Chalkbeat

Controversial group that opened ‘Colorado’s first public Christian school’ will close after 13 years

2026-08-18T22:47:51+00:00

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An education group that last year authorized “Colorado’s first public Christian school” soon will dissolve, following a Monday night vote by a key member institution.

The school board in School District 49 unanimously approved the dissolution of Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or ERBOCES.

Monday’s vote represents a major turnabout from two months ago, when the District 49 board briefly considered dropping out of the co-op but opted to stay another year. After 13 years of existence, ERBOCES leaves a legacy of school choice advocacy and a long string of controversies.

The change of fortune for ERBOCES comes after growing scrutiny by state education officials, who this month cracked down on the co-op over what they said was an improperly constituted board, invalid contracts, and misspent state money.

In addition to launching the “public Christian school,” called Riverstone Academy, ERBOCES has created dozens of publicly funded homeschool enrichment programs in the last few years. The flood of programs, including some that paid for ski passes and sports camps and others that subsidized private schools, drew the ire of state lawmakers last spring.

ERBOCES is one of 21 such public education co-ops in Colorado. Most are composed of several school districts that band together to provide services such as special education. ERBOCES has operated differently, opening schools and programs that serve students across the state.

About a dozen parents, students, and homeschool program providers spoke at Monday’s meeting, with several urging the board to help homeschool enrichment programs that are now in limbo and prevent students from being “collateral damage.” Others said dissolving ERBOCES will help the district avoid reputational damage, legal fees, and fines that might come with staying in the co-op.

ERBOCES’ dissolution, which will take place over the coming school year, means the group can no longer authorize any schools or programs. During the wind-down process, the five-member District 49 board will take over as the co-op’s governing body and the district’s business office will assume financial oversight.

ERBOCES will no longer be led by an executive director as of Sept. 15, according to the resolution approved Monday.

In addition, District 49 will become the authorizer during the 2026-27 school year of six online schools previously authorized by ERBOCES: Williamsburg Academy, Pikes Peak Online School, Summit Connections Academy, and an elementary, middle, and high school all under the Colorado Preparatory Academy brand.

Less clear is the fate of ERBOCES’ homeschool enrichment programs, which last year enrolled more than 8,000 students, most in one-day-a-week classes. Some closed this summer but more than 40 are up for approval by the state.

According to Monday’s resolution, District 49 will not take on those programs. State officials are expected to release more information this week.

Different perspectives on ERBOCES

While District 49 board members all voted for the resolution Monday, they had different perspectives on what brought the problem to a head this summer.

Board member Mike Heil urged the audience to remember that ERBOCES officials were the decision-makers who were “testing the law and finally got caught at it.”

“We know for fact now, as more evidence has come forward, that some of these homeschool enrichment programs were essentially subsidizing private religious schools, and you can’t do that with public money,” he said.

Board President Marie LaVere-Wright said publicly funded homeschool enrichment has been “highly, highly, highly unregulated” in Colorado because the original law that allowed it was broad and vague.

“That doesn’t mean anybody … did something illegal necessarily because they operated in an unregulated environment,” she said.

LaVere-Wright, who helped start ERBOCES and previously served on its board, described the group’s dissolution as an awful situation, but said it’s the right thing to do.

Board member Lori Thompson, who recently joined the ERBOCES board, said the group has done incredible things.

“Was every step correct?” she said. “Anyone can be a Monday morning quarterback, but I am proud of ERBOCES.”

Constant controversies prompted state concerns

The demise of ERBOCES comes after a stream of controversies last school year. Those include revelations that the co-op launched Riverstone Academy at the behest of a conservative law firm to spark a lawsuit over the question of public funding for religious schools. ERBOCES filed a religious liberty lawsuit against the state in February, but the case fizzled when Riverstone closed permanently in June.

ERBOCES has also drawn criticism because, for years, some of its board members have been ineligible under state law. Also, the co-op has often used contractors and subcontractors that effectively shield its programs from state oversight and public scrutiny.

State lawmakers addressed some concerns about ERBOCES last spring by putting strict new limits on how and where such co-ops can authorize schools and programs. But the ongoing tumult seemed to be wearing on the group’s three members and it appeared member defections might tank ERBOCES this summer.

State law requires such co-ops to have at least two member institutions, and one must be a school district.

The Elizabeth School District dropped out of ERBOCES in June. District 49 considered it but opted not to. The third member, Pikes Peak State College, announced that it would leave the group in mid-August.

As that deadline neared, Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova urged ERBOCES to dissolve. She also chastised the group over another emerging controversy: The co-op’s plan to lend a Woodland Park charter school $3 million.

But a week before Pikes Peak was set to withdraw, ERBOCES officials unearthed an old agreement that required more notice and the college agreed to stay till next summer.

For a few days it seemed that ERBOCES would be able to stay open. But on Aug. 13., Córdova threw the book at ERBOCES. In a second letter urging the co-op to dissolve, she suggested that Pikes Peak State College never legally joined and that many of the group’s contracts are void because its board has been improperly constituted for years.

She also ordered ERBOCES to immediately repay the state for funding provided to Riverstone Academy, citing a recent court decision.

That night, District 49 Superintendent Peter Hilts recommended to his school board that ERBOCES be dissolved and Monday’s vote was quickly scheduled.

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

The end could be near for the Colorado education group that opened ‘public Christian school’

2026-08-14T21:40:55+00:00

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A controversial Colorado education group that launched a now-defunct “public Christian school” last year could soon dissolve after the state’s top education official urged the move this week and the group’s most crucial member considers leaving.

The 13-year-old group — Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or ERBOCES — authorizes six online schools and a host of publicly funded programs for homeschool students. If the Monument-based co-op closes, some schools and programs might move to other authorizers, and some might permanently close.

In a Thursday letter to ERBOCES, Education Commissioner Susana Córdova pushed the group to dissolve, citing legal violations and questionable conduct. She suggested one of the group’s two member institutions never legally joined; that many of the group’s contracts are void because its board has been improperly constituted for years; and that it has misspent state money, including by funding private schools.

The 5-page letter represents the state’s most aggressive effort yet to hold ERBOCES accountable and reflects the extent to which the group has been a thorn in the education department’s side.

ERBOCES officials have long said their goal is to provide innovative education options to Colorado families, but critics argue that the co-op pushes the boundaries of — and in some cases breaks — state law.

Ken Witt, the executive director of ERBOCES, did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

In her letter, Córdova ordered ERBOCES to repay the state by Tuesday for around $300,000 given to the “public Christian school,” Riverstone Academy, and provide the department with a host of documents. The demand for repayment is surprising because the state previously backpedaled on a suggestion that it could claw back the money given to Riverstone.

The rationale presented in the letter was a court ruling this week that invalidated a 2025 school board agreement that allowed Riverstone to open last summer.

Because the agreement “was null and void, ERBOCES was never authorized to submit” Riverstone students for state funding, Córdova wrote.

Riverstone received the state funding before it closed permanently in May.

Co-op has recently faced member defections

ERBOCES has spent much of the summer with its future in jeopardy — losing members and struggling to find new ones. State law requires such co-ops to have at least two member institutions, and one must be a school district.

Currently, ERBOCES’ two members are School District 49 in El Paso County and Pikes Peak State College. In June, the Elizabeth school district left the group. Pikes Peak announced around the same time that it would leave the group in mid-August, but as the exit date neared, college officials agreed to stay till next June.

The school board in District 49, which has been ERBOCES’ most stalwart member and its fiscal agent, also considered leaving ERBOCES this summer but opted to stay for another year.

That could change next week.

Superintendent Peter Hilts recommended the dissolution of ERBOCES to the school board Thursday evening, saying there’s no longer a legitimate, responsible path forward for the co-op.

He praised ERBOCES’ efforts to launch new schools and programs, then said, “but Icarus is coming back to Earth” — referring to a Greek myth in which a character flies too close to the sun and falls.

The board will hold a special meeting Monday to discuss the matter.

Board member Mike Heil, who led the charge to exit ERBOCES earlier this summer, said by email Friday that being part of ERBOCES is damaging the district’s reputation. He said the co-op has created some excellent programs, but that officials there have shown poor judgement.

He also noted ERBOCES’s inability to attract a new member this summer.

“I interpret the lack of suitors to be a collective, statewide referendum on ERBOCES, and their dissolution is therefore correct,” Heil said.

Board member Holly Withers said by phone she was stunned when Hilts suggested that ERBOCES should dissolve because he’s been a supporter of the group and because in June the board discussed the issue and decided to stay.

“I was willing to stay involved in ERBOCES on a probationary type level while they get their affairs in order,” she said.

Withers said she trusts Hilts’ recommendation that ERBOCES should dissolve, but she worries about the families that will be affected and hopes the co-op has a plan to help them.

Last year, ERBOCES online schools enrolled about 4,700 students and its homeschool enrichment programs enrolled more than 8,000 students. The future of many of those programs is up in the air due to state law changes.

Education chief’s letter cites numerous concerns

Córdova’s letter to ERBOCES cited numerous problems, some dating back years and some surfacing in the last month.

Among the concerns she cited are:

That Pikes Peak State College was never a legitimate member of ERBOCES because there’s no documentation showing its governing board approved its membership as required by law.
That ERBOCES’ board has not been properly constituted “for several years, possibly over a decade,” which means board decisions during that time are void.
ERBOCES’ plan to loan $3 million to a charter school in Woodland Park. She said there’s “no legal reason a loan for the benefit of another district’s constituents can plausibly be considered a reasonable and necessary expense,” and therefore is invalid.
ERBOCES’ payment of nearly $800,000 to a private Christian school last school year, which the department suspects is directly funding tuition for private school students.

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

Colorado school board involved in ‘public Christian school’ drama violated open meetings law, judge rules

2026-08-12T21:04:41+00:00

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A Colorado school board violated the state’s open meetings law by concealing the true nature of a “public Christian school” the board allowed to open last year, a state judge ruled Tuesday.

In addition, the decision by Pueblo District Court Judge Michelle Chostner found an open meetings violation related to an appointment the school board made last winter.

Together, these findings represent a major — and potentially expensive — defeat for the Pueblo County School District 70 school board, the defendant in the lawsuit.

Chostner’s ruling invalidates the February appointment of Susie Carnes to a vacant seat on the Pueblo 70 school board, and requires a new meeting so the four other board members can vote to fill the seat. Tuesday’s ruling also invalidates a June 2025 agreement approved by the Pueblo 70 school board that allowed the launch of the “public Christian school.”

That school, Riverstone Academy, closed permanently in May, but the court ruling could open the way for the state to claw back around $300,000 in public funding given to the school

The Pueblo 70 school board must also pay the plaintiffs’ attorney fees, the judge said.

The ruling is a win for Jonathan Lewis, Tara Stroesenreuther, and Adolph Vigil, the three school board candidates who brought the lawsuit in March after they were passed over for the vacant board seat.

The Pueblo 70 school board voted earlier this summer to authorize an immediate appeal if the ruling ordered the removal of a board member or a meeting to fill a board vacancy. As of mid–day Wednesday, no appeal paperwork had been filed with the court.

A Pueblo 70 spokesperson said by email Wednesday the district doesn’t comment on active litigation.

Although in their lawsuit the plaintiffs sought a vote to fill the vacant seat that Carnes filled, they wanted it to happen under slightly different conditions than what the ruling prescribed. That is, with voting only by the three board members who remained at a Feb. 10 meeting after one member had a seizure and departed. That scenario, which the judge did not require, would potentially yield a vote for one of the plaintiffs, not Carnes.

Asked about whether the state would seek to recover public dollars it previously gave to Riverstone Academy, a Colorado Department of Education spokesman said by email Wednesday that, “We are reviewing the decision to determine whether it will impact funding.”

Last fall, department officials suggested they could claw back Riverstone’s funding following an audit, but subsequently backpedaled on that.

The 30-student school, which used Christian curriculum and offered students a “Christian foundation,” was intended to spark a lawsuit over the question of public funding for religious schools that would go to the U.S. Supreme Court. That lawsuit was filed last winter, but fizzled when the school closed.

Chostner invalidated the Riverstone agreement approved by the Pueblo 70 board because the board did not reveal Riverstone’s religious character or its purpose in two meeting agendas or meetings. The district’s lawyer, who helped launch Riverstone, had shared that information in a private letter to the board.

“Riverstone’s true nature should have been made clear both to the public, and to the voting board members, by way of the agendas,” Chostner wrote.

Chostner noted that some board members seemed to be in the dark about Riverstone, even as they voted to approve the agreement in June 2025. Two board members testified in court that they hadn’t read the email from the lawyer, Brad Miller, prior to either meeting where the board considered the Riverstone agreement.

Two others “did read the email but nonetheless during their testimony questioned whether they fully understood the import of the email,” she wrote.

A.J. Wilson, the board’s vice president, said during the June trial that he’d read the email and thought the idea of pursuing a test case was “kind of stupid” because “you should never go looking for a lawsuit.”

But that belief didn’t play into his vote to approve the Riverstone agreement, he said, “because that was kind of their prerogative, and if they wanted to pursue that, then it shouldn’t have affected the district at all.”

Riverstone’s opening led to a tumultuous year in the 12,000-student district, contributing to the sudden resignation of a board member, numerous tense public meetings, and the lawsuit against the school board.

Board president’s secret appointment violated Colorado law

Tuesday’s ruling said Susie Carnes’ selection to the Pueblo 70 board was a violation of Colorado’s open meetings law because the school board president, Ann Bennett, made the appointment over email without providing public notice.

“The appointment was done in secret: precisely the type of formal action the (Colorado Open Meetings Law) prohibits,” Chostner wrote.

Although the plaintiffs had argued that two February school board meetings around the time of Carnes’ appointment violated the open meetings law, the judge didn’t agree. She said both meetings were properly noticed.

Even so, Chostner found fault with Bennett’s decision at one meeting to break quorum and leave unannounced. That happened on Feb. 10, when the board deadlocked on picking a board member with repeated 2-2 ties. Then Wilson had a seizure and left the meeting. Bennett, who had sided with Wilson in the vacancy votes, never returned from the 10-minute recess she’d called or adjourned the meeting.

Chostner said there’s no evidence Bennett needed to end the meeting, because “the other board members were present and were ready to continue voting,” she wrote.

Six days after the unadjourned meeting, Bennett announced that she’d appointed Carnes to the vacant seat. Under Colorado law, school board presidents can appoint a new member if the board can’t agree on a candidate after 60 days.

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

A controversial Colorado education group was in danger of dissolving. A 2013 agreement just saved it.

2026-08-12T00:36:56+00:00

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A controversial Colorado education group will continue to exist for at least 10 more months after a clause in a 13-year-old agreement prevented one member from exiting.

Until late last week, the group, Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or ERBOCES, appeared to be on the brink of collapse because Pikes Peak State College was set to withdraw Aug. 15.

Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova sent ERBOCES a letter on Friday suggesting the co-op should start dissolving, since it would soon have a single member, School District 49 in El Paso County. State law requires two.

But a lawyer for ERBOCES responded, saying a 2013 agreement required Pikes Peak to give a year’s notice before withdrawing. The college isn’t fighting the requirement.

“There was an agreement signed in 2013 that I feel compelled to honor,” said Lance Bolton, the president of Pikes Peak. “I think it’s just a matter of integrity.”

The decision represents a win for supporters of ERBOCES, which authorizes several online schools and dozens of publicly funded programs for homeschoolers. It’s a setback for opponents who argue that ERBOCES often operates in the gray areas of state law.

Ken Witt, ERBOCES executive director, said by email Monday, “We are grateful that Pikes Peak State College committed in their membership MOU to one year’s notice before withdrawal.”

ERBOCES has recently been at the center of two major controversies: the creation of a now defunct “public Christian school” and the launch of homeschool programs that used state money to pay for sports camps, horseback riding, and skiing.

Colorado lawmakers cracked down last spring, limiting the group’s ability to authorize public schools and homeschool programs. The Colorado Department of Education has also recently taken a harder line on ERBOCES.

Bolton said the Pikes Peak State College announced it would withdraw from ERBOCES in June not because it had an opinion on the “Christian public school” or homeschool enrichment programs.

“We’re not against them. We’re not for them.” he said. “They’re just not what we’re here for.”

He said the college originally joined in hopes of collaborating on concurrent enrollment efforts, which has been a small part of ERBOCES’ work. As a member of ERBOCES, Pikes Peak gets to have a representative on the co-op’s board. Bolton said the college’s previous board representative has too much on her plate, and a new one will be selected.

In June, when Pikes Peak announced it would withdraw from ERBOCES on Aug. 15, Witt put out a cordial statement saying members occasionally choose to leave and expressing appreciation for members past and present. The effort to enforce the 2013 agreement just days before Pikes Peak was set to depart suggests ERBOCES is having trouble recruiting new members.

Córdova, in her letter to Witt on Friday, wrote, “in the absence of an eligible partner, by August 16, ERBOCES will no longer be eligible to exist as a BOCES, operate schools and programs, or receive state funding.”

She also wrote, “Recent actions from the ERBOCES board have not demonstrated the reasonable and necessary use of public funds.”

She warned the co-op not to go through with a planned $3 million loan to a Woodland Park charter school, indicating that ERBOCES does not have the legal authority to make the loan.

“We are unaware of any statutory authority for such an intergovernmental loan and see no basis for concluding that a loan for the benefit of another district’s constituents can plausibly be considered a reasonable and necessary expense of the BOCES,” Córdova wrote.

At the ERBOCES board meeting in late July, Witt sounded optimistic about recruiting new members.

He acknowledged Pikes Peak’s plan to withdraw and talked of a “live conversation” with a potential new member he didn’t name. He also talked about starting a program to pay institutions that agree to join ERBOCES.

“Because we are actively recruiting new members, and we really need some incentive beyond just participate for the dialogue, we want to offer … a stipend for member districts that choose to join,” he said.

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

Colorado district will eliminate Bible-based content in new reading curriculum, officials say

2026-08-10T23:32:52+00:00

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A small southwestern Colorado school district will remove or modify any biblically infused content in its new elementary reading curriculum, a district official wrote in an open letter Saturday.

“Our schools will not use the curriculum as a vehicle for religious instruction,” wrote Eddie Ramirez, superintendent of the Montezuma-Cortez district, in a letter addressed to parents, elementary staff, and community members.

The announcement came two days after a Chalkbeat story about the district’s plan to use the Bluebonnet reading curriculum, which was developed by the state of Texas, aligns with Texas academic standards, and contains some lessons based on the Bible.

Also on Saturday, Montezuma-Cortez officials scheduled a special school board meeting for Tuesday to adopt the Bluebonnet curriculum. Although administrators announced in July the district would use the reading curriculum this year, the school board never voted on it.

Monday was the district’s first day of school.

Saturday’s four-page letter was an unusual effort to explain why the 2,200-student district adopted the Texas-centric curriculum and reassure parents and the public that reading instruction will match Colorado academic standards and avoid religious content.

This Colorado school district is using Biblically infused reading curriculum made for Texas students

Montezuma-Cortez administrators picked Bluebonnet because the district in May adopted a school improvement model borrowed from the Houston school district, which switched to Bluebonnet in June. The model, spearheaded by Houston Superintendent Mike Miles, a former charter school founder in Colorado, is called the New Education System.

Justin Schmitt, Montezuma-Cortez’s executive director of academic success, said in a phone interview Friday that using the same curriculum materials as Houston will help his district implement Houston’s improvement model.

“We don’t want to piecemeal the model,” he said. “We wanted to embrace the model in its entirety.”

The model is highly structured and includes teacher-led instruction, a focus on student engagement, and training for teachers and principals. Students in Houston schools using the New Education System made significant gains on state tests in the last few years.

In Montezuma-Cortez, two district-run elementary schools perform far below the Colorado average on state math and literacy tests. A third one, the 128-student Lewis-Arriola Elementary, performs far better.

The Bluebonnet curriculum has drawn criticism from advocates of church-state separation and some parents and religious scholars since it was unveiled in Texas two years ago. Among their critiques are that Bluebonnet mischaracterizes some Bible stories, presents some too literalistically, and gives scant attention to religious traditions outside of Christianity.

A kindergarten lesson discusses the days of Creation in the Book of Genesis, a first grade lesson contains the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and a two-lesson second grade sequence shares a Bible story about Queen Esther. A 14-lesson fifth grade unit discusses Biblical allegories in the “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” by C.S. Lewis.

Schmitt said Houston repackages the Bluebonnet curriculum into slide decks and other materials that are ready for use in the classroom, which will take some of the load off Montezuma-Cortez teachers.

“We don’t have capacity in our district to build that,” he said of the specially tailored curriculum materials.

Schmitt said Montezuma-Cortez is paying for copying costs and some book purchases, but Houston isn’t charging the district to use the New Education System model or for the repackaged Bluebonnet curriculum.

Ramirez’s letter doesn’t mention the name Bluebonnet, but said the district “carefully reviewed” the new reading curricular resources and found “approximately 95% alignment with the applicable Colorado standards.”

Schmitt said Monday that Ramirez wasn’t referring to a district review of the curriculum, but rather an estimate by district officials that Texas and Colorado academic standards are about 95% the same.

Bluebonnet isn’t a Colorado-approved reading curriculum, but it was derived from a state-approved curriculum called Core Knowledge Language Arts. A spokesperson for the company that publishes Core Knowledge Language Arts said the two reading programs are different, and Core Knowledge’s state approval doesn’t guarantee Bluebonnet would win approval too. Colorado school districts don’t have to use state-approved reading curriculum, but they must ensure their curriculum meets state academic standards.

Ramirez wrote in the open letter, “Any content that is inconsistent with the district’s educational purpose, Colorado Academic Standards, or our expectations for a public-school instructional program will be reviewed and, where appropriate, removed or modified.”

Schmitt said the Houston team has provided Montezuma-Cortez with four weeks of reading curriculum materials so far and told district staff there are no faith-based teachings in that content.

“We’re going to trust that, but we’re also going to verify it on our own,” he said.

Teachers and principals will provide further checks to ensure religious content is removed, he said.

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

This Colorado school district is using Biblically infused reading curriculum made for Texas students

2026-08-06T21:06:58+00:00

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Officials in Montezuma-Cortez, a small school district in southwestern Colorado, could have chosen a new elementary reading curriculum from more than 20 state-approved options.

Instead, with little public discussion this summer, they picked one called Bluebonnet. It’s described as being “built for Texas students” and has drawn fierce criticism from some Texans for containing Biblically infused lessons.

Kindergartners learn about the days of Creation in the Book of Genesis. First graders learn about the Parable of the Prodigal Son and fifth graders learn about Biblical allegories in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” by C.S. Lewis.

The curriculum adoption in Montezuma-Cortez is the latest chapter in an ongoing debate about what kind of religious content belongs in American public schools. It also raises questions about why a low-performing district is using a controversial reading curriculum that wasn’t vetted by state evaluators and didn’t go through a public review process or school board vote.

Montezuma-Cortez leaders picked Bluebonnet because the district recently adopted a school reform model from the Houston school district, which approved Bluebonnet this summer.

Houston Superintendent Mike Miles, a former Colorado charter school founder, created the school improvement model Montezuma-Cortez is using. Called “New Education System,” it emphasizes explicit teacher-led instruction, keeping students engaged, and training for teachers and principals. With the help of consultants, Montezuma-Cortez will use the reform strategy at its three elementary schools starting this fall.

Colorado is a local control state and school districts don’t have to use state-approved reading programs, but most do. A spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Education said districts that don’t use state-approved curriculum must ensure the programs are evidence-based and meet state academic standards.

Superintendent Eddie Ramirez and six of seven Montezuma-Cortez school board members didn’t respond to requests for comment about Bluebonnet. Justin Schmitt, the district’s executive director of academic services, offered to talk by phone on Tuesday, but didn’t respond to follow-up emails to schedule the interview.

Board member Mike Lynch said by email Tuesday that the district is following Houston’s lead on curriculum because of that district’s “rapid and phenomenal turnaround history.”

“I want that outcome for my district,” he said.

Students in Houston schools that are part of the New Education System made significant gains on state tests in the last few years.

Lynch said he doesn’t know if Bluebonnet is evidence-based or how well it matches Colorado standards.

“In my opinion, we need to concentrate on teaching our kids how to read and do math,” he said. “Then we can worry more about matching the Colorado standards.”

Lynch also said he didn’t have enough information to form an opinion about Bluebonnet’s Biblically infused lessons.

“There is a difference between containing references from the Bible and teaching the Bible. There is also … number of occurrences, or degree of infusion,” he said. “I don’t know about those facts yet.”

Controversial from the beginning

The State of Texas developed Bluebonnet a few years ago by adapting an existing reading curriculum from the company Amplify. Despite criticism from religious scholars and advocates for church-state separation, Bluebonnet was narrowly approved by the Texas State Board of Education in 2024.

Texas districts aren’t required to adopt it, but they get financial incentives from the state if they do.

Mark Chancey, a religious studies professor at Southern Methodist University, said the problem with Bluebonnet is not that it includes religion but that its treatment of religion is not well done. It mischaracterizes some Bible stories, presents some too literalistically, and gives scant attention to religious traditions outside of Christianity, he said.

A second grade lesson on Esther, a Persian queen from the Bible, suggests she acted based on her faith in God and portrays her as a champion of non-violence for helping save the Jews. But Chancey said the Book of Esther famously doesn’t mention God and that Bluebonnet fails to mention that Esther promotes killing enemies of the Jews at the end of the Bible story.

Chancey said some Biblical content in Bluebonnet is not appropriate for the grade where it’s introduced.

“Is a 5-year-old going to say, ‘I’m so thankful that we’re learning about a creation story from Genesis for the sake of cultural literacy, but I understand that people interpret this differently, and not everybody accepts that it’s scientifically and historically accurate,’” he said.

“I don’t think many 5-year-olds are going to think that way,” he said.

Brent Strawn, a religion and law professor at Duke University, said knowing Bible stories and passages can give students a more nuanced understanding of everything from Shakespeare’s plays to pop music to common idioms, like “the apple of my eye.”

“You could make a case that reading the Bible, having some familiarity with the Bible, could help you as a kind of interpreter of cultural references,” said Strawn.

But he also worries that this rationale can be used to bring Biblical content into public schools when the real goal is to instill children with Christian values and beliefs.

