The Denver school board met for four hours on July 27th in what to many seemed an anti-climactic meeting. Some observers (your podcast co-hosts included) expected the board to move against Superintendent Alex Marrero, possibly putting him on leave with pay for an indefinite period while they figured out what to do next with this badly broken relationship.
Instead, the board emerged from the meeting with very little to say about what had transpired. But this does not mean the Marrero saga is over or that his job is secure.
In this episode, co-hosts Alan Gottlieb and Alexis Menocal Harrigan discuss the current state of the Marrero drama and what is likely to happen next.
One instructive lesson comes from Douglas County, Colorado, in February 2022, when Superintendent Corey Wise was fired by the school board without cause and wound up with an $833,000 settlement. While the board might end up having to pay Marrero a year’s salary (roughly $346,000), they would surely like to avoid additional penalties for going about putting him on leave or firing him without going through due process.
Expect more drama in the coming weeks and perhaps months.
