejores resultados para los niños.

El consejo actual no ha logrado fortalecer la confianza. Limitar los comentarios públicos e ignorar las opiniones daña la credibilidad del Consejo con las comunidades que atiende. Abogaré a favor de foros escolares, sesiones en español, materiales accesibles y calendarios transparentes. Necesitamos reestablecer la confianza de la comunidad al interactuar desde el principio, escuchar profundamente, y actuar con responsabilidad. Todos merecen que los escuchen con respeto y sin obstáculos.

Xóchitl Gaytán: El mayor desafío que DPS enfrenta es asegurar que cada estudiante triunfe, sin importar su origen o código postal. Con la mitad de nuestros 90,000 estudiantes identificándose como latinos/mexicanos/chicanos—muchos bilingües o multilingües—debemos fortalecer la Educación Multilingüe y remover los obstáculos a oportunidades.

Mis prioridades son claras:

Primero, ampliar los servicios envolventes como los Centros Comunitarios que proporcionan comida, ropa, clases de GED y tutoría. Apoyar al niño entero aumenta los logros—nuestras tasas de graduación lo comprueban.

Segundo, fortalecer las Escuelas Comunitarias, donde los maestros, padres y estudiantes comparten la responsabilidad por el éxito de los estudiantes.

Tercero, luchar por fondos sostenibles. Los recortes federales amenazan puestos cruciales como de los ayudantes de maestros y maestros de educación especial. Estoy abogando a cada nivel para proteger a las escuelas de los vecindarios contra los cierres y la privatización.

Cuarto, asegurar la seguridad y salud mental. He ampliado las colaboraciones de salud mental, apoyado la capacitación para responder ante ICE, y reinstituido a los Agentes de Recursos Escolares con la opinión de la comunidad.

Estas estrategias funcionan—mi objetivo es protegerlas y ampliarlas para cada estudiante de Denver.

Caron Blanke: Los resultados académicos son inferiores, especialmente entre estudiantes desaventajados económicamente y estudiantes de color. La salud mental y seguridad deben abordarse para aumentar los resultados académicos. El consejo debe proporcionar una supervisión más fuerte del superintendente y hacer que rinda cuentas. Las familias han perdido la confianza debido a la falta de transparencia y el acceso limitado a datos. Sus comentarios deben valorarse y usarse en la toma de decisiones del distrito. No podemos mejorar el desempeño académico hasta que reestablezcamos una buena y sana gobernanza del consejo y la responsabilidad del superintendente. Primero, el consejo debe insistir en el acceso total y oportuno a todos los datos clave y monitorear regularmente el progreso. Segundo, los integrantes del consejo deben deshacerse de sus intenciones personales y unirse en torno a los resultados de los estudiantes, resistiéndose contra cualquier presión que socave sus responsabilidades. Finalmente, el consejo debe establecer metas claras de desempeño para el superintendente, con consecuencias por metas no alcanzadas—la claridad y consecuencias impulsarán las mejoras verdaderas.

Scott Esserman: Debemos asegurar que cada estudiante reciba una educación excepcional que lo prepare para su futuro. Estamos orgullosos de que Denver sea uno de los pocos distritos urbanos grandes en el que los resultados de lectura de sus estudiantes hayan aumentado desde 2019, y la realidad es que las inequidades sistémicas siguen significando que demasiados de nuestros niños están subatendidos. Los elementos esenciales para aumentar los logros de los estudiantes son el acceso equitativo a planes de estudios comprobados con una excelente enseñanza. Bajo mi liderazgo, DPS implementó un nuevo plan de estudios de lectoescritura para kindergarten a 5º grado basado en la ciencia de la lectura, e invirtió en la tutoría de alto impacto para acelerar el aprendizaje. La solución reside en mantener y ampliar estas normas—asegurando que la lectoescritura temprana sea fuerte, para garantizar que cada graduado tenga una vía a la universidad o una carrera, y pagarles justamente a los educadores. Mi compromiso es mantener a los estudiantes en el centro de cada decisión a la vez que continuamos moviendo a Denver hacia adelante como un líder nacional.

Donald “DJ” Torres: El mayor problema que las Escuelas Públicas de Denver enfrentan es la falta de confianza y constancia en las decisiones de los líderes que directamente afectan a los estudiantes, familias y educadores. Por demasiado tiempo, las comunidades se han sentido excluidas de conversaciones cruciales sobre seguridad, personal y calidad de las escuelas. Esa desconexión socava la confianza en el sistema y hace que sea más difícil enfocarse en lo que más importa: el aprendizaje y bienestar de los estudiantes.

Abordaría esto al restablecer la confianza a través de la transparencia y participación comunitaria auténtica. Eso significa asegurar que las familias, los educadores y estudiantes tengan una verdadera voz en las prioridades del distrito y que las normas reflejen las experiencias vividas de los más afectados. Esto también significa liderar con estabilidad, centrando la seguridad, las escuelas fuertes en los vecindarios y fondos equitativos para que cada escuela tenga lo que necesita para apoyar a cada estudiante.

He liderado este tipo de cambio antes en DPS y el gobierno de la ciudad al crear procesos donde las comunidades moldearon las decisiones, no solo reaccionaron a ellas. En el consejo, seguiré haciendo lo que siempre he hecho: escuchar profundamente, comunicarme honestamente, y convertir las prioridades comunitarias en normas que fortalezcan nuestras escuelas públicas.

Jeremy Harris: El mayor problema que DPS enfrenta es la brecha persistente del logro porque demasiados estudiantes no están leyendo ni haciendo matemáticas a nivel de grado. Esta es una crisis de equidad y afecta las tasas de graduación, la salud mental y las oportunidades de los estudiantes después de la escuela. Abordaría esto al implementar completamente la lectoescritura estructurada basada en la ciencia de la lectura en cada escuela primaria, y al asegurar que los maestros tengan la capacitación que necesitan para enseñar bien. Ampliaría la tutoría de matemáticas en grupos pequeños durante el día escolar para reconstruir las habilidades básicas, y usaría los sistemas de advertencia temprana que monitoreen la asistencia, las calificaciones y el comportamiento para identificar a los estudiantes antes que se retrasen demasiado. DPS también debe proporcionar más personal de apoyo con el comportamiento para que los maestros se enfoquen en la enseñanza. Finalmente, el consejo debe establecer metas claras y evaluables para la lectoescritura, las matemáticas y la asistencia y hacer que el superintendente rienda cuentas a cada paso del camino para que las familias observen un verdadero progreso.

Monica Hunter: Los fondos son el mayor problema por mucho. Los fondos afectan el tamaño de las clases, la seguridad, el pago de los educadores y el dinero para la intervención en la lectura.

Timiya Jackson: El mayor problema es una crisis de confianza comunitaria. Las familias y los educadores se sienten excluidos de las decisiones, y los estudiantes pagan el precio cuando los líderes no rinden cuentas. Trabajaré para reestablecer esa confianza a través de la transparencia, comunicación clara y participación comunitaria. Eso significa publicar datos en palabras simples, organizar foros regularmente donde las familias y los educadores puedan compartir comentarios antes que se haga una votación, y asegurar que cada decisión sobre el presupuesto y las normas se conecten directamente con los resultados de los estudiantes. La confianza se gana al escuchar, cumplir y poner a los estudiantes primero.

Michelle Quattlebaum: El mayor problema que DPS enfrenta es proteger la equidad para que todos los estudiantes puedan triunfar. Durante mi tiempo en el consejo, aumentamos los salarios por hora a $20, aumentamos el pago de los maestros en más del 40% en cuatro años, priorizamos los apoyos para la salud mental, implementamos evaluaciones para detectar la dislexia, y establecimos los cimientos para implementar totalmente el Informe de la Dra. Sharon Bailey, abriendo el camino para la implementación del Informe La Raza y promoviendo la inclusión y pertenencia [de la comunidad] LGBTQ+. Estos pasos mejoran los resultados, pero el trabajo no se ha terminado. Seguiré haciendo que el Superintendente rienda cuentas para establecer estándares claros, asegurando que las normas sigan traduciéndose en progreso verdadero para los estudiantes y las familias.

Pregunta: DPS ha dado pasos para proteger a estudiantes contra medidas inmigratorias en la escuela, y hasta demandó al gobierno de Trump. ¿Cómo crees que el distrito debe abordar este asunto?

Amy Klein Molk: Las escuelas deben ser refugios seguros, no lugares de temor. Ningún niño debe preocuparse de que ir a clases lo pueda poner a él o a su familia en riesgo de detención o deportación. Apoyo los pasos que DPS ya ha dado, incluyendo la acción legal, para proteger a los estudiantes y familias contra medidas de inmigración en o cerca de escuelas.

En el futuro, creo que el distrito debe fortalecer las normas que limitan la cooperación con [agencias de] control de inmigración, asegurar que el personal esté capacitado sobre los derechos de los estudiantes, y seguir fortaleciendo la confianza con familias inmigrantes. Proteger a los estudiantes de esta forma no solo tiene que ver con normas, tiene que ver con equidad y asegurar que todo niño se sienta seguro, valorado y listo para aprender.

Alex Magaña: Aplaudo al distrito por resistirse ante el gobierno de Trump, y yo seguiría la lucha en el consejo. DPS debe continuar siendo un lugar seguro para cada estudiantes sin importar el estatus migratorio. Necesitamos ir más allá y educar a los padres, estudiantes y familias sobre sus derechos, proporcionarles comunicaciones y recursos claros, y asegurar que se sientan protegidos. Nuestro distrito debe seguir siendo un líder nacional en la defensa de las familias y nunca dar marcha atrás contra un bully.

Mariana del Hierro: Una escuela realmente segura es una donde los estudiantes están seguros físicamente, apoyados emocionalmente y libres para ser ellos mismos. En el sudoeste de Denver eso incluye la protección contra amenazas como las redadas de ICE. Porque estos riesgos están cambiando constantemente, necesitamos evaluar con regularidad nuestros planes de seguridad y comunicarnos clara y constantemente con las familias según van cambiando las situaciones.

Xóchitl Gaytán: Siempre he defendido—y siempre defenderé—valientemente a nuestros estudiantes y familias inmigrantes. Esto es personal: Nací en México, crucé la frontera cuando niña, y crecí en Denver durante las redadas de ICE en los años 1980. Conozco ese temor directamente.

DPS ahora prohíbe que ICE o las autoridades federales entren a escuelas sin una orden firmada por un juez y proporciona capacitación de respuesta ante ICE para que el personal proteja a los estudiantes. Apoyé colaboraciones que ofrecen cursos GRATIS de “Conoce tus derechos”, y voté para ejercer una acción legal contra políticas dañinas del gobierno federal—porque nuestros estudiantes merecen acción, no solo palabras.

Las escuelas deben ser refugios seguros donde ningún niño tema ir debido al estatus migratorio. A pesar de desafíos legales y políticos, sigo comprometida a [tener] normas fuertes de santuario y escuelas seguras que protejan a las familias contra la separación e intimidación.

Nuestros estudiantes inmigrantes merecen valentía y compasión. Siempre seré esa voz para su seguridad y dignidad.

Caron Blanke: Nunca permitiré que nuestras escuelas se conviertan en lugares donde los niños teman que los separen de sus familias. DPS debe tener normas claras y aplicables que eviten que ICE ponga un pie en un campus escolar sin una orden judicial, y cada integrante del personal debe estar capacitado sobre cómo responder si llegan agentes. También necesitamos protocolos de respuesta rápida para notificar a familias, socios y organizaciones comunitarias para que los estudiantes nunca estén aislados o sean vulnerables. Proteger a los niños contra el secuestro afuera de los salones no es política—es nuestra responsabilidad moral y legal de mantenerlos seguros y enfocados en aprender.

Scott Esserman: Las escuelas deben seguir siendo, absolutamente, refugios seguros. Ningún estudiante debe temer que salir del salón de clases pueda separarlo de su familia. Por eso me sentí orgulloso de unirme con mis colegas cuando DPS fue el primer distrito escolar en el país en demandar al gobierno de Trump por las acciones de ICE cerca de escuelas. Marcamos una línea en la arena: las escuelas son para aprender. Nuestro método en el futuro debe ser igual de audaz. Eso significa proporcionarle al personal capacitación sobre sus responsabilidades, reafirmando que no cooperamos con medidas inmigratorias, y seguir abogando a nivel nacional a favor de la protección de las familias inmigrantes. DPS debe seguir invirtiendo en apoyos—traducción, colaboraciones de ayuda legal y servicios informados por el trauma—para que los estudiantes inmigrantes no solo estén seguros sino puedan prosperar. Para mí, esto no es solo una postura política. Es un compromiso moral: cada niño, sin importar su origen o estatus migratorio, merece aprender en paz.

Donald “DJ” Torres: DPS debe continuar manteniéndose firme para proteger a los estudiantes y familias contra las acciones inmigratorias en o cerca de escuelas. Cada niño merece sentirse seguro en la escuela, sin importar su estatus migratorio, y esa seguridad es esencial para aprender y pertenecer. Las escuelas deben seguir siendo espacios a donde los estudiantes y familias puedan venir sin miedo.

El distrito debe mantener y fortalecer las normas de “Zonas seguras”, asegurando que no haya cooperación con las agencias de inmigración en propiedades escolares a menos que la ley lo requiera. También debe continuar proporcionándole orientación clara al personal sobre cómo responder si se aparecen agentes [de inmigración], para que los estudiantes estén protegidos y las familias informadas.

Más allá de las normas, DPS debe seguir fortaleciendo relaciones con familias inmigrantes y refugiadas a través de la comunicación multilingüe, la participación familiar culturalmente sensible, y las colaboraciones con organizaciones comunitarias que ofrecen apoyo legal y social.

Como alguien que se ha parado en puertas de las escuelas para proteger a las familias contra amenazas de inmigración, sé que es crucial que DPS no solo diga que protege a todos los estudiantes, sino que lo demuestre a través de acciones constantes y valientes.

Jeremy Harris: Las escuelas siempre deben ser lugares seguros para aprender, no lugares donde los estudiantes vivan con temor de acciones inmigratorias. Apoyo que DPS continúe dando pasos para proteger a los estudiantes contra acciones inmigratorias en campus [escolares], incluyendo normas claras que limiten el acceso de ICE en las escuelas a menos que presenten una orden judicial. El distrito debe seguir capacitando a los directores y empleados sobre cómo responder si [agentes] de inmigración solicitan información o entran a una propiedad escolar para que los procedimientos se cumplan y los derechos de los estudiantes se protejan. La comunicación con las familias es esencial. Las escuelas deben asegurarles que sus hijos están protegidos y que la información compartida con la escuela [es confidencial]. Más allá de las protecciones legales, el distrito debe continuar proporcionando acceso en el lenguaje, recursos de salud mental y colaboraciones comunitarias para apoyar a las familias inmigrantes. Cada niño, sin importar su estatus migratorio, merece asistir a la escuela sin temor y capaz de enforcase en aprender.

