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.
This is the second in a series of four posts featuring unedited videos of Denver Board of Education candidates answering questions posed to them by community members. This installment focuses on Northeast Denver’s District 4.
Boardhawk is launching its election coverage with these video interviews of board candidates. We encouraged community members to come up with questions on relevant issues, and to ask them on video. We also invited all candidates to be recorded offering their responses, and allowed them to answer at the length they felt was appropriate. This week: Central Denver District 3 candidates Carrie Olson and Mike DeGuire.
My two boys have routinely been wearing their masks because 18 months ago, we started talking about how we can care for other people, particularly when we really don’t have any idea of what is going on in their lives, with their bodies, or in their homes.
Apparently, school performance has become another fact-free zone, where ideology, rumor, and innuendo are more important than evidence. The political right in recent years has mastered this sad and dangerous strategy, but when it comes to testing, the left is showing that two can play that game.
It is frustrating when I see disinformation about charter schools. Some people with their own agendas seek to deny the role charters play as quite often the best option for a lot of us students of color to get a good education.
More than 50 parents of Denver Public Schools students and other education advocates brought a variety of concerns and suggestions o the district’s new superintendent, Alex Marrero, when he met and greeted them at the campus of Kepner Beacon Middle School earlier this week.
“This Board has conducted virtually no public discussion during this pivotal time on how the infusion of dollars will be spent. How can the district be strategic about spending this funding if we still don’t know how students are doing at each school across the city?”
Many Americans are embracing falsehoods about what is actually being taught in schools. Scholars also fear that this embrace of misinformation means that terms intended to help students develop as culturally proficient citizens will all be thrown into the bucket of “CRT.”
Some districts, zones or individual schools, appear to be doing more with federal pandemic funding in the short term for students than others. Others plan to use funds to enhance school-year programs aimed at catching up students who have fallen behind.
The leaders of A+ Colorado, which closed its doors last month, are confident that its members will branch out and support other education advocacy organizations.
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.