T. Michael Boddie

A divided Denver school board voted Thursday to pay incoming and future board members for their service.

Some 217 DPS employees are out of compliance with vaccine mandates, and if they’re let go, they’ll be tacked onto the already existing 42 bus driver openings, 96 food service openings and 525 teacher and paraprofessional openings.

Karolina Villagrana and Gene Fashaw, who lost tight races, reflect on the future of Denver Public Schools under a 7-0, teachers union-backed board.

A Denver-based youth activist group invited the 12 candidates running for four seats on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education to Montbello High School last week to hear how they plan to provide a more equitable education for Black, Brown and Indigenous students. The basis for the group’s questions was a research report put together by several local advocacy groups.

The basic issue, some board members said, is one of fairness and equity. Board service is out of reach to people who lack leisure time and means to put in what amounts to almost full-time hours for what is now a volunteer position.

More than 200 people tuned in on Tuesday night to hear a conversation between the Colorado League of Charter Schools, the Aurora-based African Leadership Group, community members and 11 candidates for the Denver Public Schools board of education.

Twelve of the 13 candidates running for four spots on the seven-member Denver Public Schools board sat with representatives of the Colorado Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and local journalists Wednesday night to talk about their visions for public education in Denver communities, in a live-streamed event.

More than 50 parents of Denver Public Schools students and other education advocates brought a variety of concerns and suggestions o the district’s new superintendent, Alex Marrero, when he met and greeted them at the campus of Kepner Beacon Middle School earlier this week.

Some districts, zones or individual schools, appear to be doing more with federal pandemic funding in the short term for students than others. Others plan to use funds to enhance school-year programs aimed at catching up students who have fallen behind.

The leaders of A+ Colorado, which closed its doors last month, are confident that its members will branch out and support other education advocacy organizations.