Monica Hunter: Me siento orgullosa de estar en un distrito que está resistiendo los ataques malignos del gobierno de Trump. Las escuelas deben asegurar que nuestras familias tengan acceso a cursos de “Conoce tus derechos” en múltiples idiomas. Nuestro personal de recepción es la primera línea de defensa además de la seguridad escolar—debemos asegurar que se sientan apoyados y seguros para defender a los niños y familias. No es suficiente decir y declarar una vez que nos resistiremos; debe repetirse continuamente. Debemos unirnos con otros estados y organizaciones comunitarias para demandar, y también crear coaliciones y elevar a las coaliciones que ya están realizando el trabajo.

Timiya Jackson: Las escuelas deben seguir siendo refugios seguros donde cada estudiante pueda aprender sin temor. Eso significa continuar las protecciones fuertes contra acciones inmigratorias en propiedades escolares, proporcionar comunicación clara a familias sobre sus derechos, y asegurar que el personal esté capacitado para responder apropiadamente. Ningún niño debe distraerse de su aprendizaje porque está preocupado sobre la seguridad de su familia. Proteger a los estudiantes inmigrantes no es solo sobre derechos legales. Creo en asegurar la equidad [y] dignidad y proporcionar un entorno donde cada niño pueda prosperar en salones de clases de DPS.

Michelle Quattlebaum: La seguridad de los estudiantes no es negociable. Orgullosamente apoyé la postura de DPS contra el gobierno de Trump para proteger a los estudiantes inmigrantes y sus familias. He trabajado con legisladores a nivel federal, estatal y local para promover las protecciones de nuestros estudiantes, y he asegurado que nuestras normas lo dejen en claro: las escuelas son refugios seguros donde las acciones de inmigración no se permiten. También he abogado a favor de la capacitación del personal, para que los educadores sepan cómo responder y proteger a las familias, además de ampliar el acceso a la capacitación sobre “Conoce tus derechos”. Nuestros Centros Comunitarios desempeñan un papel vital para conectar a las familias con estos apoyos. Ningún niño debe tener miedo de ir a la escuela. Nuestra responsabilidad es asegurar que cada estudiante, sin importar su estatus migratorio, pueda aprender, crecer y pertenecer en un entorno seguro y alentador. Seguiré luchando por protecciones fuertes para que las familias sepan que DPS se mantiene firmemente con ellos.

Pregunta: El consejo escolar quizás tenga que decidir que se cierre una escuela porque tiene pocos estudiantes inscritos o por bajos resultados en sus pruebas. ¿Cerrarías una escuela por cualquiera de esas razones? ¿Por qué sí o por qué no?

Amy Klein Molk: No creo que solo los resultados bajos en pruebas o pocos estudiantes inscritos sean razones para cerrar una escuela. Estos son síntomas de desafíos más profundos; como recursos no equitativos, falta de apoyos integrales, o familias que están perdiendo la confianza en el distrito. [Estos] no son problemas que puedan resolverse al cerrar las puertas. Los cierres escolares históricamente han tenido un impacto más fuerte en comunidades de color, profundizando más la brecha del logro y mandando un mensaje de que esas familias importan menos.

Mi prioridad es fortalecer nuestras escuelas en los vecindarios para que cada familia sienta la confianza de inscribir a su hijo cerca de su hogar. Eso significa invertir en los educadores, asegurando que las escuelas tengan los recursos para cubrir las diversas necesidades de sus estudiantes, e [informando] desde temprano y honestamente a las familias sobre los desafíos. Si los cierres son en algún momento inevitables, la decisión debe tomarse de forma transparente, con contribuciones comunitarias auténticas, y solo después de que cada opción de reinvertir en y reimaginar la escuela se haya intentado.

Alex Magaña: No me apresuraría a cerrar escuelas. Empezaría por trabajar con la comunidad para entender los desafíos y explorar soluciones juntos. Debemos pensar en el futuro y trabajar con la comunidad, ciudad y los educadores en las escuelas afectadas para asegurar que tengan los apoyos necesarios para los estudiantes. Todos los factores deben tomarse en cuenta, incluyendo [el nivel] académico, el número de estudiantes inscritos, el impacto en la comunidad y posibles opciones. Cuando la gente forma parte del proceso, es más probable que confíen en el resultado si es una decisión difícil. Si un cierre se convierte en algo necesario, debe ser bien pensado y enfocado en lo que viene después para los estudiantes y familias, no solo en el edifico que queda atrás.

Mariana del Hierro: Creo que las escuelas son el corazón de nuestras comunidades, así que cualquier decisión de cerrar una debe tomarse con gran cuidado y transparencia. Estas son decisiones increíblemente difíciles, pero el consejo tiene la responsabilidad de asegurar que cada estudiante tenga acceso a una educación de alta calidad.

En lo relacionado con los bajos resultados en pruebas, mi primera pregunta sería: ¿qué apoyos e intervenciones se han proporcionado a esta escuela? Y, ¿cuánto hemos avanzado con esos esfuerzos? Antes de considerar un cierre, debemos implementar cualquier opción para fortalecer los resultados académicos—a través de recursos adicionales, apoyo para maestros y participación de las familias.

Que haya pocos estudiantes inscritos, por otro lado, con frecuencia es un reflejo de cambios demográficos en general más allá del control de la escuela. Sin embargo, cómo nos comunicamos con las familias está bajo nuestro control. Me aseguraría de que la comunicación empiece desde temprano, suceda con frecuencia, y sea transparente—mucho antes que el cierre [sea una posible opción]. Las familias merecen ser socias informadas para moldear el futuro de las escuelas en sus vecindarios.

Xóchitl Gaytán: La disminución de estudiantes inscritos en el sudoeste de Denver no está sucediendo de manera aislada—está siendo impulsada por escuelas charter que están agotando los recursos de las escuelas públicas sin tener que rendir cuentas, la gentrificación y décadas de desinversión. Cerrar escuelas solo profundiza estos problemas. Por eso luché para mantener los edificios públicos para escuelas administradas por el distrito. Cuando los estudiantes mayormente latinos/mexicanos/chicanos en Summit Academy estaban aprendiendo en un antiguo banco apretado, trabajé con el superintendente y el consejo para moverlos al edificio de la Escuela Primaria Castro—dándoles una verdadera cafetería, gimnasio y espacio para prosperar.

Después del reciente debate sobre cierres [escolares], apoyé la pausa de cuatro años (revisión EL 18) para detener los cierres y darle al sudoeste de Denver tiempo para sanar, reestablecer la confianza, y abordar las causas principales, como la expansión de [escuelas] charter y la segregación. Los resultados de las pruebas son solo una medida estrecha y prejuiciada del éxito. Debemos invertir en y fortalecer a las escuelas—no abandonarlas. Los cierres escolares siempre deben ser la última opción.

Caron Blanke: Nadie quiere tener que cerrar escuelas. La realidad es que estamos enfrentando una disminución en los estudiantes inscritos en el distrito, y hay escuelas que no están educando a los estudiantes en el nivel de aptitud que deberían. Necesitamos usar medidas constantes para evaluar cómo les va a las escuelas y hacer que todas cumplan los mismos estándares de resultados académicos. El distrito también tiene una responsabilidad fiduciaria de asegurar que estemos usando nuestros recursos financieros sabiamente y, si una escuela no tiene [una cantidad completa de estudiantes inscritos], se debe tener una conversación y examinación de oportunidades de aprendizaje de alta calidad para los estudiantes en el área para tomar decisiones informadas. Yo tomaría decisiones de cerrar escuelas si no cumplen con las medidas necesarias para seguir funcionando.

Scott Esserman: Los cierres escolares son una de las decisiones más difíciles que un consejo puede tomar, y siempre debe ser una última opción. Pocos estudiantes inscritos y bajos resultados en las pruebas son síntomas de problemas más profundos—fondos no equitativos, desplazamiento residencial y falta de recursos adecuados—[los cuales] no son razones para abandonar a una comunidad. Me he opuesto constantemente a los cierres que solamente dependen de hojas de cálculo y no incluyen significativamente a las familias. Si una escuela está enfrentando desafíos, la primera pregunta debe ser: ¿Qué apoyos podemos agregar para ayudar a que los estudiantes prosperen? La recientemente formada red Elevate hace exactamente eso. Estos apoyos incluyen servicios como personal para la salud mental y desarrollo de la instrucción. Solo si todas las alternativas se han intentado en torno a pocos estudiantes inscritos, y solo con participación comunitaria transparente, se debe considerar el cierre. Y hasta en ese momento, debe suceder con garantías de que se apoyará a las familias en la transición, de que los estudiantes serán aceptados en la escuela de su elección, y de que los recursos los seguirán.

Donald “DJ” Torres: No, no cerraría una escuela simplemente porque tienen pocos estudiantes inscritos o por bajos resultados en las pruebas. Ambos desafíos requieren soluciones bien pensadas y centradas en la comunidad en lugar de decisiones reactivas que alteran a los estudiantes y familias.

Cuando la cantidad de estudiantes inscritos disminuye, el distrito primero debe explorar la reorganización del distrito o modificar los límites geográficos para balancear las poblaciones en escuelas cercanas. También necesitamos entender cómo los patrones de vivienda, la gentrificación y las normas de elegir una escuela contribuyen a las inscripciones desiguales. Cerrar escuelas con frecuencia profundiza las desigualdades, especialmente en comunidades de color donde las escuelas sirven como centros esenciales de conexión y apoyo.

Los bajos resultados en las pruebas no son una razón para cerrar una escuela. Con frecuencia reflejan desigualdades de recursos y oportunidades en lugar de esfuerzo o habilidad. En lugar de cerrar escuelas que atienden a los estudiantes con más necesidades, el distrito debería invertir en ellas al fortalecer la enseñanza, ampliar los apoyos integrales, e incluir a las familias como verdaderas colaboradoras.

Cada estudiante merece una escuela próspera en su vecindario, y nuestro enfoque debe ser en crear las condiciones para que cada uno de ellos alcance el éxito.

Jeremy Harris: No cerraría una escuela solamente porque pocos estudiantes están inscritos o por bajos resultados en las pruebas. Cerrar una escuela es una de las decisiones más alteradoras que un distrito puede tomar, y debe ser siempre la última opción. En lugar de eso, yo empezaría con la inclusión auténtica de la comunidad y esfuerzos para rediseñar la escuela que incluyan a maestros, familias y estudiantes en el diseño del plan. Eso quizás incluya agregar programas en gran demanda como de lenguaje dual, STEM o educación profesional y técnica para atraer a los estudiantes de nuevo, y asegurar que las escuelas tengan el personal y los recursos para prosperar. Si una escuela todavía no puede ofrecer un entorno de aprendizaje sólido después de verdaderas inversiones, el consejo debe trabajar de cerca con la comunidad en un plan de transición bien pensado que garantice el transporte seguro, inscripciones prioritarias y apoyo para el personal. El espacio vacío debe rediseñarse para las necesidades comunitarias, como con programas para la primera infancia, de enriquecimiento después de la escuela o capacitación laboral para que continúe en servicio de las familias.

Monica Hunter: No cerraría una escuela debido a bajos resultados en pruebas—castigar a una escuela por no tener recursos va en contra de mis valores como madre, integrante de la comunidad y maestra. Creo en [invertir muchos] apoyos en escuelas que estén enfrentando desafíos con el logro, incluyendo tomar en cuenta un modelo de escuela comunitaria. Que pocos estudiantes estén inscritos es difícil, pero eso solo no sería un indicador para mí de cerrar una escuela.

Timiya Jackson: Los cierres escolares son profundamente alteradores, y con frecuencia dañan a las mismas comunidades que ya enfrentan desigualdades. Los estudiantes son más que números de inscripciones o resultados de pruebas. Antes de considerar un cierre, debemos intentar toda otra opción. Invertir en factores académicos, maximizar recursos comunitarios y hacer cambios de liderazgo son pasos cruciales para apoyar a las escuelas en riesgo de cerrarse. Si un cierre es inevitable, debe seguir un proceso transparente con la participación total de la comunidad y planes clares para apoyar a los estudiantes y el personal afectados. Las decisiones deben basarse en la equidad [y] dignidad, y minimizar el daño.

Michelle Quattlebaum: Los cierres escolares siempre deben ser la última opción. Por eso copatrociné EL18, la norma del distrito sobre consolidación y cierre de escuelas, la cual se desarrolló a través de contribuciones comunitarias. EL18 asegura que las decisiones sean transparentes, informadas por datos y centradas en la equidad, con la participación auténtica de las familias y la comunidad en cada paso. Más importantemente, creo que nuestro enfoque debe ser en fortalecer a las escuelas, no en cerrarlas. Por eso apoyo el Programa de Transformación de Escuelas, el cual proporciona recursos e intervenciones orientadas a escuelas que enfrentan desafíos. Al invertir en apoyo académico, servicios de salud mental y la enseñanza culturalmente sensible, las escuelas pueden mejorar y prosperar. Apoyar a nuestras escuelas a través del Programa de Transformación de Escuelas es el mejor método para asegurar que cada estudiante tenga acceso a una educación de alta calidad.

Melanie Asmar es la jefa de la oficina de Chalkbeat Colorado.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

Quiz: Which candidate in the 2025 Denver school board election shares your views?

2025-10-17T19:12:02+00:00

Eleven candidates are running for four seats on the Denver school board.

Ahead of the Nov. 4 election, Chalkbeat asked all 11 candidates to fill out a questionnaire. You can read their responses to questions about how to prevent gun violence in schools, whether Denver Public Schools should take steps to protect immigrant students from actions by the Trump administration, and more in our voter guide.

We also used some of the candidates’ responses to create quizzes that match voters with candidates who most closely share their views. There are four quizzes, one for each open seat: At-Large, District 2, District 3, and District 4. Take the quizzes below.

At-Large, representing the entire city

Two candidates are running for the At-Large seat: Amy Klein Molk and Alex Magaña. All Denver voters can vote in this election.

A third candidate, Deborah Sims Fard, has withdrawn from the race but will still appear on the ballot. Votes for Sims Fard won’t be counted.

District 2, representing southwest Denver

Two candidates are running in District 2: Mariana del Hierro and Xóchitl Gaytán. Only Denver voters who live in District 2 can vote in this election.

District 3, representing central-east Denver

Three candidates are running in District 3: Caron Blanke, Scott Esserman, and Donald “DJ” Torres. Only Denver voters who live in District 3 can vote in this election.

District 4, representing northeast Denver

Four candidates are running in District 4: Jeremy Harris, Monica Hunter, Timiya Jackson, and Michelle Quattlebaum. Only Denver voters who live in District 4 can vote in this election.

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

Voter guide: 2025 Denver school board candidates answer 6 questions

2025-10-14T22:42:45+00:00

Leer en español.

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Voters will choose four Denver school board members on Nov. 4.

Eleven candidates are running for four seats. Denver Public Schools is the largest school district in the state, and the election comes at a key time. DPS is facing declining enrollment, threats from the Trump administration, and pressure to raise student achievement.

Political control of the seven-member school board is at stake. Board members backed by the Denver teachers union currently hold a majority, but the election could change that.

The Denver Classroom Teachers Association has endorsed candidates Amy Klein Molk, Monica Hunter, Donald “DJ” Torres, and incumbent Xóchitl Gaytán.

Quiz: Which school board candidate shares your views?

