Vernon Jones Jr.

In many ways we have remained in a perpetual cycle of grief, generation after generation, soothed by the very gradualism that Dr. King warned us not to be tranquilized by.

Frankly, we don’t have time for the continuing adult drama and the “as the school board turns” reality show. If individuals can’t get it together, individuals don’t need to be on our school board, impacting the current and future realities for children, families and staff.

For the last 19 years as a parent and 15 years being professionally engaged, I have heard the rhetoric of engagement and longed for the reality of it. But the more things change, the more they stay the same.

We grieve the eternal promotion of another community servant, Ricardo Martinez, who with his wife Pam, built the powerful coalition Padres y Jóvenes Unidos, known today as Movimiento Poder.

Our teaching of The Dream and The Dreamer must begin here: In the uncomfortable space that affirms that this country continues to bounce the check of equality and justice issued to citizens of color. 

In the wake of the murder of George Floyd — say his name — if the response is business as usual: More excuse making. More complaints and resistance. More scapegoating of COVID-19, then the bold action that we must take is EXODUS.

Our moment is now, because too many days have passed, and none are promised. Now is the only moment that we have. Now is the only answer to our question of when!

DPS is still struggling to define equity. Still struggling to define a shared vision forward with a comprehensive strategic plan to get there together. Too many departments, committees, sub-committees, and parts operating in silos, disconnected from the reality that we must align our brilliance to do what is better and best for black children and therefore all children served by Denver Public Schools.

The structure and systems remain in place. Supremacy ideology continues to choke the potential of this district to be anything but talk when it comes to transforming the lived realities of black children, families, communities, teachers and leaders.