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Boardhawk is hiring a part-time community reporter to cover Denver Public Schools and its Board of Education.

Sixteen of the 17 Denver charter schools with contracts up for renewal got a recommendation from Denver Public Schools staff to continue operating. 

The two dissenting board members and a vociferous champion of the contract extension explained their votes at the conclusion of last Thursday’s DPS board meeting.

The percentage of K-3 DPS students reading “significantly below grade level” had remained steady between 21% and 23% in the past five years. This year, that number jumped up to 31%. 

The new Denver school will vote Thursday to extend Superintendent Alex Marrero’s contract from two to four years, just five months into his tenure and before any kind of performance evaluation has been started, let alone completed.

Some board members made it clear that, in a perfect world, they would like to shorten the length of charter renewals and have an option not to renew a charter if its enrollment slips below a certain, as-yet undefined threshold.

“We tend to drift into adult issues, and I’m worried that there won’t be a laser focus on how students are doing,” eight-year incumbent Barbara O’Brien said moments after her board service ended Tuesday evening.

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.