Denver Families Action, an advocacy organization with ties to charter schools, has endorsed candidates Alex Magaña, Timiya Jackson, Caron Blanke, and Mariana del Hierro.

Three other candidates — incumbents Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebaum and newcomer Jeremy Harris — were not endorsed by either organization.

To help voters make their decisions, Chalkbeat sent all of the candidates the same set of questions. Their answers are below.

Note: Former candidate Deborah Sims Fard dropped out of the race, but her name will still appear on the ballot. Votes for Sims Fard won’t be counted.

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

Denver school board candidate says post about Michelle Obama was ‘not about race’

2025-10-08T23:08:42+00:00

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Denver school board candidate Jeremy Harris is distancing himself from a nearly nine-year-old Facebook post in which he compared former First Lady Michelle Obama to an ape.

Harris said in a recent interview that his comment was “inappropriate” and “unacceptable.” He said it was “a joking remark about a specific person’s features, not about race,” and that it was “tied loosely” to the idea that all humans are descended from primates.

“It was a very immature statement,” said Harris, who is Black. “I’ve grown a lot since then. The comment doesn’t reflect who I am and what I stand for.”

The ape comparison is a racist trope and has been used against Michelle Obama before. Harris’ Facebook post resurfaced in this year’s school board campaign and led to an exchange — the details of which are in dispute — between Harris and a local education advocate.

In 2016, Harris posted to his personal Facebook page a news article about a Denver doctor named Michelle Herren who had called Michelle Obama a “monkey face” in a Facebook post of her own. Herren resigned from Denver Health Medical Center after her post went public. Harris posted the news article and commented about Obama, “She dose (sic) resemble an ape.”

Harris said the social media post isn’t as relevant to his campaign for school board as his ideas for addressing the issues facing Denver Public Schools today.

“The voters I talked to at the doors care more about third-grade reading scores, not Facebook posts from 2016,” he said, referring to voters he’s spoken to when knocking on doors. “This is a school board race, not a purity contest. I’d rather talk about the real reasons I’m running rather than bring politics or political attacks into this race.”

Harris is running to represent northeast Denver’s District 4. He faces three challengers for the seat: Monica Hunter, Timiya Jackson, and incumbent Michelle Quattlebaum.

In all, four seats on the seven-member Denver school board are up for grabs Nov. 4. The election comes at a key time for DPS, which is facing declining enrollment, threats from the Trump administration, and pressure to raise student achievement.

Harris said the Facebook post has resurfaced as part of a smear campaign because his platform “is gaining traction, and some people see that as a threat.”

He said his platform includes ideas such as holding school year-round in communities where students are behind and retaining students in third grade if they’re not reading on grade level.

Harris alleged that Quattlebaum’s supporters are behind the alleged smear campaign. But Quattlebaum said that’s not true. She said she has operated with integrity as a board member for the past four years and is running a positive reelection campaign.

“If I put energy into anyone else’s campaign, that’s energy I’m not putting into my campaign,” Quattlebaum said.

Harris said he apologized for the Facebook post this past summer in a private conversation with advocate MiDian Shofner, a DPS graduate whose children also attended Denver schools. Shofner runs a nonprofit organization called the Epitome of Black Excellence and Partnership and often weighs in on DPS issues.

But Shofner, who said she spoke with Harris after someone shared the post with her, said that Harris did not apologize to her.

“When he responded to me, he said he still felt the same way and he had a right to say what he wants to say,” Shofner told Chalkbeat. “He was very unapologetic.”

Harris said that’s not true.

“I acknowledged that it was wrong,” Harris said. “I disagree with her account of the conversation.”

Shofner said in an interview that neither she nor her organization have formally endorsed any Denver school board candidates.

In an email Wednesday to Chalkbeat, Harris apologized for the Facebook post.

“I also want to apologize to anyone who reads your article and becomes offended by my comment from 2016, that was never my intent, and I understand how words can be interpreted differently over time,” Harris wrote. “Black women are the foundation of my life and family.”

Harris is a mortician who owns Harris Funeral Directors in Aurora. His son attends a Denver elementary school and Harris serves on the school’s PTA.

Other parts of his past have come under scrutiny. Harris pleaded guilty to two counts of felony theft in 2014 in Tennessee, according to documents obtained by Chalkbeat from Shelby County Criminal Court. In 2012, Harris was working at a funeral home in Memphis when he used the company credit card machine to put two refunds onto his personal debit card: one for $8,000 and another for $10,000, the documents show.

Harris was sentenced to probation and ordered to repay the $18,000, court records show. The records show he had completed all of the requirements of his probation by 2020. Harris told Chalkbeat that his record does not make him unfit for office but rather makes him “uniquely fit” because he has faced adversity and understands accountability.

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

Watch: Denver school board election candidates debate

2025-10-08T21:47:20+00:00

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All 11 candidates vying for seats on the Denver school board discussed school closures, how Denver Public Schools has responded to the Trump administration, Superintendent Alex Marrero’s performance, and more in a series of debates at Regis University Tuesday.

The debates were co-hosted by Chalkbeat Colorado, CBS Colorado, and Educate Denver.

Four seats on the seven-member Denver school board are up for grabs on Nov. 4.

The debate for an at-large seat on the school board representing the entire city featured candidates Alex Magaña and Amy Klein Molk. That debate leads off the video below.

The debate for a seat representing northeast Denver’s District 4 featured candidates Jeremy Harris, Michelle Quattlebaum, Monica Hunter, and Timiya Jackson. That debate begins at about the 50-minute mark in the video.

The debate for a seat representing central-east Denver’s District 3 featured candidates Caron Blanke, DJ Torres, and Scott Esserman. That debate begins at about the 1:28 mark.

The debate for a seat representing southwest Denver’s District 2 featured candidates Mariana del Hierro and Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán. That debate begins at the 1:59 mark.

Watch the debates below.

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

DPS teacher Deborah Sims Fard running for at-large seat on Denver school board

2025-10-06T22:24:10+00:00

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Update, Oct. 6: Deborah Sims Fard has dropped out of the Denver school board race due to an injury. Her name will still appear on the ballot but votes for Sims Fard won’t be counted.

A longtime Denver Public Schools teacher who is a DPS graduate and whose children attended several different Denver schools is running for a seat on the school board.

Deborah Sims Fard is vying for an at-large seat representing the entire city. The seat is currently held by Scott Esserman, who is running for reelection but for a different seat representing central-east Denver’s District 3.

Sims Fard, who lives in the Skyland neighborhood in north Denver, will face two opponents for the at-large seat. If elected, Sims Fard would have to resign from DPS; district employees cannot serve on the school board due to conflict of interest rules.

Sims Fard, 62, said she’s running because she’s still having the same conversations today that she was having decades ago, when she first began working in DPS.

“No student is where they need to be, but in particular, Black children are on the lower rung of the achievement hierarchy,” Sims Fard said. “That is a problem, and it should be concerning to everyone across the board. … We all rise together, but we all fall together.”

Recently released test scores show 27% of Black DPS students in grades 3 through 8 met or exceeded state expectations in literacy, compared to 74% of white students.

“All children should be able to learn together and receive the same quality and level of education,” Sims Fard said. “They are all deserving of that.”

Four seats on the seven-member Denver school board are up for grabs in the Nov. 4 election, which comes at a key time. Declining enrollment has led to more than a dozen school closures in the past two years, and a new policy for low-performing schools could lead to more closures.

In recent months, DPS has found itself targeted by the Trump administration over an all-gender restroom and its support for immigrant students. And the board is investigating one of its members over allegations of racial discrimination.

Sims Fard grew up in Denver and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School. She began volunteering in classrooms before becoming a paraprofessional and then a teacher. She has worked in elementary schools for most of her career, including at Stedman Elementary, which she attended as a child. As a student, Sims Fard said she didn’t feel seen.

“My experience there was not great,” she said. “So when I became a teacher, I said, ‘There will not be a child that comes into my classroom that ever has that experience.’ For me, it was really wanting to have a safe classroom for my little Debbie.”

Sims Fard took a new position this school year providing support and coaching for teachers at schools with low test scores. She is part of DPS’s Elevate Schools Network, which was pitched by the superintendent as a way to help Denver schools avoid state intervention.

If schools don’t improve their scores, they could face a closure vote before the board. But Sims Fard said she doesn’t think the district should ever close schools.

“I don’t believe in closing schools,” she said. “If you are looking at schools as an extension of community, which schools should be, then you don’t close them because you know that it undermines the community that surrounds it.”

Sims Fard’s five grown children went to a variety of schools in DPS, including district-run and charter schools. Several of her children also attended the private Colorado Academy.

“I don’t think one perspective fits everyone,” Sims Fard said. “There is a place for charter schools at the table. There is a place for private education at the table. There is a place and a necessity for public education at the table, without question.”

Her youngest child is a graduate of the Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design, a former DPS school the board closed due to low enrollment. Instead of closing underenrolled schools, Sims Fard said the district should offer any empty space to community organizations that provide job training for parents or early childhood education for babies and toddlers.

If elected, Sims Fard said she would focus on improving student mental health, recruiting and retaining teachers of color, and ensuring teachers are paid fairly for their work. She is a member of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association but did not receive the union’s endorsement for the at-large seat. Sims Fard entered the race after DCTA endorsed a different candidate.

Sims Fard has been in DPS under seven different superintendents, by her count. She said there are always criticisms of the district’s leader, but that’s not most important.

“There is no perfect superintendent,” she said. “That should not be the focal point. The focal point should be: What is necessary for our children to compete on a global level?”

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

Teacher Deborah Sims Fard drops out of election for at-large seat on the Denver school board

2025-10-06T20:30:12+00:00

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Denver school board candidate Deborah Sims Fard is dropping out of the race due to an injury.

Sims Fard, a Denver Public Schools teacher, was running for an at-large seat representing the entire city. Two candidates remain in the race for that seat: DPS principal Alex Magaña and Amy Klein Molk, who previously worked as a paraprofessional in DPS.

Because Denver ballots have already been printed, Sims Fard’s name will still appear on the ballot, a spokesperson for the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Office said. Votes for Sims Fard won’t be counted.

Ballots will be mailed to voters on Friday.

Sims Fard told Chalkbeat that she was campaigning at a block party in mid-September, playing with some children, when she fell and injured her sciatic nerve. The pain was so bad that she had trouble walking and wasn’t able to attend candidate forums or other campaign events, she said.

“I am on the mend, but I cannot do what is necessary to compete,” Sims Fard told Chalkbeat, “and so it just is not in my best interest if I have to choose between a school board election and my health.”

Four seats on the seven-member Denver school board are up for grabs Nov. 4. The election comes at a key time for DPS, which is facing declining enrollment, threats from the Trump administration, and pressure to raise student achievement.

Sims Fard said the decision to drop out of the race “was very hard because I believe in my heart that I was the only independent candidate.” Sims Fard was not endorsed by either of the two big players in Denver school board elections: the Denver Classroom Teachers Association or Denver Families Action, a deep-pocketed advocacy group.

Magaña was endorsed by Denver Families Action, while Klein Molk was endorsed by the teachers union.

“We need to look at how we can have advocacy, how we can have representation, in a different way that does not include special interest groups to the degree that it does,” Sims Fard said.

Sims Fard had not raised any money for her campaign, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. As of Sept. 29, Magaña had raised more than $45,000 and Klein Molk had raised more than $47,000.

An independent expenditure committee called Better Leaders, Stronger Schools that is largely funded by Denver Families Action had also spent $184,900 on television ads and $60,000 on digital ads in support of Magaña, according to campaign finance reports. Independent expenditure committees cannot coordinate with the candidates.

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

Staff at Denver nonprofit raise concerns about school board candidate Mariana del Hierro

2025-10-03T20:07:48+00:00

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Former and current employees of Denver school board candidate Mariana del Hierro are publicly raising concerns about her leadership and treatment of the immigrant women who work for her and are reflective of the community she would represent if elected.

But the board of directors of the nonprofit organization del Hierro leads is standing by her and praising her work. Del Hierro declined to discuss the specifics of the claims but said she’s made changes to grow the organization and improve the lives of her employees.

“I care about my team and I take feedback very seriously,” said del Hierro, executive director of Re:Vision, a nonprofit organization that runs urban gardens, a free grocery store, and other food and nutrition programs in the predominantly Latino Westwood neighborhood.

Del Hierro is seeking to unseat incumbent Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán in southwest Denver’s heavily Latino District 2. In all, four seats on the seven-member school board are up for grabs Nov. 4. The election comes at a key time for Denver Public Schools, which is facing declining enrollment, threats from the Trump administration, and pressure to raise student achievement.

The concerns about del Hierro are coming from former and current promotoras, a term that originated in Latin America and means community health workers. At Re:Vision, the promotoras are local women trained in urban agriculture and healthy living to work with Spanish-speaking families on projects such as planting home gardens and learning to cook healthy food.

Several of these women, as well two of del Hierro’s former executive assistants, wrote letters this past spring expressing concerns about how del Hierro treated them. The letters were sent to Re:Vision’s board of directors and published on a website and Instagram page that the promotoras said they made as a call to action for the Re:Vision board.

The website features testimonials from nine former and current Re:Vision staff members expressing concerns about del Hierro’s behavior.

The website also features a statement of concern signed by 13 Re:Vision promotoras and team members and a separate similar statement signed by representatives of seven community organizations that have collaborated with Re:Vision. The community organizations wrote the promotoras’ stories were “deeply troubling.”

The two men who founded the organization in 2007 also wrote a letter that’s featured on the website. It calls on the Re:Vision board to address what they characterized as a “a systemic issue” based on “credible, painful, and consistent accounts.”

The promotoras’ testimonials say that del Hierro has created a stressful work environment at Re:Vision in the three and a half years since she took the helm. The promotoras wrote that they feel overworked, undervalued, and afraid to make mistakes because they fear being criticized, demoted, pushed out, or fired. They asked the Re:Vision board for a formal investigation.

“I didn’t think the way we’ve been treated was fair,” Mayra Olivas, who started at Re:Vision as a promotora, said in Spanish. The promotoras are Latina women, not all of whom have a formal education or speak fluent English, she said. Olivas described the dynamic as a power imbalance that makes the promotoras feel pressured.

“She takes advantage of our vulnerability,” Olivas said of del Hierro.

Several promotoras are also mothers of Denver Public Schools students and are representative of the southwest Denver community of District 2, which is home to many immigrant families.

Community leaders who are supporting del Hierro’s school board candidacy say the promotoras’ website is a distraction. But the promotoras say the website has nothing to do with del Hierro’s run for school board. Olivas said she didn’t know del Hierro was running until she read a Chalkbeat story about her candidacy that was published on July 30, after the website went up.

Del Hierro said she can’t discuss Re:Vision personnel issues out of respect for everyone involved and because the organization’s policy forbids it. But she said she has acted with integrity and transparency. The concerns raised by the promotoras prompted Re:Vision to bring in an outside consultant “to ensure fairness across our organization,” del Hierro said.

“My goal has always been to build an environment where people feel respected and heard,” she said.