“I’m … in favor of all Christian values. I’m an ordained minister,” he said, “But the question is whether that’s legal, and most people would say that’s not legal according to the establishment clause of the Constitution.”

That clause bars the government from promoting or prescribing one religion over others.

Strawn has not reviewed the Bluebonnet curriculum.

A sudden pivot, little public discussion

When officials in the 2,200-student Montezuma-Cortez district adopted Houston’s school improvement model last spring, the goal was to improve elementary students’ academic performance. One of three district-run elementary schools performs well above the state average on state literacy and math tests, but the other two perform far below.

District leaders originally planned to use a Colorado-approved reading curriculum as part of the improvement effort: Core Knowledge Language Arts. The school board approved a curriculum-use agreement with the Houston district in May that referenced that program.

But when Houston opted, despite opposition from some parents and faith leaders, to switch to Bluebonnet in June, Montezuma-Cortez officials quickly followed suit with no school board vote.

The two curriculums are related but not the same.

Bluebonnet was developed from Core Knowledge Language Arts as its foundation but has been adapted over time, said Kristine Frech-Barstow, senior vice president of corporate communications at Amplify, by email.

As a result, the curriculums are different and Colorado’s approval of Core Knowledge Language Arts doesn’t ensure Bluebonnet would also be approved, she said.

Ericka Burns, a consultant from the Colorado Springs-based firm Education Partners, said during a July 21 Montezuma-Cortez school board meeting that using the same curriculum as Houston makes it easier to use Houston’s school improvement model, but that it’s not necessary.

“We implement the instructional model regardless of curriculum,” she said.

Education Partners will receive $300,000 to help Montezuma-Cortez with the school improvement effort.

Bluebonnet materials include numerous mentions of Texas history and civics. For example, kindergarten lessons talk about the Texas flag, the Texas state capital building, the Texas Pledge of Allegiance, and famous Texans like Sam Houston.

In June, the Texas Education Agency announced it’s spending $8 million to fix thousands of errors in the curriculum, including typos, formatting problems, and copyright violations.

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

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 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.

Another defection hits group that launched ‘Colorado’s first public Christian school’

2026-06-24T22:55:51+00:00

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A controversial public education co-op that spearheaded a “public Christian school” in southern Colorado last year will lose a member in August, putting its existence in jeopardy for the second time this summer.

Pikes Peak State College will withdraw from the co-op — Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services or ERBOCES — effective Aug. 15, Matt Radcliffe, a spokesperson for the college, said by email on Tuesday.

“We do not have anything further to add,” he wrote.

The Elizabeth School District withdrew from ERBOCES in early June. The only other school district member — District 49 in El Paso County — also considered dropping out this month but ultimately opted not to.

Colorado group that started controversial ‘public Christian school’ loses member support

State law requires co-ops like ERBOCES to have at least two members, either two school districts or a school district and a college. Once Pikes Peak State College leaves the co-op, ERBOCES would need another member to keep operating in accordance with the law.

ERBOCES has been at the center of two major controversies over the past year, and both its members and state lawmakers have taken notice. Last summer, the co-op authorized Riverstone Academy, a tiny school in Pueblo County that emails show was created at the behest of a conservative law firm that wanted to spark a religious liberty lawsuit that would go to the U.S. Supreme Court. ERBOCES has also fueled massive growth in publicly funded home-school enrichment programs across the state, using private contractors and subcontractors that keep many details hidden from the public.

In May, Colorado lawmakers sharply curtailed the power of such co-ops to operate schools or programs outside their member districts. The changes prompted the permanent closure of Riverstone and could lead to the closure of other schools and some home-school enrichment programs authorized by ERBOCES.

Asked how ERBOCES will continue operating once Pikes Peak drops out, Ken Witt, the group’s executive director, was vague.

“We routinely welcome new members, just as we understand when political and administrative changes lead to affiliation changes,” he said by email Wednesday. “We will continue to do all in our power to ensure parents have access to the programs and schools they want for their children.”

ERBOCES authorizes several schools, most of them online schools. It also has dozens of home-school enrichment programs, which typically provide six hours a week of tuition-free classes or activities.

When the District 49 school board, which is ERBOCES’ fiscal agent, discussed whether to drop out of the co-op in early June, board members were divided. Some, like Mike Heil, who drafted a presentation highlighting his concerns, questioned the “reputational impact” of District 49 being associated with the co-op.

Board member Lori Thompson, who recently joined the ERBOCES board, said Heil’s presentation told an incomplete story.

School Board President Marie LaVere-Wright, who used to be a member of the ERBOCES board, urged the District 49 board to stick with the co-op for another year at a minimum.

“If we leave, because their funding flows through us, too, that creates a structural problem for them,” she said. “And you have a whole set of families that are depending on this who would immediately lose something.”

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

After a year of controversy, the leader of a shuttered ‘public Christian school’ is pitching a new venture

2026-06-24T20:34:53+00:00

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Just weeks after the permanent closure of a controversial “public Christian school” in southern Colorado, its leader is pitching a new venture that involves public funding for students who opt out of public schools: overseeing homeschool enrichment programs.

On Tuesday, Quin Friberg, former executive director of Riverstone Academy, asked the Pueblo County District 70 school board to consider contracting with a nonprofit he created last month called Keystone Education Services. His new pursuit comes after recent state law changes that will require some publicly funded enrichment programs to seek new authorizers. The changes also forced Riverstone, which was located in District 70, to close last month.

“We created this organization to partner with school districts or charters to help monitor compliance around home school enrichment programs,” Friberg told the school board.

But after months of community pushback and legal problems related to Riverstone, the District 70 school board was divided on Friberg’s latest proposal.

“We have just been through hell on account of Pastor Friberg,” board member Mark Emery said.

“I’m not sure what that’s a reference to, but continue,” Friberg said.

“Your school,” Emery said.

“My school. Oh!” said Friberg, sounding surprised.

Board President Ann Bennett spoke in favor of the Keystone proposal, saying it would create new educational choices for local families.

Bennett said opposition to the proposal “is because there’s a chip on people’s shoulder because of Quin and because of Brad (Miller), and I’m not willing to sacrifice the 70 homeschool students for a vendetta.”

A leaked email written by Miller, a Colorado education lawyer, revealed last fall that Riverstone was started at the behest of a conservative law firm hoping to spark a religious liberty case that would go to the U.S. Supreme Court. In May, the case fizzled when it became clear the school would close for good.

One District 70 board member, Susie Carnes, is also on the board of Keystone Education Services. She said little during Tuesday’s discussion, and it’s unclear if she’d recuse herself from a vote on Keystone, which could take place later this summer.

Contracting with Keystone Education Services could demand a leap of faith for Colorado districts given the history of Friberg’s now-defunct school. During its 10-month existence, Riverstone was involved in lawsuits against the county and the state, was forced to vacate its building because of safety concerns, and its authorizer settled with the family of a Riverstone student for $20,000.

The 10,000-student District 70 district is also coming off a tumultuous year peppered with conflicts over Riverstone. The school board faced infighting over a controversial school board vacancy appointment and accusations that some board members failed to recuse themselves from key votes in which they had conflicts of interest. The board is also embroiled in a lawsuit over open meeting violations stemming from Riverstone’s launch.

Colorado lawmakers this spring put strict new limits on the authorizing power of the state’s 21 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services or BOCES. It was largely a response to Education reEnvisioned BOCES, the Monument-based co-op that authorized Riverstone and scores of homeschool enrichment programs across the state.

The law change bars the co-ops from authorizing schools or enrichment programs outside their member districts and means that dozens of homeschool enrichment programs previously authorized by Education reEnvisioned will no longer get public funding unless they get approval from a local district or charter school.

According to Friberg’s presentation, Keystone would serve as a sort of middleman between school districts and any homeschool enrichment program they authorize. Such publicly funded programs typically offer about six hours a week of tuition-free classes to homeschoolers. Some include math, reading, and electives such as art, music, and physical education. Others fill a specific niche: forest schools, aviation classes, or performing arts programming.

It’s not clear how many students in Pueblo 70 would participate in Keystone-supervised enrichment programs. Superintendent Ronda Rein, who’s retiring this month, estimated there are about 70 homeschoolers currently known to the district. Friberg suggested the number could eventually be hundreds.

Keystone would get a 6.5% cut of the state money that flows to enrichment programs in exchange for vetting new enrichment programs for school districts and providing oversight once they start. Districts would get to keep another 6.5% of the state money, Friberg said.

On average, the state pays about $6,000 per homeschool enrichment student.

Rein said a contract with Keystone would put a new burden on district administrators and expose the district to liability if something went wrong.

Friberg told the District 70 board he’s shopping his Keystone proposal to districts across Colorado, with upcoming meetings in Westcliffe and Grand Junction. He said he’s also reached out to every BOCES in the state.

A handful of community members spoke about the Keystone proposal Tuesday evening.

Jennifer Holderman, who homeschools two of her children, said the district should support homeschool families with enrichment programming because they are part of the district too.

“We live here, we raise our children here, we volunteer here … Choosing a different educational model does not mean choosing to leave the community.”

Another district parent, Hannah McDowell, was sharply critical of Friberg’s proposal.

“Keystone Education Services is literally a brand new, made-up entity dabbling in messy legal technicalities, much like Riverstone Academy was,” she said. “And look how all that turned out: lawsuits, safety violations, damaged reputations, and outrageous amounts of money wasted.”

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

Colorado group that started controversial ‘public Christian school’ faces member defections

2026-06-10T18:22:03+00:00

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A public education co-op that launched a controversial ‘public Christian school’ in southern Colorado last year is losing support among its members.

One of the group’s two member school districts, Elizabeth School District, withdrew from the co-op Tuesday. The second one, District 49, is expected to decide whether to withdraw later in June. If it does, Pikes Peak State College would be the only member.

State law requires such co-ops to have at least one school district member. If District 49’s school board decides to exit, the co-op could recruit one or more districts to replace it. But failing that, it’s not clear how the group would survive with only the college as a member.

The membership churn for Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or ERBOCES, signals an uncertain future for the co-op as well as its eight schools and dozens of publicly funded homeschool enrichment programs. The upheaval also suggests ERBOCES has lost the faith of key education officials whose districts enable it to exist.

The defection of member school districts isn’t the only problem facing the Monument-based ERBOCES. In May, Colorado lawmakers sharply curtailed the power of such co-ops to operate schools or programs outside their member districts. The changes prompted the permanent closure of Riverstone Academy, the public Christian school, and could lead to the closure of other schools and some homeschool enrichment programs authorized by ERBOCES.

In late push, Colorado lawmakers seek limits on homeschool enrichment and group fueling its growth

Ken Witt, executive director of ERBOCES, said by email that districts choose to join and leave the co-op occasionally, often in conjunction with district leadership or school board changes.

“We understand when political and administrative changes lead to affiliation changes,” he said.

ERBOCES is one of 21 such co-ops in Colorado. The groups were formed to make it easier for school districts to band together and offer services like special education they couldn’t afford to provide on their own. But ERBOCES has drawn scrutiny and irritation from some state and local education officials because it acts more like a statewide school authorizer.

The Elizabeth district’s decision to leave ERBOCES — formalized by a 4-0 school board vote Tuesday — is surprising given the district joined the group just four months ago. But the 2,700-student district southeast of Denver is going through big changes. Superintendent Dan Snowberger, who’d previously worked for ERBOCES, retired from the district this month, a year earlier than he’d planned.

Ted Knight, Elizabeth’s new superintendent, said in an emailed statement that he recommended the board drop out of ERBOCES.

He said the co-op provides offerings that “may be a good fit for some districts,” including homeschool enrichment programs and contract school models, but that “Elizabeth is well-positioned with its existing portfolio of schools.”

At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Board President Rhonda Olsen said the withdrawal was because membership in the co-op was not providing sufficient benefit, and it’s ”time for a fresh start and a new approach.” She said the move was not because of social media commentary, political pressure, or outside influence.

Both Knight and the school board acknowledged Tuesday the district is facing financial problems. It’s also embroiled in at least two lawsuits — one over 19 books removed from school libraries and one alleging a middle school dean was wrongfully fired for objecting to the book removals.

The board also voted unanimously Tuesday to cut ties with its law firm, Miller Farmer Carlson Law. The firm is led by Brad Miller, who also represents ERBOCES and helped start Riverstone Academy at the request of a conservative law firm that sought a Supreme Court test case on the question of public funding for religious education. Another former ERBOCES member, the Montezuma-Cortez district in southwestern Colorado, also recently dropped Miller’s firm.

District 49’s school board will discuss its membership in ERBOCES Thursday and vote on staying or withdrawing later in June. If the district drops out, it would represent a big — possibly catastrophic — hit for ERBOCES. The 26,000-student district is a founding member of the co-op and its fiscal agent.

Some District 49 board members have become increasingly skeptical of ERBOCES.

In a presentation he drafted for Thursday’s board meeting, school board member Mike Heil highlighted a series of recent controversies entangling ERBOCES and questioned the “reputational impact” of District 49 being associated with the co-op.

He suggested ERBOCES is an “irresponsible authorizer,” in part because it approved Riverstone Academy even though school officials skipped routine steps when they opened the school and within months were ordered to vacate their building over health and safety problems.

The presentation also notes a problem that state lawyers recently cited: Some of ERBOCES’ board members are ineligible to serve on the board. A court document filed by the state in a lawsuit brought by Riverstone and ERBOCES argued that decisions made by the co-op’s improperly constituted board are void.

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

Denver school board appears likely to adopt bell-to-bell cellphone ban for all grades

2026-06-04T23:48:27+00:00

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The Denver school board appears poised to adopt a bell-to-bell cellphone ban for elementary, middle, and high school students districtwide.

The policy would take effect when school starts in August and require cellphones to be off and out of sight when students are in school buildings. It wouldn’t be in effect off-campus, for example when high school students leave school to go to lunch or to an internship.

Board members discussed and fine-tuned the proposed policy at a work session Thursday. They’ll vote on a final version Monday.

Multiple board members said many Denver parents urgently want school cellphone limits.

“We’re a year behind a lot of districts in the state of Colorado with this decision-making and with this implementation,” said board member John Youngquist. “Our parents have been yearning for this.”

The board’s discussion mirrors a broader debate unfolding across Colorado as districts work to meet a July 1 deadline to adopt policies on student cellphone use. Many parents and educators want to sharply curtail cellphone use during school hours to reduce device addiction and encourage in-person social connection. But others say students need cellphones in case of emergencies, to communicate with employers or relatives, or to address health or mental health problems.

A 2025 Colorado law requires school districts and charter schools to adopt cellphone policies, but doesn’t require a ban. Many school districts have already settled on such policies, most of which will take effect in the fall. This spring, the 62,000-student Douglas County district and 34,000-student Aurora district adopted a bell-to-bell bans for elementary and middle school students, but those policies only ban cellphones during class for high schoolers, not other parts of the school day.

Several districts, including Boulder Valley, Mesa County Valley 51, and Westminster, have adopted bell-to-bell bans for students in all grades.

Denver’s proposed policy mirrors recommendations made by a 17-member district advisory committee in April.

A recent survey by the district shows that even for older students, most people agree with the away-for-the-day approach to cellphones and devices like smart watches.

Of more than 7,000 survey respondents, 64% supported a bell-to-bell ban for middle and high school students. Students respondents were the outliers though — 97% of more than 600 surveyed opposed a bell-to-bell ban for middle and high schoolers.

Sarah Almy Moore, a Denver parent and a member of the advisory committee, urged support for the proposed policy despite student opposition.

“Kids are telling you they cannot be without their phones because many have never learned how,” she said. “We must prepare students to have a healthy relationship with technology, and to know they can, at times, function without it.”

Multiple parents warned against a cellphone policy that would allow high schoolers to use phones at school when they’re not in class, an idea the board discussed in May.

“We know partial policies don’t actually work when phones are allowed during lunch or passing periods,” said Natalie Perez, a parent and organizer with the advocacy group Stand for Children Colorado. “Those distractions don’t stay there, they just come back into the classroom and teachers lose valuable learning time managing devices instead of teaching.”

No students spoke about the cellphone policy during the public comment period Thursday.

The district’s proposed policy would include a ban on smartphones, smartwatches, earbuds, and other technology not issued by schools. It would allow exceptions for students who need their phones for medical reasons or as part of a special education plan or disability accommodation.

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

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.

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 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 lawmakers want certain felony convictions to prohibit a person from running for school board

2026-04-23T00:08:46+00:00

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Candidates wouldn’t be allowed to run for a Colorado school board if they have a recent conviction for certain violent crimes or felony drug offenses under a proposed state law.

State Sen. Adrienne Benavidez, an Adams County Democrat, said a constituent in her district brought the idea to her. Current law only prohibits a person who has been convicted of a sexual offense against a child from running for school board. Benavidez said the law should be more restrictive.

Benavidez said during a Senate Education Committee hearing on Wednesday that school board members are responsible for the education, health, safety, and welfare of children. But their job is to also protect children and set good examples for them, she said.

The disqualifying convictions listed by Senate Bill 166 include murder, kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and harm against an at-risk adult or juvenile. The bill also says convictions for felony drug offenses such as selling, manufacturing, or dispensing a controlled substance would also bar an individual from running. The bill does say these exclusions would only apply if a person was convicted as an adult.

The bill originally included a lifelong prohibition from running for office for those offenses, but Benavidez and other sponsors amended the bill to allow candidates to run 10 years after they’ve completed their sentence.

“That is basically a recognition that people, even though they did something at some point, if they’ve made amends through this process, they still should be able to participate civically in our communities,” Benavidez said.

The bill passed the committee with a 4-3 party-line vote. Assistant Minority Leader Sen. Lisa Frizell, a Castle Rock Republican, said she would have voted yes on the bill until lawmakers adopted the amendment from Benavidez and others.

Other bill sponsors include Democrats Sen. Cathy Kipp of Fort Collins and Rep. Lori Goldstein of Westminster. The bill now will be heard by the full Senate and, if passed, will head to the House for consideration.

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.

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.

In wake of ‘public Christian school’ controversy, Pueblo 70 school board sued over open meetings violations

2026-03-31T22:58:31+00:00

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Three school board candidates who were passed over for a vacant seat on the Pueblo District 70 school board sued the board Monday, asking the court to order a new vote to fill the seat.

They also asked the court to declare that the Pueblo 70 school board violated Colorado’s open meetings law several times over the last seven months, including by not clearly describing agenda items related to Riverstone Academy, an elementary school that backers have called Colorado’s “first public Christian school.”

The lawsuit is the third one this year related to Riverstone. The lawsuit alleges a pattern of violations that started last summer when the school board voted to allow Riverstone to open within district boundaries and continued with the controversial appointment of a fourth candidate to the school board in February.

Monday’s lawsuit was filed in Pueblo County District Court by attorney Eric Maxfield on behalf of Jonathan Lewis, Tara Stroesenreuther, and Adolph Vigil, three of four candidates who vied for an open seat on the school board over the winter. The school board president appointed the fourth candidate, Susie Carnes, to fill the seat in February. At the heart of the latest lawsuit is the idea that the public’s business must be conducted in public.

Emails obtained by Chalkbeat show that Riverstone was created at the behest of a conservative law firm seeking a test case on the question of public funding for religious schools. Attorney Brad Miller, whose law firm represents Pueblo 70, outlined that goal in an email to the five-member board and superintendent last June. The school board president at the time, Anne Ochs, wrote back within minutes, and the topic was added to the next meeting agenda.

Monday’s lawsuit alleges that the school board hid Miller’s plan from the public at two June meetings by using generic, jargon-laden language to describe the Riverstone matter. This failed “to provide full notice regarding the proposed Board approval of a publicly-funded Christian school within D70, created for the purpose of manufacturing a Supreme Court test case in hopes of striking down Colorado’s ban against using public funds for religious education,” the lawsuit says.

Reached by email on Tuesday, Miller did not comment about the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also alleges that placing the Riverstone vote on the board’s consent agenda on June 24 was a violation of open meetings law. Consent agendas allow public bodies like school boards to group routine, uncontroversial issues together for a vote with no debate. Board members can request that items be removed from the consent agenda and voted on separately. That didn’t happen with Riverstone.

Voting on Riverstone as part of the larger consent agenda constituted an “unlawful rubberstamp of a prior, non-public decision,” the lawsuit says.

Riverstone Academy originally operated in this building, but moved temporarily to Christ Church Pueblo West in February.

The lawsuit says that the Pueblo 70 school board continued to violate open meetings law over the winter. That was after three new members were elected in November and after Ochs resigned in December, when a district parent criticized her for hiding key facts about Riverstone’s creation and failing to disclose a conflict of interest.

According to the lawsuit, School Board President Ann Bennett, one of the board members elected in November, violated the law by abruptly leaving a meeting on Feb. 10, the date the board was supposed to select a new member to replace Ochs.

Before Bennett left, the board had deadlocked on picking a new member with repeated 2-2 ties. Then board Vice President AJ Wilson fell ill and was helped out of the room. That left three board members and the possibility that a candidate Bennett didn’t support — Lewis, Stroesenreuther, or Vigil — could be appointed in a 2-1 vote.

“Faced with losing the vote, in a ‘personal power move’ that broke her pledges to follow state law and to respect the Board, Bennett illegally fled the un-adjourned meeting to break quorum and prevent a vote,” a motion accompanying the lawsuit states.

Quorum refers to the minimum number of members needed for a public body to take votes on public business.

This education co-op quietly opened a Christian public school. Does Colorado need more guardrails?

Several days after the Feb. 10 meeting, Bennett announced in a letter to the community that she’d appointed Carnes the vacant seat. Under Colorado law, school board presidents can appoint a new member if the board can’t agree on a candidate after 60 days.

The lawsuit alleges that the “non-public and unilateral appointment of Carnes” and her swearing in during an “un-noticed” meeting on Feb. 25 violated the open meetings law.

In a motion for a preliminary injunction filed along with the lawsuit, the plaintiffs ask the court to order the three Pueblo 70 school board members who were present when Wilson became ill to resume the Feb. 10 meeting that was never adjourned and vote in a candidate to fill the vacancy. That motion also asks that Carnes be ordered to cease serving as a board member while that process plays out.

The lawsuit also wants the Pueblo 70 board to pay the three plaintiffs’ legal fees.

District Superintendent Ronda Rein said by email that the lawsuit could divert funds from student programming

“The board acts on the guidance of their attorney, and any legal proceedings would require the district to cover attorney fees,” she said. “There are more constructive ways to hold the board accountable than through a lawsuit.”

While Miller’s law firm continues to represent Pueblo 70 school board, the district could soon be represented by a different firm. Rein, who will retire at the end of June, recently put out a request for proposals for attorneys to represent the district. Rein said four firms responded, including Miller’s.

Riverstone is still in the midst of another lawsuit. In February, the school and its authorizer filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against the state over the possibility that the school’s public funding could eventually be clawed back.

Forging Education, the Christian nonprofit group that operates Riverstone, also filed a lawsuit against Pueblo County in January, after county officials ordered the school to close its building over safety concerns. School officials voluntarily closed the building and moved the school to a temporary location shortly after.

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

Lawyer warns of possible lawsuit over alleged open meetings violations in Pueblo 70 school district

2026-03-12T01:09:39+00:00

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Four school board candidates, one vacant seat, and a school board president who made the pick on her own.

These are the main ingredients of a legal conflict brewing in the Pueblo 70 school district, where a divided board has faced months of simmering tension over the district’s role in the opening of a “public Christian school” called Riverstone Academy.

There’s no lawsuit yet. But a lawyer representing the three school board candidates who were passed over for the vacant seat has suggested it’s possible. Board President Ann Bennett appointed Susie Carnes, who has links to the group that operates Riverstone, to the open seat in February.

In a Tuesday email, attorney Eric Maxfield told Pueblo 70’s lawyer that his clients’ next steps could include “litigation in state district court” over violations of Colorado’s open meetings law. His clients are Jonathan Lewis, Adolph Vigil, and Tara Stroesenreuther.

With district superintendent Ronda Rein preparing to retire, the legal outcome of the board seat dispute could mean a shift to a less conservative school board majority and change the direction of the 12,000-student district. In addition to hiring a new superintendent this summer, the board could decide whether to keep or replace the school district’s law firm, which is headed by attorney Brad Miller.

Miller has been at the center of controversy in recent months. He helped create Riverstone last summer at the behest of a conservative Arizona-based law firm seeking a test case on the question of public funding for religious schools, emails obtained by Chalkbeat indicate. The Pueblo 70 school board voted to allow Riverstone, which is authorized by a public education co-op, to locate within the district’s boundaries.

In an email exchange with Maxfield on Tuesday, Miller pushed back against Maxfield’s assertion that Bennett broke state law by appointing Carnes to the vacant seat.

“I am disappointed that you would feign to believe that her appointment was in error,” Miller wrote, according to a copy of the email provided by Maxfield to Chalkbeat.

The board seat came open after a former board member, Anne Ochs, resigned in December after a district parent criticized her for hiding key facts about Riverstone’s creation and failing to disclose a conflict of interest.

Four candidates applied to fill the vacancy, but the board deadlocked with repeated 2-2 ties at its Feb. 10 meeting. Then Board Vice President AJ Wilson fell ill and was helped out of the room. That left three board members and the possibility that one of the candidates could be appointed in a 2-1 vote.

But Bennett, who had sided with Wilson in the vacancy votes, never returned from the 10-minute recess she’d called or adjourned the meeting. Six days later, she announced that she’d appointed Carnes to the vacant seat.

Under Colorado law, school board presidents can appoint a new member if the board can’t agree on a candidate after 60 days.

Carnes was sworn in by Bennett on Feb. 25, in what Maxfield characterized in his letter as an “unannounced non-public ceremony.”

As of last month, Carnes was listed as an elementary teacher at a school run by Forging Education, a Christian group that also runs Riverstone. Her appointment means that three of the five Pueblo 70 school board members — a majority — have had connections to Forging Education.

In a 10-page letter sent to the Pueblo 70 school board on March 4, Maxfield alleged that Bennett circumvented Colorado’s open meetings law when she abruptly “fled” that February school board meeting and later made the vacancy appointment “unilaterally.”

He argued that Bennett’s sudden departure on Feb. 10 was meant to prevent the public from witnessing the selection of a new board member in an open public meeting that had been noticed in advance.

