Alan Gottlieb

Auon’tai Anderson was in elementary school when Manual was closed, and Marrero was in his early 20s on the East Coast. They would be well advised to read some source documents about Manual’s closure before making ill-informed statements. 

Members of the dysfunctional Denver school board despise that governing body being called dysfunctional, repeatedly and emphatically denying that it is what it so plainly is.

Somewhere along the line, the Adams 14 board and administration lost sight of their mission, which is providing the children of their district with the best possible public education. Instead, they became fixated on turf battles and maintaining control over where Commerce City children attend school.

Once lost, credibility is hard to regain. When people no longer trust you, then every move you make will be scrutinized and criticized, and your motives will be called into question.

As criticism of the board has mounted since the March East High School shootings, and calls for mass resignations have gathered steam, Auon’tai Anderson has intensified his allegations that much of the criticism of him is race-based. That is only partly true.

Monday’s Denver school board meeting offered an almost perfect microcosm of the board’s operational ineptitude over the past 16 months: struggling to get out of its own way, and then making terrible decisions when it finally does.

As Wednesday’s shooting of two administrators at East High School demonstrates in the starkest possible terms, the decision by the Denver Board of Education to remove school resource officers from high schools in 2021 was a grave mistake, and one with tragic consequences. Not surprisingly, no one involved  is acknowledging this, at least not publicly. 

Why does DPS want to put an end to an organization that is showing promise? Power and control seem to be the answer.

The school board might close three severely under-enrolled schools, and members are getting along, but they continue a drive toward less transparency.

With Denver Public Schools innovation plan renewals coming up for votes over the next few months, we’ll be able to see in real time just how badly the school board has, with its meddling, damaged the concept of innovation.