In a written statement, the Re:Vision board said it “takes staff feedback seriously and remains committed to maintaining a safe, respectful workplace.” The board said it will continue to work alongside del Hierro during what it called an “important chapter” in the organization’s history.

In her time as executive director, del Hierro said she has grown the staff from four full-time and six part-time employees to 10 full-time and eight part-time employees. She said she raised money to ensure employees had jobs year round and not just during the growing season.

“For me, it was very important to change that structure, especially when we’re talking about the jobs we specifically create at Re:Vision for immigrant women who live in our community,” she said.

Del Hierro said she has also expanded Re:Vision’s free grocery store and youth programming and increased its number of urban farms from one to three, in addition to the family gardens.

“That growth has also meant we have faced some challenges and growing pains,” del Hierro said. “But we are working together to best meet the needs of our team.”

Some current and former employees feel differently. Chalkbeat spoke with nine women who either work for Re:Vision or recently left the organization. Most did not want to be quoted by name for fear of losing their jobs. Olivas alleged that’s what happened to her after she emailed Re:Vision’s board with her concerns about del Hierro.

In an email to the board in May, Olivas wrote that del Hierro had put her on a performance improvement plan, according to a copy of the email posted on the promotoras’ website. While Olivas wrote that some of del Hierro’s feedback about her performance “may have been valid,” she said that del Hierro’s tone was “harsh and demoralizing” and left Olivas feeling belittled.

“Staff are often afraid to speak up for fear of retaliation,” Olivas wrote to the board, “and conversations that should be opportunities for mutual growth or clarity instead become moments of tension, pressure, and emotional harm.”

Olivas was fired from her position as Re:Vision’s director of education shortly after she contacted the board, according to emails between del Hierro and Olivas and between Olivas and the board that are posted on the website.

The reason given for Olivas’ firing was that she did not show up to a meeting with del Hierro and Re:Vision board member Paul López to discuss Olivas’ performance, according to the emails. The emails show Olivas had asked that a different board member attend the meeting and that interpretation be provided.

López, a former Denver city council member who now serves as the city clerk and recorder, declined to comment for this story. He is no longer on the Re:Vision board.

Del Hierro said she has never retaliated against any Re:Vision employees but that she can’t share more details because of the company’s policies.

“I believe in creating a respectful process and a respectful team environment,” del Hierro said.

Samantha Torres said she also had a difficult experience with del Hierro. Torres said she was del Hierro’s executive assistant for about six months last year. Torres alleged she left Re:Vision after experiencing a “gradual beat down” that she said stemmed from feeling like she did not have the proper training to do her job.

Torres claimed that she sometimes struggled with her work tasks but that del Hierro made her feel ashamed instead of helping her to improve.

Del Hierro said she can’t discuss Torres’ specific situation.

“I know leadership can be challenging, and I strive to strike a balance between compassion and accountability,” del Hierro said.

Re:Vision founders Joseph Teipel and Eric Kornacki said the promotora program was partly conceived as a way to train and uplift the women themselves. The promotoras were paid for their work and held to performance standards as employees, but they were also taught skills and given support to help them do their jobs well and become leaders, Teipel and Kornacki said.

The promotora program “is the heart and soul of the organization,” Kornacki said. “If that’s eroded, the organization doesn’t have a standing in the community.”

Kornacki and Teipel left Re:Vision in 2019. They did not overlap with del Hierro and said they were not involved in the creation of the website or Instagram account, though they did write a letter of support for the promotoras and request some information from the current board of directors.

Former Denver school board president Theresa Peña, who worked for DPS for years in food and nutrition services, is supporting del Hierro’s school board candidacy.

“She’s smart and she’s very deeply committed to the work of the community,” Peña said.

Peña said she doesn’t believe a candidate’s work or personal history should disqualify them from office unless they have been convicted of something serious, such as abusing children.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan, a DPS parent who worked for the district and previously ran for school board, is also supporting del Hierro, who she said “has been such a strong leader in Westwood.”

“Rather than celebrate the success of a leader in our community, we have people who are organizing an effort to try to tear her down,” Menocal Harrigan said.

Del Hierro has been endorsed by Denver Families Action, an advocacy group that spent $950,000 in 2023 to support three Denver school board candidates. All three candidates won. This year, del Hierro is among four candidates that Denver Families Action is supporting.

In a statement, Denver Families Action said it is “aware that questions have been raised” about del Hierro’s role at Re:Vision. Denver Families Action said it can’t speak to Re:Vision’s “internal processes,” but that del Hierro impressed the community panel that helped inform its endorsements.

“Panelists highlighted her humility, authenticity, and commitment to bridging the gap between DPS and the community, especially for Latinx students and working families,” the statement said.

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

3 Denver school resource officers request transfers to other jobs due to overtime pay issue

2025-09-23T18:35:37+00:00

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Three Denver high school campuses have temporary police officers after their full-time officers asked last week to be reassigned, a Denver Police Department spokesperson said.

The school resource officers at Montbello High School, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College, and the Regis Groff Campus, which is home to two charter schools, asked to be reassigned because the police department stopped allowing them “to collect overtime for their regular assignment,” said Doug Schepman, the department’s director of communications.

The department “is ensuring there will be no reduction in officer coverage at these three schools” while it works to find new full-time school resource officers, or SROs, Schepman said.

“The plan is to provide the same level of officer coverage at these three schools during this transition, and the plan does not include sharing SROs with nearby schools,” he said.

In total, there are SROs at 13 Denver high schools.

The search for three new SROs in Denver comes shortly after a school shooting in neighboring Jeffco Public Schools. Evergreen High School had only a part-time SRO, who was not there when a student opened fire on Sept. 10, wounding two classmates before taking his own life. When students return to Evergreen High later this week, the school will have a full-time SRO.

Denver Public Schools said in a statement that it hasn’t changed its policy on police in schools. The district removed SROs in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, but reinstated them in 2023 after several shootings in and around East High School.

In its statement, DPS called the situation with the three SROs “an internal issue” within the police department. DPS said it is “working with the Denver Police Department to understand the situation and to develop a comprehensive plan to ensure continued safety within our schools.”

Schepman said the three SROs previously worked a “9/80” schedule, which meant they had one day off every two weeks. But the officers were still working on that day off, allowing them to collect overtime pay. Schepman said the arrangement, which was approved by a previous supervisor, was “inappropriate.” When the department discontinued it, the three SROs “requested transfers to different assignments,” Schepman said.

The Denver Police Department is currently covering the entire cost of the SROs stationed at Denver schools. Before 2020, the department and the school district split the cost.

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

Brain breaks and fairy wings: Why an all-girls model works so well for this Denver middle school

2025-09-18T23:37:18+00:00

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A throng of seventh graders huddled on the dirt path surrounding their school’s athletic field. They were about to run a timed mile, and they were buzzing with excitement.

“Are you ready?” a teacher shouted.

“We were born ready!” the students shouted back.

It was a Thursday morning at the Girls Athletic Leadership School, an all-girls charter middle school in Denver, where the students run the mile three times a year. Their enthusiasm to participate in a ritual that many tweens dread on a sunny 80-degree day exemplifies their enthusiasm for their school, known affectionately as GALS.

At a time when enrollment in Denver Public Schools has shrunk, enrollment at GALS is growing. GALS opened in 2010 and has about 250 students this year, up 35% from the 187 it had three years ago but lower than its pre-pandemic high of 325. GALS is open to both girls and genderqueer youth and is the only single-gender public school in the city.

Efforts to expand the model have failed. A GALS high school lasted 10 years before closing this past spring due to low enrollment. An all-boys spinoff, called The Boys School of Denver, was open for just three years before it closed in 2020 for the same reason.

The closures are part of a pattern. Declining enrollment has caused 15 Denver charter schools to shutter in recent years. Ten district-run schools have closed for low enrollment as well.

From left: Sixth graders Maisie and Drew smile as they work together during their English language arts class at Girls Athletic Leadership School.

So why does GALS — which combines the camaraderie of summer camp with the academic principles of small class sizes, frequent movement breaks, and lessons in relationship-building — work so well for middle school girls?

“The success of GALS middle school is because the design was around rethinking how middle school works, and has worked forever, for specifically this group of people,” GALS Principal Leah Bock said. “In middle school, girls learn to be small, physically and emotionally. We want them to be loud. We want them to run in the hallway. We want them to say what they feel, in an honest space that is protected for them.”

The research on single-gender schools is mixed. Some studies show all-girls schools boost girls’ self-confidence and academic achievement. Other research finds that separating boys and girls reinforces gender stereotypes and makes students more anxious about coed environments. A 2014 metaanalysis by the American Psychological Association found that single-gender schools offer girls no advantages over coed schools.

But that research doesn’t seem to matter to GALS students and their families. Moms describe the school as magical. Girls say it’s a place where they’re seen and heard — and where they don’t have to fight for attention.

“I’d had a lot of trouble with boys in elementary school,” said Rory Chambers, an eighth grader who started at GALS in sixth grade. “I didn’t want to go through that in middle school — the boys being like, ‘You can’t do that because you’re a girl.’”

Back on the GALS field, the athletic director sounded an air horn. The girls — some wearing fairy wings and tutus over their tank tops and running shorts — took off, kicking up dust.

‘All the students have a voice’

Julie Thornton’s classroom doesn’t have desks or chairs. The math teacher got rid of them as a way to signal to students that in her class, there are no rigid, preconceived notions.

“I want them to play with numbers and not think that perfection is what we’re going for,” Thornton said.

Instead, the girls start on the carpeted floor before they’re up and standing at full-sized whiteboards stationed around the room. On one recent day, they worked in groups to solve increasingly complex division problems. Thornton told them to take turns with the dry erase marker — and when she noticed one girl being left out, she gave her groupmates a reminder.

“All the students have a voice,” Thornton said as she watched the students work. “Sometimes some girls take over, but not to the same extent.”

Not to the same extent as in coed schools, that is. Compared with a typical middle school classroom, Thornton’s seventh grade math class is quiet. When the students do speak, their voices are nearly drowned out by the sound of the air conditioning. Thornton doesn’t like it.

“More sass,” she tells them.

After the group work, Thornton handed out worksheets. When one girl asked if she could sit against the far wall to work on hers, Thornton playfully admonished her.

“You don’t have to ask!” she said. “Be rebellious.”

Julie Thornton, a math teacher at GALS, teaches seventh graders about division.

That same philosophy didn’t work as well at The Boys School. There’s a difference, school leaders said, between building the confidence of girls, whom society expects to be obedient and agreeable, and building the confidence of boys, who get different societal messages.

“With girls, you’re trying to get them to be bigger,” said Bock, who was at GALS when The Boys School opened in 2017. “And you’re trying to do the same thing with boys, but also undo a lot of things, and I don’t know if we nailed that in the same way.”

There were other hurdles for The Boys School. GALS has its own building, but The Boys School rented space in two different churches, which may have made it less attractive to families.

A GALS student draws "superman."

The GALS high school ran into a different set of challenges. GALS expanded into the high school grades because students said they didn’t want to leave. But not enough wanted to stay, either. When the high school closed at the end of last year, it had just 58 students.

At GALS middle school, Jennie-Brenton Burness said she went from a shy sixth grader to an eighth grader who sang in the a capella group and acted in plays. But when it came time for high school, she chose George Washington High, a traditional school with 1,300 students.

“I wanted to test what I learned and put it into action in a community where there would be people louder than me,” said Jennie-Brenton, now a 17-year-old senior. “And with boys.”

‘I move a lot when I learn’

Movement and social-emotional learning are two of the most important parts of the GALS model.

Every class has “brain breaks.” That can involve a game in which students swat a kickball at each others’ shins, or “the chair flip,” in which one girl sits in a chair, gripping the sides, while her classmates try to turn her 360 degrees and a teacher ensures she doesn’t fall.

Each school day starts with 45 minutes of movement, from running to yoga to dance.

“They don’t love all of those ways of movement, but the hope is they find one that really sits with them,” Bock said. “Who wouldn’t want to come and be sleepy in the morning and then have this burst of movement that gets your brain ready for the day?”

Students move while doing schoolwork too. On a recent afternoon, seventh grade literacy teacher Lindsay Drapkin had her students write down examples of metaphors and similes from the novel “The House on Mango Street” and then run across the classroom to show her.

“I move a lot when I learn,” eighth grader Aliyah Morales said. “I can’t sit still for 10 minutes.”

Seventh graders at GALS stretch as they prepare to run the mile.

Aliyah also loves a class called GALS Series that school leaders say focuses on the things adolescent girls should know but no one teaches: How do I be a good friend? How can I stand up for myself without stepping on someone else? How do I decide what I care about?

To teach about how nature and nurture shape people’s identities, teacher Sydney Costa had her eighth graders start last week by analyzing fictional characters. A lot of students chose Meredith Grey, the flawed main character from the medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy.” Their homework was to analyze how they’ve been nurtured by answering a series of questions with a family member.

“You feel unique for having that class,” Aliyah said. “It’s kind of like I’m learning so much more about myself than I would in another school.”

Parents love it too. Shellie Chambers is a former middle school teacher. On a tour of GALS when her daughter Rory was in fifth grade, Chambers remembers saying to the GALS staff that she just wanted Rory to survive middle school and “come out whole.”

“They said, ‘Absolutely, but we want more. We want these girls to thrive,’” Chambers said. “That was a shift. Middle school does not need to be these three years we get through.”

On the recent Thursday morning, Bock, the principal, ran the mile with each group of students, setting the pace and finishing first each time. The fastest girls were not far behind her, clocking in at six minutes and 35 seconds.

But the teachers didn’t praise the fast runners any more than the slower ones.

“You slayed!” Bock said to a girl who finished near the back of the pack but scored a personal best. “You beat your time by four minutes!”

The girl smiled big.

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

All-gender school restroom: Denver asks feds for 90 days to negotiate resolution per Title IX

2025-09-08T19:19:45+00:00

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Denver Public Schools had 10 days to agree to revert the all-gender restrooms at East High School back to single-sex ones or face consequences from the Trump administration. Instead, the school district on Sunday asked the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights for 90 days to negotiate another resolution.

“DPS is committed to effectively implementing the Title IX regulation according to the law, and there is clearly much to discuss in regard to this matter,” DPS Senior Counsel Kristin Bailey wrote in a letter addressed to Erica Austin, the acting regional director for the federal Office for Civil Rights in Denver. “Consequently, we are not at an impasse.”

The Office for Civil Rights recently found that an all-gender restroom at Denver’s East High School violates Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination. OCR said DPS would face “imminent enforcement actions” if it didn’t get rid of its all-gender restrooms and adopt “biology-based” definitions of “male” and “female,” among other actions.

The U.S. Department of Education did not respond Monday to a request for comment about DPS asking for a 90-day negotiation period.

President Donald Trump has made targeting transgender rights a key part of his second term. The investigation into DPS’ all-gender restroom was the first launched by OCR after his inauguration in January.

OCR concluded on Aug. 28 that the conversion last year of a girls’ restroom on the second floor of East High to an all-gender restroom meant that only girls “bore the burden of seeking an exclusive restroom elsewhere in the building or limiting their restroom use,” according to a letter from Austin to Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero.

Because boys still had a single-sex restroom on the second floor, OCR found that girls at East High were being treated differently, in violation of Title IX.