“Notwithstanding the tragic hardship to Vice President Wilson, after his departure the Board maintained quorum, the business was not concluded, and such business was urgent, under a statutory deadline,” Maxfield said.

Quorum refers to the minimum number of members needed for a public body to take votes on public business. For a five-member board, quorum requires three board members to be present.

Maxfield asked for 11 remedies in his letter, including that the appointment of Carnes be invalidated and that the board re-do the selection process. (Maxfield referred to Carnes as the “Director-in-Error.”) He also asked that an outside lawyer conduct a “comprehensive governance and conflict-of-interest review.”

Miller rebuffed those requests in his Tuesday email to Maxfield and said Carnes’ appointment was “properly completed.”.

“The political interplay was anything but smooth and I can agree that it always would be optimal if a majority of the remaining directors could agree on an appointee,” Miller wrote. “However, the tie breaking mechanism is clearly set forth in Colorado statute.”

Bennett did not respond to Chalkbeat’s request for comment about the alleged violation.

It’s not clear when Maxfield’s three clients will decide whether to file a lawsuit over the alleged open meetings violations. Miller indicated in his Tuesday response to Maxfield that he will discuss the matter with the Pueblo 70 school board on March 17 and will follow up with Maxfield afterwards.

Maxfield and Miller’s firm have faced off in recent years in other cases about transparency.

In February, a Woodland Park mother who is a client of Maxfield emerged victorious after a district court judge ordered the Woodland Park school district to pay her more than $144,000 in legal costs after she successfully showed the district violated the Colorado Open Meetings Law. Miller’s firm represented the school district in that case.

Maxfield told Miller in their Tuesday email exchange that if his three clients decide to sue, they’ll “seek payment by the Board of their reasonable attorney fees and costs.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Authorizer of Colorado’s ‘first public Christian school’ settles with family for $20,000

2026-03-09T23:24:19+00:00

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The authorizer of Riverstone Academy, a controversial “public Christian school” in southern Colorado, has agreed to pay the parents of a student $20,000 to settle a special education complaint filed by the family last fall.

Many details of the family’s complaint and the settlement are unclear because privacy laws shield key documents and information from the public.

The highly redacted settlement agreement shows that the $20,000 payout is meant to cover “compensatory services” for the student at the center of the complaint. In general, compensatory services are makeup special education services that school systems must pay for, sometimes in response to a complaint or lawsuit.

Riverstone’s authorizer, Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or ERBOCES, will pay the family in three installments over the next 10 months, according to a copy of the settlement agreement obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request. ERBOCES is one of 21 publicly funded education co-ops in Colorado.

These co-ops are meant to support school districts. This one started Colorado’s ‘first public Christian school.’

The $20,000 settlement is the latest bump in the tumultuous life of Riverstone, which was launched last summer at the behest of a conservative law firm in order to spark a lawsuit on the question of public funding for religious schools, according to emails obtained by Chalkbeat.

Riverstone opened quietly in August with about 30 kindergarten through fifth grade students. By late January, Pueblo County officials forced school officials to close Riverstone’s building — a former office in an industrial area — because of ongoing health and safety violations.

The school is now operating out of a temporary location that school officials won’t reveal.

In February, Riverstone and ERBOCES sued the state, alleging religious discrimination over the possibility that the state could withhold public funding from the school following an audit underway now.

As part of the $20,000 settlement, ERBOCES will be required to provide training to Riverstone, the agreement says. Information about the type of training is redacted.

The settlement also specifies that ERBOCES denies the family’s allegations and that the parents agree not to sue ERBOCES over the claims made in the settlement.

Finally, the agreement stipulates that ERBOCES and the family can’t publicly disclose the settlement terms. In response to inquiries, “Parties agree that they will limit any verbal or written response to the following: ‘This matter has been settled by agreement, and no further comment can be made,’” the agreement states.

The agreement was signed on ERBOCES’ behalf by Suzanne Romero, who is listed on the group’s website as director of special education and full-time programs. The signing date was redacted.

Minutes from the Jan. 15 meeting of the five-member Riverstone Academy board shed some light on the decision to settle the family’s complaint.

Under a heading titled “Mediation Update,” the partially redacted minutes indicate that without a settlement, there could be “continued litigation.” It also said Riverstone’s lawyer recommended settling based on “Public relations impact” and “Cost, risk and likelihood of success.”

In response to a public records request from Chalkbeat, Colorado Department of Education officials said they could not provide any complaint or the results of any investigation because special education complaints and findings are confidential under state law.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@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.

Fallout from controversial ‘public Christian school’ in southern Colorado leads to school board clash

2026-02-25T18:44:33+00:00

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A five-minute school board meeting. A quick exit by a school board president. A school superintendent who said she was disgusted and embarrassed.

That was Tuesday’s Pueblo 70 school board meeting in a nutshell. The contentious meeting reflects the ongoing fallout from the controversial launch of Riverstone Academy, which its authorizer has called Colorado’s “first public Christian school.”

The dispute that cut short Tuesday’s meeting surrounds the appointment of a fifth board member who could either align with two conservative-leaning board members or with two board members who’ve criticized how Riverstone came about. The factions also have opposite takes on the district’s attorney, Brad Miller, who helped launch Riverstone at the behest of a conservative law firm in order to spark a religious liberty lawsuit.

Riverstone is a tiny school in Pueblo County, but it has generated outsized ripple effects since it opened last summer, including the lawsuit that Miller envisioned, concern from state lawmakers and education officials, and ongoing tension in the Pueblo 70 district.

New site of ‘public Christian school’ a mystery as old location draws scrutiny

The board vacancy came about after a school board member with ties to Riverstone’s authorizer resigned in December. Problems filling the seat emerged at a Feb. 10 meeting, when the four sitting board members conducted numerous rounds of voting on candidates for the open seat and deadlocked every time. Then Board Vice President AJ Wilson became ill, prompting Board President Ann Bennett to call a 10-minute recess. Multiple people rushed to assist Wilson out of the room.

But Bennett, who along with Wilson is part of the board’s conservative wing, never returned to the meeting room, where she likely would have been on the losing side of a 2-1 split. Several days later, she appointed her favored candidate, Susie Carnes, using a power the board president is allowed to wield if the board can’t agree on a candidate.

Fast forward two weeks to Tuesday at 6 p.m., Wilson was absent, as was Carnes, who’s an elementary teacher for the Christian organization that operates Riverstone. She was set to be sworn in that night. Again, that left Bennett facing off against two board members who disagreed with her unannounced departure from the previous meeting and her choice of Carnes to fill the vacancy.

The board clashed immediately as member Michelle Erickson sought to make a statement, and Bennett cut her off.

“No, a statement is not part of the agenda, so we’re not doing that right now,” Bennett said.

Board member Mark Emery, who generally aligns with Erickson, responded, “The agenda isn’t proper. The last meeting was never adjourned.”

Seconds later as Erickson tried to read her statement, Miller, the district’s lawyer, interjected.

“This is improper,” he said. “We either get into this meeting or we don’t, and if we don’t, then we’re done.”

Bennett made a motion to approve the agenda, but nobody seconded her motion, a requirement to vote on it.

“You can gavel the meeting, we’re done,” Miller said to Bennett.

“Meeting adjourned,” she said quickly.

Erickson pushed back against the adjournment, saying, “We need to have conversation here.” Some members of the audience began to shout at Bennett and Miller as they gathered their things to leave.

A woman near the front told Bennett, “Listen or get out.”

“You get out,” said Bennett, “Security, will you please remove this woman?”

“Is she allowed to remove people from a meeting that’s no longer happening?” someone asked.

Someone else said of Bennett, “She’s leaving the meeting again, just like last time.”

After Bennett and Miller left, Erickson read her statement to the crowd still in the room, saying the “abandonment” of the Feb. 10 meeting and the appointment of Carnes by Bennett compromises transparency.

Superintendent Ronda Rein, who was clearly frustrated, also spoke.

“There are some items on this agenda that absolutely have to move forward whether we have board approval or not, like February’s payroll,” she said. “We are going to move forward with business and running our district, with or without a full board.”

She concluded, saying, “It’s frankly disgusting to me that this is where we’re at. It’s embarrassing to me.”

The district’s administrators and staff will continue to serve kids, she said, “the way we always have and always will, whether we have the vote or we don’t.”

The audience gave her a standing ovation.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

State lawmakers reject attempt to change how school board members are elected

2026-02-25T01:16:32+00:00

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Most Colorado school board members are elected by voters across the entire school district. So voters who live in the south part of a district often get to decide who represents the north part of the district, a setup that some state lawmakers said makes little sense.

But an attempt to change that system failed on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 57 would have required elections to be more localized. Instead of electing school board members at large, as it’s called, the bill would have restricted the pool of voters to those who live in the cities or neighborhoods that the candidate would represent, similar to how Colorado elects its state representatives and congresspeople.

“It kind of doesn’t make sense to me that we have elections at large when we have candidates geographically distributed,” state Sen. Mark Baisley, a Woodland Park Republican, told a legislative committee Tuesday. “Let’s have them elected locally where they can actually focus their time and their resources for their elections.”

Baisley is one of the most conservative members of the state legislature. He quipped at the hearing that he found himself “in the unusual position” of agreeing on this issue with the American Civil Liberties Union, which often champions progressive causes. The co-sponsor of the bill was state Rep. Bob Marshall, a Democrat from Highlands Ranch.

Colorado Common Cause, a liberal-leaning nonprofit, testified in favor of the bill at a short hearing before the Senate State, Veterans, & Military Affairs Committee. The committee has a reputation as a “kill committee” because most bills don’t make it out.

Dillon Rankin, an intern for Colorado Common Cause, said at-large elections can lead to unrepresentative and discriminatory results. A majority of seats are often won by candidates who agree with a majority of voters, leaving no room for minority opinions, he said.

The powerful Colorado Association of School Boards opposed the bill. Matt Cook, the organization’s director of public policy and advocacy, said state law already allows school districts to change the way they elect school board members if voters agree to it.

But Cook said he didn’t know how many districts had. The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said it doesn’t track it either. The bill would have only applied to school districts with 6,500 students or more. That’s just 28 of Colorado’s 186 districts.

Of the 10 largest districts, only the very biggest — the 89,000-student Denver Public Schools — uses a different system. Two of Denver’s school board members are elected at-large. The other five are elected only by the voters who live in the neighborhoods the members represent.

Teachers unions were also opposed to the bill.

Rob Gould, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, said Denver’s system leads to politicized and costly elections. In last November’s election, candidates and outside groups spent $2.35 million on ads, mailers, consultants, and other expenses, according to Chalkbeat’s tally, making it the most expensive Denver school board election ever.

“This dynamic discourages everyday educators, parents, and community members from running because they feel they cannot match the financial and political scale of these campaigns,” Gould said.

Colorado’s second-largest school district, the 74,000-student Jeffco Public Schools, has at-large elections. Brooke Williams, the president of the Jeffco teachers union, said it’s already hard to recruit candidates. Changing how they’re elected would make it harder, she said.

Two members of the Senate State, Veterans, & Military Affairs Committee said they agreed with the idea behind the bill, noting that more localized elections lead to more political and racial diversity among elected officials. But they said they were worried about the details, including how some school districts might draw the voting maps.

“We might see gerrymandering as a result of this proposal,” said state Sen. Katie Wallace, a Democrat from Longmont and chair of the committee.

The kill committee quickly dispatched the bill, voting it down along party lines. The two Republicans voted yes and the three Democrats voted no.

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

Colorado school district may drop attorney who helped create state’s ‘first public Christian school’

2026-01-27T01:18:55+00:00

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A southern Colorado school district could soon drop the law firm whose controversial lead lawyer helped launch what backers have called the state’s “first public Christian school.”

The Pueblo 70 school board will vote Tuesday on whether to issue a request for proposals for attorney services — a first step that could lead the district to replace attorney Brad Miller and his Colorado Springs-based firm, Miller Farmer Carlson Law.

At a board meeting earlier this month, two of four Pueblo 70 school board members raised concerns about Miller’s involvement in the district’s legal affairs. Board member Mark Emery suggested that Miller has an agenda shaped by religious and political leanings that’s created turmoil for the district.

“Let’s start with a clean slate, free of perception of impropriety and the shadow of conflict of interest,” said Emery, who broached the idea of shopping for new law firms on Jan. 13.

Board member Michelle Erickson, who like Emery was elected in November, agreed with his proposal, suggesting a switch to a well-qualified local firm could save the district money.

Two board members, President Ann Bennett and Vice President A.J. Wilson, pushed back.

Bennett, who was also elected in November, said, “In my limited interaction with him, he’s been very knowledgeable, very thorough, very careful to not offer opinions to just offer options and I’ve appreciated that.”

Wilson, who was elected in 2021, said Miller had done a good job for the district, citing a time when Miller’s recommendation about a bond issue helped save a significant amount of money.

Miller said by email Monday that he didn’t attend the Jan. 13 board meeting and was “not aware of any comments by board members regarding our role as legal counsel.”

The Pueblo 70 school board normally has five members, but one member, Anne Ochs, resigned abruptly in December after a district parent confronted her about misleading statements Ochs made related to the creation of the public Christian school, Riverstone Academy.

A fifth board member will be appointed in February, after the vote on whether to seek proposals from law firms but before any decision on whether to replace Miller’s firm.

Miller pushed to start Riverstone Academy, emails show

Miller and his firm have long represented a number of conservative-leaning Colorado school districts and charter schools, including several currently involved in high-profile legal fights over library book bans and rules for transgender athletes.

Last summer, Miller sought to launch Riverstone Academy in order to spark a lawsuit on the question of public funding for religious schools, according to emails obtained by Chalkbeat. Colorado’s constitution bars public religious schools.

In a June 4 email, Miller told the Pueblo 70 school board that a conservative law firm called Alliance Defending Freedom had approached him after the U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked on a similar case out of Oklahoma.

“ADF asked me if I could find a way for a parallel case to be initiated out of Colorado,” he said.

Miller went on to explain that Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or ER BOCES, which he also represents, would create the school. The Pueblo 70 school board would then grant the BOCES “the right to operate such a school within the district’s boundaries for purposes of creating this test case,” he said in the email.

Riverstone was started quietly with key start-up documents omitting any reference to religion.

While the school is currently receiving public funding, state officials have said that the money could be clawed back if they determine the school is ineligible after an audit.

Ochs, who was board president when Miller sent the June 4 email, responded within minutes. Soon a vote on locating Riverstone in District 70 was added to the board’s agenda.

In late June, when Ochs voted to approve Riverstone’s location in Pueblo County, she didn’t mention she’d recently accepted a job with the BOCES. Hannah McDowell, the district parent who confronted Ochs in December, suggested that Miller also had a conflict of interest stemming from his work for both Education reEnvisioned BOCES and the Pueblo 70 district.

“I think that Mr. Miller representing and being paid by everyone involved while working to advocate for a third party is a problem,” she said.

“I ask the new board to look closely into Mr. Miller,” she said. “Seriously, just Google him.”

In a video of Miller posted in November by the Teacher Freedom Summit, an event put on by the anti-union group Teacher Freedom Alliance, he described himself as a “board whisperer.”

He said he tries “to help boards to facilitate in this nasty public sphere that they have to work in. Because they have to do everything transparently. They can’t really connive and be secretive and plan things.”

Board members disagree on Miller’s reputation

At the Jan. 13 meeting, Emery and Bennett offered contrasting views about how MIller is perceived by community members

Emery, who advocated for using a local attorney, described Miller as bringing “baggage” and creating distraction in the district.

“He is well-known throughout the state as causing issues in so many school districts,” Emery said.

“We must be talking to different people, Mark, because the feedback I’ve gotten regarding Mr. Miller has all been, not all, but mostly been very positive,” said Bennett. “What I’m hearing is that he commands a high level of respect.”

By the end, both had agreed that putting out a request for proposals made sense.

“It doesn’t hurt anything to do an RFP,” said Emery, “If Mr. Miller is the best candidate, well, then he remains.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@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.

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.

Pueblo District 70 board member resigns in wake of ‘public Christian school’ controversy

2025-12-10T18:05:34+00:00

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Pueblo District 70 school board member Anne Ochs abruptly announced her resignation during a board meeting Tuesday evening after a district parent called her out for helping quietly bring what’s been billed as Colorado’s “first public Christian school” into the district.

Hannah McDowell, who has three children in district schools, spoke during the public comment period at the end of the meeting. She criticized Ochs for keeping key information about the school, Riverstone Academy, from the public.

McDowell also expressed concern that Ochs failed to disclose she’d already signed a contract to work for Riverstone’s authorizer, Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or ERBOCES, when she voted in June to allow the school to open within district boundaries.

Pueblo School District 70 board member Anne Ochs.

McDowell said she learned about it from news coverage and cited details reported exclusively by Chalkbeat. She handed out copies of Chalkbeat stories and other documents to Ochs and the other Pueblo 70 board members after she spoke.

“Ms. Ochs, your lack of transparency and misleading statements are beyond disappointing,” she said. “Your constituents should not have to learn about a serious conflict of interest from a news article months after the fact.”

Colorado’s ‘first public Christian school’ violated health and safety rules, documents show

McDowell then asked Ochs, who was first elected in 2021 and has two years left in her current term, to resign. Ochs had been the president of the five-member board until a new president was selected at Tuesday’s meeting.

After McDowell’s three-minute statement, Ochs responded angrily.

“First off, I didn’t start with ERBOCES until July 1,” she said. “Secondly, I have to work for a living and this had nothing to do with Riverstone. I don’t work with Riverstone. I didn’t even know about Riverstone being one of the programs.”

Ochs finished by saying, “You know what? You’re getting your wish come true, because I was planning on resigning anyway. I’m done.”

Ochs’ announcement was met with a “thank you” from the audience and a smattering of applause.

Ochs then stood up, closed her laptop, and walked out of the board room. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

Ochs emailed a short resignation letter to the board and district superintendent on Wednesday morning.

“This decision has not been an easy one, but due to increasing time constraints and personal commitments, I am no longer able to devote the level of attention and energy that the students, staff, and community deserve,” she wrote.

Ochs said in the letter, obtained by Chalkbeat through a public records request, that her resignation is effectively immediately.

Riverstone opened with about 30 K-5 students in August, in a light industrial area just outside Pueblo city limits. Its website describes it as a public elementary school offering “a Christian foundation” and Christian curriculum, but its religious affiliation wasn’t widely known until early October.

That’s when the head of the public education cooperative that authorizes Riverstone publicly declared it the state’s first public Christian school. The next day, the state warned that it could withhold public funding from the school because the state constitution doesn’t allow religious public schools.

In November, Chalkbeat obtained an email suggesting that Riverstone was created to spur a lawsuit over the question of whether public money can be used for religious schools. The U.S. Supreme Court deadlocked on the issue in April.

The email came from Brad Miller, a lawyer who represents District 70 and ERBOCES. When he sent it on June 4, Ochs quickly responded saying the Pueblo 70 board would discuss putting the issue on the agenda, according to emails obtained by Chalkbeat.

Christian law firm’s search for test case led to religious public school in Colorado, emails suggest

But when the board voted in late June to allow Riverstone to open within district boundaries, Ochs didn’t publicly mention that Riverstone was a Christian school or that it was meant to spur a legal test case.

When asked in October by Chalkbeat if she’d known about Riverstone’s religious affiliation when she voted on it, Ochs first said no. The next day, she called back and said she knew the school planned to use Christian curriculum, but added, “to me that doesn’t make it a religious school.”

Ochs also acknowledged in October that she’d started a job with ERBOCES in July, but indicated that she’d interviewed for the position after the June vote on Riverstone.

But McDowell, the district parent who spoke Tuesday, said that Ochs signed the contract for her new job on June 9. That was two weeks before the June 24 Riverstone vote, according to a copy of the contract reviewed by Chalkbeat.

This story has been updated with information about Ochs’ resignation letter.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

CHSAA and districts settle Colorado transgender athlete lawsuit; case continues with state

2025-12-05T02:55:43+00:00

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The group governing high school sports in Colorado has agreed not to sanction schools or teams from eight conservative-leaning school districts and charter schools for policies on transgender student athletes under a settlement agreement finalized Thursday.

Some of the districts and schools passed policies this year barring transgender students from joining teams that align with their gender identity.

The agreement marks the end of the Colorado High School Activities Association’s involvement in a federal lawsuit spearheaded last spring by the 27,000-student District 49 near Colorado Springs. The lawsuit will continue with other defendants, including Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and officials from the Colorado Civil Rights Division.

The settlement won’t have much effect on high school sports in Colorado because the Colorado High School Activities Association, also known as CHSAA, has never had a major role in determining which school teams transgender athletes can join. The group’s bylaws have for years recognized the right of transgender athletes to participate on sports teams that match their gender identity and state that the group can review district decisions on such matters.

But the group has never penalized a school or district for policies on transgender athletes or dictated what those policies should say, a CHSAA spokesperson said in an emailed statement Thursday.

“Eligibility decisions have always been left to individual schools and districts, which is why being named in this lawsuit was both frustrating and unnecessary,” she said.

The statement called the plaintiffs’ decision to sue CHSAA “much more performative than substantive,” and said it won’t change anything about the group’s policies, practices, or authority.

The outcome of the ongoing lawsuit between the state and the eight plaintiffs remains to be seen. The state’s anti-discrimination law includes protections based on gender identity.

A number of Colorado districts have policies that allow transgender students to join sports teams consistent with their gender identity. Others make decisions on a case by case basis, and more recently, some bar transgender students from playing on teams that match their gender identity.

In addition to CHSAA’s agreement not to sanction the plaintiff districts and schools for policies on transgender athletes, the settlement states that CHSAA won’t penalize the plaintiffs for making public statements about the “advantages of biological males over biological females in competitive sports” or the risk of “allowing biological males to play contact sports with or against biological females.” The agreement says this provision won’t apply to statements that advocate violence or demean people based on gender identity.

The settlement also states that if an athlete or team forfeits a competition against a transgender athlete or a team with a transgender member, there will be no penalty, but the forfeit will be counted as a loss.

Finally, the settlement stipulates that the plaintiffs will pay CHSAA $60,000 to cover legal fees and operational costs.

In a press release Thursday, District 49 Superintendent Peter Hilts said, “This settlement is a major step forward, but our work isn’t done. We will continue litigation against the Colorado Civil Rights [Division] and the Attorney General’s Office to ensure every district in Colorado has the freedom to protect girls’ sports, safeguard student privacy, and uphold the spirit of Title IX.”

Multiple Republican lawmakers cheered the settlement on social media Thursday.

Rep. Jeff Hurd, who represents western and southern Colorado in Congress, said on X, “At its core, this settlement is about fairness, safety, and common sense. Schools have a responsibility to protect young women and maintain a level playing field by upholding basic biological standards. As a father of daughters, I know how important that is.”

District 49 filed the lawsuit against the state and CHSAA last May, the day after its conservative-learning board narrowly passed a controversial policy banning transgender middle and high school students from joining school teams that align with their gender identity. The policy was developed after President Trump’s February executive order that threatened to withhold federal funding from any school that allows athletes assigned male at birth to participate in girls’ or women’s sports.

In addition to District 49, the plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Colorado Springs 11, Academy 20, Montezuma-Cortez, James Irwin Charter Schools, Monument Academy, The Classical Academy, and Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Education Services.

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

Former middle school dean who objected to book removals sues Elizabeth School District

2025-12-01T22:55:46+00:00

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A former middle school administrator in the Elizabeth School District filed a lawsuit Sunday against the rural Colorado district, alleging that she was fired after she objected to the removal of 19 titles from school libraries last year.

LeEllen Condry, who served as dean of students at Elizabeth Middle School, said she was terminated after three months because she’s “a Black woman who dared to speak out against the discriminatory book ban,” according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, alleges that the school district violated Condry’s free speech rights and discriminated against her based on race and sex.

Elizabeth Superintendent Dan Snowberger said in an emailed statement Monday, “The district intends to defend itself in court, and the facts will show that the individual’s employment ended because she failed to take the steps to secure the necessary licensure for the position, and because the position was one of several eliminated for cost-saving reasons during a fiscal exigency.”

Condry’s lawsuit is the second filed against the 2,700-student district southeast of Denver relating to the removal of books from school libraries in 2024. Two students, a chapter of the NAACP, and an authors group, all represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, sued the district over the removals a year ago. That lawsuit prompted the district to place pop-up ads on its website inviting visitors to donate to help cover the district’s legal fees.

The controversy over the books, which are back on school library shelves while the ACLU case is pending, began in the fall of 2024 when the district in conservative-leaning Elbert County decided to pull 19 titles from school libraries because of content school board members deemed inappropriate, overly graphic, or highly sensitive.

The removed books are primarily by or about LGBTQ people, people of color, or both. They include “The Bluest Eye” and “Beloved,” both by Toni Morrison, “The Hate U Give,” by Angie Thomas, and “You Should See Me in a Crown,” by Leah Johnson. All three authors are Black and their books feature Black characters.

In August 2024, the Elizabeth district asked staff to provide “solutions-focused” feedback to the school board about the potential book removals. Condry wrote to the board, saying the removals would be unethical and racist, according to the lawsuit.

On Aug. 27, Snowberger, one of the defendants named in Condry’s suit, wrote in a letter to district employees, “[s]adly, some staff members did seem to misunderstand the request [for feedback] and somehow felt the request was an opening for harsh feedback to the Board on their decision,” according to the lawsuit.

He said feedback that called the actions of the Board “racist” “crossed the lines of professional and ethical behavior,” according to the suit.

Condry was terminated on Oct. 1, 2024, three months into her 12-month contract with the district.

In response to previous questions from Chalkbeat, Snowberger said by email in February that Condry’s termination was part of a “Reduction in Force involving several staff members and which was compelled by a Fiscal Exigency” — a term for financial problems. At that time, he didn’t mention that Condry failed to take steps to secure the required licensure for her position.

The district’s financial problems, which led to about $500,000 in overspending, were caused by a well failure, a water tower repair, fire alarm fixes, and a large legal settlement, among other things, district officials said at a September 2024 board meeting. The board president said the legal settlement was related to a three-year-old case at Elizabeth High School, but didn’t provide additional details.

To help avert a deficit, the school board cut Condry and several other employees. They included a technology employee, a courier, a maintenance employee, a health tech, and transportation employees, Snowberger said at an October 2024 meeting.

