Commentary

Mario Giardiello: As the principal, I needed to help the community transition from advocating for their school to stay open to being a leader that supported the many decisions families and staff had to make for themselves.

Most of what I see looking back over the past year, on numerous issues, is a lot of time wasted and a road littered with the detritus of dysfunction.

Some board members are backpedaling as fast as possible from the understandably unpopular recommendation to close schools. But if their concern is so great, they could and should have intervened sooner.

School closing is a classic problem of termination. Many of the possible benefits, such as reducing the district’s budget deficit, benefit everyone just a little bit and often in the long term. The harms, on the other hand, are felt intensely by a few and appear immediately. There is rarely a constituency to close a school, but always one to oppose it.

DPS must tell parents and community what is happening. They deserve the truth. And if the district can’t come up with a plan for how to better meet the needs of 58,000 Denver students, others in Denver need to step up. 

Free speech can be hard to hear at times, particularly when blistering language is aimed at you. But if you’re in a public-facing position, sometimes you just have to take it.

This is exactly the kind of school Adams 14 needs. How is it possible the school board and the staff don’t understand this? Again, it raises the question in our minds: Are you wanting what is best for students? Or are you more interested in maintaining control?

The school board has sought no community input on Superintendent Alex Marrero's performance, and it will be another year before the board is supposed to take a serious, data-driven look at his performance. That is just weeks before the next school board election.

I have not had a single parent, student, or taxpayer tell me that trademarking this name and stealing it from these young ladies is the right decision.

In threatening to sue four of its former students and an ex-principal over an alleged trademark violation for a racial justice-themed podcast the students created, DPS is violating its own professed principles and making itself look like a big, bad bully. 

Last Friday’s letter to the community from Denver Public Schools Superintendent Marrero was a remarkable exemplar of what has become the norm these days for politicians of all stripes. Undermine data, ignore reality, and create a new narrative.

Alan Gottlieb’s recent commentary in Boardhawk criticizes Denver for asking the DAC to stop summarizing reviews with a decision to accept or deny charter school applications. Denver’s action is reasonable, is part of a larger effort by the district to solicit community input regarding chartering decisions, and aligns with many strong authorizers in the state.

Denver Public Schools appears poised to marginalize the state-mandated District Accountability Committee. It is the latest example of using Policy Governance to drive agendas and limit public scrutiny and accountability. It’s just the latest example of the district and board’s move away from transparency and public accountability.

Denver Public Schools' new strategic roadmap seems content with improving student progress and addressing student needs at a leisurely pace.    

Simply put: adolescents are experiencing an internal war perpetuated by technology.