In an attempt to address any disparity, DPS converted a second-floor boys’ restroom to an all-gender restroom over the summer. But OCR called the move a “misguided effort” that ended DPS’ “different treatment” of girls but did not fix its Title IX violation.

Marrero criticized the Trump administration for pushing “an anti-trans agenda through the weaponization of Title IX.” In a joint letter, more than 40 Colorado and Denver elected officials called OCR’s investigation “an ideologically driven attack.”

In a Sept. 7 letter to OCR, DPS accused the federal agency of being unwilling to communicate about the investigation. “Due to your office’s intransigence,” the communication between DPS and OCR was limited to one phone call in February, an email in March, and another phone call in June, wrote Bailey, DPS’ senior legal counsel.

On those phone calls, OCR staff were vague and noncommittal, saying they would have to run ideas “up the flagpole,” and that OCR’s position “depends on what the issue is,” Bailey wrote.

Bailey also took issue with OCR’s finding that the all-gender restrooms created a hostile environment at East High, an issue she said was a “new and different allegation.”

“If OCR can provide a more precise articulation, based in fact, of the reasons it purports to have sufficient evidence to support a legal conclusion that the bathroom created a hostile environment, it may prompt an appropriate resolution to this matter,” Bailey wrote.

OCR’s Aug. 28 letter said that East High received “many complaints from students and their families” about the all-gender restroom, including that boys were leering at girls in the restroom and, in one instance, pounding on the door of a stall while a girl was using the toilet.

But DPS said OCR’s findings were “based solely on a handful of negative emails,” and that the federal agency ignored the positive emails that DPS received. At a school of about 2,400 students, OCR’s conclusions were based on three emails, “none of which provide information from a direct witness to any concerning conduct,” Bailey wrote.

“All supportive comments seem to have been disregarded,” she wrote.

OCR said that if DPS didn’t agree to its proposed resolution within 10 days, the agency would issue “a letter of impasse that confirms the District’s refusal to voluntarily come into compliance with Title IX.” Ten days after that, OCR said it would issue a letter of impending enforcement action. It did not say what that action would be.

Five Virginia school districts are now receiving their federal education funding by reimbursement only — meaning the districts must pay those costs up front — because OCR found that their restroom and locker room policies for transgender students violated Title IX.

Nearly 7% of Denver Public Schools’ budget last year, or about $96 million, was federal funding, according to district budget documents.

DPS had not yet received a letter of impasse from OCR as of Monday morning, according to a district spokesperson.

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

Xóchitl ‘Sochi’ Gaytán runs for reelection to represent southwest Denver on the school board

2025-09-04T23:39:21+00:00

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Denver school board member Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán is running for reelection.

Gaytán has represented southwest Denver’s District 2 on the school board since 2021, including a two-year stint as president. She will face one challenger for the seat in November.

Gaytán, 50, is both a Denver Public Schools graduate and a DPS parent. She said she is running for reelection because she believes in the work the board is doing with Superintendent Alex Marrero, including the district’s new Latinx Student Success team, which aims to improve education for the Latino students who make up half of the district’s population.

“We need to continue that momentum, and I want to be a part of those discussions,” Gaytán said.

The district’s test scores are up, but big gaps remain between students of color and white students. DPS has been targeted by the Trump administration over an all-gender restroom and its support for immigrant students. And the board recently ordered an investigation of one of its members over allegations of racial discrimination.

Gaytán was born in Mexico and identifies as an indigenous Latina. She graduated from Denver’s Abraham Lincoln High School and has worked for more than two decades as a real estate agent. Gaytán is bilingual and primarily works with Spanish-speaking clients, many of whom can no longer afford to buy homes in Denver, she said.

“It does shatter me to know that we continue to lose Black and brown families in this current housing market, which means we’re losing students that could potentially stay in DPS,” she said.

Gaytán’s younger son is a senior at CEC Early College high school, where she said he is taking a full load of community college classes. Her older son graduated from Denver Center for International Studies, a high school that the board recently closed for low enrollment.

Gaytán voted for the closure of DCIS and several other schools. Although she strongly opposed school closures when she ran four years ago, Gaytán said the vote was necessary due to factors outside of the board’s control. In addition to the gentrification that has pushed families out of Denver, Gaytán pointed to what she called the “over-charterization” of DPS. Charter schools, she said, have siphoned students away from traditional district-run schools.

“They have done a phenomenal job to convince our families that their children will fare better in their schools, which is a complete fallacy,” Gaytán said of charter schools, which are authorized by DPS but independently run by nonprofit organizations.

“Parents choose to attend there, leaving [district-run] buildings half empty, making it very difficult for us as a school district to be able to maintain a less-than-half-empty school building,” she said.

Gaytán recently voted for a four-year pause on enrollment-based school closures. But a new policy created by the superintendent calls for closing schools with persistently low test scores.

Gaytán said she appreciates that the district will first try to help the struggling schools improve. If a school is making progress, Gaytán said she would “take a hard look” at whether to close it. But she also said that “we could also see schools that just have no forward movement, and we will know at that point in time if we need to close.”

Gaytán was endorsed by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association when she ran in 2021. The union has not yet endorsed a candidate in District 2 this year.

Gaytán has supported the union’s causes on the board, voting in favor of a teacher pay raise that ultimately failed and helping craft a policy that requires DPS’ semi-autonomous innovation schools to abide by the teachers union contract.

Gaytán’s two years as board president, from 2021 to 2023, were marked by personality conflicts and tense debates. At one point, she told local media outlets that she feared two other board members were trying to replace her as president. But the past two years have been calmer.

“I put in the work with a mediator to improve any negative situation I may have had with any of my colleagues as board president,” Gaytán said. “That work helped tremendously. I’m open to doing that again if any conflict arises.”

Gaytán has voted to extend Marrero’s contract and raise his pay. She said she believes in the superintendent’s strategic plan and the emphasis he’s put on improving education for students of color and those learning English as a second language.

“It’s important to me that we continue to have an Afro Latino superintendent that speaks Spanish,” Gaytán said. “When he shows up in southwest Denver, he shows up speaking Spanish to our students, and the children light up and get so excited.”

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

More Colorado schools and districts earn high state ratings, but progress is uneven

2025-09-03T23:23:17+00:00

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Two-thirds of Colorado’s 1,700 schools and 55% of its 180 school districts earned high ratings from the state this year, according to preliminary state data released Wednesday. That’s slightly higher than the percentage that earned those preliminary ratings last year.

Despite little change in the overall numbers, there were bright spots and alarm bells for individual districts and schools. Denver Public Schools, Colorado’s largest district, jumped from a middle-tier yellow rating to the second-highest green rating. The last time DPS was green was in 2019, before the pandemic.

In a made-for-Instagram moment, Superintendent Alex Marrero celebrated by getting slimed by middle schoolers at Bear Valley International School as district staff recorded the moment for social media. The slime, ordered from Amazon, was green.

“This recognition is not just about numbers,” Marrero said before sitting in a kiddie pool of slime. “It reflects the collective effort of our entire DPS community.”

The preliminary ratings released by the Colorado Department of Education reflect the slow stop-and-start progress Colorado students have made toward their pre-pandemic achievement levels. The ratings are largely based on state standardized test results, which have inched up in recent years but have not yet hit pre-pandemic levels in all grades and subjects.

Schools and districts can appeal their ratings if they can present additional data to warrant a change. After considering appeals, the state will finalize the ratings later this fall.

Schools and districts with low ratings land on a state watchlist known as the accountability clock, because it ticks toward intervention. After five years on the clock, the State Board of Education must order schools or districts to undergo changes meant to improve student performance. Those changes could include closing a school or requiring a struggling district to merge with a better-performing one. But the State Board has avoided taking such drastic measures.

There are now 14 districts on the state’s accountability clock, up from 11 last year. Among the districts that are newly on the clock this year is Westminster Public Schools, which serves about 8,000 students just north of Denver. Westminster was last on the clock in 2017.

Brian Kosena, the district’s chief learning officer, said Westminster faced several challenges last school year, including a staff shortage. The district started last school year with 37 unfilled instructional positions, including seven unfilled multilingual interventionist roles. About 40% of Westminster students are learning English as a second language, and the district has enrolled more than 700 new immigrant students in recent years, Kosena said.

“With staffing shortages, we were not always able to provide the level of individualized instruction that students ultimately deserve,” he said.

That strain showed up in Westminster’s test scores for multilingual learners, Kosena said, which caused the district’s rating to drop. But he said Westminster is off to a better start this year.

The district had just seven unfilled positions at the start of school, Kosena said. Its pool of substitute teachers is also bigger, which means classroom teachers don’t have to give up their planning time to cover for one another. And the district has a new policy meant to incentivize teachers to take less time off by paying them more for unused vacation days.

“We know that we’re better than any state label,” Kosena said. “That ‘priority improvement’ places an unfortunate label on the district right now. But we’re confident we’re going to be able to bounce back out of the ‘priority improvement’ and get to the ‘improvement.’”

Westminster district officials said staffing shortages last year made it hard to serve students adequately, including many recent arrivals who are English learners.

Montezuma-Cortez, a rural district with 2,400 students in southwestern Colorado, is also back on the clock after a reprieve of just one year. Two of Colorado’s 10 largest districts — Adams 12 in the Denver suburbs and District 49 near Colorado Springs — earned lower ratings this year than last year, dropping from green to yellow. They are not on the clock, however.

Adams 14, a long struggling 5,000-student district based in Commerce City, has spent the longest time on the clock: 12 years. In 2022, the state ordered the district to be reorganized but backed down in 2023 after community pushback.

Despite being on the watchlist for so long, Adams 14 made some modest gains. It earned more points toward the state rating calculation this year: 36.8% compared with 35.6% last year. One of its schools, Alsup Elementary, bumped up from the second lowest “priority improvement” rating to the next category, “improvement.” A few schools slipped in the ratings, most notably Rose Hill Elementary, which dropped from the second lowest rating to the lowest red “turnaround” rating. It’s the only red school in the district.

Statewide, 176 schools are now on the clock, down from 190 last year at this time. Denver’s Lake Middle School is among the schools that exited the clock for receiving back-to-back green ratings. But Denver’s Abraham Lincoln High School remains on the clock.

Denver’s superintendent unveiled a new policy this past spring that calls for the district to close or replace schools with four years of low ratings — before the State Board can step in. Known as the School Transformation Process, the policy went into effect last month.

Two Denver schools now have four years of low ratings: John F. Kennedy High School, which is run by the district, and Rocky Mountain Prep Noel, which is an independently run charter school. However, a spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Prep said the charter network, which is Denver’s second-largest, won’t be participating in the School Transformation Process.

Marrero had said the district would negotiate with Denver’s charter schools in the hopes they would agree to abide by the process. But essentially, it’s voluntary for those schools.

“We hold deep respect for Dr. Marrero and are firmly committed to accountability in all its forms,” the Rocky Mountain Prep spokesperson said in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to partner with DPS to share the academic outcomes being achieved at RMP Noel.”

John F. Kennedy High won’t be closed under the policy this year either. Instead, it could face what Marrero calls “reconfiguration,” which might include shrinking a school by removing some grade levels. The potential for school closure will start next year.

“We’re honoring the process, as painful as it is,” Marrero said.

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

Denver schools chief: Trump administration is weaponizing Title IX and pushing ‘anti-trans agenda’

2025-08-29T21:03:06+00:00

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Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero said Friday that the Trump administration is pushing “an anti-trans agenda through the weaponization of Title IX,” a federal law the administration says DPS violated when it converted a girls’ restroom to an all-gender one.

“They have claimed Title IX prohibits the conversion of a girls’ restroom to an all-gender restroom,” Marrero said in a statement. “They now claim Title IX prohibits the use of any multi-stall, all-gender restroom. This has never been true; it remains untrue today.”

Marrero’s comments come one day after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced that DPS’ restroom conversion at East High School violated Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination. Officials with the Office for Civil Rights said that the all-gender restroom at East High places a burden on girls to seek a single-sex restroom elsewhere, and that DPS is endorsing “a self-defeating gender ideology.”

Marrero strongly disagreed.

“To our LGBTQ+ students, families, and supporters, we see you, and we will not stand for these attempts at your erasure,” Marrero said.

However, Marrero did not say whether or not DPS will comply with the Office for Civil Rights’ demands, which include reverting the district’s all-gender restrooms to single-sex restrooms. A DPS spokesperson said, “We are still looking at our options.”

The U.S. Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Marrero’s statement.

DPS’ federal funding could be at risk. The U.S. Department of Education recently sanctioned five Virginia school districts that it found to be violating Title IX for allowing students to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. All federal funding for those districts — a total of more than $50 million — will now be distributed by reimbursement only, meaning the districts will have to pay those expenses up front.

Nearly 7% of Denver Public Schools’ budget last year, or about $96 million, was federal funding, according to district budget documents.

The Office for Civil Rights on Thursday gave DPS 10 days to agree with a proposed resolution.

In addition to reverting all restrooms to single-sex, the proposed resolution would require the district to rescind any policies that allow students to use restrooms based on their gender identity, adopt “biology-based” definitions for “male” and “female,” and issue a memo to all schools saying they “must provide intimate facilities that protect the privacy, dignity, and safety of its students and are comparably accessible to each sex.”

In his statement, Marrero said the language proposed by the Office for Civil Rights is “the dangerous rhetoric and definitions of their administration.”

“We will protect all of our students from this hostile administration while we continue to raise the bar on achievement,” Marrero said.

The investigation into the all-gender restroom at East High was the first Title IX investigation launched by the Office for Civil Rights in Trump’s second term. Using a disputed interpretation of the law, his administration has used Title IX to challenge transgender rights policies in schools.

A January letter from federal officials to Marrero cited a 9News story about East High converting a girls’ restroom into an all-gender restroom. At the time, DPS said it was “unprecedented” to initiate an investigation based on a news story. The district said East High’s all-gender restroom was added at the request of students and has 12-foot-tall partitions to ensure privacy.

This month, East High opened a second all-gender restroom, Chalkbeat reported. The second one was formerly a boys’ restroom, and DPS said it added it in an attempt to address any disparity. But the Office for Civil Rights said on Thursday that the second conversion did not fix the situation “because males are still allowed to invade sensitive female-only facilities.”

Marrero said that reasoning is a shift in the Trump administration’s legal theory. He also criticized the investigation itself.

“While they label this a ‘directed investigation,’ make no mistake: there was no on-site review, not a single witness interview was ever conducted, and not one substantive conversation with any OCR attorney ever occurred,” Marrero said.

“The district’s requests for conversation, clarification, mediation, and discussion of remedies all went unanswered,” he said. “This is unprecedented behavior from an OCR we no longer recognize.”

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

All-gender restroom at Denver’s East High School violates Title IX, Trump administration finds

2025-08-28T23:04:08+00:00

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The Trump administration has found that Denver Public Schools’ conversion of a girls’ restroom into an all-gender restroom at East High School violates the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination.

The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights said in a press release Thursday that the all-gender restroom places a burden on girls to seek a single-sex restroom elsewhere, “thereby denying their right to equal educational facilities and opportunities” under Title IX.