Condry’s lawsuit alleges that the district hired a middle school employee in November 2024 who informally performed the duties that Condry had performed as dean. That employee was officially promoted to the dean position in July 2025, according to the lawsuit

The fact that the school district hired the employee “into the same role that had been occupied by Ms. Condry demonstrates the falsity of its asserted budgetary reasons as a legitimate justification for having fired Ms. Condry,” the lawsuit states.

In January, Condry filed a civil rights complaint over her firing with both the state and federal government. Her lawyer Andy McNulty said the complaints to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Colorado Civil Rights Division were the first step before filing a lawsuit. He said by email on Monday that the Colorado Civil Rights Division had issued a “right to sue” notice in Condry’s case.

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

Christian law firm’s search for test case led to religious public school in Colorado, emails suggest

2025-11-12T20:08:19+00:00

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A prominent conservative law firm looking for a test case on whether public money can fund religious schools was the impetus for what’s been billed as Colorado’s “first public Christian school,” according to an email obtained by Chalkbeat.

In the June 4 email, Pueblo County School District 70 attorney Brad Miller wrote to the district’s school board and superintendent seeking permission for a public education cooperative he also represents to open a school with about 30 students within district boundaries.

Miller wrote that the cooperative would then work with Alliance Defending Freedom, an Arizona-based group involved in high-profile conservative legal causes, to test “the legalities around the issue of whether a public school may provide religious education.”

On June 24, the school board signed off on Riverstone Academy, allowing it to operate within the southern Colorado district’s boundaries for five years. In August, the school, which describes itself as offering “a Christian foundation” and Christian curriculum, opened quietly in an industrial zone in Pueblo County with about 30 elementary students.

Miller explained in that June email that Alliance Defending Freedom had hosted him when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case about whether a Catholic charter school could open in Oklahoma.

“The case resulted in a 4-4 tie and so the question did not get answered,” Miller wrote. “ADF asked me if I could find a way for a parallel case to be initiated out of Colorado.”

In the email, Miller portrayed Pueblo 70’s role as minimal.

“We would anticipate that this will create a surge of public attention at a point in time,” he wrote. “But it would not be anything for which the district will have any participation.”

Neither Miller nor Alliance Defending Freedom responded to requests for comment for this story. Quin Friberg, Riverstone’s executive director, also didn’t respond.

Colorado has said it may withhold public funding

Friberg and Riverstone’s authorizer, Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Education services, or ERBOCES, have said the school offers quality educational programming the community wanted. Ken Witt, executive director of ERBOCES, also argued that previous Supreme Court cases require Colorado to fund the school just like other public schools. That’s despite a state constitutional provision that bars public funding for religious schools.

The June 4 email suggests Miller knew and had informed Pueblo 70 board members that Riverstone would be testing the existing limits of church-state separation. It also suggests that the school’s opening is part of a larger legal strategy to further expand public funding for religious education in the aftermath of the Oklahoma Catholic charter school case.

This ‘public Christian school’ opened quietly in Colorado. Now there could be a legal fight.

Alliance Defending Freedom, which describes its mission as “grounded in the historic Christian tradition,” has been involved in more than a dozen successful Supreme Court cases. That includes the Trinity Lutheran case, the first in a series of decisions that expanded public funding for religious private schools. The law firm then applied that same reasoning to argue for public funding for religious charter schools.

After the Oklahoma Catholic charter case ended in a tie that blocked the school from opening, observers have expected another test case to emerge. A recently proposed Jewish charter school in Oklahoma would reignite the same legal arguments.

Riverstone Academy could also provide a test case.

In October, Colorado education officials warned ERBOCES, the school authorizer, that the state may withhold public funding from the school. If the state follows through and the school or ERBOCES sue, it could set up the legal test case that Miller’s email referenced.

When asked by Chalkbeat in October if Riverstone’s opening was meant to spark a legal test case, Witt said, “If a legal contest is required, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Witt said by email on Monday he hadn’t seen Miller’s June email to Pueblo 70 officials, but that he has profound respect for Alliance Defending Freedom’s work.

“Education reEnvisioned would welcome their assistance were there related litigation, which there is not at this time,” he wrote.

Religion wasn’t discussed when school was approved

Most public officials involved in Riverstone’s opening didn’t respond to Chalkbeat’s request for comment about Miller’s email. Miller hung up quickly Monday when Chalkbeat reached him by phone. He did not respond to a follow-up email. Miller represents several Colorado school districts that have taken conservative positions on various culture war issues.

Lis Richard, the president of the ERBOCES board, didn’t respond to Chalkbeat messages. Neither did Pueblo 70 Superintendent Ronda Rein or school board members A.J. Wilson, John Christenson, Cathleen Culhane Howland, and Chris DeLuca.

Pueblo 70’s school board was the only elected body that voted on Riverstone. Although BOCES like Education reEnvisioned are allowed to open public schools under state law, they must get the consent of the school district where the school will be located if the district is not a member of the BOCES. Pueblo 70 is not a member of ERBOCES.

The five members of the ERBOCES board, who are appointed not elected, also voted to approve the school, according to board meeting minutes.

At two June school board meetings where the Pueblo 70 board considered letting Riverstone open within district boundaries, neither board members nor Rein mentioned that the school would be religious or that it was intended to prompt a lawsuit.

The school’s religious affiliation wasn’t widely known until Witt, the ERBOCES leader, publicly declared that Riverstone was Colorado’s “first public Christian school” in October.

Shortly after that announcement, Pueblo 70 school board president Anne Ochs told Chalkbeat she hadn’t known it would be a religious school when she voted to approve it. The next day, she called back and said she knew the school planned to use Christian curriculum, but added, “to me that doesn’t make it a religious school.”

When Miller sent his June 4 email to the Pueblo 70 school board, an email exchange obtained by Chalkbeat shows Ochs replied to Miller four minutes later. “Thank you for the information,” she wrote. “We will discuss putting this on the June 24th agenda.”

Ochs started a job with Education reEnvisioned BOCES in July, shortly after the board’s Riverstone vote. Contacted this week about Miller’s email and her response, Ochs said:

“My constituents voted me in, and they wanted me in. I don’t get paid for this position. This is an elected position. I make my votes depending on what I feel is right.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@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.

Progressive school board candidates make inroads in races across Colorado

2025-11-06T02:28:28+00:00

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Voters opted for more progressive candidates in key school board races across Colorado on Tuesday, in some cases breaking the hold of conservative board majorities and in others adding more left- or center-leaning voices to right-leaning boards.

The shift was in keeping with the blue wave that helped Democrats prevail in high-profile races around the county this year, including gubernatorial contests in Virginia and New Jersey and on a redistricting ballot question in California championed by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Tuesday’s election will sweep aside conservative-leaning school board majorities in at least three Colorado districts. They include Douglas County, the state’s third largest district, which has been controlled by a conservative-leaning board that faced multiple lawsuits and protests over the last four years. Woodland Park, which borders Douglas County, and Mesa County Valley District 51, which is based in Grand Junction, also flipped seats previously held by conservative-leaning board members. Woodland Park in particular has been roiled by school board tumult in recent years, with staff resignations, teacher gag orders, and religious proselytization by some board members.

In some districts, such as Pueblo 70 and Montezuma-Cortez, board members elected Tuesday could nudge right-leaning boards toward the center. While Colorado school board races are non-partisan, candidates often get support from the Democratic or Republican party or from people or groups with party affiliations. For example, two candidates who lost their bids for seats on the Cherry Creek school board received donations from a top Trump administration official, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

With many newly elected candidates backed by teachers unions, including in Denver, Jeffco, and Cherry Creek, Tuesday’s results could bring about more union-friendly policies in some districts. In others, new board dynamics could mean less time devoted to hot-button issues such as library book removals, transgender student athletes, and how social studies is taught.

Kevin Vick, president of the Colorado Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, doesn’t see the school board shifts that occurred Tuesday as a dramatic swing from conservative to liberal.

“Instead of right to left ... it’s kind of right to center,” he said.

He said the election results show that voters are tired of extremist politics in school board decision-making.

“I think communities have really grown weary of that,” he said.“I know educators have really grown weary of the attacks on their profession and their schools.”

Durango is one district where the left-leaning board stayed solidly intact Tuesday. Three incumbents, all backed by the teachers union, won their races by large margins. The 4,500-student district in southwestern Colorado has been the target recently of a conservative news outlet called Rocky Mountain Voice, founded by former Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl.

Ken Davis, the chair of the El Paso County Republican party, said it wasn’t a good year for conservative school board candidates in most of Colorado. Frustration over the federal government shutdown and disruptions to the federal SNAP program may have helped shape voters’ views this year, he said.

“I think it’s just an example of how what’s happening nationally can have an impact locally,” he said.

Davis also said some conservative-minded voters who helped elect conservative candidates two years ago may have become less engaged this time around.

“Maybe they felt like they had some wins on these issues,” he said, and they’ve dropped out of the conversation.

Despite big gains for progressive or centrist school board candidates around the state, conservative candidates did win in some districts, including Colorado Springs 11 and Academy 20 in El Paso County.

“The truth is it’s one of the largest red counties in the country,” said Davis. “We’re kind of in a bubble in El Paso County.”

Election results are still up in the air for one of the county’s most high-profile districts. That is District 49, which has a conservative-leaning school board, recently passed controversial policies on transgender student athletes and is now involved in a conflict with the state over a “public Christian school.”

While one conservative incumbent was reelected in District 49 onTuesday, another, Jamilynn D’Avola, remains in a neck-and-neck race with a progressive newcomer, Holly Withers. If Withers wins, the board’s politics could shift leftward.

Withers said on the campaign trail that she was “here to squash the culture war.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@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.

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.

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.

Is this Christian school public or private? The answer has financial and legal implications.

2025-10-29T23:00:49+00:00

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Riverstone Academy, a new school in southern Colorado, has been billed as Colorado’s “first public Christian school” by its authorizer. Its website calls it a public elementary school.

But some state and county officials say Riverstone is a private school — a designation that means different rules on everything from fire and building inspections to funding and student achievement.

Riverstone’s murky status could become a key factor in a potential legal fight over whether the state will fund the school, as Riverstone’s backers want. Public schools in Colorado are entitled to state education funding but private schools are not.

The school, in leased space just outside Pueblo city limits, has four classrooms and just over 30 students. It first garnered headlines and sparked consternation among state education officials in early October. That’s when Ken Witt, the leader of the group that authorized the school, declared at a public meeting that Riverstone is Colorado’s “first public Christian school.”

The news caught some elected officials and members of the public by surprise, because Riverstone opened quietly with no reference to its religious affiliation in at least three key start-up documents, Chalkbeat found. Riverstone’s website says the school offers a “Christian foundation” and mentions Christian curriculum.

On Oct. 10, the day after Witt’s declaration, the Colorado Department of Education threatened to withhold public funding from the school in a letter to Witt’s group, Education reEnvisioned BOCES. The group, based near Colorado Springs, is one of 21 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services in the state.

Will this ‘public Christian school’ spur the next big legal fight over religion in education?

Witt said repeatedly in a recent interview with Chalkbeat that Riverstone is a public school because it is authorized by a BOCES, which are allowed to authorize public schools under Colorado law, and has a school code from the Colorado Department of Education.

Information about Riverstone being characterized as a private school in certain situations emerged after Chalkbeat requested information from the Pueblo County Planning and Development Department about the school’s location on Aspen Circle. The area is zoned “light industrial,” a designation that permits a variety of businesses, including marijuana operations, warehouses, and freight depots, but not elementary schools.

Carmen Howard, the department’s director, confirmed by email this week that the property occupied by the school is not in compliance with county zoning regulations but did not answer follow up questions about whether the school can continue operating there.

“Our department is working through the standard process to bring the property into compliance under the County’s Unified Development Code,” she wrote. “Because this is an active zoning case, we’re limited in what we can share, but we can confirm that the use as it’s currently operating is not permitted at that location.”

On Wednesday, Howard noted by email that the department considers the school private based on information “from Riverstone.” In November, Pueblo County commissioners will consider a proposal to allow private schools in light industrial zones.

Quin Friberg, Riverstone’s executive director, said by text that the school is run by a private organization via a contract with a public entity, “so when talking with zoning they said for their purposes it would be considered private.”

“We have also been working since July to get the zoning corrected and are optimistic that will happen soon,” he wrote. “There is a plan in place that everyone has agreed to in order to resolve the issue.”

He didn’t respond to follow-up questions from Chalkbeat about the plan.

Chalkbeat also inquired about Riverstone’s status with the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention & Control, which typically oversees building code and fire code compliance for public schools.

An unsigned email from the division’s public information office on Wednesday said, “Riverstone Academy is being deemed a private school” and referred questions to local officials in Pueblo County.

Officials have different takes on Riverstone’s Christian affiliation

Riverstone came about through an unusual arrangement involving Education reEnvisioned BOCES, two nonprofit groups, and two school districts 60 miles apart. Unlike most public schools, which typically take more than a year to plan and open, Riverstone was proposed and launched within months.

The first day of school was Aug. 11, less than three months after a tie at the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the nation’s first religious charter school from opening in Oklahoma. Lawyers in that case argued not that Oklahoma should fund religious public schools, but that charter schools aren’t really public. Instead they described them as semi-private entities, more like a nonprofit that contracts with the state to provide a service.

Many observers expect advocates for publicly funded religious education to find a new test case, one where Amy Coney Barrett, who recused herself from the Oklahoma case, could cast a potentially decisive vote.

It’s not clear if Riverstone will become that test, but its backers have forcefully pushed back against the Colorado Department of Education’s argument that public schools can’t be religious.

Witt said in an Oct. 21 letter to the department that he was “alarmed at the threat” to Riverstone’s funding, and that not funding the school because of its religious affiliation would amount to religious discrimination.

Along with mixed messages about whether Riverstone is public or private, there are still questions about whether public officials who had a hand in allowing the school to open knew it was a religious school.

Asked if she knew of Riverstone’s Christian affiliation before she voted to approve a contract with the school, Lis Richard, president of the Education reEnvisioned BOCES, first said she was puzzled by Chalkbeat’s question.

“Every public school and district in the state of Colorado has a ‘Christian’ affiliation by the shear (sic) fact that there are Christians who attend their schools an (sic) serve in their district,” she wrote by email.

Asked if she was aware that Riverstone planned to offer a “Christian foundation” and “Christian curriculum,” she said she was.

But Anne Ochs, president of the Pueblo District 70 school board, said she didn’t consider Riverstone a religious school when her board voted in June to approve an agreement that would allow the school to open within district boundaries.

She said she knew the school planned to use Christian curriculum, but “to me that doesn’t make it a religious school.”

Ochs said she took a job with Education reEnvisioned BOCES in July, but had not yet interviewed for the position when she voted to approve the Riverstone agreement.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@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

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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

Voter guide: Cherry Creek school board candidates answer 6 questions about their priorities

2025-10-22T17:26:09+00:00

Four candidates are seeking two open seats on the Cherry Creek School District board this year.

Candidates Terry Bates and Amanda Thayer are running for the District D seat representing the area that includes Buffalo Trail Elementary School, Cherokee Trail High School, and Legacy Stadium. The district is currently represented by Kelly Bates, who can’t run for reelection due to term limits. Candidate Terry Bates is married to Kelly Bates.

In District E, candidates Mike Hamrick and Tatyana Sturm are running to represent the area that encompasses Rolling Hills Elementary, Grandview High School, and the Cherry Creek Innovation Campus. The district is currently represented by Kristin Allan, who is not running for a second term.

The local teachers union, the Cherry Creek Education Association, has endorsed Bates and Hamrick.

To help voters make their decisions, The Aurora Sentinel sent all of the candidates the same set of questions. Their answers are below.

This voter guide was produced by The Aurora Sentinel in collaboration with Chalkbeat Colorado.

This ‘public Christian school’ opened quietly in Colorado. Now there could be a legal fight.

2025-10-22T01:53:22+00:00

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A group that authorized what its leader called Colorado’s “first public Christian school” told the state education department Tuesday that it would be unconstitutional to deny the school state funding.

The school, called Riverstone Academy, opened quietly in southern Colorado this August, just months after a tie at the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the nation’s first religious charter school from opening in Oklahoma.

Riverstone Academy’s website describes a tuition-free public elementary school that “blends strong academics with classical values, hands-on trade-based learning, and a Christian foundation.”

Riverstone Academy's Facebook page cites the school's "Christian Foundation."

But Colorado’s constitution requires that public schools be nonsectarian — meaning not religious — and the Colorado Department of Education is pushing back. Department officials have suggested that Riverstone students may not be eligible for public funding. The school’s backers said they are “alarmed at the threat” and that not funding the school would amount to religious discrimination.

If the disagreement were to end up in court, the outcome of any legal challenge likely would turn as much on the bureaucratic details of how Riverstone Academy is organized and authorized as on larger constitutional questions of religious freedom. And Riverstone Academy likely won’t be the last case to test the boundaries between church and state and the evolving definition of a public school.

“The people who want to tear down the wall of separation between church and state are going to keep pushing these issues because they think they have a sympathetic audience in the current Supreme Court,” said Steven Green, a law professor at Willamette University who specializes in church-state issues.

Few mentions of school’s Christian character in paperwork

Riverstone Academy opened this fall and has just over 30 students occupying four classrooms in a leased space just outside Pueblo city limits. It was authorized by Education reEnvisioned BOCES. The group is one of the state’s 21 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, which offer services such as special education to member school districts.

Riverstone Academy includes four classrooms and a few offices.

Riverstone exists due to an unusual arrangement involving the authorizer, two nonprofit groups, and two school districts 60 miles apart. Unlike most public schools, which typically take more than a year to plan and open, Riverstone was proposed and launched within months.

Quin Friberg, Riverstone’s executive director, said the school is meant to serve local families who seek an education that “feels like private school but doesn’t cost like private school.”

“I mean that in the sense of smaller classrooms, the religious element, and … we have an emphasis on kind of hands-on [activities],” he said.

Quin Friberg is the executive director of both Riverstone Academy and Forging Education.

Over the summer, BOCES authorized the school and contracted with Riverstone Academy, a new nonprofit Friberg heads, to run it. Riverstone subcontracted with a two-year-old Christian education nonprofit called Forging Education, which Friberg also leads, to help run the school.

District 49, which is based near Colorado Springs, is one of the two school districts that belong to the Education reEnvisioned BOCES and serves as the groups’ fiscal agent. An hour south is Pueblo District 70, which is not part of the BOCES but approved an agreement to allow Riverstone to open within its boundaries.

References to the school’s Christian character are absent or muted in Riverstone’s application materials and contracts. An application for a school code submitted to the state in late June makes no mention of Riverstone’s religious nature. It also went unmentioned in the agreement approved by the Pueblo 70 school board in late June and in the contract between the school and the BOCES approved by the BOCES board in August.

Friberg said Riverstone wasn’t hiding anything, but that the school’s religious foundation wasn’t a relevant response to questions on some of the documents.

Unlike the Oklahoma Catholic school at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court case, Riverstone is not a charter school. Rather, both the BOCES and the Colorado education department have referred to it as a “contract school,” a term that’s not defined in state law.

Ken Witt, executive director of the BOCES, said Riverstone is a public school because it was authorized by the BOCES, and the application went through the BOCES’ normal review process.

“It was a quality educational program that they were describing,” he said. “And we said, [the] U.S. Constitution and federal law says you don’t discriminate based on religion, so we are not going to discriminate based on religion.”

State officials warn that religious public schools are not allowed

Although the first day of school at Riverstone was Aug. 11, state officials didn’t address its Christian affiliation until two months later.

That’s when Witt described Riverstone as “Colorado’s first public Christian school” near the end of a routine 12-minute update about his group’s programming at a District 49 school board meeting on Oct. 9.

“We’re delighted that they came to us and said, ‘Hey, we’d like to operate this school,’” he told the board.

He then cited a 2020 Supreme Court decision in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which found that states could not exclude religious schools from private school voucher programs.

Witt has long been involved in the Colorado education world, frequently championing conservative positions, including expanded school choice. He was recalled from the Jeffco school board in 2015 following anger over proposed changes to the district’s AP U.S. history curriculum and other issues. In March, Witt resigned as superintendent of the Woodland Park school district.

The BOCES contract with Riverstone states that “The School shall constitute a public school in Colorado” and be subject to all applicable state laws. But it also describes Riverstone as “a provider of educational services at the School” and says Riverstone “is not itself a ‘public school.’”

At the Oct. 9 meeting, one member of the District 49 school board, which leans conservative, expressed alarm after Witt’s briefing on Riverstone.

“Eroding that separation of church and state is very concerning, and for us to be a partner in that … does not sit well with me,” board member Mike Heil said.

Board president Lori Thompson immediately responded, “Just a note of clarification, separation of church and state is not contained in the United States Constitution.”

“Separation of church and state” commonly refers to the First Amendment’s prohibition on government-established religion, but the actual phrase does not appear in the Constitution.

The day after the board meeting, the Colorado Department of Education sent a letter to District 49 and Education reEnvisioned BOCES warning that religious public schools are not permitted under the Colorado Constitution.

The Gazette first reported on the Oct. 9 board meeting and the education department letter.

On Tuesday, District 49 sent a statement to Chalkbeat indicating that district officials will request funding for Riverstone students and let the education department and the BOCES “have appropriate dialogue about eligibility.”

Also on Tuesday, Witt responded to the Colorado Department of Education’s warning letter.

“The U.S. Constitution prohibits discrimination against Riverstone solely on account of its religious affiliation as such exclusion from a generally available governmental benefit would be unconstitutional,” his letter said in part.

A spokesperson for the education department said officials there are reviewing that letter.

Riverstone Academy is relying on a loan from Forging Education — not state money — to operate the school for the first several months.

When asked if he’s worried about the state withholding funding, Friberg said “I’ll just say we went in eyes wide open … on every implication of what we’re doing.”

Is Riverstone the next St. Isidore?

After Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself due to a long-standing friendship with an adviser to St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School, the Supreme Court justices tied 4-4. That meant the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision that blocked the opening of a Catholic charter school remained intact.

The justices didn’t lay out their thinking, leaving open questions about where the line is. But if Riverstone Academy’s backers say it’s a public school, it might not be a good candidate for such a test, Green and others said.

The trio of cases that have redrawn the line between church and state — Trinity Lutheran, Espinoza, and Carson — all involve a religious entity being denied access to a benefit that was available to the general public or to secular entities.

Those conditions don’t apply to public schools. Lawyers in the St. Isidore case argued not that Oklahoma should fund religious public schools, but that charter schools aren’t really public.

“A public school cannot be religious,” said Thomas Jipping, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “The government cannot, consistent with the First Amendment, fund a religious school directly. That’s as established as it gets.”

Riverstone opened without much public scrutiny

BOCES generally operate less publicly and less transparently than many school districts.

Education reEnvisioned BOCES doesn’t record its meetings, and some recent board agendas and minutes are not posted online because the group is revamping its website, Witt said. As is true of other BOCES, Education reEnvisioned board members are not elected by the public, but rather appointed by school districts or colleges that are BOCES members or by BOCES board members.

Originally launched under a different name in 2013, the BOCES authorizes several online and bricks and mortar schools as well as more than 50 homeschool enrichment programs around the state.

Last May, Riverstone Academy submitted a new school application to the BOCES.

In June, the BOCES asked the Pueblo 70 school board to approve an agreement allowing Riverstone to open in the district. During a June 10 board discussion of the agreement, which doesn’t mention that the school is Christian, one board member asked Superintendent Ronda Rein if she had anything to share about the school.

She said the school would have 30 students, then said, “That’s really all the information that I have at this point.”

Neither Rein nor any of the district’s five board members responded to messages from Chalkbeat asking if they knew about Riverstone’s religious foundation prior to agreeing to let it open in the district.

Witt said the BOCES didn’t conceal the school’s Christian affiliation in conversations with Pueblo District 70 leaders.

District 49’s school board wasn’t involved in Riverstone’s authorization. However, if the state eventually agrees to fund the school, the money would pass first to District 49, then the BOCES, and then Riverstone.

A copy of Riverstone’s application, provided to Chalkbeat by Witt, makes only one mention of Christian features in a paragraph about science instruction. It notes the use of a curriculum called Berean Builders offering “a Christian worldview in their exploration of scientific topics.” A paragraph about social studies instruction mentions Master Books, but doesn’t say it’s a Christian home school curriculum.

Witt said BOCES board members were aware of the school’s religious affiliation when they approved it in August. The minutes for that meeting are not posted online.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

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

2025-10-21T17:36:16+00:00

Seven candidates are seeking four seats on the Aurora Public Schools board this year.

Board members are elected at-large and represent the entire school district. The top four vote-getters in the Nov. 4 election win the seats.

The candidates are Tapsuru “Ousman” Ba, Gayla Charrier, Tramaine Duncan, Anne Keke, Hendrix Percival Lewis, Kristin Mallory, and Nino Pepper. Duncan and Keke are incumbents running for reelection.

The local teachers union, the Aurora Education Association, has endorsed Charrier, Duncan, Keke, and Mallory.

The election comes at a key time for Aurora Public Schools. The district is one of the most diverse in the state and serves many immigrant students in a city that has drawn the attention of the Trump administration.

Over the next four years, the board will oversee the spending of a $1 billion bond passed by voters last year to build new schools and renovate or rebuild some existing ones. The board is also in the midst of developing a new five-year plan for the district.

Teachers aides, known as education support professionals or ESPs, have been pushing the board to allow them to unionize. And the district is reviewing safety protocols after a shooting at a high school in nearby Jefferson County.

To help voters make their decisions in the school board election, The Aurora Sentinel sent all of the candidates the same set of questions. Their answers are below.

This voter guide was produced by The Aurora Sentinel in collaboration with Chalkbeat Colorado.

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: 27J school board candidates answer 6 questions about the issues

2025-10-15T22:55:44+00:00

In 27J Schools, voters are selecting four new school board members this year. Five candidates are running in total for District seats 2, 4, 5, and 6.

The candidates are Ramón Alvarado, Tracie Alvarado, Ashley Conn, Amy Gomez, and Starr Trujillo. (Tracie Alvarado and Ramón Alvarado are not related.)

Three of the five candidates — Tracie Alvarado, Conn, and Trujillo — are current board members. Tracie Alvarado was appointed to the board in January 2025 to complete a previous director’s term, while Trujillo is seeking reelection after serving since 2019.

