Commentary
Give the Denver Public Schools board credit for approving contract renewals for 16 public charter schools last week. Unfortunately, a couple of board members cast their votes while spreading misinformation.
There has never been a more important time than now to re-evaluate our approach to education. We owe it to our children and families to embrace systemic change, not just incrementalism.
Because Blacks have been disparately treated in DPS for decades, true equity requires an abundance of resources to be distributed to the Black community to address these systemic inequities.
Denver’s new school board got off to a bad start today by declining to livestream its first-ever meeting, a daylong retreat, despite positioning itself as the most community-responsive group of individuals ever to hold board seats.
Sharon’s life reflected a lifelong commitment to educational equity and quality education, particularly for African American students.
I will never forget Dr. Bailey’s dogged persistence advocating for an issue she deeply believed in, and the moral force of not only her arguments, but her mere presence in meetings.
Barbara’s varied professional accomplishments provide a template for others who aspire to a life of service, which Marian Wright Edelman described as “the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.”
When the new DPS board is sworn in next week, Tay Anderson, without question, will become the most powerful member of that body, and its ideological leader.
There was a lot of anxiety around social interaction when we returned to school. A lot of care and personal time and patience were necessary to make the students comfortable opening up and expressing themselves.
Why did people vote this way? Did they like what they saw from the current board, which has had moments of dysfunction and in-fighting, muddled through pandemic disruptions, and drove out a superintendent of color who had been a career district employee?

The big-district superintendent pipeline has run dry. What can school boards do?
Not long ago, the right superintendent, especially a non-traditional one, could land on the cover of Time, get regular New York Times coverage, and pull in serious money from Gates, Walton, Broad and other foundations to remake a district. That’s a different world than the one Jeffco, Cherry Creek and Denver are hiring into right now.