President Donald Trump has made targeting protections for transgender students a key part of his second term, and his administration’s interpretation of Title IX is contested.

DPS recently converted a boys’ restroom at East High to an all-gender restroom in an attempt to address any disparity. But the Office for Civil Rights said the second conversion did not fix the situation “because males are still allowed to invade sensitive female-only facilities.”

“Denver is free to endorse a self-defeating gender ideology, but it is not free to accept federal taxpayer funds and harm its students in violation of Title IX,” acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said in a statement.

“The Trump Administration will work relentlessly to hold accountable school districts that harbor the ideological fanatics and policies that sully students’ educational experience with sex discrimination,” Trainor said.

In a statement, DPS said it has received the findings and “is determining our next steps.”

The investigation into the all-gender restroom at East High began in January. It was the first Title IX investigation launched by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights in Trump’s second term.

A January letter from federal officials to Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero cited a 9News story about East High converting a girls’ restroom into an all-gender restroom.

At the time, DPS said it was “unprecedented” for the Office for Civil Rights to initiate an investigation based on a news story. The district defended East High’s all-gender restroom, saying it was added at the request of students and has 12-foot-tall partitions to ensure privacy.

The Office for Civil Rights has issued a proposed resolution agreement and given DPS 10 days to agree, according to the press release. The proposed agreement would require DPS to convert its all-gender restrooms to single-sex restrooms.

It would also require the district to rescind any policies that allow students to use restrooms based on their gender identity, adopt “biology-based definition for the words ‘male’ and ‘female,’” and issue a memo to all schools saying they “must provide intimate facilities that protect the privacy, dignity, and safety of its students and are comparably accessible to each sex.”

If DPS doesn’t agree, it will “risk imminent enforcement action,” the press release said. That action is not defined in the press release, but recent cases in other states offer some clues. Last week, the Office for Civil Rights found that five Virginia school districts were violating Title IX by allowing students to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.

All federal funding for those districts — a total of more than $50 million — will now be distributed by reimbursement only, meaning the districts will have to pay those expenses up front.

Nearly 7% of Denver Public Schools’ budget last year, or about $96 million, was federal funding, according to district budget documents.

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

Advocacy organization Denver Families Action endorses four candidates for Denver school board

2025-08-27T01:34:16+00:00

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A deep-pocketed advocacy organization has endorsed four candidates in November’s Denver school board election. Four of the seven board seats — and political control of the state’s largest school district — are up for grabs.

Denver Families Action has endorsed:

Alex Magaña for an at-large seat representing the entire city.
Mariana del Hierro for a seat representing District 2 in southwest Denver.
Caron Blanke for a seat representing District 3 in central-east Denver.
Timiya Jackson for a seat representing District 4 in northeast Denver.

In the last Denver school board election in 2023, Denver Families Action contributed $950,000 to an independent expenditure committee that outspent a committee funded by the Denver teachers union by 5 to 1, according to campaign finance reports.

The big spending was successful. All three of the candidates backed by Denver Families Action in 2023 — John Youngquist, Marlene De La Rosa, and Kimberlee Sia — won their seats.

Denver Families Action is the political arm of an organization called Denver Families for Public Schools. Launched in 2021, Denver Families for Public Schools was originally formed to elevate the voices of the thousands of charter school families in Denver Public Schools. But its current platform, released last year, is to push DPS on three issues that affect all students, whether they attend charter schools or not: mental health, safety, and academics.

The board of directors of Denver Families Action is made up of a retired University of Colorado professor, two members who previously worked for Denver-based charter school networks, and the former head of Teach for America in Colorado, who now works for the Denver Health Foundation.

While Denver Families Action’s staff and board chair made the final decisions on which school board candidates to endorse, their decision was influenced by the opinion of a 37-member community panel, said Denver Families Action CEO Clarence Burton Jr.

“We don’t just talk about community voice. We make sure community has a seat at the table,” Burton said. “What we’ve heard again and again from Denver families across the city is pretty simple: They want a school board that puts students and teachers first.

“That’s what these endorsements reflect,” he said.

Burton praised that the four endorsed candidates — Magaña, del Hierro, Blanke, and Jackson — are all parents of current DPS students or DPS graduates. All four have either worked in schools or with public school families, Burton said.

Several of the candidates’ opponents are also DPS parents and former educators. But Burton said these four stood out for their commitment to “being the chief advocates for what the community wants to see in their public schools.” That’s an obligation he said members of the community panel felt that the current board has not taken seriously.

The four candidates expressed support for all types of DPS schools, Burton said. DPS has 94 traditional district-run schools; 52 charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently run; and 46 innovation schools, which are district-run but have more autonomy.

“We want to support great public schools no matter the model, as long as they’re working for families,” Burton said. “We think that is a differentiation.”

Magaña and Jackson participated in a 10-month leadership development program run by Denver Families Action called the LEAD Fellowship. Candidate DJ Torres, who is running in District 3 but did not get the Denver Families Action endorsement, also participated.

Manda Troutman, a former DPS teacher whose three children graduated from Northfield High School, served on the Denver Families Action community panel and helped to interview candidates for the at-large and District 4 seats. While Northfield High is run by the district, Troutman’s children attended a charter elementary and middle school.

Troutman said the candidates that Denver Families Action endorsed — Magaña for the at-large seat and Jackson in District 4 — came across as authentic and knowledgeable. She was impressed that both have been active in DPS and the larger community. Magaña is a DPS principal and Jackson is the former head of a youth-focused Denver nonprofit organization.

“Both Alex and Timiya were engaging in community action that elevates parents’ and students’ voices,” Troutman said. “We need more leadership in Denver that cares about what’s happening inside of classrooms and less about the politics behind the scenes.”

Gavin Triplett also served on Denver Families Action’s community panel. Triplett is a DPS teacher and building representative for the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. That’s notable because the teachers union and Denver Families Action have historically endorsed different candidates, which pits the organizations against each other, election-wise.

Triplett said he often had a different opinion than the other community panelists. For instance, he said most panelists liked hearing from the candidates that they would listen to the community when making their decisions. But to him, it sounded like a non-answer.

“That, to me, sounds like rhetoric,” said Triplett, who is entering his second full year of teaching at Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment, a district-run elementary with innovation status.

But Triplett said Denver Families Actions’ endorsements lined up with the views of most panelists, even if they didn’t align perfectly with his.

“It did seem like the people they endorsed, the community panelists were the warmest toward,” Triplett said. “I would be sitting there like, ‘Wait, really? You guys all disagree with me?’”

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

Amid Trump administration investigation, East High converts boys’ restroom to all-gender restroom

2025-08-20T23:51:02+00:00

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Seven months after the Trump administration began investigating Denver Public Schools for converting a girls’ restroom at East High School into an all-gender one, the school started classes this week with a new addition: another all-gender restroom.

The new all-gender restroom was formerly a boys’ restroom. DPS added it after officials with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights said in January that converting a girls’ restroom into an all-gender restroom “denied female students a restroom comparable with their male counterparts” and violated the civil rights of Denver’s female students.

DPS said in a statement that the new restroom was meant to address any disparity.

“The addition of a second all-gender restroom on the same floor as the first restroom was suggested and paid for by the District to help address the notion of any unfairness or lack of parity across facilities,” the statement from DPS said.

“Students will continue to have access to gender-specific restrooms as well as existing single-stall gender-neutral bathrooms throughout the school,” the statement said.

The district said it “remains responsive” to information requests from the Office for Civil Rights.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education said the Office for Civil Rights’ investigation into DPS is ongoing. The spokesperson did not answer a question about whether the district’s conversion of a boys’ restroom into an all-gender restroom nullifies the alleged discrimination.

The Trump administration has taken aim at policies meant to protect transgender students. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Education found that five northern Virginia school districts were violating the federal Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination, by allowing students to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity.

All federal funding for those districts — a total of more than $50 million — will now be distributed by reimbursement only, meaning the districts will have to pay those expenses up front.

In a statement, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the Virginia districts were being penalized for “choosing to abide by woke gender ideology in place of federal law.”

Nearly 7% of Denver Public Schools’ budget last year, or about $96 million, was made up of federal funding, according to district budget documents.

The Trump administration began investigating DPS shortly after the president’s inauguration. A letter from federal officials to Superintendent Alex Marrero cited a January 9News story about East High converting a girls’ restroom into an all-gender restroom.

Kayleigh Baker, an attorney and senior consultant with TNG Consulting and an advisory board member of the Association of Title IX Administrators, said many school districts are caught between their own inclusive policies and interpretations of the law and the Trump administration’s new interpretation of Title IX. The courts may ultimately decide whose interpretation prevails.

Baker said she doesn’t believe that simply having an all-gender restroom violates the law, but she’s not sure that converting a boys’ restroom along with a girls’ restroom would satisfy the Trump administration, which has emphasized protecting access to single-sex restrooms.

“My concern would be taking something away, whether that’s a girls’ restroom or a boys’ and a girls’ restroom,” she said.

But Scott Skinner-Thompson, an associate professor of law at the University of Colorado Boulder who focuses on LGBTQ issues, said he thinks converting both boys’ and girls’ restrooms into all-gender restrooms weakens the Trump administration’s discrimination claim — which he believes was legally weak to begin with.

“Title IX has never required identical facilities. It’s only ever required comparable facilities,” he said. “Creating an all-gender restroom doesn’t exclude anyone.”

Chalkbeat National Editor Erica Meltzer contributed to this report.

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

DPS mom and former teacher Monica Hunter running to represent northeast Denver on school board

2025-08-18T17:56:24+00:00

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A former Denver Public Schools teacher who graduated from DPS and whose children are current students is running to represent northeast Denver on the school board.

Monica Hunter is vying for the District 4 seat held by Michelle Quattlebaum, who is running for re-election. Hunter will face at least two other opponents as well.

Hunter, 37, said she decided to run because it has been frustrating to watch important decisions about school funding, mental health, and other issues being made by board members who have never been a DPS student or taught in a DPS classroom.

Hunter has been endorsed by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.

“I entered the race sort of late because for me, this is not a stepping stone,” Hunter said. “I’m doing this out of a need. … I was hoping for someone to run that was connected more to kids and to families and to teachers, and that did not happen.”

The district’s graduation rate is up, but some students are still recovering from pandemic-era learning loss. In recent months, DPS has found itself targeted by the Trump administration over an all-gender restroom and its support for immigrant students. And the board recently ordered an investigation of one of its members over allegations of racial discrimination.

Born and raised in Denver, Hunter is a graduate of George Washington High School. She was a student teacher at Willow Elementary before getting a job as a first grade teacher at John H. Amesse Elementary. Hunter said the difference between the two DPS schools was glaring.

Willow had a new building, iPads for every student, and parents who raised enough money for the school to hire additional teachers, Hunter said. Amesse had none of that, she said, and was facing a potential closure vote by the school board due to low test scores.

“Closing a school and penalizing it for not having the same amount of resources, it just isn’t equitable,” Hunter said. “I cannot reduce any student or school to a test score. Does reading need to improve? Absolutely. … Do we need to close the achievement gap? Absolutely. Is shutting down their school really going to close it? No, it’s not.”

Amesse avoided closure, and Hunter took a job at Green Valley Elementary, a nearby DPS school where she stayed until she left teaching in 2020. Hunter now works as a director of human and civil rights for the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union. In that role, she said she helped launch a mental health hotline for educators and a fellowship for teachers of color.

Hunter was active in her local union, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, when she taught in Denver, helping to found DCTA’s Black Educator Caucus. The caucus advocated for teachers at semi-autonomous innovation schools to retain their union contract rights, a change the school board eventually adopted.

Hunter has a blended family of six children, five of whom will attend DPS in the fall. Her kids range in age from preschool to fifth grade, and Hunter said they attend a mix of traditional district-run and innovation schools. Her oldest attends a private school. Hunter declined to name the schools to protect her children’s privacy.

If elected, Hunter said she would prioritize keeping any budget cuts due to state or federal funding shortfalls from impacting DPS classrooms. She said she’d also prioritize providing mental health support to both students and educators.

“We cannot afford any more cuts to education and to classrooms,” Hunter said. “I just want to start there because I think people can promise a lot of things.”

Enrollment in DPS is expected to decline 8% by 2029, which could mean more school closures. Hunter said it would be “very hard” for her to vote to close a district-run school.

“I’d truly want to look at other solutions,” she said.

Hunter said she does not have a personal opinion on Superintendent Alex Marrero, but she questioned why the board renewed his contract in May before the district came to a tentative agreement with the union on a new teachers contract in June.

“From a parent lens, I did not understand the rush,” Hunter said. “We want good board members, we want superintendents who want to do a good job … but we can’t have a school without students and teachers and support staff. Those are the essential heart and soul of schools.”

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

Judge finds DPS not liable for shooting death of student Luis Garcia outside East High School

2025-07-31T23:37:43+00:00

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A judge has found that Denver Public Schools is not liable for the death of Luis Garcia, a 16-year-old student who was shot outside East High School in 2023 and died of his injuries.

Denver District Court Judge Kandace C. Gerdes ruled earlier this month that Luis was shot while inside his car on a public street and not on DPS property. Luis’ family sued DPS for wrongful death, but Gerdes dismissed the claims against the school district.

Luis’ family filed a notice Wednesday that it plans to appeal the ruling. Attorney Matthew Barringer, who is representing the family, said they respect the judge’s decision but disagree with it. More importantly, Barringer said, “the real story” is that Luis “still hasn’t received any justice” because no one has been charged with his murder.

The family, Barringer said, “has provided anything and everything they can to help bring justice to their son and to their family. And up to this point, all they have ever received is hollow promises, hollow platitudes.”

Both the Denver Police Department and the Denver District Attorney’s Office said Thursday that there are no updates in the case and that the investigation is ongoing.

Luis Garcia, on the right in the red jersey, played soccer for East High School.

A junior at East High, Luis was a talented soccer player who wore #11 on his jersey. On Feb. 13, 2023, Luis was shot in his car after dropping off his cousin at the school. Luis died of his injuries about two weeks later. His family sued DPS, East High, and the Denver school board in 2024.

Luis “was shot where City Park Esplanade intersects East 17th Avenue, where both roads are used for the purpose of public transportation,” Gerdes wrote in a July 18 order. “The Court is not persuaded that these roads are ‘within the school facilities’ of East’s Property.”

Gerdes noted in her ruling that there is an RTD bus stop “less than 500 feet from where [Luis] was shot,” which she said “corroborates that these two roadways were intended for use by the general public, and not ‘within the school facilities.’”

As such, Gerdes ruled that Luis’ family cannot invoke the Claire Davis School Safety Act, a state law named for a student who died in a school shooting. The law says school districts can be held liable if they fail to exercise “reasonable care” to protect students and staff from “reasonably foreseeable” acts of violence at school, including murder.

In their lawsuit, Luis’ family alleged that East High “subverted and weakened the security and safe environment” of the school after the removal of armed police officers, allowing “potential shooters to believe they would be able to execute an attack.”

The Denver school board had voted to remove school resource officers from DPS schools in 2020. DPS returned school resource officers to schools in 2023 after Luis’ death and a separate shooting inside East High a month later. Two deans injured in that shooting are also suing DPS.