All 27J voters will have the opportunity to select candidates for each of the four open seats in the Nov. 4 election. Board members represent specific geographical districts but are elected by all eligible voters across the district in at-large elections. Three of the open seats are four-year terms representing Districts 2, 4, and 5, while one is a two-year term for District 6.

To help readers learn more about the candidates, the Colorado Trust for Local News asked them each the same set of questions. Read their answers below. Responses may have been edited for formatting, but otherwise each candidate’s answers are as submitted.

This voter guide was produced by the Colorado Trust for Local News in collaboration with Chalkbeat Colorado.

Voter guide: Weld Re-8 school board candidates answer 6 questions about the issues

2025-10-15T21:48:13+00:00

In the Weld Re-8 School District, voters are selecting three school board members this year.

Four candidates are running in total: Brian Hardwick, Dez Packard, Erica Seegrist, and Cristian González. Only one candidate, González, is an incumbent seeking reelection.

The open seats represent Districts A, C, F, and G. Hardwick is running unopposed for the District A seat, a two-year term. Packard is running unopposed for the District F seat, a four-year-term. Seegrist and González are competing for the District G seat, also a four-year term. No candidates filed for the District C seat.

The election marks a significant transition for the Fort Lupton-based district, as current board President Matthew Adame, Director Gene Matsutani, and Secretary Michelle Bettger are not seeking re-election after their terms expire.

All Weld Re-8 voters will have the opportunity to select candidates in the Nov. 4 election.

The incoming board members will face ongoing challenges, including teacher retention issues, with the district experiencing a 25% average annual turnover rate, and facility needs at aging school buildings. The board will also need to address community concerns after voters rejected a mill levy override and a $70 million bond measure in November 2023.

This voter guide was produced by the Colorado Trust for Local News in collaboration with Chalkbeat Colorado.

Voter guide: Adams 12 school board candidates answer 6 questions about the issues

2025-10-15T19:09:48+00:00

In Adams 12 Five Star Schools, voters are selecting two school board members this year.

Three candidates are running in total. Two candidates, Ike Anyanwu-Ebo and Juan Evans, are running for the District 3 seat. Incumbent Amira Assad-Lucas is running for re-election to represent District 4.

Board members in Adams 12 are elected to specific geographical districts but are voted on by all voters in the district in at-large elections. All Adams 12 voters will get to select one candidate for each race in the Nov. 4 election.

Assad-Lucas was first elected to the board in 2021 and currently serves as vice president, representing District 4. She is completing her first term on the five-member board. District 3 Director Courtney Potter, who was also elected in 2021, is not seeking re-election.

According to Adams 12, the district serves around 35,000 students across 55 schools in Adams and Broomfield counties, including the communities of Broomfield, Federal Heights, Northglenn, Thornton, and Westminster.

The board recently placed a $39.42 million mill levy override on the November ballot and is implementing investments from the 2024 bond focused on career and technical education, preschool, safety, and security.

This voter guide was produced by the Colorado Trust for Local News in collaboration with Chalkbeat Colorado.

Voter guide: Jeffco school board candidates answer 6 questions about the issues

2025-10-15T19:09:36+00:00

In Jeffco Public Schools, voters are selecting three school board members this year.

Seven candidates are running in total. Two candidates, Michael Yocum and Denine Echevarria, are running for a seat representing Jeffco’s District 1. Two candidates, Peter Gibbins and Samuel Myrant, are running for the District 2 seat. Three candidates, Tina Moeinian, Mary Parker, and Gloria Rascon, are running to represent District 5.

All Jeffco voters will have the opportunity to select one candidate for each race in the Nov. 4 election.

Gibbins and Moeinian have the endorsement of the Jefferson County Education Association, the teachers union. Parker, the current District 5 board member, is seeking reelection but declined to participate in the JCEA interview and endorsement process.

The three seats up for election are currently held by Danielle Varda (District 1), Paula Reed (District 2), and Mary Parker (District 5). With all three seats contested, the composition of the five-member board could shift depending on the outcome of the election.

To help readers learn more about the candidates, the Colorado Trust for Local News asked each of them the same set of questions.

Read their answers below. Responses may have been edited for formatting, but otherwise each candidate’s answers are as submitted.

This voter guide was produced by the Colorado Trust for Local News in collaboration with Chalkbeat Colorado.

Voter guide: 2025 Denver school board candidates answer 6 questions

2025-10-14T22:42:45+00:00

Leer en español.

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.

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.

Denver teachers union endorses four candidates for school board

2025-09-22T22:11:55+00:00

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The Denver teachers union is backing three newcomers and one incumbent in November’s Denver school board election. With a majority of board seats up for grabs, political control of the state’s largest school district is at stake.

The Denver Classroom Teachers Association has endorsed:

Amy Klein Molk for an at-large seat representing the entire city.
Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán for a seat representing District 2 in southwest Denver.
DJ Torres for a seat representing District 3 in central-east Denver.
Monica Hunter for a seat representing District 4 in northeast Denver.

Gaytán is the only incumbent to be endorsed by the teachers union. Two other incumbents, Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebaum, did not get the union’s endorsement this year after being backed by the union when they ran in 2021.

Quattlebaum is running for reelection in District 4. Esserman currently holds an at-large seat representing the entire city but is running for reelection in District 3, where he lives.

The union wasn’t happy with the way Quattlebaum and Esserman voted on a few key issues, union leaders said. In 2022, Quattlebaum voted against a policy to require Denver’s semi-autonomous innovation schools to abide by the teachers union contract. The policy passed on a 5-2 vote, despite Quattlebaum’s “no” vote.

In March, Esserman voted with a majority of the board to accept an arbitrator’s decision in a pay dispute between the union and Denver Public Schools. Accepting the arbitrator’s decision meant that teachers did not get a bigger cost-of-living pay raise last school year.

“It’s all about the votes,” said Patrick Jiner, a teacher at Lake Middle School.

Jiner is one of nine educators on a committee that decides which candidates the union will endorse. Endorsements matter in the Denver school board election. Historically, the only candidates who’ve won have been backed by either the teachers union or by deep-pocketed advocacy organizations that support charter schools and school choice.

In the last election, in 2023, the advocacy organizations outspent the teachers union by 5 to 1. All of the candidates backed by those organizations — primarily, an organization called Denver Families Action — won their seats. All of the union-backed candidates lost.

This year, Denver Families Action has endorsed a different slate of candidates than the union.

Union President Rob Gould said the union’s candidates — Klein Molk, Gaytán, Torres, and Hunter — stood out because of their knowledge about both education and workers’ rights.

Klein Molk worked as a paraprofessional for students with disabilities at a Denver elementary school, a perspective that Gould said has been missing from the Denver board. Torres is a former Denver Public Schools special education teacher who belonged to the union.

Hunter is also a former DPS teacher and helped found a union caucus for Black educators. She now works for the statewide teachers union, the Colorado Education Association.

Gaytán is not a teacher. She is a real estate agent and DPS parent. But in her four years on the board, she has advocated for the union’s positions on issues ranging from contract rights to teacher pay. Gould repeatedly described Gaytán as “consistent.”

Some of the other candidates are also educators. But Erica Atchison, a special education teacher at Park Hill Elementary who serves on the union’s endorsement committee, said these four candidates best aligned with the union’s core values of “respect us, pay us, value us.”

“We take it seriously for sure,” Jiner said. “That school board has a lot of power and affects real people and real lives, and that sometimes gets lost in the arguments and the debates.”

Candidates’ opinions on charter schools have historically been a dividing line in Denver school board elections. Jiner said that if a candidate supports charter schools, he sees it as “not a total red flag, but something that gets my ears up.” Charter school teachers are not unionized, and critics say the independent public schools compete with traditional district-run schools.

Gaytán has been sharply critical of charter schools, saying charters “siphon” students from district-run schools. But other candidates have taken more measured stances. For instance, Hunter said she would never judge another parent’s choice to enroll their child in a charter school, even though she noted that charters “often disappoint families.”

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

New Colorado group focuses on student achievement, parent rights. Will it fan culture war flames?

2025-09-16T21:34:54+00:00

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Public education has lost its way, the presenter told the school board of District 49, which includes part of Colorado Springs and sprawls northeast.

Schools “have drifted further and further away from why we started,” he said. “We have taken on more and more responsibility. We’ve taken more and more away from parents.”

The speaker was Dan Snowberger, a longtime Colorado school superintendent and executive director of a fledgling group called Colorado Leaders for Academic Success, or CLAS. He was there last month pitching the District 49 school board on joining the group, which he described as focusing on boosting student achievement and protecting parent rights.

Formed in late 2023 as an affiliate of a national group with the same mission, CLAS has emerged at a time when conservative-fueled policies — ranging from library book removals to restrictions on transgender students — are in ascendance. And while the group’s leaders say it’s a nonpartisan nonprofit open to school boards of all stripes, its focus on parental rights, in particular, echoes messaging common in conservative circles.

The group, which is still in the recruiting phase, has six member districts spanning the state. At least half of them are involved in high-profile lawsuits over book bans or transgender students.

Liz Wilson, co-founder of The Pro-Colorado Education Project, a left-leaning group, said CLAS promotes the “parental rights of parents who believe certain things, not the parental rights of all parents.”

At the District 49 board meeting, Snowberger described his group’s parental rights focus this way: “Children come to school with the values instilled in them at home and they should go home with those values.”

The five-member District 49 board was divided about joining CLAS. Some members were enthusiastic.

Board member Deb Schmidt said, “I’m really glad to see somebody trying to dial back some of the vast overreach that this state has thrust upon us.”

But board member Mike Heil worried about what he sees as the group’s partisan bent.

“I don’t think we should be spending taxpayer resources to bring that into our district,” he said.

CLAS is small but growing

Most of CLAS’s six member districts are small and rural. They include Elizabeth, Woodland Park, Brush, Delta County Joint District 50J, Montezuma-Cortez, and Education ReEnvisioned BOCES, which authorizes and oversees a handful of online and brick-and-mortar schools. Some individual school board members from other districts have also joined.

District 49, which enrolls about 27,000 students, plans to join, a district spokesperson said by email.

For districts, the annual membership fee is $1,000. Snowberger said the group will hone board members’ leadership skills in “governance, professional development, communications, legislative outreach, networking, and policy.”

In the year and a half since CLAS launched, the group has had three executive directors. Snowberger took the helm in June. He works part time for CLAS, where he is the only employee, and full time as superintendent of the 2,700-student Elizabeth School District southeast of Denver.

Cortney Salt was the group’s original executive director. She now works at the Freedom Foundation, which describes itself as a “battle tank that’s battering the entrenched power of left-wing government union bosses.”

Beth Suppes, a school board member in Delta County Joint District 50J and one of three CLAS board members, said she’d like to see every school board in Colorado join the group.

Critics of CLAS, as well as some supporters, have described the group as a conservative version of the state’s primary group for school boards: the Colorado Association of School Boards. That group, which has 13 employees, offers leadership training, lobbying services, model policies, and annual conferences.

When Mike Lynch, a school board member in the Montezuma-Cortez-district and also a CLAS board member, pitched CLAS membership to his fellow Montezuma-Cortez members last November, politics was part of his message.

“The current association,” he said, referring to the Colorado Association of School Boards, “has what seems to be in some people’s eyes, as kind of a liberal viewpoint.”

Bryson Miller, a school board member in Brush, also referenced political leanings at a board meeting last October.

“CLAS in my understanding is… an organization that is focused on conservative values and ideologies when it comes to public schools,” he said.

Matt Cook, director of public policy and advocacy at the Colorado Association of School Boards, declined to comment on assertions that his group, which is often called CASB, is liberal and CLAS is conservative. He said by email that his group counts 177 of 178 school boards as members.

Snowberger said CLAS is partially funded by The Schuck Initiatives, a Colorado Springs-based foundation that describes itself as protecting and enhancing “capitalism, private property rights, and individual liberty.”

Both Snowberger and Suppes said CLAS is not meant to replace CASB and shied away from the idea that CLAS tilts right politically.

“If academic achievement and ensuring that parental rights and responsibilities are clearly outlined in policies … is political leaning, then guilty as charged,” said Snowberger, who said his district remains a member of CASB.

Suppes said, “I don’t see CLAS as a whole, as … left, right, Republican, Democrat. That’s not at all our driving force.”

At the same time, she said some of the sample school board policies crafted by CASB have “been concerning to me as a conservative.”

She cited one that came out following the passage of a 2024 law requiring school staff to use transgender students’ chosen names.

“It was written from CASB in a very parent notification-negative light,” she said.

CLAS offers networking and sample policies

CLAS holds monthly member calls, a summer policy summit, and a spring learning conference, among other events.

Snowberger, who described the “meat” of CLAS as networking opportunities, said the group helps districts focus on student achievement by highlighting research on the science of learning and training board members to support teachers, adopt curriculum, and establish budget priorities in line with that goal.

He said it’s the kind of assistance he doesn’t see other groups, including CASB, providing.

“In Colorado, four in 10 kids can read on grade level,” he said. “So, it’s really been frustrating as school districts, because there’s not been a whole lot of effort to support school boards and what they can do to try to change that pattern.”

Students in most of CLAS’s member districts, including Snowberger’s own, are performing below the Colorado average on state tests in math and literacy.

Besides networking and training, CLAS offers a policy bank with about 20 sample policies that school boards can adopt, Snowberger said. In contrast, the Colorado Association of School Boards offers more than 400 sample policies.

One CLAS sample policy that Snowberger shared with Chalkbeat covers a host of parent rights and responsibilities. For example, it states that parents have the right to know the credentials of teachers and administrators and the responsibility to review their children’s syllabi and assignments.

Heil, the District 49 board member, said he worries the parental rights prong of the CLAS agenda will focus on conservative causes that undermine education.

“I would argue these culture war issues only detract our attention away from student achievement,” he said.

Several CLAS districts are currently involved in lawsuits over such issues. Elizabeth is fighting to remove 19 books from its school libraries. Montezuma-Cortez and Education ReEnvisioned BOCES recently joined a lawsuit spearheaded by District 49 over state rules that allow transgender athletes to participate in school sports that align with their gender identity.

Asked about the many hours of debate the Elizabeth district devoted to the 19 library books instead of student achievement, Snowberger said, “I would agree that that took up a considerable amount of time, and that’s over. And we are moving on because we have learning of children that we’ve got to focus on.”

The lawsuit, brought by two students in the district, an NAACP chapter, and an authors group, is ongoing.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated Matt Cook’s title. He is the director of public policy and advocacy at the Colorado Association of School Boards.

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

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.

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.

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.

Rural Colorado district takes aim at LGBTQ policy protections, seeks to join trans athlete lawsuit

2025-07-17T23:40:21+00:00

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A rural school district in southwest Colorado on Tuesday removed nondiscrimination policy protections for LGBTQ people, following a Trump administration push to eliminate such safeguards.

The school board in the conservative-leaning Montezuma-Cortez district unanimously approved changes removing references to “sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression” from the policy. Also at Tuesday’s meeting, the board introduced a policy that would ban transgender students from joining school sports that match their gender identity — one that could permanently replace an emergency version adopted by the board in June.

Such moves are growing more common in school districts around the country, spurred by new federal policies and a charged political environment that’s elevating culture war issues to the top of the agenda in some communities. Montezuma-Cortez, along with two other Colorado districts, three charter schools, and a Board of Cooperative Educational Services are now seeking to join a lawsuit over the issue of transgender student athletes.

District 49 in the Colorado Springs area spearheaded the lawsuit in May, suing the state and the Colorado High School Activities Association over policies that allow transgender youth to play on school sports teams that match their gender identity.

Court documents filed Tuesday indicate that the Montezuma-Cortez, Academy 20, and Colorado Springs 11 districts, along with Monument Academy, The Classical Academy, James Irwin Charter Schools, and Education ReEnvisioned BOCES, have asked to join as plaintiffs.

Sherri Wright, who represents western and southern Colorado on the State Board of Education and previously worked as a teacher in Cortez, weighed in against transgender girls on girls sports teams at the Montezuma-Cortez board meeting Tuesday.

“We do not need to endanger our girls,” she said, citing the possibility of injury if cisgender girls and transgender girls play sports together.

There’s no nationwide data showing the number of transgender girls who compete on girls teams at school or the number of injuries that occur in such situations.

Trump has targeted transgender rights since his first day in office, but many legal experts say his administration cannot, on its own, exclude transgender people from federal anti-discrimination law and that Colorado law, which includes protections for LGBTQ people, supersedes school district policy anyway.

Still, they say efforts to remove LGBTQ protections at the local level send harmful messages about who is valued and deserves protection from discrimination.

At a May school board meeting in Montezuma-Cortez, board member Mike Lynch said the policy change was needed because of Trump’s threats to withhold funding from schools that “support certain previously protected classes like sexual orientation, gender expression, or gender identity.” He later clarified that Trump has not threatened to withhold funding over protections based on sexual orientation. Still, the term wasn’t restored to the policy.

Lynch, who chairs the district committee that drafted the new nondiscrimination policy, said not every group must be explicitly named in the policy to have protection from discrimination.

Noting that the policy talks about unlawful discrimination, he said, “If it is unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, then the policy covers it.”

The policy adopted Tuesday now cites 10 instead of 13 protected characteristics in a section prohibiting harassment. The 10 include disability, race, creed, color, sex, marital status, national origin, religion, ancestry, or need for special education services.

Some community members objected to the nondiscrimination policy changes.

Emily Christenson, a parent in the 2,400-student district, said even though Colorado law contains protections based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression, including the terms in school district policy is important.

“You may feel … that it’s redundant to list them there, but to remove only some of the protected classes from your policy clearly states that you condone harassment inflicted upon these groups of our community,” she said.

Cayce Hamerschlag, who spoke about both the nondiscrimination policy and the transgender student athlete policy, said the board is choosing to deny rights to some students with no legal requirement to do so.

“In the spirit of transparency,” she told the board, “perhaps you should change your slogan from ‘Every Student. Every Day.’ to ‘Certain Students. Some Days.’”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@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.

Inside a Colorado district’s debate about what gets taught in fourth grade social studies

2025-07-02T21:30:34+00:00

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A committee of fourth grade teachers in western Colorado spent months this past school year reviewing potential social studies curriculums. The one they chose was written by Colorado historians and is widely used in schools across the state.

But in April, the school board in Mesa County Valley District 51, a 20,000-student district based in Grand Junction, rejected that curriculum, called “The Colorado Story.” Some board members felt its mention of the Black Lives Matter movement was not age appropriate and that it portrayed historical figures such as Christopher Columbus in a negative light, among other concerns.

Barb Evanson, the District 51 board member who was most vocal in her opposition, said in an interview that she felt the curriculum wrongly portrayed Columbus as solely responsible for harm to indigenous people in the Americas.

“Were there people that were doing bad things? Were there people that were absolutely there with ill intention? Absolutely,” she said. “Was it Christopher Columbus? No.”

The controversy in District 51 echoes current culture war battles over how American history is taught and whether schoolchildren can grapple with challenging subjects like race, racism, and flawed historical figures. The Trump administration has joined the fray, too — launching an effort in May that asks national parks visitors to report signage that disparages past or living Americans.

Liz Wallace, publisher and president at Gibbs Smith Education, which publishes “The Colorado Story,” said what happened in District 51 was a first.

“Prior to this year, I have never had a board reject one of our books,” she said.

Curriculum decision split the community

Instead of “The Colorado Story,” the District 51 school board chose a different fourth grade social studies curriculum in May. Called “Exploring Social Studies: Colorado,” it got lower marks from the teacher committee. The district will spend about $116,000 to purchase the second-choice curriculum, including textbooks, teacher guides, activities, and digital access. A district spokesperson couldn’t provide the cost of the first-choice option, because she said district officials never got far enough into the process.

The vote wasn’t unanimous. In a microcosm of national politics, both the board and the community were split over what fourth graders in Grand Junction should learn. The board voted 3-2 in April to reject “The Colorado Story.” In May, it voted 4-1 to adopt “Exploring Social Studies: Colorado.”

Board Vice President Will Jones, who ultimately voted to adopt the second-choice curriculum, expressed frustration with the process and said topics like Black Lives Matter are part of history and should be taught.

“Where I get frustrated is the committee that we put together chose the first book overwhelmingly,” he said. “And we’re taking the word of a few of us that may not like something.”

Board President Andrea Haitz said during an April meeting that she felt “The Colorado Story” discussion of Black Lives Matter, covered on two pages of the textbook’s 290-page third edition, would be too heavy for her soon-to-be fourth grade son.

“I don’t know that this activism stuff is really appropriate for him at fourth grade,” she said. “As a parent, I’m not ready to have that conversation with him.”

But board member Jośe Luis Chávez, the only board member to vote against the second-choice curriculum, said it’s a fact of life in some communities.

“The activism stuff, my daughter knew that probably in first grade,” he said.

A popular textbook is a victim of ‘time and place’

On April 1, when District 51 administrators recommended “The Colorado Story” during a school board presentation, there were no hints of controversy. A curriculum specialist talked about why the seven-member teacher committee thought it was the strongest contender. He described it as “visually stunning” and noted that community members at a public feedback session called it a wonderful curriculum that includes diverse perspectives and aligns well to state standards.

But weeks later, Evanson and other board members said they wanted a different option.

Evanson, who homeschools her two children, said at one meeting that because there is no bibliography in the “The Colorado Story” textbook, she considered it opinion-based. In an interview, she acknowledged that 9- and 10-year-olds might not consult a bibliography, but said parents like her would.

Wallace said it’s not typical for fourth grade textbooks to have bibliographies and that the teacher’s guide has links to a variety of sources, including materials from the Colorado Ute tribes and History Colorado, which runs museums and historic sites around the state.

“The Colorado Story” textbook is authored by Tom Noel, a former state historian whose nickname is “Dr. Colorado,” and Debra Faulkner, a historian at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. Noel and Faulkner declined to comment for this story. A spokesperson for History Colorado, which includes “The Colorado Story” on its list of recommended textbooks, said no one from the organization was available to comment.

Fourth grade is when Colorado students learn state history. In recent years, District 51 hasn’t had a uniform fourth grade social studies curriculum, instead cobbling together old materials.

Schools in about 100 of Colorado’s 179 districts use the second or third edition of “The Colorado Story,” Wallace said. The third edition came out a few years ago and aligns with the state’s 2022 social studies standards.

Wallace said those standards are among the most progressive in the country and that some of what board members objected to in “The Colorado Story” was included because of the standards.

A social studies teacher in District 51, who asked not to be named so he could speak freely about school board decisions, said he thinks “The Colorado Story” was a victim of “time and place.”

Mesa County is a conservative-leaning community where 61% of voters went for Trump in the last presidential election.

The teacher said the prevailing approach to controversial or challenging topics is “no longer just, ‘You have your view and I’ll have my view.’ It’s, ‘I don’t want that in the classroom.’”

Issues like the Black Lives Matter movement can be taught in an age-appropriate way, he said. Educators can be trusted to understand what’s suitable for their classrooms, and students often enjoy contemporary topics like Black Lives Matter because they don’t feel “like ancient history,” he said.

Critics focus on depiction of Columbus, colonizers

In critiques of “The Colorado Story,” some District 51 board members repeatedly voiced concerns about people or groups they felt weren’t depicted fairly, including Christopher Columbus, Spanish “colonizers,” gold prospectors, and modern day police officers.

Evanson said the book contained only “snippets” about Columbus.

“It didn’t give the totality of Christopher Columbus,” she said. “If we’re not going to teach the whole truth, why would we teach a portion of it?”

The textbook devotes a handful of paragraphs to Columbus.

Next to a picture of him, the text says, “When the Spanish arrived in the New World, they claimed the land for Spain. They did not want to be friends with the Native people. Instead, the Spanish attacked their villages, taking whatever they wanted. Indigenous people fought back, but the Spanish had more powerful weapons.”

Wallace noted that the curriculum’s teacher guide includes an activity called “Columbus: Hero or Villain?”

The idea, she said, is that, “students explore this complex person and the complex history associated with him and form their own conclusions.”

Evanson also said “The Colorado Story” paints gold prospectors as greedy and environmentally reckless. The book mentions early that they dug tunnels, felled trees, and left “ugly scars” on the land. Later it explains that they wanted to get rich because many prospectors didn’t have jobs, and “gold brought a glimmer of hope.”

Evanson, who previously worked in law enforcement, and Haitz objected to a mention of Elijah McClain in a short section called “Activism Today” that features Black Lives Matter. McClain was a young Black man who died after police restrained him in Aurora in 2019. In addition to McClain, the book briefly mentions George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

Haitz said, “The book pinpointed specific events that seemed to villainize law enforcement specifically, but did not give full context around the entire case.”

In both cases, police officers who restrained the men were convicted of crimes.

Haitz said she felt the second-choice curriculum handled the activism topic in a more age appropriate way — by highlighting Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, a famous immigrant rights activist from Denver.

But “The Colorado Story,” the rejected curriculum, also features Gonzales in a two-page section about the Chicano movement in Colorado.

Three of the five District 51 board members — Jones, Chávez, and Angele Lema — either declined to be interviewed for this story or did not respond to requests for comment. Evanson and Haitz both said their concerns with “Colorado Story” were not fueled by conservative political views.

“I really did look at this as an age appropriate context,” said Haitz. “This was not left, right, conservative, liberal.”

She said some district residents upset about the rejected curriculum wrote to the board saying it was trying to whitewash history.

“I never once said I didn’t want kids to learn about Black Lives Matter,” Haitz said. “I totally want kids to learn about that. Just let’s learn about it in its full context, and let’s learn about it a little bit later when we can talk about it more robustly.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@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.

Consejo escolar de Denver vota para pausar por 4 años cierres de escuelas con pocos estudiantes inscritos

2025-06-16T23:17:43+00:00

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Chalkbeat Colorado es un noticiero local sin fines de lucro que informa sobre las escuelas públicas.

No se cerrarán ni consolidarán más escuelas en Denver hasta 2030 debido a que tienen pocos estudiantes inscritos después de que el consejo escolar modificara su norma el jueves para agregar una pausa de 4 años.

Pero la pausa no es una prohibición total. El cambio permite que se propongan cierres escolares “si hay un cambio considerable en las inscripciones de estudiantes, niveles de fondos o una emergencia inesperada según lo termine el Consejo o el Superintendente”.

