This is High Rockies Community School, a K-8 public charter school located at Sacramento Creek Ranch outside Fairplay. The four-day-a-week school is most notable for holding almost all of its instruction outdoors.
At the September 17 Denver Public Schools Board of Education public comment session, 14 people addressed the board and community about allegations leveled against two board members by the board President Xóchitl Gaytán, with an assist from Superintendent Alex Marrero. Two comments stood out, so we are publishing them here.
In its 2024–25 State of Charter Schools Report, the Colorado Department of Education concluded that charter schools had lower chronic absenteeism rates than non-charter schools in each of the previous three years.
In this episode, cohosts Alexis Menocal Harrigan and Alan Gottlieb discuss the latest Denver school board imbroglio, including potentially serious allegations, and its implications for Colorado’s largest school district.
Last week, Boardhawk published a detailed analysis of Denver Public Schools’ 2026 state test score (CMAS) data, as well as an evaluation of the state school performance framework rating of DPS. We invited the author of the piece, Cody Ostenson, on the podcast to discuss the findings.
Last week, Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero presented to the school board a slide deck labeled Denver Thrives 2030: A Strategic Roadmap refresh. The deck was thin on just about everything, lacking strategy and a clear vision of what lays ahead and how to tackle challenges and opportunities over the next few years.
In a sterling example of pretzel logic, a new Denver Post editorial argues that because Marrero wants to leave, and because the district has spent well over $100,000 on a (possibly corrupt) mentor and international travel to conferences (generally referred to as professional development), Marrero should be forced to stay through the end of his contract in 2028.
On our 250th, let’s hope political divisions won’t keep us from agreeing on one simple idea: that a democracy depends on students who are literate and who have a solid understanding of our history.
This DPS regime has shown minimal interest in deeply examining data and taking concrete steps to improve matters. It seems focused instead on making Marrero look good so he can slip out the door into a bigger job in a bigger city, with a bigger salary.
What I’ve come to learn is that effective school teams are not much different than effective basketball teams. That the decisions made in film sessions, player meetings, and the front office are similar in importance to school board meetings, professional developments, and the central office. And that if winning is our goal (i.e. getting results alongside students), you have to have a feel for the game AND understand analytics.
But while holding the right people accountable to the implementation of schooling is critical, a primary focus on accountability of implementation is incomplete. How excellent teachers and administrators navigate the conditions/systems of school, are a) are impacted by constraints of a system and b) have an impact on what we all want from school: results.
Marrero clearly wants to consolidate as many as schools as possible under his control, returning to the bad old days of large urban districts being run by a bloated, inefficient system. The district’s las innovation zone is a big thorn in his side for that reason.
A proposed expansion of the Luminary Learning Network, Denver’s lone remaining Innovation zone, is being strongly opposed by Superintendent Alex Marrero. LLN Executive Director joins us to discuss the zone, and repeated attempts to curb its autonomies. The consolidation of school control under Marrero has implications for everyone with a stake in DPS.
In this second installment of our occasional series on the implications for public education of artificial intelligence in classrooms and homes, we welcome Dr. Richard Charles, the chief information officer for Denver Public Schools. A mathematician by training and inclination, Dr. Charles has deep knowledge of AI, its promises and pitfalls. This thought-provoking conversation is well worth a listen.
The potentially deadly ineptitude of Denver Public Schools’ approach to safety under the current regime is laid bare in a searing ruling issued this week by a federal judge in the lawsuit of an East High School dean shot inside the school by a student three years ago.
Artificial intelligence is one of the hot topics in education right now, and we wanted to hear from someone who is both thinking deeply about it and leading in this space. That’s why Antonio Vigil is the ideal guest for this episode of the podcast.
50CAN, a national education advocacy organization, and Transform Education Now (TEN), its Colorado affiliate, recently released a report called The State of Educational Opportunity in Colorado, a survey of some 515 parents from across the state. ur guests for this podcast episode are Marc Porter Magee, the founder and CEO of 50CAN, and Nicholas Hernández, the co-founder and executive director of TEN. The Colorado report and national survey data are filled with fascinating insights that say a great deal about current attitudes toward public education, school choice, and parental engagement.
Last week Boardhawk editor Alan Gottlieb published an article about the dysfunctional leadership of the Denver School Board under President Xóchitl Gaytán. In this new podcast episode Gottlieb and co-host Alexis Menocal Harrigan delver mnore deeply into this issue, along with Cody Ostenson, Director of External Affairs for Denver Families for Public Schools. Ostenson is one of if not the closest observer of the board and Denver Public Schools. His insights into board dynamics and DPS generally are invaluable.
Three months into her second stint as president of the Denver Board of Education, it’s becoming clear that Xóchitl Gaytán’s leadership skills have not improved since her tumultuous first tenure, and that she bears sole responsibility for the strife that has begun plaguing this new board.
Last week, Boardhawk published a piece by educator and education researcher Peter Huidekoper Jr. about the baffling move by the Colorado Department of Education late last year to boost the state rating of Denver’s Abraham Lincoln High School despite a longstanding and ongoing record of failure to educate most of its students to anything approaching grade level proficiency. We asked Huidekoper onto the podcast to take a deeper dive into this issue.
Podcast season 2, episode 23: The Denver school board drama drags on — investigation into alleged antisemitic comments OK’d
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.