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.
In an emphatic rebuke to the Denver Public Schools board, the Colorado State Board of Education Thursday ordered DPS to reconsider its decision to delay the opening of DSST Noel High School until 2022.
Five days after Superintendent Susana Cordova announced her resignation from Denver Public Schools, two members of her senior leadership team are following her out the door.
“Susana has demonstrated the qualities that have earned her distinction throughout her career: extraordinary intelligence, educational expertise, personal integrity, diplomacy and listening skills, and a passion for collaboration encompassing educators, students, families and community,” Rodriguez wrote.
Speakers at a Sunday press conference paid tribute to Susana Cordova’s compassion, her focus on community concerns, and her deep roots in the city and the district. They said Cordova fell victim to politics and wasn’t given a fair shot by at least some members of the school board.
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susana Cordova is leaving to take a deputy superintendent position in Dallas. Her short (less than two years) tenure was marked by a ‘flipped’ board that constrained her authority, and a global pandemic that posed unprecedented challenges.
It is time to begin dismantling existing curriculum anchored in the overrepresentation of Eurocentric thought and perspective. Throughout history, prominent educators such as WEB DuBois, Carter G. Woodson, Paulo Freire and other philosophers of color developed ways for this kind of secondary and post-secondary education to be developed.
Read a thorough Colorado Sun story on the Denver school board’s unanimous vote last night to adopt a curriculum redesign that “weaves the narratives and knowledge of Black, indigenous, Latino and other communities of color into every part of the district’s curriculum.”
A DSST at Noel Middle School parent and staff member describes how the school board’s decision Thursday to delay the high school damages a thriving community. And the divisive comments by a couple of board members rubbed salt in the wound.
The Denver school board will vote tonight to delay the opening of the DSST Noel High School for a year, potentially leaving 161 eighth-graders without a high school they had been expecting.
The Denver school board’s focus on Black excellence is important, but looks two-faced when board members are ignoring the Black excellence at a Far Northeast Denver charter school.
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.