El superintendente Alex Marrero también implementó recientemente una norma que permite que las escuelas se cierren por una razón diferente: si los estudiantes tienen constantemente bajas calificaciones.

Más escuelas podrían cerrarse ya que DPS predice que menos estudiantes se inscribirán

Siete escuelas en Denver cerraron a principios de este mes después de que el consejo votara en noviembre para cerrarlas porque tenían pocos estudiantes inscritos. El consejo también votó para cerrar parcialmente tres escuelas más, lo cual significa que esas escuelas tendrán menos niveles de grado en el otoño.

“Creo que nuestras comunidades necesitan un descanso y necesitan algo de tiempo para sanar de este proceso de cierres que acabamos de pasar”, dijo la integrante del consejo Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán.

En el futuro, las Escuelas Públicas de Denver (DPS, por sus siglas en inglés) predicen que la cantidad de estudiantes inscritos disminuirá en un 8 por ciento, o en 6,005 estudiantes, para 2029, según el informe del Análisis Regional Estratégico que el distrito publicó la semana pasada. El informe dice que probablemente necesite cerrar más escuelas debido a bajas inscripciones para 2030, especialmente en la zona noroeste, sudoeste y central de la ciudad.

Salvo alguna emergencia, la norma modificada prevendrá que se realicen esos cierres en los años escolares 2025-26, 2026-27, 2027-28 y 2028-29. El consejo podría votar para otra ronda de cierres en 2029, y más escuelas podrían cerrarse a finales de 2029-30.

La modificación se aprobó en una votación de 4 a 2 el jueves. Gaytán votó a favor de ella, junto con la presidenta del consejo Carrie Olson y los integrantes Scott Esserman y Michelle Quattlebaum.

Quienes apoyan el cambio dijeron que se necesita hacer una pausa para proporcionar algo de certidumbre y tiempo a los estudiantes, las familias y el personal de las escuelas que quizás estén en riesgo de cerrarse porque tienen pocos estudiantes inscritos. La idea de pausar los cierres escolares fue de la comunidad, dijeron

“Al centro de esto no podemos olvidar que estamos lidiando con seres humanos que deben procesar lo que estamos haciendo”, Quattlebaum dijo, “y si están pidiendo claridad, garantías sobre cómo avanzaremos, ¿por qué no estamos honrando eso?”

La vicepresidente del consejo Marlene De La Rosa y el integrante John Youngquist votaron en contra. La integrante Kimberlee Sia estuvo ausente.

Youngquist dijo que la modificación era innecesaria porque incluye tanto una prohibición de los cierres como una manera de evitarlos, lo cual dijo “es lo mismo que no agregar ninguna palabra en absoluto”. De La Rosa mencionó la predicción de que DPS perderá 6,000 estudiantes para 2029 y dijo que la modificación era una “promesa falsa a nuestra comunidad que sabemos que no podemos mantener”.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

Melanie Asmar es la jefa de la oficina de Chalkbeat Colorado. Comunícate con Melanie enviándole un mensaje a masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Denver to adjust school boundaries every 5 years under new policy

2025-06-13T17:00:58+00:00

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Denver Public Schools will have to “analyze and adjust” school enrollment boundaries every five years under a policy unanimously approved Thursday by the school board.

The policy, known as Executive Limitation 19, is meant to help balance student enrollment among schools. Doing so could become even more important in future years, as DPS predicts its enrollment will decline 8% by 2029, likely necessitating additional school closures.

The district closed seven schools for low enrollment earlier this month. It partially closed three more, which means those schools will reopen in the fall with fewer grade levels

Denver board votes to pause enrollment-based school closures for 4 years

DPS has not redrawn school boundaries districtwide in at least 30 years. Many school boundaries have remained unchanged since 1995. That’s when DPS ended a court-ordered cross-city busing system put in place to racially integrate Denver’s schools.

The district has, however, created several enrollment zones in the past decade. Enrollment zones are big boundaries that contain several schools. Families who live in enrollment zones must choose among the schools in the zone.

The new policy requires the superintendent to analyze and adjust the boundaries of both individual schools and the district’s 15 enrollment zones every five years, beginning in the 2026-27 school year. The adjustments will happen in conjunction with either the U.S. Census or the census bureau’s interim American Community Survey, the policy says.

It also requires the superintendent to make adjustments “that account for shifting demographics and housing trends” and avoid creating boundaries that “further socioeconomically segregate schools.” A recent report from the Colorado Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights recommended that districts revise their school attendance zones at least every four years to increase racial integration.

Denver’s superintendent must hold regional community meetings “to consult on recommendations for boundary adjustments,” the policy says. Those adjustments must ensure students have a “safe and accessible” route to walk or bike to school, it says.

Boundary changes may not affect all Denver students. School choice, or the ability for students to apply to attend any public school, is enshrined in Colorado law — and many DPS students take advantage of it. District data shows that 44% of DPS’ approximately 90,000 students attended a school outside of their boundary or enrollment zone this past school year.

The new policy is similar to a proposal floated by a former board member in 2023. That proposal would have required the superintendent to analyze and adjust school boundaries every four years. It also would have capped elementary school enrollment at 600 students. The board voted in 2023 to postpone a discussion on that proposal and never returned to it.

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

Denver board votes to pause enrollment-based school closures for 4 years

2025-06-13T03:12:44+00:00

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No more Denver schools will be closed or consolidated for low enrollment until 2030 after the school board amended its policy Thursday to add a four-year closure pause.

But the pause isn’t an all-out ban. The amendment allows a school closure proposal to be brought forward “if there is a substantial shift in student enrollment, funding levels, or an unexpected emergency as determined by either the Board or the Superintendent.”

Superintendent Alex Marrero also recently enacted a policy that allows schools to be closed for a different reason: persistently low student test scores.

Seven Denver schools closed earlier this month after the board voted in November to shutter them due to declining enrollment. The board also voted to partially close three more schools, which means those schools will have fewer grade levels in the fall.

“I think our communities need a break and they need some time to heal from this closure process that we just experienced,” said board member Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán.

Denver Public Schools is predicting its enrollment will decline by 8%, or 6,005 students, by 2029, according to the district’s annual Strategic Regional Analysis report released last week. The report says more enrollment-based school closures would likely be needed by 2030, particularly in the northwest, southwest, and central parts of the city.

Barring any emergencies, the amended policy will prevent such closures in the 2025-26, 2026-27, 2027-28, and 2028-29 school years. The board could vote on another round of closures in 2029, and additional schools could shutter at the end of 2029-30.

The amendment passed in a 4-2 vote Thursday. Gaytán voted for it, along with board President Carrie Olson and members Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebaum.

Supporters said a pause was needed to provide certainty and a timeline to students, families, and staff at schools that may be at risk of low enrollment and closure. The idea for a school closure pause came from the community, they said.

“At the center of this we cannot forget that we’re dealing with human beings that have to process what we’re doing,” Quattlebaum said, “and if they’re asking for clarity, for assurances on how we will move forward, why are we not honoring that?”

Board Vice President Marlene De La Rosa and member John Youngquist voted against it. Member Kimberlee Sia was absent.

Youngquist said the amendment was unnecessary because it includes both a prohibition on closures and a way around it, which he said “is the same as adding no language at all.”

De La Rosa referenced the prediction that DPS will lose 6,000 students by 2029 and said the amendment was a “false promise to our community that we know we cannot keep.”

Denver to adjust school boundaries every 5 years under new policy

Thursday’s vote was the second time the board considered pausing school closures. Last month, the board deadlocked 3-3 over a proposal for a three-year school closure moratorium.

Quattlebaum was absent from last month’s meeting, which resulted in the tie vote. A majority of the seven-member board must approve any policy change.

A majority of the board had to override its procedural rules Thursday in order to reconsider the amendment a month after it failed. The board also had to change the proposed language, which Esserman said was why the pause period was increased from three to four years.

The seven schools that closed earlier this month were Castro Elementary, Columbian Elementary, Palmer Elementary, Schmitt Elementary, International Academy of Denver at Harrington, West Middle School, and the Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Design.

Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy, Dora Moore ECE-8 School, and Denver Center for International Studies partially closed and will reopen with fewer grades in the fall. Kunsmiller will go from a K-12 school to a 6-12 school, Dora Moore will become an elementary school only, and DCIS will shrink from a middle and high school to solely a middle school.

About 1,100 students were affected by the closures. District data shows that half of the displaced students will go to higher-performing schools next year, and a significant number are moving from district-run schools to charter schools.

DPS is in the process of deciding what to do with the shuttered school buildings.

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

Dad and former teacher DJ Torres is running to represent central-east Denver on the school board

2025-06-09T21:47:05+00:00

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A former Denver Public Schools teacher who worked on districtwide equity initiatives and whose son is a DPS student is running to represent central-east Denver on the school board.

DJ Torres, who described himself in an interview as “super pro-union” and “extremely pro-public education,” is vying for the District 3 seat currently held by school board President Carrie Olson. Olson is barred from running for reelection due to term limits.

Torres, 40, taught special education at Montbello High School before DPS closed it in 2010 for low test scores. (It has since reopened.) Torres also taught special education at DPS’ Florence Crittenton High School, which serves pregnant and parenting teen mothers.

After earning a Ph.D. in California, Torres returned to Denver and took an equity-focused job in DPS’ central office, where he helped write and implement a 2020 school board resolution to make the district’s curriculum more inclusive of Black, Latino, and Indigenous history.

Torres left DPS to work on equity initiatives for former Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s office. His most recent job was with Sandy Hook Promise, a national gun violence prevention nonprofit started by family members of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting.

Torres said he was inspired to run for school board by the current political moment, which he described as “a time of national political unrest, where public education is under attack,” and by his son, who attends the family’s neighborhood school, McMeen Elementary.

“The really specific and unique charge of having a son who’s daily impacted by the ways we’re doing this work as a district, I thought now is a perfect time for me to want to run and be a systems-level changer,” Torres said.

Four seats on the seven-member Denver school board are up for grabs in November. Board members backed by the Denver teachers union currently hold the majority of board seats. But that could change in the Nov. 4 election, which comes at a key time for DPS.

Declining enrollment has led to more than a dozen school closures in the past two years, and the superintendent has put in place a policy for low-performing schools that could result in more closures. DPS has found itself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration over an all-gender high school restroom, and it has sued the federal government to protect immigrant students.

DPS achieved its highest-ever graduation rate last year, but some students are still recovering from pandemic-era learning loss. Many teachers are mad they were denied higher cost-of-living raises while the superintendent got a bonus. And the school board recently ordered an investigation of one of its members over allegations of racial discrimination.

Torres identifies as Latino and openly queer. When he and his partner adopted their son, Torres said they felt strongly about wanting to enroll him in DPS.

If elected, Torres said he would focus on improving school safety through “softening” measures such as expanding mental health services for students and helping them feel connected to their school community, which he said lessens the likelihood of school-based violence.

Torres said he’d also advocate for better teacher pay and equity in class sizes, both of which are major issues for the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.

“How do we say we’re an equity district when some students are one of 35 and some students are one of 20?” Torres said.

Torres said “supporting immigrant, refugee, and vulnerable populations is really key,” and he’d work to improve services for English language learners and students with disabilities.

The Denver school board recently voted to close or partially close 10 schools due to declining enrollment. Torres said he recognizes the student population is shrinking, but DPS can do more to include the community in the decisionmaking process.

“I don’t think anyone wants to be dealt hard news in a transactional way,” he said. “They want a role.”

Torres said he opposes closing schools based solely on student test scores.

The school board is responsible for hiring and firing the superintendent. Torres said that while many voters have asked if he supports Superintendent Alex Marrero, he doesn’t believe it’s constructive for new board members to step into the role with their minds made up.

“I’m committed to being a very good employer to what I hope will be a very good employee,” he said.

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

Amid Trump’s funding threats, a rural school district looks to remove LGBTQ policy protections

2025-06-09T20:58:46+00:00

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Citing President Trump’s threat to cut off federal education funding for school districts that provide protections for LGBTQ people, school board members in the Montezuma-Cortez district in southwestern Colorado are poised to remove sexual orientation and gender identity from the district’s nondiscrimination policy.

“Our district uses federal grant monies and Trump has indicated those grants are at risk if any district continues to support certain previously protected classes like sexual orientation, gender expression, or gender identity,” Mike Lynch, a school board member and the policy committee chair, said at a board meeting late last month.

The proposed policy changes in Montezuma-Cortez represent just one example of how some Colorado school districts are rushing to comply — or over-comply — with federal ultimatums based on questionable legal foundations. Many legal experts say the Trump administration cannot, on its own, exclude transgender people from federal anti-discrimination law and that Colorado law, which includes protections for LGBTQ people, supersedes school district policy anyway.

But efforts to remove protections at the local level send harmful messages about who is valued and who isn’t, they say.

“I think it does damage to queer students because it signals that this school district … doesn’t believe that these students are worthy of protection,” Scott Skinner-Thompson, associate professor of law at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Montezuma-Cortez, a conservative-leaning district with about 2,400 students, has taken other steps to curtail LGBTQ symbols and school activities in recent years. The school board is scheduled to take a final vote on the proposed nondiscrimination policy on June 24.

MB McAfee, a retired social worker and district resident, said she doesn’t know of any case where federal funds were withheld by the Trump administration, but worries about that possibility, particularly when it comes to money for students with disabilities.

But she’s also angry about the proposed policy changes, calling them “another step toward exclusion.”

“If we do that,” she asked, “then what’s going to be next?”

School districts react to funding threats

Trump has targeted transgender rights since his first day in office. In January and February, he issued several executive orders on the topic, including one that describes sex as determined at conception and unchangeable and another that threatens to withhold federal funds from schools that allow transgender girls to play girls sports.

The Trump administration has moved to strip federal funding from Maine because that state allows transgender girls to compete on girls’ teams. A judge blocked the federal government from withholding school lunch money while the case continues.

So far, no school district has lost money because of policies protecting transgender students. But Lynch emphasized that risk when he explained the proposed policy revision to the school board in May.

Asked by Chalkbeat what executive order or federal guidance required the removal of “sexual orientation” from the policy, Lynch later said by email that he’d mistakenly cited the term when he spoke to the board about federal dollars being in jeopardy.

For now though, “sexual orientation” isn’t being restored to the policy, he said.

Montezuma-Cortez isn’t alone in making changes spurred by the Trump administration. Officials from several Colorado districts, including Woodland Park and District 49 near Colorado Springs, have cited Trump’s executive orders in pushing policy changes or other efforts aimed at revoking protections for transgender students.

In May, District 49 sued the state and the Colorado High School Activities Association arguing that Colorado law and the association’s policy violate students’ constitutional rights by allowing transgender youth to play on school sports teams that match their gender identity.

Montezuma-Cortez school board members had little to say about the implications of the proposed nondiscrimination policy changes.

Asked about the legal or practical implications, Lynch said he’s not an attorney and doesn’t know. School board President Sheri Noyes did not respond to Chalkbeat’s request for comment. Vice President Ed Rice declined to respond to specific questions from Chalkbeat, saying by email that the policy’s opening sentence “answers everything.”

As proposed, that sentence says, “The Board is committed to providing a learning and work environment where all members of the school community are treated with dignity and respect.” The current version of the policy says “safe learning and work environment” but the revision takes out the word “safe.”

Lynch said the district’s policy committee wrote the revised policy, but he declined to reveal who else is on the committee, except to say it includes two district staff members, two community members, and one teacher.

The proposed policy change also adopts language directly from a February Dear Colleague letter in which the U.S. Department of Education said many common practices under the umbrella of diversity, equity, and inclusion are actually discriminatory. Federal judges have temporarily blocked implementation of the guidance laid out in the letter.

The new district policy bars the consideration of race in all aspects of student, academic, and campus life, including scholarships. However, Lynch said that programs for Indigenous students are not subject to the ban on race-based programs.

A fraught history on LGBTQ protections

In recent years, the Montezuma-Cortez district has taken aim at a variety of LGBTQ-friendly policies and practices.

In February 2021, school board member Lance McDaniel was recalled after an uproar over his weekly donation of pizza to a middle school “Rainbow Club,” a lunchtime gathering for LGBTQ students and allies. Prior to the community vote, social media blew up with accusations that McDaniel was a “groomer” and “pedophile,” according to a story from Rocky Mountain PBS.

A month before McDaniel was recalled, LGBTQ pride flags were removed from the middle school classroom of a staff member who sponsored the Rainbow Club. The building principal said such “inflammatory icons” couldn’t be displayed in common spaces.

By the fall of 2021, the school board had passed a policy restricting clubs not officially sponsored by the school, including the Rainbow Club, from meeting during lunchtime — effectively ending the group’s run.

This April, four district officials were among more than 60 education officials from across the state to sign onto a letter demanding that the Colorado High School Activities Association adopt rules “to ensure that boys are not permitted to compete as girls in girls’ sports.” The Montezuma-Cortez signers were Lynch, Noyes, Superintendent Tom Burris, and Assistant Superintendent Eddie Ramirez.

McDaniel said he’s not surprised by the board’s move to change the nondiscrimination policy given its recent history

As for the rationale that the district could lose federal funding if it doesn’t change its policies, he said, “I think it’s a bunch of crap.”

“You can’t really say anything definitive about what Trump or his administration will do,” he said. “I see a lot of people in a lot of organizations bending their knee to acquiesce to his desires.”

McDaniel knows a portion of the community supports the board’s decisions, but said there’s growing opposition, both because of issues like the nondiscrimination policy and a spate of controversial teacher reassignments and departures, among other things.

Why executive orders aren’t the final word

Legal experts say Trump’s pledge to pull federal funding from districts that don’t comply with his executive orders or other policy demands is overblown.

“They’re doing a lot of saber rattling,” but the administration’s power to cut funding to school districts is limited, said Skinner-Thompson, of University of Colorado Boulder.

“Funding termination is a remedy of last resort,” he said. “To bring an enforcement action, the federal authorities are supposed to engage in negotiations, conciliation, and then, and only then, terminate funding.”

In addition, Skinner-Thompson said the administration’s interpretation of Title IX — its legal rationale for some executive orders threatening to withhold education funding — is flawed.

Title IX is a 1972 civil rights law that banned discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities. The law does not define sex and the courts generally have interpreted it to also ban discrimination based on sex stereotypes and extended protections to LGBTQ people.

“Title IX prohibits sex discrimination, and several federal courts … have concluded that the federal statutory prohibitions on sex discrimination include protections for sexual minorities,” he said.

He acknowledged some disagreement in the courts about transgender rights, but said it will ultimately be judges, not the president, who decide how to interpret the law.

“People have been reacting to the executive orders like it’s the final word, but that’s not the case,” he said.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Denver principal Alex Magaña is running for a seat on the school board

2025-05-27T16:00:00+00:00

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A Denver Public Schools principal whose schools champion blended learning tailored to each student’s academic level is running for an at-large seat on the school board.

Alex Magaña is the executive principal of Grant Beacon and Kepner Beacon middle schools, which also focus on character development and provide in-school enrichment activities.

Magaña, 56, began his career in DPS as a math teacher at the now-shuttered Kepner Middle School in 1998. Over the years, he has worked as a bilingual teacher for Spanish-speaking students, a math coach, an assistant principal, and a principal of innovation schools, which are district-run schools with increased flexibility and autonomy from district policies. Magaña is also the father of two children who graduated from DPS schools.

If elected, Magaña said his priorities would be creating safe and welcoming environments for students, ensuring students succeed academically and emotionally, and listening to the community and “holding people to what we are promising to our families.”

“The question is, ‘How are we including our families in decision making? What data are we looking at when making decisions that impact the lives of our students?’ I’d be pushing to be well informed to make those hard decisions,” Magaña said.

Magaña is running for the seat currently held by board member Scott Esserman, who has not announced whether he will run for reelection. Magaña lives in the Central Park neighborhood in northeast Denver, though the at-large seat represents the entire city.

Magaña said he would resign from his position as executive principal if he’s elected. District employees cannot serve on the school board due to conflict of interest rules.

“One thing I’m going to push on is, How do we bring people together?” Magaña said. “There’s been such division.”

Magaña has clashed with DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero. In 2023, Marrero recommended that the school board dissolve an innovation zone called Beacon Network Schools, which included Kepner Beacon and Grant Beacon. Innovation zones are groups of semi-autonomous schools overseen by nonprofit boards of directors, not by DPS.

Marrero objected to the fact that Magaña was a DPS employee but answered to the nonprofit board. The situation led to a lawsuit, which ended with a ruling in DPS’ favor. The school board dissolved the zone, but Magaña stayed on as executive principal.

Magaña and Marrero also gave opposing testimony on a bill in the state legislature in 2022, which led DPS to send a letter to all principals prohibiting such advocacy during work hours.

But Magaña said he has no animosity toward Marrero.

“After it was all said and done, we sat down and shook hands,” Magaña said. “There are zero issues with the superintendent.”

Magaña said he believes in setting high academic standards for schools — “Mediocrity is not OK,” he said — and involving families and educators in difficult decisions about school closures, whether the reason is for low performance or declining enrollment.

“You can’t cause such a traumatic event without having a next step,” Magaña said. “We know this is going to happen, so what are we going to do with the building? Where are we at as far as getting input from the community? If you do those two things, the community will support it.”

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

Denver school board warms to plan for struggling schools, but some balk at prospect of closures

2025-05-23T02:33:47+00:00

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The idea for a new school improvement policy came to Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero after the school board voted against closing a struggling charter school.

Marrero was perplexed. The deal with charters is that the independent public schools are granted more autonomy in exchange for stricter accountability. This school, which Marrero declined to name, had fallen short of the goals it agreed to meet.

So why was it still open? Marrero called some of his mentors for advice.

“One said, ‘Yeah Alex, this is insane. How could you move a system when there is no bar? If it was your school, you would have closed it, right?’” Marrero said. “My answer was no.”

That’s because there has been no active Denver Public Schools policy to close low-performing schools for several years. The last such policy was abandoned in 2018. Marrero’s new policy, which he unveiled at a school board meeting last week, is meant to change that. It sets the same achievement bar for district-run and charter schools — and lays out a series of escalating interventions if they don’t meet it. The most drastic is closure.

Marrero’s School Transformation Process is an administrative policy that he put in place last week without school board approval. But the board will have to vote on any school closures starting in 2026. In interviews this week, not all school board members said they’d support closing a school for low standardized test scores. And although board members expressed optimism about Marrero’s new policy, several said they didn’t understand all the details.

“I don’t know that we’re okay with that,” board member Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán said of closing schools for low test scores. Last week’s board meeting, she said, “was the first time we were hearing and seeing that. We were all processing.”

Denver charter school leaders are still making up their minds. Marrero has asked them to agree to the policy, which would mean giving up their right, enshrined in state law, to appeal a closure.

“As public charter schools we believe in accountability across all (school) governance types,” said Taamiti Bankole, the chief external affairs officer for KIPP Colorado Schools and interim chair of the Collaborative Council, a group of charter leaders who advise DPS.

While agreeing to the new policy is optional for Denver’s more than 50 charter schools now, Marrero said it will be “non-negotiable” when each charter’s contract comes up for renewal.

The new plan offers both help and consequences

Like many school districts, Denver Public Schools has a long history with school improvement. Over the years, the pendulum has swung from swift closures of struggling schools that left families reeling to yearslong efforts to give schools extra funding and support.

Marrero’s policy is a middle ground. It’s also a way to beat what’s known as the accountability clock, which ticks toward state intervention. After five years of low state ratings, based mostly on standardized test scores, the State Board of Education can order an intervention, although it’s only ever closed one school under that system.

Marrero’s policy requires the district to take action before the state steps in. After one to three years of low ratings, a Denver school will be “renewed” or “reconfigured” by firing the principal, making teachers reapply for their jobs, or changing academic programs, among other options.

After four years of low ratings, a school will be “reimagined” — a euphemism for closing the school or replacing it with another district-run or charter school.

To keep schools from getting there, the district is launching the Elevate Schools Network, a group of eight elementary schools at risk for such interventions. Unlike in the past, the district won’t send those principals to out-of-state training or hire an external company to turn the school around. Instead, the district’s own central office staff will do the work.

The eight schools in the inaugural cohort will be Barnum Elementary, Cheltenham Elementary, Hallett Academy, John H. Amesse Elementary, McGlone Academy, Oakland Elementary, Place Bridge Academy, and Traylor Elementary.

“Under previous versions, it was just about high-stakes accountability,” said Joe Amundsen, the district’s executive director of school transformation, who will help lead the Elevate Schools Network. “This is saying the district has to be in it with our schools when they’re on the clock. It really puts the onus of responsibility on the district to improve our schools.”

In interviews, school board members expressed the most support for that part of the plan.

“I feel like this isn’t coming from a crime and punishment lens,” said school board President Carrie Olson. “It’s, ‘How can we help you?’”

Marrero said he’s confident that no school in the network will reach Year 4 on the state accountability clock. If one does, he said, “I’ll be the first one to say, ‘We failed this community.’”

Idea of school closures generates mixed reactions

The prospect of school closures is likely to generate the most scrutiny and controversy. And board members’ politics could come into play.

Board Vice President Marlene De La Rosa said she’d be open to closing a school for low test scores. She sent her own two children to schools outside of her neighborhood because the nearby schools were labeled as failing.

“I don’t want to keep letting students be in a school that isn’t meeting their needs,” she said.

Board member John Youngquist said he’s most interested in helping schools get off the state accountability clock, which he believes can be done.

But if schools don’t improve, he said, “You have to take some sort of action.”

Youngquist and De La Rosa were elected in 2023, along with board member Kimberlee Sia. All three of their campaigns were boosted by outside groups supportive of education reform and the closure of low-performing schools. All three are halfway through a four-year term and will likely vote on school closures or replacements under Marrero’s policy.

The other four board members may never take a vote under the new policy because their terms are up in November. They were elected in 2021 with the backing of the Denver teachers union. Three of them are eligible for reelection, but Olson can’t run again due to term limits.

Olson, Gaytán, and board member Scott Esserman have been the most vocal about opposing school closures due to low test scores. Olson was a teacher at Kepner Middle School in 2014 when DPS announced it was shuttering the school for that exact reason. The subsequent disruption inspired her to run for the board in 2017.