“DPS extends its deepest sympathies to the Garcia-Bobadilla family and all affected by Luis’s loss,” the school district said in a statement responding to Gerdes’ ruling.

In addition to naming DPS, East High School, and the Denver school board in its lawsuit, Luis’ family also sued a juvenile male identified by a pseudonym and his mother. The lawsuit alleged that the juvenile male shot and killed Luis.

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

DPS mom, nonprofit leader Mariana del Hierro running to represent southwest Denver on school board

2025-07-30T18:01:56+00:00

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A Denver Public Schools mother who leads a nonprofit organization focused on food security and urban agriculture is running to represent southwest Denver on the school board.

Mariana del Hierro is vying for the District 2 seat currently held by Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán. Gaytán has not said whether she will run for reelection.

Del Hierro, 43, is the executive director of Re:Vision, which runs a free grocery store, urban gardens, and food and nutrition programs in the predominantly Latino Westwood neighborhood. She said she was motivated to become more involved in DPS after reading the La Raza Report, which was commissioned by the school district and highlighted “serious barriers” to the success of Latino students, who make up more than half of DPS enrollment.

“I was shocked that alarm bells were not rung when that report came out,” del Hierro said. “In a district, in a system, where the majority are Latinx students, we deserve to have a very specialized, tailored, data-informed strategy to make sure we’re changing that reality.”

The district’s graduation rate is up, but some students are still recovering from pandemic-era learning loss. DPS has found itself in the Trump administration’s crosshairs over an all-gender restroom and its support for immigrant students. And the board recently ordered an investigation of one of its members over allegations of racial discrimination.

As executive director of Re:Vision, del Hierro said she expanded the number of families served by the organization’s free grocery store, increased the number of its urban farms, and started an apprenticeship program in which four DPS high school students spend nine months learning about hydroponic farming, starting with the history of Aztec aquaponics.

“We want to ground them in the work and a sense of pride of, ‘This is ours, this is our technology, this is our science,’” del Hierro said.

Before working for Re:Vision, del Hierro said she worked for Denver Health, developing a racial equity strategy for its community-based health centers. She also previously worked for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on its Healthy Kids Colorado survey.

Del Hierro, who is bilingual, has a son who will attend third grade at a district-run Spanish immersion school this fall. She declined to name the school to protect her son’s privacy.

“My child has been in a classroom with 35 kids, and I understand how that is a difficult space for children to learn and teachers to teach,” del Hierro said.

If elected, del Hierro said she would push DPS to be more transparent about its academic achievement data, both with the school board and with parents.

“With a public health background, everything starts with looking at the data,” del Hierro said. “Most important is disaggregating the data by race so that we know where to start from and we know where the gaps are, so we know where to focus.”

She’d also like to create more opportunities for school board members to interact with the community, especially about difficult issues like school closures. Enrollment in DPS is expected to decline 8% by 2029, and district leaders have said more closures could be coming. Del Hierro said she understands that hard decisions must be made but she wouldn’t make them lightly.

As for school closures based on low test scores, del Hierro said she would see her role as “asking the tough questions,” including about how DPS tried to help struggling schools.

“Before we discuss a closure, let’s first discuss what supports were given to this school, the staff, and the educators, to make sure they were reaching their goals,” del Hierro said.

Del Hierro’s son attends a traditional school, but she said southwest Denver has all types of schools, including independently run charter schools, and “we need each and every one of them.”

“I’m no one to tell a parent that they’re making a wrong decision for their child,” del Hierro said.

Del Hierro was one of more than 40 Latino community leaders who asked the board to delay a vote on extending Superintendent Alex Marrero’s contract until after his next performance evaluation in October. The board did not wait. In May, it extended Marrero’s contract until 2028.

Del Hierro said she believes the board and the superintendent should be “strong partners.” As for whether Marrero is doing a good job, del Hierro said, “Let’s conduct the evaluation so that we know. That’s the fair process. Because our students deserve it.”

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

DPS mom Timiya Jackson, who works in dropout prevention, running for NE Denver seat on school board

2025-07-24T17:41:51+00:00

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A Denver Public Schools mother who does dropout prevention work for a nearby school district is running to represent northeast Denver on the school board.

Timiya Jackson is vying for the District 4 seat currently held by Michelle Quattlebaum, who is running for reelection. Jackson will face the incumbent and at least one other opponent.

Jackson, 35, said she’s running because the community is “calling for a different type of leadership.” She said the board needs to better understand how DPS is spending its money to ensure that “every dollar is getting as close to students as possible.” The board should also more regularly discuss students’ academic performance, she said.

“Equity without progress monitoring is actually not equity,” Jackson said.

The district’s graduation rate is up, but some students are still recovering from pandemic-era learning loss. DPS has found itself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration over an all-gender restroom and its support for immigrant students. And the board recently ordered an investigation of one of its members over allegations of racial discrimination.

After studying to be a teacher in college, Jackson said she worked at nonprofit organizations in Pittsburgh, including the mentoring network Big Brothers Big Sisters. She moved to Denver in 2015 and worked as the before- and after-school program coordinator and then director of student services at High Point Academy charter school in Aurora.

Jackson said she then served as the dean of students at a DPS charter school called The CUBE, which closed in 2021 due to low enrollment. After the closure, Jackson became executive director of the Heart and Hand Center, a youth-focused Denver nonprofit that provides after-school programming and other services.

Jackson is now working as a re-engagement specialist for the Douglas County School District, helping students who have dropped out or are on the verge of doing so.

“My entire career has enabled me to support young people,” Jackson said.

Jackson is the mother of one DPS student who attends a high school she declined to name to protect her child’s privacy.

If elected, Jackson said she’d want to reexamine the school board’s governance structure. She said she’d propose a “hybrid” way of governing that would give the board more insight into district data and performance metrics to make sure resources are being used wisely.

“When we are not meeting the metrics and not hitting our mission and vision, let’s make sure we’re having radical honest dialogue out there so we can monitor and adjust,” Jackson said.

She said she’d push the board to focus more on math and literacy, including by screening older students for reading difficulties such as dyslexia to help close test score gaps. DPS should also expand its partnerships with community organizations, Jackson said, both during the school day and between the hours of 2 and 6 p.m., when youth violence can spike.

Enrollment in DPS is expected to decline 8% by 2029. The current board paused enrollment-based school closures after a spate of them this spring. But Jackson said she knows future boards will likely have to vote on whether to close more schools for low enrollment.

If enrollment-based closures are necessary, Jackson said they should be conducted “with the community.” The district should also have a solid plan to support the affected families because school closures can cause trauma, she said.

When it comes to closures based on low academic performance, Jackson said she believes that “our students are more than their test scores.” As a board member, she said she would want a holistic view of a school’s performance, including how it serves students with disabilities.

Jackson said she believes in “public dollars for public schools,” which she said includes traditional district-run schools and independently run charter schools.

One of the most important jobs of the school board is to manage the superintendent. Jackson said any evaluation of the superintendent’s performance should be based on a “collective body of evidence.” She said board members should treat each other and the superintendent in a way that keeps in mind that “our students are watching.”

“It’s important to me that I have a good working relationship with the superintendent and my board colleagues,” Jackson said.

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

Tricia Noyola resigns as CEO of Denver-based charter school network Rocky Mountain Prep

2025-07-23T23:10:06+00:00

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Denver-based charter school network Rocky Mountain Prep announced Wednesday that CEO Tricia Noyola has resigned.

“The board respects Ms. Noyola’s decision to step down and appreciates her commitment to ensuring a smooth transition,” an announcement on the charter network’s website said, referencing the Rocky Mountain Prep board of directors.

Noyola did not respond to a request for comment. In the announcement, she said that Rocky Mountain Prep’s future “remains bright.”

“This network is filled with mission-driven, unstoppable leaders who will continue to carry our vision forward,” Noyola said. “I’ll be cheering from the sidelines and ready to celebrate the wins, carrying everything I’ve learned here into the next chapter of my life and leadership.”

Rocky Mountain Prep serves more than 5,000 students in preschool through 12th grade at 11 schools in Denver and one in Aurora. The network is the second largest in Denver after DSST.

Noyola was hired as CEO in 2021 following the departure of Rocky Mountain Prep’s founder, James Cryan. In 2022, Rocky Mountain Prep announced that it would merge with another Denver-based charter network, STRIVE Prep, the following year.

The merger posed some challenges, including high staff turnover. Some of the departing staff criticized Noyola’s leadership style. Board members praised her. Noyola told Chalkbeat in 2023 that “I may be demanding, but I always strive to be fair.”

In the announcement about her departure, Pat Donovan, chair of the Rocky Mountain Prep board, thanked Noyola for her service.

“Tricia’s leadership has positioned us well for the future, and Rocky Mountain Prep has never been stronger – financially, academically and culturally,” said Donovan, who is president of the advocacy organization Denver Families for Public Schools.

Donovan declined Wednesday to comment further.

Rocky Mountain Prep will name an interim CEO while it conducts a nationwide search for its next leader, according to the announcement.

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

DPS mom, former preschool head Caron Blanke running to represent central-east Denver on school board

2025-07-16T17:43:56+00:00

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A Denver Public Schools mother who previously oversaw the Jewish Community Center’s early childhood center is running to represent central-east Denver on the school board.

Caron Blanke is vying for the District 3 seat currently held by board President Carrie Olson. Olson can’t run again due to term limits. Blanke will face at least two opponents, including at-large board member Scott Esserman, who is running for reelection in District 3.

Blanke, 50, is the mother of two children who graduated from DPS’ Denver School of the Arts and one who will be a ninth grader in the fall. She said she’s running because students deserve schools that are “equitable, inclusive, and responsive to the unique needs each of them have.”

“I’m not afraid to be courageous and boldly advocate for change,” Blanke said.

Blanke said she worked for 15 years as the chief program officer for the Jewish Community Center in Denver. In that role, she oversaw the JCC’s early childhood center and its camps for school-aged kids. Blanke said she’s spent the last eight years as an independent consultant for early childhood educators, school directors, and boards.

Blanke has volunteered to serve on the collaborative school committee at Denver School of the Arts and on the board of the Hebrew Educational Alliance synagogue in southeast Denver. Before her children enrolled at Denver School of the Arts in sixth grade, all three attended the private Denver Jewish Day School.

If elected, Blanke said her priority would be to “create a healthy governance structure” on the Denver school board to ensure strong oversight of the superintendent.

“When I say it’s not working, it feels to me that the board is influenced by the superintendent,” Blanke said. In her view, she said, it should be the other way around.

Blanke said she’d seek to follow the “very objective ways” that previous boards established to monitor Superintendent Alex Marrero’s progress against his goals.

“It’s less about what I think of the superintendent and more about how, as a board member, will I think about constantly monitoring his performance against these outcomes?” she said.

Enrollment in DPS is expected to decline 8% by 2029. While the current board paused enrollment-based school closures after a spate of them this spring, future boards could face the possibility of closing schools again. Blanke said she’s hesitant to say how she would vote.

“Did anyone predict a global pandemic? Did anyone predict the economy crashing in 2008? Or social media taking over the minds of our children?” she said. “There are so many unexpected factors that can influence my decision that I don’t at all feel comfortable committing to I will or I won’t, because I don’t think that’s realistic.”

Any decisions would need to be made with the community, she said, noting that too many DPS families “feel like they aren’t being listened to and their feedback isn’t being valued.”

“We can’t leave families without an option in their neighborhood,” Blanke said. “I’m not coming in with any intention to close schools. And it’s a complex decision that requires conversation and proactive thinking with our community.”

Blanke said another priority would be rebuilding trust between DPS and the families it serves, which should start with the board developing a shared vision and making sure its policies align.

“We have to take this 10,000-foot view of looking at our school district and realizing that each part impacts another,” Blanke said.

Blanke said she supports school choice and that DPS should put to rest the debate over whether traditional district-run schools or independent charter schools are better. She said that if the best educational practice is to tailor teaching to each student’s individual needs, “we have to believe that school choice is essential in serving students.”

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

DPS mom and ed tech entrepreneur Amy Klein Molk running for at-large seat on Denver school board

2025-07-07T22:22:07+00:00

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A mother who launched an educational technology company during the pandemic and spent the past year working as a paraprofessional at her family’s neighborhood school is running for an at-large seat on the Denver school board.

Amy Klein Molk, who described herself in an interview as “a big supporter of our traditional neighborhood schools,” is vying for the at-large seat currently held by Scott Esserman. Esserman is running for reelection but for a different seat.

Klein Molk, 41, has been endorsed by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. She will face at least one opponent for the at-large seat. Klein Molk lives in the Park Hill neighborhood in east Denver, but the at-large seat represents the entire city.

“The reason I wanted to run for the board is that I believe in protecting our neighborhood schools and supporting our teachers,” Klein Molk said. “My experience is unique and powerful, and I feel that it’s time to get back to my policy roots and really affect change.”

Four seats on the seven-member Denver school board are up for grabs in November. Board members backed by the teachers union currently hold a majority of seats, but that could change in the Nov. 4 election, which comes at a key time.

Declining enrollment in Denver Public Schools has led to more than a dozen school closures in the past two years, and a new policy for low-performing schools could result in more closures.

Klein Molk said she grew up in Centennial and graduated from the Cherry Creek School District. She has two children: a 9-year-old who attends a district-run DPS elementary school and a 4-year-old who will go to preschool this fall at a different district-run school. She did not want to name the schools to protect her children’s privacy. Klein Molk said she serves as president of the parent-teacher organization at her 9-year-old’s school.

Klein Molk studied public policy and worked for the Creative Artists Agency Foundation, the philanthropic arm of a Hollywood talent agency. In that job, she said she did advocacy for the Head Start preschool program and other education-related organizations.

In 2020, Klein Molk launched a company in Denver called Beanstalk that produced educational videos she described as being “on the Magic School Bus and going to the pyramids or your local zoo.” As schooling went remote, Klein Molk decided to offer Beanstalk free of charge. When that was no longer viable, she shuttered the company.

From there, Klein Molk said she wanted to understand the school system. So she took a job as a paraprofessional at Park Hill Elementary, working one-on-one with students with disabilities.

If elected, Klein Molk said she’d focus on rebuilding trust within DPS. To do that, she said the district needs to recruit and retain the best teachers and pay them a fair wage. Special education staff, in particular, should have manageable caseloads, she said.

“Parents just don’t feel confident our school system can give their kids what they need,” she said. “We’ve got to rebuild this trust and help teachers feel supported.”

With her background, Klein Molk said she sees a “tremendous opportunity” to bring more technology into the schools in a way that doesn’t replace teachers but makes their lives easier.

Klein Molk said she supports the board’s recent decision to close seven schools and partially close three more due to low enrollment, calling it “necessary.” But she said she’s not eager to repeat it. Nor does she believe in closing schools for low test scores.

However, she said the board will need to make difficult decisions. A new board policy requires DPS to regularly analyze and adjust school boundaries.

“When we look at boundary lines and some schools that are super high performing getting bigger and bigger, tough decisions are going to have to be made,” Klein Molk said. “I’m not afraid to tell people we need to make big changes if we want to create an equitable system.”

