Four years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that said states can’t exclude faith-based schools from choice programs because they practice religion. Some Catholics in Colorado think their state has forgotten about that Maine case and similar decisions in favor of expanding religious freedom.
Denver voters have approved mill levy overrides before. DPS collected $369.6 million last year from seven voter-approved overrides dating to 1988. That history is exactly why voters deserve specifics. A district that has been trusted this many times should be able to say what the next dollars will do.
Three eventful years into his tenure on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education, board member John Youngquist discusses where the board’s focus should be as it emerges (we hope) from a period of tumult, in-fighting and dysfunction.
We asked Denver Classroom Teachers Association President Rob Gould, and Vernon Jones, a community advocate and executive director of FaithBridge, onto the show to discuss the mill levy, reasons voters should approve it, and to answer some questions about why maybe some voters should be skeptical that it’s a good idea. We also discussed board and district leadership and whether there need to be changes.
It is time for the board to call for new leadership of the body. A new officer election would give members an opportunity to reconsider that leadership and publicly articulate the expectations they have of those serving as president, vice president, and other offices.
Recently, I’ve heard people question whether Denver should make another investment in our schools because of the disagreements and challenges happening among adults in the district. As a student, that is hard for me to understand. Whatever concerns adults have about leadership, governance, or accountability, taking investment away from students because of adult behavior feels like punishing us for decisions we did not make.
The Denver school board on Thursday, October 8, censured Director Monica Hunter for allegedly making anti-Semitic statements about a fellow board member. The censure followed a quick investigation by an outside party, and while the findings of the investigation were inconclusive, the board decided on a 4-2 vote that there was enough evidence to merit the censure. Potential conflicts of interest with Hunter’s employment also contributed to the decision to censure her. In this episode, co-hosts Alexis Menocal Harrigan and Alan Gottlieb discuss the fallout.
Maybe it is time for all of us to say NO to the board’s request for a $44 million mill levy tax increase. I am torn. Denver’s teachers need to be paid more. But I do not see how Denver will ever do better by most of its students without a clear plan, transparency, honest discussion of progress, and real accountability for student success — none of which this board has offered.
Alleged antisemitic statements by Denver school board member Monica Hunter aimed at her colleague Amy Klein Molk are problematic. Equally troubling, however, is why the superintendent and board president sat on them for nine months until it became politically expedient to release them. In this episode, co-hosts Alexis Menocal Harrigan and Alan Gottlieb discuss whether board relationships and trust in board President Xóchitl Gaytán and Superintendent Alex Marrero are irreparably damaged, and if so, what should happen as a result.
The Denver school board on Thursday, Sept. 17 voted unanimously to launch an investigation into allegations that board Director Monica Hunter made anti-semitic comments about fellow board member Amy Klein Molk, who is Jewish. In this episode, co-hosts Alexis Menocal Harrigan and Alan Gottlieb discuss the meeting’s bizarre twists and turns, and impacts on Denver Public Schools students, with Nicholas Hernández, executive director of the advocacy group Transform Education Now.
Academy 360, a Denver charter school, has banded together with eight other charters using a state grant to use summer school to help stem Covid learning loss.
Denver Public Schools board Vice President Tay Anderson discusses board relations, the coup that wasn’t, and other issues related to DPS board dysfunction
A divided Denver Public Schools Board of Education Thursday restored some of the autonomy to 52 innovation schools it had stripped away in an overly-hasty move last March.
After last week’s 6-1/2-hour Denver school board meeting featured a couple of cringeworthy interpersonal clashes, I’m sure at least some board members are embarrassed by what the public witnessed. They should be. While the in-fighting rages, work of substance is being neglected.
The Denver school board will hold a special meeting June 16 to vote on restoring some freedoms that were stripped from 52 innovation schools by a hastily passed policy change earlier this spring.
DPS still has an opportunity to keep this process from devolving into a fiasco, but that will require the district to address the impacts on families who will be directly affected by any school closure.
It is evident there is a gap in arts-based learning models in the Far Northeast, and our no-audition, public charter school model will provide every student with an opportunity to explore and develop their talents, in an area where there’s an urgent need for arts-based learning.
We worry the Denver Public Schools Board of Education won’t see the tremendous value our school will have; instead, we fear our application will be sunk by reductive conversations about declining enrollment and by divisive anti-charter rhetoric.
Notably missing from the Declining Enrollment Advisory Committee criteria was any measure of school performance. Instead, the Declining Enrollment Advisory Committee chose to focus on schools serving the fewest students.
A lack of clarity on academic goals for Denver Public Schools is emblematic of the district’s and school board’s struggles and strategic incoherence.
Podcast season 2 episode 29: Heather Lamm on DPS board vacancy
Thirteen people have applied for a one-year vacancy on the Denver school board created by the resignation last month of central-Denver representative DJ Torres. On this podcast episode, longtime District 3 resident and DPS parent and advocate Heather Lamm discusses with co-hosts Alexis Menocal Harrigan and Alan Gottlieb the candidates and what the board needs in and from its new member.