Olson said this week that she’s now open to school closures based on declining enrollment, like the ones the board approved this school year. But she said she hasn’t changed her mind about closing schools based on declining test scores.

“It just tears apart the fabric of a community so much that I would want us to think about so many other ways we can support that community and not close schools,” Olson said.

She said Marrero’s plan represents “a longer runway” and is more helpful than what happened at Kepner: “Now schools are going to receive years of support.”

Union opposes making teachers reapply for jobs

Gaytán’s path to the school board was also influenced by a performance-based school closure, not as a teacher but as a neighborhood parent.

“The negative connotation of a school closure impacted not only me, my husband, my children, but entire neighborhoods in southwest Denver,” Gaytán said in 2021 as a candidate. “To put families and teachers through something like that and retraumatize our community is a no vote.”

Gaytán said she’d still vote no on school closures today. But she doesn’t think it will come to that anytime soon — at least not for district-run schools in the Elevate Schools Network.

“I appreciate the fact that there will be an in-house team that would dedicate time to these schools that need this extra support,” Gaytán said.

It may be different for charter schools, which won’t be part of the network. Gaytán was one of two board members who voted in 2023 in favor of closing Academy 360, a small charter school with low test scores. A majority of the board voted to keep it open.

Academy 360 could be one of the first to face closure under Marrero’s policy. It’s one of two Denver schools on Year 3 of the clock. The other, Rocky Mountain Prep Noel, is also a charter.

Esserman helped write the board’s policy on closing schools for low enrollment and fought against using standardized test scores to decide which underenrolled schools to close. The board landed on a compromise that says test scores can’t be the sole factor.

At a board meeting a year ago, Esserman said that when the district closes a school for low test scores, “you’ve now labeled all those students as coming from a failing school and you set them up to continue to not be successful.”

Esserman said this week that his position on standardized testing hasn’t changed. But like Gaytán, he thinks the new policy is different.

“I think it’s really difficult to look at this plan and see it as a punitive measure,” he said.

Rob Gould, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, said that when Marrero gave him “the briefest of briefings” on the policy, the superintendent focused on the Elevate Schools Network, not on the possibility for school closure.

The union opposes closing schools for low test scores, Gould said. It also opposes making teachers at struggling schools reapply for their jobs, which the policy says could happen.

“Time and time over the years, just seeing how making everybody reapply or changing the whole [school] model — is this really making the change you want?” Gould asked. “Or is it that under the guise of disruption, you’re resetting the clock?”

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

Discrimination allegations against John Youngquist to be investigated, Denver school board says

2025-05-20T01:12:57+00:00

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The Denver school board has ordered an investigation into allegations of discrimination against member John Youngquist, the board said in a statement Monday.

The decision comes after the board met in a closed-door executive session Thursday to receive legal advice on how to respond to the allegations, which were levied by Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero.

In an April letter to board President Carrie Olson, Marrero accused Youngquist of “belittling, dismissive, and condescending behavior toward district staff, especially employees of color,” among other allegations. Marrero asked in the letter that the board censure Youngquist.

Youngquist said in a statement Monday that he is supportive of the decision to launch a “fair, impartial, and independently facilitated investigation,” though he said such a process should have occurred before the allegations were made public.

“I am confident that my name will be cleared of the accusations made by the superintendent and that we will be able to move forward with the work of the board of education for the children of Denver,” said Youngquist, who was elected in 2023 to a four-year term on the board.

The board said it will decide how to proceed once it receives the findings of the investigation. The board will follow its process for addressing board member violations, which says a censure may occur if there is a “substantial violation of board policy.”

It’s not clear from the board’s statement who will be conducting the investigation or its scope. The statement said the board will follow an administrative policy usually used to investigate allegations of discrimination and harassment against DPS employees.

“The district prohibits discrimination and has a grievance procedure to investigate and respond to complaints of discrimination in a manner that is fair and impartial,” the statement said. “We reviewed applicable law and policy and, as required by both, will follow our (administrative policy).”

The policy says such investigations should be “thorough, reliable, impartial, prompt, and fair” and involve interviewing witnesses, obtaining evidence, and “identifying sources of expert information.”

“We will have no further comment until we receive the findings,” the board said in its statement. “At that time, we will have a public discussion.”

The last time the board investigated one of its own members was in 2021. The board hired an outside law firm, the Denver-based Investigations Law Group, for that investigation. The board censured then-member Auon’tai Anderson based on the findings.

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

Denver school board rejects 3-year school closure moratorium

2025-05-16T02:01:26+00:00

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The Denver school board rejected a three-year pause on school closures Thursday, just weeks before 10 Denver schools are set to close or partially close due to declining enrollment.

The proposal would not have reversed the 10 impending school closures, but it would have halted any further closures until 2029.

The board voted down the proposal to amend its policy to add a school closure moratorium in a 3-3 vote. To pass a policy revision, a majority of the board’s seven members must vote in favor. One board member, Michelle Quattlebaum, was absent from Thursday’s meeting.

Board President Carrie Olson and members Scott Esserman and Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán voted in favor of the pause. Board Vice President Marlene De La Rosa and members John Youngquist and Kimberlee Sia voted against it.

None of the board members explained their vote.

At a meeting last month, De La Rosa expressed reservations about waiting to close schools with low enrollment. Such schools don’t receive as much per-pupil funding and often struggle to afford robust programming, and she had said the district “can’t afford to lose any time in not providing students everything that they need to be successful and to thrive.”

Supporters of the pause said it was needed to calm the fears of parents, teachers, and students at schools that have been at risk for closure and could be again — and to clarify when another round of school closures could occur.

The 10 Denver schools that are closing or partially closing next month all experienced sharp enrollment declines over the past several years, a troubling trend affecting many schools across the country. Birth rates and gentrification are largely driving the Denver enrollment dips, which have hit some parts of the city harder than others.

The proposal would have prevented any further school closures for the 2025-26, 2026-27, and 2027-28 school years. The board would have been able to vote on another round of closures in 2028. If it voted yes, the schools could have closed at the end of 2028-29.

The proposal included an exception that said if Denver Public Schools experienced “significant” changes in enrollment or funding, or if it encountered unforeseen emergencies as identified by the board or superintendent, the board could have voted to close schools sooner.

The 10 upcoming school closures will affect about 1,100 students. District data shows half of the displaced students will go to higher performing schools next year, and a significant number are moving from district-run schools to charter schools.

The Denver district is now deciding what to do with its soon-to-be shuttered school buildings. The board is also debating a policy that would require the district to analyze and adjust school boundaries on a regular basis in an attempt to address declining enrollment.

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

Longtime Pueblo charter school with financial woes to close after losing state appeal

2025-05-16T01:54:09+00:00

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A longtime Pueblo charter school with more than 800 K-12 students will close at the end of the year after losing an appeal before the State Board of Education on Thursday.

The board voted 7-1 to reject Chávez/Huerta K-12 Preparatory Academy’s request to overturn the Pueblo 60 district’s January decision to end the charter contract because of what district officials described as ongoing fiscal mismanagement at the school.

The decision spells the end for a school that opened in 2001 to great fanfare, but has encountered a litany of troubles over the past two decades. In recent years, even as a $30 million state grant helped Chávez/Huerta build a new middle school and renovate its high school, the school’s enrollment has declined, it’s carried a lot of debt, and it’s had a revolving door of directors.

Richard Orona, the school’s lawyer, acknowledged during Thursday’s appeal hearing that the school had “serious issues” in the past, but generally described the school as on the right track now.

“We looked within ourselves for the answer, and we found it,” he said. “We eliminated our management team. We eliminated board members. They even fired legal counsel and brought me in.”

But most State Board members were skeptical, noting that school officials didn’t offer a clear plan for reversing enrollment declines or making large debt payments set to come due in the 2026-27 school year. The school enrolls 844 students this year.

Board Chair Rebecca McClellan worried those problems could lead to a sudden closure in the middle of a future school year, which she described as “a worst-case scenario.”

Some board members expressed frustration that Chávez/Huerta officials didn’t take ownership of years of problems, and suggested that even if the school was allowed to go to another charter authorizer in order to stay open, its underlying problems would remain.

Early in Chávez/Huerta’s history, it was part of an expanding network of charter schools lauded for impressive test scores and a unique mariachi music program. Its founder Lawrence Hernandez earned accolades at the White House during George W. Bush’s administration and a spot in a PBS documentary.

But controversy and financial scandals eroded the school’s reputation.

Three other Chavez charter schools — two in Colorado Springs and one in Denver — closed years ago, and a fourth, an online charter called GOAL, left the network in 2008 and has a questionable track record of its own.

Today, few students at Chávez/Huerta, most of whom are Hispanic and from low-income families, are proficient in math and reading, based on state test results. Both its elementary and middle school are labeled “turnaround” schools, the state’s lowest rating. Its high school, which has the only early college program in southern Colorado, is doing somewhat better and has the state’s second-highest rating.

Board member Karla Esser acknowledged that the school’s closure in a couple of weeks will be devastating to students and families.

“My hope for the district is … you give as much deference to these families and the teachers as necessary,” she said.

Projected enrollment decline seals charter school’s fate

Historically, the State Board of Education has agreed with charter schools in appeal cases about half the time, according to records from the Colorado Department of Education. Including the Chávez/Huerta case, the State Board of Education has considered 16 charter school appeals by 13 schools over the past seven years. Most cases centered on a district’s rejection of a charter school application.

Besides the Chávez/Huerta case, only one other appeal centered on a school district’s decision to close a charter school once it was open. In that case, the charter school — Vega Collegiate Academy in Aurora — won the appeal and was allowed to stay open.

The fate of Chávez/Huerta came to a head in January, when the Pueblo 60 school board voted not to extend the school’s contract after this school year, citing a history of poor financial management. Under state law, charter schools can appeal such decisions to the State Board of Education.

In a report describing its reasoning to the State Board, the district said the school “almost missed payroll” last year, consistently failed to submit “accurate and timely financial documents” to the district, and caused the district to be labeled “delinquent” by the state auditor in 2024 because of the school’s delayed financial submissions.

The report also noted that Pueblo 60 officials began worrying in August 2023 that the school was at risk of closing that school year because of insolvency.

Officials from Chávez/Huerta countered in their own report that the district’s complaints were mostly about “innocuous bookkeeping errors” and that they had hired an outside accounting firm to revamp the school’s financial systems.

The district’s report also noted that the school’s enrollment could shrink enough by next school year that it won’t have enough money to stay afloat.

Chávez/Huerta “projects that its enrollment for this fall will be 800 — 40 fewer than this year and 50 fewer than it needs to continue operations,” the district’s report said.

During Thursday’s hearing, Sarah Siegrist, the CEO of the accounting firm working with the school, confirmed that the school expects only 800 students next year.

Responding to a board member’s question about what level enrollment is too low to ensure financial viability, she said, “780 is starting to get to a level that we can’t function.”

That was the tipping point for Board Member Lisa Escárcega, who said she’d come into the hearing favoring the school’s argument, but ended up voting in the district’s favor.

“To hear that you could only lose 20 more students and that might put you into closure, that kind of tipped me,” Escárcega told Chávez/Huerta officials sitting before her. “You aren’t going to know your numbers till August, September, October … I just don’t see it.”

Board member Kristi Burton Brown voted against the motion. Board member Sherri Wright was absent.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

District 49 sues Colorado and state athletic association over protections for transgender students

2025-05-13T04:30:04+00:00

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A Colorado Springs-area school district sued the state Friday, arguing that Colorado’s anti-discrimination law violates students’ constitutional rights by allowing transgender youth to play on school sports teams that match their gender identity.

The lawsuit, which also targets the Colorado High School Activities Association, is the latest volley in a battle over transgender student athletes in the conservative-leaning District 49. It could have implications for school sports across Colorado, putting what has generally been handled on a case-by-case basis up to a high-profile legal test.

Thursday, the day before the lawsuit was filed, the District 49 school board narrowly passed a controversial policy banning transgender middle and high school students from joining school teams that align with their gender identity. The policy, which applies to both transgender boys and transgender girls, was developed after President Trump’s February executive order that threatened to withhold federal funding from any school that allows athletes assigned male at birth to participate in girls’ or women’s sports.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of the district by a Colorado Springs law firm called First and Fourteenth. It names as defendants Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, the Colorado Civil Rights Division, and the Colorado High School Activities Association, which oversees high school sports in the state.

The lawsuit argues that Colorado’s anti-discrimination law, which includes protections for people based on gender identity, along with the activity association’s bylaws, put District 49 “in an untenable position.”

“Compliance with these state requirements would force the District to violate students’ constitutional rights and risk federal funding loss, while adherence to federal obligations exposes the District to state penalties including fines and athletic-program suspension,” the lawsuit says.

Noting that the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment bans discrimination based on sex, the lawsuit argues that allowing transgender girls to join girls teams deprives girls of athletic opportunities in violation of the amendment.

Transgender girls are those who were assigned male at birth, but identify as female.

The lawsuit also argues that girls’ and boys’ privacy rights under the Equal Protection clause would be violated if they had to share locker rooms with transgender athletes.

District 49 officials have presented little evidence that transgender athletes have posed a problem in the district.

School Board President Lori Thompson said in an interview last week that she knew of one instance of a transgender student in district sports. It was a transgender boy who sought to join a boys team. He was allowed to try out, but didn’t make the cut.

At a recent school board meeting, Peter Hilts, the district’s superintendent, told of a district high schooler who during a group discussion recounted how her varsity girls soccer team had played against a team from another district that included a “whole male.” That player scored twice on penalty kicks and the District 49 team lost. It’s not clear from the anecdote if the player who scored was, in fact, transgender.

Hilts mentioned he hadn’t encountered a similar situation during his 12 years working in the district.

For years, the Colorado High School Activities Association has recognized in its bylaws the right of transgender athletes to participate on sports teams that match their gender identity. But association officials seemed to downplay that recognition after more than 60 Colorado school and district officials, including Thompson, Hilts and two others from District 49, sent the group a letter in April demanding it adopt rules “to ensure that boys are not permitted to compete as girls in girls’ sports.”

Subsequently, the activities association took a more noncommittal stance. At a recent event, the group’s lawyer described its position as “neutral” and said that determining eligibility for sports teams is a matter of local control.

The lawsuit seeks a ruling that prohibits the state or the activities association from requiring schools allow transgender athletes to join sports teams or use locker rooms that match their gender identities. It also seeks legal fees.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Following Trump crackdown, Colorado district approves transgender athlete ban

2025-05-09T21:43:14+00:00

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A Colorado Springs-area school board voted Thursday night to ban transgender students from middle and high school sports teams that match their gender identity.

The 3-2 vote in District 49, a conservative-leaning district with 27,000 students, came after impassioned testimony from both supporters and opponents of the new policy, called “Preserving Fairness and Safety in Sports.”

The high-profile decision in District 49, Colorado’s 10th largest, follows a February executive order from President Trump targeting transgender youth in sports and represents a shift that could soon be replicated in other districts in the state. But the new policy also raises the specter of a lawsuit over the ban and a host of questions about how the new rules will be applied.

Opponents of the policy say transgender students are at greater risk for bullying, isolation, and mental health issues, and that denying them access to sports teams that match their gender identity will only exacerbate those problems. Supporters say the policy protects girls from getting hurt by transgender players or losing out on playing time, wins, or athletic scholarships. Both sides seem to agree that transgender students represent a tiny fraction of team sports participants.

District 49 sues Colorado over state protections for transgender students

Starting next school year, District 49’s new policy will bar transgender girls from girls sports and transgender boys from boys sports. It’s not clear who will police the gender identity of student athletes.

In an interview earlier this week, District 49 Board President Lori Thompson said specific rules must be developed and suggested that a question about gender identity could be added to the required sports physical form.

She dismissed worries that surfaced during weeks of debate that the policy would mean school officials would be checking students’ genitals to determine which team they can join.

“That will not be happening,” she said at Thursday’s meeting.

But gender lines in school sports are already a bit blurry, highlighting potential inconsistencies in the new policy’s rationale that it’s unsafe for girls to compete with boys. For example, while tackle football and baseball are considered boys sports, girls are allowed to participate and have done so at District 49 high schools, according to high school athletic directors in the district. In addition, wrestling is considered a co-ed sport at District 49 middle schools, with boys and girls competing against each other.

It’s unclear if transgender boys — people assigned female at birth who identify as male — will be barred from District 49’s boys sports teams, even as girls are allowed to play on those teams, or if girls will be barred as well. In addition, it’s unclear how District 49 teams will handle competition against out-of-district teams that include transgender athletes: Will they play or forfeit?

For years, the Colorado High School Activities Association has recognized the right of transgender athletes to participate on sports teams that match their gender identity. But that appeared to change after more than 60 Colorado school and district officials, including Thompson and three others from District 49, sent the group a letter in April demanding it adopt rules “to ensure that boys are not permitted to compete as girls in girls’ sports.”

At Thursday’s District 49 school board meeting, many district residents spoke out about the proposed policy.

A man named Kevin, whose children attended school in the district and whose grandchildren are now growing up there, said there’s no place for boys in girls sports.

“You can identify as who you want, but biologically, that’s the sport you play,” he said. “All this criss-crossing into sports, being in the women’s dressing rooms, bathrooms, and stuff like that, that’s a no-go.”

Holly Withers, the mother of two district students, said the policy seemed less about protecting fairness and safety and more about promoting an ideological agenda.

“Our students deserve schools that lift them up, not policies that single them out, and I hope that this board will choose to be remembered for leadership and not for extreme litigation,” she said.

Board member Mike Heil, one of two members who voted no on Thursday, said even if the policy is rarely used, it sends the message to transgender students that “we don’t value them.”

“I don’t think that’s who we need to be as a board,” he said.

Thompson, who voted for the policy, said, “If we don’t acknowledge physiological differences, women’s sports will cease to exist.”

But she also said she wants everyone to feel welcomed and included.

“There’s no way to make everyone happy,” she said. “That’s where you have to make tough decisions.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

As Trump cracks down on transgender athletes, a Colorado school district seeks new restrictions

2025-05-07T20:56:49+00:00

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At an April school board meeting near Colorado Springs, debate raged over a proposed policy to ban transgender students from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity.

A high school student named Sadie, who spoke against the policy, asked why her district would need a blanket policy when a tiny percentage of student athletes are transgender.

A 60-year-old man who supported the policy and described himself as stronger than any woman in the building claimed a transgender girl could slam a ball into a girl’s head hard enough to put her in the hospital.

A father opposed to the policy said his son, a district student, has an extra X chromosome and suggested gender is more complicated than it seems.

He said of the proposed policy, “We’ve now created a situation where an adult is having a conversation with a minor concerning that minor’s genitalia. That’s gross, it’s disturbing, and potentially a crime.”

The recent discussion in the conservative-leaning District 49 is a sign of the times and foreshadows what’s to come in other Colorado school districts as federal and local officials target transgender youth in sports. It also highlights the shifting legal ground that school officials across the state are treading as they try to reconcile state law protecting transgender people from discrimination with recent executive orders from President Trump that aim to eliminate such protections.

Advocates for trangender youth say they are at greater risk for bullying, isolation, and mental health issues, and that denying them access to sports teams that match their gender identity will only exacerbate those problems. Supporters of policies banning transgender students from teams aligned with their gender identity say it protects girls from getting hurt by transgender players or losing out on playing time, wins, or athletic scholarships.

Colorado district approves transgender athlete ban

The policy under consideration in District 49 — “Preserving Fairness and Safety in Sports” — would apply at the middle and high school levels to transgender boys who want to join boys teams and transgender girls who want to join girls teams. It wouldn’t apply to sports that are considered coed, which at some schools includes wrestling. The policy appears likely to pass its final vote Thursday. It won preliminary approval in April in a 3-2 vote.

The policy cites a February executive order from President Trump that threatened to withhold federal funding from any school that allows athletes assigned male at birth to participate in girls’ or women’s sports. In an early test of that threat, the Trump administration settled with Maine and reversed its plan to withhold millions in funding for school meals after the state refused to bar transgender athletes from girls teams.

The three board members who supported it, along with District 49 Superintendent Peter Hilts, in April signed on to a group letter demanding the Colorado High School Activities Association adopt rules “to ensure that boys are not permitted to compete as girls in girls’ sports.”

Brad Miller, District 49’s attorney, acknowledged during the April school board meeting that adoption of the proposed policy could lead to a lawsuit. But he argued the district would win in court because the policy was carefully crafted to survive “any legal challenge under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.”

Waiting and worrying for transgender children

For parents with transgender children, policy debates like the one in District 49 are a worrisome reminder that their kids could be targeted with whispers, complaints, or worse for playing on teams that match their gender identity

Melissa, who lives in the Denver metro area and asked that her last name not be used to protect her family’s privacy, knows this fear firsthand.

Although her 6-year-old transgender daughter enjoyed playing soccer for two seasons, Melissa recently steered the kindergartner away from the sport.

“I’m just very concerned about the current political environment that she would be potentially singled out, even as young as she is,” she said.

Melissa instead signed her up for a dance class, which feels like a safer space these days and which the little girl also enjoys. Still, Melissa feels sad and guilty about the decision, knowing she wouldn’t have done the same thing for her son, who loves team sports like soccer and basketball.

“If her gender was not on the table, I probably would have signed her up for soccer this season,” said Melissa. “But … unless she’s really kicking down the door begging for it, I’m not going to continue to expose her to something that might be a major issue down the line.”

In the April letter to the Colorado High School Activities Association, more than 60 school board members, district leaders, and charter school leaders in Colorado urged the group to change its bylaws and guidance for schools to adhere to President Trump’s executive order on transgender athletes.

“Colorado’s schools and athletic programs, which rely on federal funding, cannot afford to ignore this clear shift in federal policy,” the letter said.

It also referenced Title IX, a 1972 civil rights law that banned discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities, saying, “Beyond compliance, however, our demand is rooted in a fundamental commitment to our female students.”

Currently, the Colorado High School Activities Association, which governs high school sports in the state, recognizes the right of transgender students to join school sports teams that match their gender identity and offers guidance to school districts on the topic.

But in recent weeks, the association has struck a more noncommittal tone. At an April meeting for members of the group’s legislative council, Alex Halpern, the group’s lawyer, described its stance on the letter from the District 49 officials and more than 50 other district leaders around the state as “neutral.”

“Our position is, and has been, that ultimately, the determination of who is going to be eligible to participate on a particular interscholastic team at a particular school is a decision to be made by that school as guided by its board of education and consistent with the principles of local control,” he said.

How many transgender student athletes are there?

It’s impossible to know how many transgender students in Colorado participate in middle or high school sports or how often conflicts arise because of it.

The Colorado High School Activities Association doesn’t collect data on transgender student athletes. A spokesperson for the group said its bylaws allow it to review a school’s decision on gender assignment for the purpose of athletic eligibility, but it has not been asked to conduct such a review in the 17 years the bylaw has been in place.

Officials in District 49, a 27,000-student district in El Paso County, didn’t offer much evidence that trangender girls are jeopardizing safety or fairness for cisgender girls, meaning those assigned female at birth.

Hilts, the superintendent, did provide one example during an April school board meeting. He told of a district high schooler who during a group discussion recounted how her varsity girls soccer team had played against a team from another district that included a “whole male.” That player scored twice on penalty kicks and the District 49 team lost.

Although Hilts said he hadn’t heard of a similar situation during his 12 years working in the district, he said the anecdote informed his thinking about transgender athletes.

“That’s a real example,” he said. “As a general practice of policymaking, I give a little more weight to real examples.”

It’s not clear from the anecdote if the player who scored was, in fact, transgender or if the District 49 team would have won the game if that player had not participated.

Lori Thompson, president of the District 49 school board, said she knew of one instance of a transgender student in district sports. It was a transgender boy who sought to join a boys team. He was allowed to try out, but didn’t make the cut.

Thompson said the policy is not meant to disrespect or disenfranchise one group of students, but acknowledged that a transgender student might feel disenfranchised if they are barred from a team.

Thompson likened the policy to proactive protection in case of unforeseen disasters.

“You don’t buy homeowners insurance once your house is burned down,” she said.

Connie Lloyd, a district resident who spoke at the April meeting, cast doubt on the need for the policy.

“Is this even an issue in D49?” she asked. “How many transgender females are playing on female sports? How many transgender males are playing on male sports? Is this an issue, or is it just something made up in Washington?”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Denver superintendent calls for censure of board member John Youngquist for ‘pattern of hostility’

2025-05-06T21:54:18+00:00

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Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero has asked the school board to censure member John Youngquist, writing in a letter that Youngquist “has consistently demonstrated a pattern of hostility, policy violations, racial insensitivity, and unethical conduct.”

Marrero sent the letter to school board President Carrie Olson on April 22, nine days before the board voted 5-2 to extend the superintendent’s contract. Youngquist voted no.

In the letter, Marrero accused Youngquist of behaving inappropriately toward DPS staff and wanting to harm the school district “in pursuit of personal ambition.” Youngquist is a longtime educator and former principal of East High School who was elected to the school board in 2023. Marrero wrote in the letter that Youngquist has “an obsession” with removing him as superintendent.

“It is becoming increasingly clear that his actions are driven by a personal ambition to become superintendent himself as he had previously pursued repeatedly, unsuccessfully,” Marrero wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained in an open records request. The Denver Post first reported on Marrero’s request that Youngquist be censured.

Youngquist said in an interview Tuesday he does not want to be superintendent. He applied once, in 2021, and did not get the position, he said. Marrero was hired instead. Youngquist said the letter feels like “a personal attack against me by the superintendent, and that’s something I don’t understand.”

Youngquist refuted Marrero’s claim that he wants to hurt DPS, where he said he started as a teacher in 1991.

“Every step of that way has been a complete commitment to supporting our children and families,” he said. “It is what I devoted my career to.”

Allegations include that Youngquist mistreated DPS staff

Marrero alleged in the letter that Youngquist has “repeatedly engaged in belittling, dismissive, and condescending behavior toward district staff, especially employees of color.” He wrote that Youngquist’s behavior “aligns with someone who is threatened by diverse leadership and equity-centered progress.”

“This is not simply a personality conflict or a matter of difference in opinion,” Marrero wrote. “I have tried to work beyond this behavior and even tried coaching members of my team who have been on the receiving end of his attacks — all for the betterment of the district.