One of the board’s biggest tasks is to manage the superintendent. Klein Molk said that if a superintendent is meeting his or her goals, it would be hard to remove them.

“Maybe there’s opportunity for improvement, maybe there’s not,” she said of the superintendent evaluation process, “but until you’re in that room with your six other colleagues talking about how and why decisions were made, it’s not appropriate to make any judgements.”

This story has been updated to reflect that Klein Molk grew up in Centennial, not Denver. It has also been updated to clarify her position on the superintendent.

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

Denver teachers union, district reach tentative agreement on pay and class sizes, among other issues

2025-06-24T22:08:59+00:00

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Denver teachers would get a $1,000 annual cost-of-living raise for the next three years under a tentative contract agreement reached Tuesday by the teachers union and Denver Public Schools, according to press releases from both sides.

The agreement would also require the district to work toward capping elementary class sizes at 30 students starting in the 2026-27 school year. And it recommends that the Denver school board put a measure on the ballot to increase funding for DPS.

The tentative agreement comes after DPS declared an impasse in negotiations last month. The impasse meant that the two sides continued bargaining with help from a mediator.

The next step is for the tentative agreement to be ratified by members of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and the Denver school board. If that happens, the three-year agreement will be in effect from Sept. 1 to Aug. 31, 2028.

Lower class sizes and higher teacher pay were two of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association’s biggest priorities going into negotiations. Class size caps were last changed in 1994, when the union went on strike and the district agreed to a cap of 35 students.

While Denver’s student enrollment is expected to decline, an influx of migrant students has caused some classroom sizes to swell. District data from the 2023-24 school year showed 9% of elementary classrooms had more than 30 students.

Going into negotiations, the union was hoping for a lower class size cap. Instead, it got a compromise that says DPS must set targets and better track the data.

“While DCTA was hoping for stronger limits on class size, we believe the tentative agreement reached today offers a better path forward, particularly for grades Kindergarten through 5th,” union President Rob Gould said in a statement. “We’re also looking forward to continuing our work and advocacy through a class size committee.”

The tentative agreement also guarantees pay raises, though they won’t be as big as the union hoped.

In addition to the $1,000 cost-of-living raise, the average DPS teacher would get a 2.97% increase in their pay next school year from “steps” based on teachers’ years of experience, and “lanes” that are based on teachers’ own education, according to DPS.

Starting teacher pay in Denver would go up to $57,666 next year from $55,257 this past school year, a 4.4% increase. Pay for teachers at the top of the pay scale — those with a doctorate and 20 years of experience — would increase to $124,233 from $120,169, a 3.4% increase.

All DPS teachers would also get a 2.55% pay raise next school year as a result of a law passed this spring that lowers the district’s contribution to the state pension fund. The district says that savings will be passed along to teachers union members.

Teachers would also get a $1,000 onetime bonus next year but not in 2026-27 or 2027-28.

A memorandum of understanding that is part of the tentative agreement says the two sides agree that the Denver school board should put an initiative to increase funding for DPS on the November 2025 or November 2026 ballot.

The memorandum says the union and the district “will engage in discussions on the potential use of the increased funding.” The union’s press release says it could be used to boost pay.

School board President Carrie Olson said it would be inappropriate to answer questions about the tentative agreement until after it is ratified. The board won’t meet again until August.

“This is a topic we will discuss, if the DCTA membership ratifies the agreement, when we return in August,” Olson said in a statement.

Sept. 5 is the deadline to put a measure on the November ballot, according to a spokesperson for the Denver Clerk and Recorder’s Office.

Denver voters last passed a ballot measure to increase teacher pay in 2020.

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

Proposed policy would require Denver Public Schools to report how much it spends on lawsuits

2025-06-23T21:29:41+00:00

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School board member Kimberlee Sia said she often gets asked questions about how many people are suing the district she represents, Denver Public Schools.

“I have constituents who call me who say, ‘I’m one of three lawsuits at my school. You should check into how many lawsuits are happening at the district,’” Sia said.

A proposed policy that Sia introduced this month would require DPS to disclose that information and more. The proposal says the district would have to provide the school board with a list of lawsuits DPS is involved in and a tally of how much it spends on external legal costs.

“It’s important for the board to ensure we are taking care of the school district, and if we’re having a lot of lawsuits that are happening and paying a lot of damages, that falls under our fiduciary responsibilities to know that,” Sia said.

The information that the policy seeks to disclose isn’t otherwise publicly available. Chalkbeat filed an open records request for it, but DPS did not provide it.

DPS said it had a list of the lawsuits that the district’s general counsel was responsible for coordinating, including whether DPS won each lawsuit and any monetary damages it incurred. But the district declined to release that information, citing a state law that allows records to be withheld if they contain trade secrets, privileged information, or confidential financial data.

Historically, DPS has handled some lawsuits on its own and used outside counsel for others, such as the two lawsuits filed by former deans who were shot at East High School in 2023.

DPS said it did not have any lists or spreadsheets that contained the other information Chalkbeat requested. That information included all regulatory or legal compliance violations reported in the district and broken down by school, a total of monetary damages incurred by the district, a total of monetary awards won by the district, and a total of the district’s external legal costs.

Sia’s proposal would require all of that information to be reported annually to the board “for each of the prior three years.” Chalkbeat had requested the information for the past three school years.

Policy: Board should hire own attorney for superintendent contract

Sia introduced the proposed legal counsel policy at a June 5 board meeting. The board is expected to resume debate on it this fall, after its summer break.

In addition to requiring more transparency about the district’s legal liabilities, the proposal lays out when and how the school board itself should hire outside lawyers and when it should — or shouldn’t — use the school district’s in-house attorneys.

The board already hires outside lawyers on occasion, and Sia said the policy is meant to “put current practice on paper.”

“What I’m attempting to do in this policy is to ensure that we actually have a process for how this happens, so 20 or 30 years from now when we are no longer here, this policy outlives us,” she said.

The proposed policy says the district’s general counsel should handle “most legal affairs.” But it says the general counsel should not represent the board when it comes to the superintendent’s contract or performance evaluation. Instead, the proposal says the board and the superintendent should each hire their own external lawyers.

That would be a change from what happens now. Currently, the district’s general counsel advises the board on the superintendent’s contract and evaluation.

Sia said the way it’s currently done is a potential conflict of interest, since the board is the boss of the superintendent and the superintendent is the boss of the general counsel.

“If you are the general counsel and you have to answer questions about your boss, it can be tough to do that,” Sia said in an interview.

The board also regularly gets advice from a DPS attorney who specializes in policy governance, the governance style the board uses to pass policies.

The proposed policy says the board should put out a request for proposals at least every three years to hire its own board counsel. Whoever is hired would report directly to the board president, who would give the board counsel their assignments, the proposal says.

Individual board members could also make requests of the board counsel, the proposal says, as long as at least three of the seven board members made the request in writing.

Aside from advising on the superintendent’s contract and evaluation, the board counsel could — upon request — help the board draft policy proposals, review those proposals, and attend board meetings to give legal advice, the proposal says. Some of those duties are currently performed by the general counsel and the attorney who specializes in policy governance.

At least one board member is pushing back

Board member Xóchil “Sochi” Gaytán said at the June 5 board meeting that she opposes the proposal for several reasons, including that it could displace DPS General Counsel Aaron Thompson and policy governance attorney Marcus Johnson, both of whom are Black, as well as another DPS attorney who sometimes advises the board and is Latina. Gaytán pointed out that DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero is also a person of color.

“It’s really interesting to me that DPS, one of the largest urban school districts in Colorado, whose superintendent is Afro Latino and bilingual in Spanish, now has a white board member wanting to introduce … a policy that departs from this tradition and the historical way of doing business,” Gaytán said, referencing Sia, who is white.

Gaytán also expressed concerns about how much the policy would cost and whether it would be “weaponized to cause delays or to block policy work.”

In response to Gaytán’s comments about cost, Sia asked district staff to add up how much the board had spent on external legal costs in the past.

A Chalkbeat review of publicly posted school board financial documents from the past four fiscal years revealed nearly $30,000 in payments to outside law firms: one payment of $28,000 in 2023, and a series of payments to another firm totaling about $1,960 in 2025.

That $30,000 is only inclusive of what the school board spent on external lawyers. It does not include what the district as a whole spent on external lawyers.

Sia’s proposal comes shortly after the board ordered an investigation into allegations of discriminatory behavior by board member John Youngquist. Superintendent Marrero has accused Youngquist of “belittling, dismissive, and condescending behavior toward district staff, especially employees of color,” among other allegations.

Board President Carrie Olson said the board has not yet hired anyone to conduct the investigation. But past boards have hired outside law firms to do similar investigations.

A 2021 investigation into former board member Auon’tai Anderson cost about $105,000, according to invoices. The most serious allegations against Anderson were unsubstantiated, and the board paid him a $3,500 settlement in 2023. Anderson said the $3,500 was reimbursement for when he hired a law firm to represent him during the investigation.

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

Scott Esserman is running for Denver school board reelection, but for a different seat

2025-06-20T15:06:46+00:00

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Denver school board member Scott Esserman announced this week that he is running for reelection in November, but for a different seat on the board.

Esserman, 58, will seek to represent central-east Denver’s District 3. That seat is now held by board President Carrie Olson, who can’t run again due to term limits.

Esserman was elected to the board in 2021 as an at-large member representing the entire city. He said he decided to run in District 3 instead because he’d like to represent the region where he lives and raised his children. He’ll face at least one opponent.

Esserman is a former teacher and the father of two children who attended Denver Public Schools. His oldest child graduated from Manual High School. His youngest will be a senior this fall at a charter school, DSST: Montview High.

“We’ve gotten some really good work done, and there’s a lot of unfinished business and additional direction to continue steering the district in,” Esserman said. “Our best chance to make dramatic and great improvements in student outcomes is with consistent leadership.”

Esserman helped craft some of the board’s most high-profile policies in recent years, including its policy on when and how to close schools with low enrollment. Esserman also supported a recent revision to that policy that paused school closures for four years.

Four seats on the seven-member board are up for grabs in November. Esserman was backed in his first campaign by the Denver teachers union, and union-backed board members currently hold a majority of seats. But that could change in the Nov. 4 election, which comes at a key time.

Declining enrollment in DPS has led to more than a dozen school closures in the past two years, and a new policy for low performing schools could result in more closures.

Personality conflicts and tense debates marked Esserman’s early days on the board, and he sometimes clashed with fellow board members.

But Esserman said he doesn’t think the board is dysfunctional. He pointed to several policies the board has passed, including mandating universal dyslexia screening for students and raising the minimum wage for DPS employees to $20.

“The interpersonal dynamics of a seven member board with a lot of politics and differences of opinion are challenging,” Esserman said. “We as a board … have done a lot of great work.”

Esserman was one of three board members who voted against returning armed police officers to Denver schools after several shootings in 2023. He favored an alternate proposal that would have assigned certain officers to respond to schools but wouldn’t station them inside.

He also voted twice to extend Superintendent Alex Marrero’s contract, in 2021 and this year. Esserman said he and Marrero haven’t always agreed, but he respects the superintendent.

“Getting rid of him because folks aren’t satisfied with the rate of progress, getting rid of him because people have baggage with him … doesn’t help our students,” Esserman said.

Esserman voted to require Denver’s semi-autonomous innovation schools to follow the teachers union contract and Colorado’s version of teacher tenure. He also voted in favor of an arbitrator’s decision in a pay dispute between DPS and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association that resulted in teachers not getting a 5.2% cost-of-living raise.

Esserman is a vocal critic of standardized testing. He has often pushed for DPS to base high-stakes decisions on other academic data instead, but hasn’t gotten the full support of the board. Esserman said he would continue that advocacy if he was reelected.

“I don’t have the authority or the ability to eliminate standardized testing,” he said. “But I do have the ability to talk about how we measure in DPS.”

Esserman said he’d also focus on taking “significant steps on academic achievement,” supporting immigrant and LGBTQ+ students, and ensuring the board gets feedback from the community on every policy it considers. Esserman was the main architect of a policy the board passed last week requiring DPS to analyze and adjust school boundaries every five years, an idea he said came from students at West High School.

“That’s how we build trust with community,” he said.

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

Denver school board candidate Jeremy Harris pleaded guilty to theft charges in Tennessee

2025-06-18T19:49:08+00:00

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A candidate for Denver school board has a criminal record in Tennessee.

Jeremy Harris, a mortician and Denver Public Schools father who is running to represent northeast Denver’s District 4 on the board, pleaded guilty to two counts of felony theft in 2014, according to documents obtained by Chalkbeat from Shelby County Criminal Court.

The theft happened when Harris worked at M.J. Edwards Funeral Home in Memphis in 2012, court records show. Harris used the company credit card machine to put two refunds onto his personal debit card: one for $8,000 and another for $10,000, the documents show.

Harris was sentenced to three years of confinement for one theft charge and four years of confinement for the other, according to court documents. Both sentences were suspended in favor of five years of supervised probation. Harris was also ordered to pay back the $18,000.

Although Harris once violated his probation by moving to North Carolina without permission, he’d completed all of the requirements of his probation by 2020, court records show.

In an interview, Harris said he made a mistake more than a decade ago. He said he “took full legal and financial responsibility” and paid back the $18,000.

“My record does not make me unfit for public office,” Harris said. “In fact, I believe it makes me uniquely fit for leadership because I know what accountability means. I’ve faced adversity. I’ve had to rebuild my life. I’ve emerged stronger and more focused on service.

“I understand some voters may see this as disqualifying,” he added. “I welcome the chance to speak directly to voters. I’m not asking for blind trust. I’m asking for a chance to prove that people can grow, lead, and serve with honor, even if their story didn’t start perfectly.”

Four seats on the seven-member Denver school board are up for election on Nov. 4.

Harris, 33, is challenging District 4 school board member Michelle Quattlebaum, who is running for reelection. Harris is the father of one son who attends DPS. He and his family live in the Central Park neighborhood of Denver.

Harris said in an April interview about his candidacy that DPS should focus on school safety and “core academics.” He said he opposes teaching elementary and middle school students about LGBTQ+ issues or critical race theory, a catch-all term for lessons about race and racism.

Harris is a mortician who owns Harris Funeral Directors in Aurora. Colorado is the only state that doesn’t currently require funeral directors to hold a professional license.

Under a state law passed last year, Colorado starting in 2027 will require funeral directors to hold a professional license and undergo a criminal background check as part of the application.

According to state rules, only certain felony convictions will disqualify a funeral director from getting a license in Colorado. Those convictions do not include theft.

Harris said he plans to seek licensure in Colorado. In Tennessee, he was licensed as a student and as an apprentice funeral director, but those licenses expired in 2013 and 2015, respectively, according to a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Commerce & Insurance.

His Aurora funeral home, Harris Funeral Directors, is licensed in Colorado and has no disciplinary actions against it, according to a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies.

Harris said that in the past month, leaders of education organizations, whom he declined to name, have encouraged him to drop out of the school board race. Harris said he won’t.

“This is just a political attack,” Harris said. “But I know that voters are smarter than that.”

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