“Despite my attempts, it is clear that Mr. Youngquist’s behavior is destructive.”

Three other board members accused Youngquist in December of “behavior unbecoming of a board member towards DPS staff,” though they did not disclose details.

In January, the board discussed Youngquist’s behavior in a similarly vague manner during a public meeting. Other board members told Youngquist his behavior was disappointing and questioned whether he was taking accountability. Youngquist said he appreciated hearing their feedback and committed to following district policy on board member conduct.

Youngquist on Tuesday said that he knew 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 said. “I know and understand the importance of listening to people.”

Deep Singh Badhesha, the district’s government political liaison, recalled an April meeting with Youngquist about DPS’ position on bills in the state legislature. Badhesha told Chalkbeat that Youngquist became aggressive when asking about a bill to require Colorado students to learn about financial literacy. When Badhesha told him DPS already has standards for teaching financial literacy, he said Youngquist questioned the truth of that.

“I’m fine with the pushback,” Badhesha said. But he said “the hostility, the condescension, and rudeness of it … was so off-putting” that he wrote an email to Marrero documenting the experience. A day later, Marrero sent his letter to Olson.

Badhesha, who is Indian American, said it wasn’t clear to him why Youngquist acted the way he did.

“I can’t read into it if it’s racially motivated or if it’s just how he treats people,” Badhesha said.

Youngquist said he did push back on the assertion that DPS already teaches financial literacy. But he said he didn’t hear until recently that Badhesha was offended by his conduct.

School board hasn’t responded to Marrero’s claims

Marrero urged the board in his letter to censure Youngquist for “repeated violations of Board policy, inappropriate conduct, and unethical behavior.” The board has only censured a member once in recent history. In 2021, the board censured member Auon’tai Anderson after an investigation found he flirted with a student on social media and made social media posts that could be perceived as intimidating to witnesses in the investigation.

Olson said in a statement that the board “has not taken any action or made any decisions in response to the complaint.” Board members voted against holding a closed-door executive session last week to discuss what was listed on the agenda as “a complaint of discrimination.”

“The Board did not have sufficient votes to convene in executive session, so it did not take place,” Olson said. “I am working on rescheduling one for next week.”

Marrero also urged the board to prohibit Youngquist from engaging with district staff “outside of official channels,” require him to take anti-bias training, and review potential conflicts of interest “if his intent is to seek leadership within the district.”

The letter includes a bulleted list of accusations against Youngquist, including that he challenged the validity of the district’s test scores and implied that its high school graduation data is “manipulated and dishonest.”

Youngquist said he questioned whether interim early literacy test scores, which went up last year, are a good measure of academic success. As for the district’s highest-ever graduation rate of 80% last year, Youngquist said he requested that the board discuss whether a 2020 “no Fs” policy during the early days of the pandemic might have boosted the 2024 graduation rate.

“It was not an accusation on any level of the superintendent, but a questioning of, how did a decision we made four years ago affect our current data here?” said Youngquist, who added that he supported the “no Fs” policy. The board never discussed his question because not enough members agreed to put it on a meeting agenda, he said.

Marrero also said in the letter that Youngquist “suggested the possibility of a buyout of my contract.” Marrero’s contract says that the district would have to pay him 12 months of his salary, which is $346,529 this year, if the board were to fire him without cause.

Youngquist said buying out Marrero’s contract is “not something I’ve ever heard or said or thought about.” He said he voted against extending Marrero’s contract last week because he disagreed with the timeline. Under the contract, the board had until Jan. 1, 2026 to decide whether to extend it. Youngquist said he supported making the decision later in the year.

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

Books banned in Elizabeth school district are back on library shelves — for now

2025-05-02T21:33:44+00:00

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Nine months after being removed, 18 banned books were returned to library shelves in Colorado’s Elizabeth school district this week, following a federal judge’s order.

While the lawsuit over the books’ removal by the school board has yet to be resolved, the books will be available to students for the time being.

The return of the books, which include titles like “Beloved” and “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison and “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, came after months of resistance from district officials, who were originally ordered to return the books to school libraries by March 25.

They staved off the order twice, but on Monday the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals endorsed Judge Charlotte Sweeney’s earlier order to return the books. On Thursday, Sweeney ordered the district to confirm by Friday at noon that the books had been returned. The district did so by filing a court document certifying its compliance.

The saga of the banned books, which are primarily by or about LGBTQ people, people of color, or both, began last summer when the district in conservative-leaning Elbert County decided to pull 19 books from library shelves because of content school board members deemed “disgusting” or otherwise inappropriate.

One of the books, “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, was part of the library collection, but had been checked out and never returned. The title wasn’t among the books returned to library shelves this week, according to the district’s Friday legal filing.

In December, the American Civil Liberties Union sued the district, arguing the book removals violated federal and state free speech protections. The plaintiffs in the case include two district students, a chapter of the NAACP, and the Authors Guild, a professional organization for writers.

Since the lawsuit was filed, much legal energy has been spent on the question of whether the books should be available to students while the lawsuit proceeds. District officials have argued against that, and, in fact, threw out the books after removing them.

Elizabeth officials did eventually bring the books back to the district after a local donor provided paperback copies of the removed titles. That donor, Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Lopez, stipulated that only plaintiffs in the case, not the general student body, could have access to the books. That donation appeared to be part of a legal strategy that allowed the district to argue that it wasn’t violating the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights as the lawsuit claimed, since the books were available to them.

A law firm affiliated with the ACLU case also donated a set of the removed books to the district, but the school board rejected all but one book. They agreed to keep “#Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights,” but decided it would remain in Superintendent Dan Snowberger’s possession, rather than go on library shelves.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero gets 2-year contract extension from school board

2025-05-02T02:21:17+00:00

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In a split vote, the Denver school board extended Superintendent Alex Marrero’s contract Thursday for an additional two years, a contentious decision at a key time for the school district.

Marrero’s contract was set to expire on June 30, 2026. It will now be extended until June 2028.

“We want to have conversations about moving our students forward? That’s what this man is doing,” board member Scott Esserman said at Thursday’s meeting. “You don’t have to like the way he’s doing it. You don’t have to like him at all. But he cares about our students and our families and our communities, and he shows it on a daily basis.”

The board also amended Marrero’s contract Thursday so that he can no longer earn performance bonuses, which have caused friction with the teachers union and others. Marrero earned an $8,200 bonus in 2023 and a $17,300 bonus in 2024 for meeting a certain percentage of his performance goals. His base salary this year is $346,529.

Board members also changed the process and timeline for terminating Marrero’s contract. They raised the number of votes needed to fire Marrero from a simple majority of the seven-member board to a supermajority and extended the timeline for giving him notice from 60 to 90 days.

Esserman was one of five board members to vote to extend Marrero’s contract. The other four were President Carrie Olson, Vice President Marlene De La Rosa, Michelle Quattlebaum, and Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán. Board members Kimberlee Sia and John Youngquist voted no.

Neither Sia nor Youngquist elaborated much on the reason for their vote.

“I don’t believe it’s appropriate at this point to extend the contract,” Youngquist said.

The timing of the board’s decision to extend Marrero’s contract has been controversial. Critics have argued that since four seats on the board are up for election in November, the new board members should get to decide on Marrero’s contract.

Marrero’s superintendency has been tumultuous at times due to issues that many large urban school districts are facing. Marrero, who was hired to lead Denver Public Schools in 2021, has recommended a slew of school closures due to low enrollment, prompting fierce pushback. In total, the board has agreed to close 10 schools and partially close three more during his tenure.

A spate of gun violence in and around schools reignited a debate about student safety and led to the controversial reintroduction of police officers in schools in 2023.

Academically, DPS achieved its highest-ever graduation rate last year. But the district’s recovery from pandemic-era learning loss has been uneven, with the test scores of students of color and those from low-income families lagging behind outcomes for white and wealthier students.

Many teachers are mad that they were denied higher cost-of-living raises while Marrero got a bonus. DPS has also found itself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration over an all-gender restroom, and it has sued the federal government to protect immigrant students.

“In the age of President Trump and the target he has put on Denver Public Schools’ back, we know that protecting our students and families is of utmost importance,” Olson said. “And stability in leadership is in the best interests of our district and our students.”

Critics have decried the board’s process of deciding on the contract extension as secretive and rushed. The board previously met in a closed-door session to discuss amending the superintendent’s contract, but didn’t have any public discussion until Thursday.

When Marrero became superintendent nearly four years ago, some community members questioned whether he was experienced enough to lead the 90,000-student district. But the school board members who hired him lauded his willingness to listen and his personal experiences as a bilingual student and educator in New York.

Five months into Marrero’s tenure, the board voted to extend his contract from two to four years with an automatic one-year extension. Two years later, the board voted to extend his contact for another year and raise his pay by 10%. Under that contract, the board had until Jan. 1, 2026 to decide whether to renew Marrero’s contract or allow it to expire and search for a new leader.

Newly elected or reelected board members are typically seated in December, which would have left a new board a few weeks to decide on the superintendent’s contract before Jan. 1.

If a new board were to fire Marrero without cause — meaning he hadn’t committed fraud or embezzlement, been convicted of a felony, or intentionally failed at his job — his contract says the district would owe him a severance payment equal to 12 months of his salary. The district would also be required to provide him with family health insurance benefits for a year.

Several community members spoke at Thursday’s meeting, some in favor and some against extending Marrero’s contract.

Longtime DPS educator and leader Darlene LeDoux said Marrero is a rarity as an award-winning, Afro-Latino superintendent and deserves the chance to continue leading the district.

“Dr. Alex Marrero is exceptional,” LeDoux said. “He leads with courage, clarity, and heart.”

Denver parent Lynne Ly, who co-founded a group that advocated for some board members to resign, said there hadn’t been enough community input on the contract extension or a new performance evaluation to show the improvements Marrero had made.

“If you truly believe this extension is deserved, then show us the evidence,” Ly said. “Don’t expect the community to quietly sit back while decisions are made in the dark.”

Marrero’s next performance evaluation, based upon a set of goals the board approved late last year, is scheduled for October.

Jason Gonzales contributed to this report.

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

Mortician and dad Jeremy Harris challenging incumbent to represent northeast Denver on school board

2025-04-23T21:31:07+00:00

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A mortician and father of a third grader who thinks Denver Public Schools is headed in the wrong direction is challenging school board member Michelle Quattlebaum for a seat representing northeast Denver.

Jeremy Harris said his views and those of Quattlebaum, who is running for a second term in District 4, are “night and day.” His campaign slogan is “a new era in education.”

“I get asked, ‘What does that mean?’” Harris said of his slogan. “It means we’re getting back to what works: safe, structured schools; strong academics; and a school board that is accountable to the people, not distracted by politics.”

Harris, 33, owns Harris Funeral Directors in Aurora. He and his family live in the Central Park neighborhood of Denver, where his son attends Swigert International elementary school. In addition to serving on the PTA at Swigert, Harris said he volunteers to read with students once a week at Stedman Elementary with the nonprofit organization Partners in Literacy.

“One of the priorities in my campaign is that most of the kids aren’t reading on grade level,” Harris said. “I’m seeing it firsthand in the classroom.”

Declining enrollment has led to more than a dozen school closures in the past two years. DPS has also found itself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration over an all-gender high school restroom, and it has sued the federal government to protect immigrant students.

DPS achieved its highest-ever graduation rate last year, but some students are still recovering from pandemic-era learning loss. Many teachers are mad that they were denied higher cost-of-living raises while the superintendent got a bonus. The school board’s reputation also took a hit during a period of public infighting, which has since calmed down.

School safety has been a hot topic following a string of high-profile gun incidents. Harris said he supports the decision to return armed school resource officers to Denver schools, which Quattlebaum voted against. Harris said he also supports finding alternative settings for disruptive students; he suggested an in-school suspension room staffed by teachers.

“I don’t believe safety has to come with handcuffs, but in certain situations, resource officers are needed at schools,” Harris said. “Teachers shouldn’t have to break up fights; teachers shouldn’t have to be security. Teachers should teach.”

Harris is calling for DPS to focus on the “core academics” of reading, math, science, and civics. On his website, he says DPS should promote “appreciation for American values.” He said he is firmly opposed to teaching elementary and middle school students about LGBTQ+ issues or critical race theory, a catch-all term for lessons about race and racism.

“Classrooms should not be used for political or ideological agendas,” Harris said. Students, he said, “should not be made to feel guilty” because of their background.

Lessons about racism or discussions of transgender rights are more appropriate for high school students, Harris said. He added that “we shouldn’t be focused on kids choosing their gender when they can’t read or write.”

If elected, Harris said he would push to cut the salaries of top central office staff to hire more math, reading, and behavior interventionists. He’d also support getting rid of stipends for school board members. Current policy allows board members to be paid up to $33,000 a year.

“You should do this work because you want to do this work,” he said.

The board has come under scrutiny for meeting in closed-door executive sessions to discuss topics such as the superintendent’s contract. Harris said that if he’s elected and the board votes to go into an executive session, “I’m going live on my phone. I’m always going to make sure District 4 knows what’s going on.”

State law requires school board members to sign an affidavit stating that they will comply with executive session confidentiality requirements and restrictions.

Since announcing his candidacy earlier this month, Harris said the question he gets most often from voters is whether he supports DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero.

“If we are seeing continued dysfunction, lack of transparency, and no academic gains, it’s absolutely fair to consider new leadership,” Harris said. “Our students can’t wait any longer.”

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

Denver board considering policy on how to reuse, lease, or sell empty school buildings

2025-04-17T19:16:00+00:00

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Just ahead of school closures that will make five buildings vacant, the Denver school board is considering a policy outlining how the district should repurpose empty schools.

The proposal lays out a hierarchy for reuse and says the superintendent should not consider the next usage “unless all possible options for the higher priority use have been confirmed as not viable.”

The timing is apt: 10 Denver schools will close or partially close at the end of this school year after the board voted to shutter them for low enrollment. Five of those schools are located in standalone buildings that will become vacant this summer.

In order from the highest to lowest priority, the proposal says empty school buildings should be:

Repurposed to house new or relocated schools or programs run by the district.
Used to temporarily house schools or programs run by the district while their regular buildings are undergoing construction or renovation.
Leased to charter schools operating within Denver Public Schools.
Repurposed to house “central functions serving the operational or programmatic needs” of district-run or charter schools.
Leased to private or public affordable housing developers to build housing “that is financially accessible” to the district’s lowest-paid staff and DPS families.
Sold to private or public affordable housing developers, with the same caveats.
Leased to private or public developers of “community services that can be reasonably connected to benefits students and families and/or staff.”
Leased to other private or public developers.

If none of those uses are possible, the proposed policy, known as Executive Limitation 20, suggests DPS should “maintain the vacant property as-is.”

Board member Michelle Quattlebaum introduced the proposal earlier this month, and the board voted this week to advance it for discussion at a future meeting.

“We need a board policy to ensure that, no matter who is the superintendent, that facility usage is happening with a community-centered approach,” Quattlebaum said.

The district has already decided how it will repurpose two of the buildings that will close this spring. Palmer Elementary will become a preschool center. Castro Elementary will become the new home of an existing district-run middle and high school called Summit Academy.

But the fate of the three other buildings — Schmitt Elementary, Columbian Elementary, and the International Academy of Denver at Harrington — is up in the air.

The proposed policy says DPS shouldn’t sell any “centrally located” buildings or buildings “located in a neighborhood that may reasonably be expected to experience enrollment growth in the future.” The policy also says DPS shouldn’t sell buildings with “characteristics that would make the property difficult to replace or replicate in the future.”

And the proposal urges DPS to involve the community in decision making by requiring the superintendent to consult with students, families, and neighborhood residents about building reuse.

It would also require the district to conduct an “equity impact assessment” examining how a particular reuse would affect historically marginalized groups.

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

Michelle Quattlebaum is running for reelection to represent northeast Denver on the school board

2025-04-15T01:48:28+00:00

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Denver school board member Michelle Quattlebaum announced Monday that she will seek reelection in November.

Quattlebaum, 54, was first elected in 2021 to represent District 4, which encompasses northeast Denver. A Denver Public Schools graduate whose three children also graduated from DPS, Quattlebaum was endorsed by the Denver teachers union when she ran for her seat in 2021.

Union-backed board members continue to hold the majority of seats on the seven-member board. That could shift in November, when four of the seven board seats are up for election.

“There’s still work for me to do,” Quattlebaum said, “and I want to be able to do that work.”

In announcing her candidacy, Quattlebaum said one of her key accomplishments was voting to raise the minimum wage for DPS employees to $20 an hour. She also highlighted her advocacy for immigrant students and her “commitment to dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline.” In board discussions, Quattlebaum often asks her fellow members to think about equity.

Quattlebaum’s campaign website notes that DPS’ graduation rate is now the highest it’s ever been. Last spring, 80% of DPS students graduated within four years of starting high school, up from 70% seven years ago. In an interview, Quattlebaum said she’s most proud of a board mandate to screen students for dyslexia. But, she said, “we can’t end there.”

“The conversation has to be, ‘What is the data telling us? What percentage is that? What demographic?’ So then we can begin doing something with it,” she said.

If reelected, Quattlebaum said she would focus on expanding mental health resources, diversifying the teacher workforce, and “cultivating educational environments that prioritize cultural responsiveness, inclusivity, and holistic safety.”

More specifically, she has been pushing for DPS to assign special education staff to schools based not on how many students at a school have disabilities but on the number of service minutes those students need.

Denver school board members serve four-year terms and can be paid up to $33,000 per year. Quattlebaum has not been eligible for that higher pay rate because it was adopted after she was elected. In addition to serving on the board, Quattlebaum works as a community engagement manager at a community-based mental health center in Denver.

The past four years have been tumultuous at times for the Denver school board. Quattlebaum’s tenure began at a time marked by personality conflicts and power struggles among some board members, though she was not involved in most public disagreements.

The board has been more congenial in recent years. Quattlebaum said disagreements still happen “because we have diversity of thought.” But “it’s just not done publicly,” she said.

“I do have the ability to see all sides,” Quattlebaum said. “It doesn’t mean I agree with one, the other, or any of them. But I can understand different perspectives and then it’s figuring out, ‘Well, where’s the commonality? What’s the thing that we can come together and work on?’”

School safety has been a top concern for the board and community after a string of high-profile gun violence incidents. Quattlebaum was not on the board in 2020 when it voted to remove police officers from schools. But she was on the board in 2023 when it voted 4-3 to bring them back. Quattlebaum was one of three board members who voted no. She said her vote was informed by a diverse group of students who said they didn’t want school resource officers.

Declining enrollment and school closures have also been hot topics. The Denver school board has voted to close or partially close 13 district-run schools due to low enrollment in the past two years. Nearly all of the votes were unanimous, and Quattlebaum voted yes on all of them. The board also voted to close a charter school because of low test scores.

Quattlebaum has also voted against school closures. She was among five board members who rejected a recommendation to close a different charter school with low test scores. And she voted against an initial recommendation to close two district-run schools with low enrollment because she felt the district hadn’t done enough community engagement.

“Community is important to me: community input, community voice,” Quattlebaum said.

Recently, Quattlebaum proposed pausing school closures until the closures that are underway are executed. The board is expected to vote on the pause next month.

Quattlebaum is the first incumbent to announce a reelection bid. The seats held by Scott Esserman, Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, and Carrie Olson are also up for election. Olson can’t run again due to term limits. Esserman and Gaytán have not said whether they will seek reelection.

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

Colorado State Board of Education debates adding climate change to science standards

2025-04-10T17:47:11+00:00

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Climate change and the link between burning fossil fuels and rising global temperatures would be required to be taught more explicitly in Colorado science lessons under a change being considered by the State Board of Education.

The proposed changes, which come as the Trump administration moves to weaken federal climate regulations and state efforts to fight global warming, elicited pushback from the four Republican board members. They criticized the revisions for depicting the downsides of fossil fuels but not of other forms of energy, such as wind turbines that kill birds.

“My initial reaction from reading this is that we’re definitely zeroing in on one form of energy that is opposed by one side of the political aisle and not the other,” said Kristi Burton Brown, a Republican who represents the 4th Congressional District.

She pointed out that some students’ parents work in the oil and gas industry, which she said is “huge” in Colorado. “Considering our state, considering our districts, to present that to kids as only negative and not touching other forms of energy, I would have a big problem with,” she said.

Meanwhile, a Democratic board member described the proposed changes as “a few tweaks.”

Colorado’s academic standards outline what students should learn in subjects ranging from reading and math to music and dance. The State Board of Education is required to review each set of standards every six years. Revisions meant to make the social studies standards more inclusive of diverse racial groups and LGBTQ+ people proved controversial in 2022.

A group of students has been advocating to include more information about climate change in Colorado’s science standards. The State Board voted in December to direct the state education department to present recommendations for how to do that.

State officials suggested eight revisions to the 172-page standards. One revision would change language in the standards directing middle school students to explore “evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures” to say they should research “evidence of how burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases that cause rising global temperatures.”

Another proposed revision would direct high school students to “evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and other human pollutants.” The standards currently say that students should evaluate a technical solution that reduces the impacts of human activities on natural systems — without calling out greenhouse gas emissions.

Other proposed revisions don’t mention climate change. A revision to the elementary science standards would require that students learn about Colorado weather patterns instead of generic “typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.”

Two students spoke in favor of the proposed revisions at Wednesday’s State Board meeting. Several others submitted written comments in support.

Aisha O’Neil, a freshman at the University of Colorado Boulder, called the proposed revisions “a wonderful step in the direction toward the climate education we advocated for.”

“Yet they do not go nearly far enough to create an education that will fully prepare our youth for tomorrow’s world and allow students to find hope in the current crisis,” said O’Neil, who founded the Good Trouble Climate Network, a group of high school sustainability clubs across the state.

State Board members thanked the state education department for working with students on the revisions. Department staff said they also reviewed academic standards related to climate change from New Jersey and California, as well as a climate literacy guide for educators from the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which could be targeted for cuts by President Trump.

But Republicans on the board said the proposed revisions were biased and one-sided.

“There should be at least some inclusion of the negative consequences of alternative energies,” said Steve Durham, a Republican who represents the 5th Congressional District.

“For example, the one that bothers me the most is windmills kill somewhere in the neighborhood of at least a million birds a year,” he said. “Absent including some of those things, we have to conclude that these are not standards but indoctrination.”

Sherri Wright, a Republican who represents the 3rd Congressional District, said the downsides of solar energy also warrant a mention in the standards.

“I’ve been talking to a lot of companies that do solar energy,” said Wright, who lives in Cortez. “I kind of thought I wanted to do a solar farm. And they told me it was not a good thing if I plan to use my land later. So that’s destroying the environment.”

But Lisa Escárcega, a Democrat who represents the 1st Congressional District, said the revisions only touch a tiny part of the standards and don’t require educators to use the exact words or phrases in the standards when they teach their lessons.

“This is not a curriculum,” Escárcega said. “These are just ideas and standards we are to teach to and to meet. Treating it like this is the book they’re going to get is not correct.”

The Colorado Department of Education launched a survey Wednesday to collect feedback on the proposed revisions. The survey will be open for two weeks, and department staff said they will present a summary of the results at the State Board meeting in May.

The nine-member board of four Republicans and five Democrats is set to vote on the revisions at its June meeting, department staff said.

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

Elizabeth school district ordered to return banned books to library shelves — again

2025-04-04T01:39:57+00:00

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A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Elizabeth school district to return 19 banned books to the shelves of its school libraries by 5 p.m. on Saturday.

The order represents the second time U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte Sweeney has ordered the books returned to school library shelves. She originally ordered their return by March 25, but paused that deadline after the district filed a motion objecting to the books’ return. Her latest order represents the decision she made after reconsidering the issue.

It’s not yet clear if the district will have to comply.

A spokesperson for the Elizabeth district said by email Thursday evening that the district is renewing its emergency motion to halt legal enforcement of the books’ return and would file it with the court by midnight.

Sweeney’s order and the district’s plan for an emergency motion are the latest developments in a lawsuit focused on 19 books that are primarily by or about LGBTQ people, people of color, or both. They touch on topics ranging from same-sex relationships to racism and police violence. The books include titles such as “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, and “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas.

The case began in December, when the American Civil Liberties Union sued the 2,600-student district after the school board voted to remove the 19 books from school libraries last fall. The plaintiffs in the case include two students, a chapter of the NAACP, and the Authors Guild, a professional organization for writers.

In January, a middle school administrator who was fired by the Elizabeth district after calling the plan to remove school library books racist filed a civil rights complaint against the district.

In her latest order requiring the return of the 19 books, Sweeney dismissed several of the district’s arguments for not returning the books, including that it would face “irreparable harm” if it was forced to do so.

Instead, she holds that the plaintiffs face harm if the books are not put back on school library shelves, writing, “As the Court previously held, ‘[t]he loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.‘”

Sweeney also cast doubt on the district’s arguments that school members didn’t vote to remove the books because of partisan or political motives. In fact, she cited examples where board members explicitly mentioned their conservative politics in discussing the book removals.

For example, she noted that Heather Booth, who resigned from the board in January, said in an email last year to Superintendent Dan Snowberger: “It’s equally important to remember that our commitment to conservative values was a key aspect of our campaign.”

If the district’s emergency motion for a stay is unsuccessful and the books must be returned on Saturday, it’s not clear how that will happen. That’s because the district discarded the original copies of the books last fall after the school district vote.

The district has since received two separate donations of the removed books. The first from Greg Lopez, a former Republican member of Congress, came with conditions that limit access to plaintiffs in the case. That donation appeared to be part of a legal strategy that allowed the district to argue that it wasn’t violating the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights as the lawsuit claimed, since the books were available to them.

The second book donation came last week from a law firm — Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell — that’s working with the ACLU on the lawsuit. In a meeting on March 28, the school board rejected the gift, with one exception.

The board voted to keep the book “#Pride: Championing LGBTQ Rights,” but not to return it to library shelves. Instead, they said it would remain in Snowberger’s possession.

In her ruling, Sweeney critiqued the district for not stating in earlier court filings that it had destroyed the original set of banned books or that it had received a donated set of books that could only be read by a small group of people.

She also called out the district for rejecting the second donation from the law firm.

“The District’s decision to reject the donation and thus manufacture an injury is its own doing and will not create an irreparable harm,” she wrote.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.