Community Deserves Better from Denver Public Schools
Denverites,
For more than a decade, the Denver Public Schools has acted on, not with our communities.
I have had enough.
The recommendations that Superintendent Marrero and his staff presented to the Board this evening completely violate both the Small Schools Resolution the Board passed in 2021 — and the recommendations of the Declining Enrollment Advisory Committee (DEAC).
The district did not engage directly impacted school communities and regions — staff, students, parents/families/guardians, neighbors and neighborhood groups, and advocates for DPS students — in developing proposals and options, as the Board had directed.
The district also listened only selectively to the what the DEAC advised, choosing to listen to its thresholds for identifying schools yet ignoring everything it thoughtfully recommended related to how DPS should, in its words, “ensure a fair, and empowering, process for local communities and leaders” to actually lead this difficult work.
To the communities of MSLA, Valverde, Columbian, Trevista, Schmitt, Godsman, Eagleton, Cowell, Palmer, Montclair, Colfax, Cheltenham, Swansea, Columbine, Harrington, Denver Discovery, and Whittier:
You deserve better — so much better — from DPS.
I asked the Superintendent a series of yes or no questions and here is his response from the Work Session on November 3rd, 2022:
Dr. Marrero, do you believe what the staff has brought forward tonight aligns with the expectations the Board set for this work in its Small Schools Resolution?
Answer: Yes
Did that Resolution state, and I quote, that “the Denver Public Schools values school-community voice in… collaboratively planning how to best serve students and neighborhoods?”
Answer: Yes
And did the Board specify in that Resolution, and I quote, that “staff is charged with directly engaging school communities”?
Answer: Yes
And did the Board further provide clarity in the resolution that, quote, “school communities” includes “staff, students, parents/families/guardians, neighbors and neighborhood groups, and advocates for DPS students”?
Answer: Yes
And did that Board Resolution specify that such engagement would, and I quote, “ yield community-led, district-supported options that are responsive to the unique needs of each region?”
Answer: Yes
Further, did that Board Resolution state that the Board would then quote, “evaluate proposed community-led options with pros and cons”?
Answer: Yes
Dr. Marrero, before releasing the district recommendations, did your staff engage the school communities of MSLA, Valverde, Columbian, Trevista, Schmitt, Godsman, Eagleton, Cowell, Palmer, Montclair, Colfax, Cheltenham, Swansea, Columbine, Harrington, Denver Discovery, and Whittier?
Answer: No
Specifically, did your staff collaborate with “staff, students, parents/families/guardians, neighbors and neighborhood groups, and advocates for DPS students” who are a part of these school communities in developing their recommendations?
Answer: Yes, but not with students.
Did your staff engage with other schools and stakeholders in the regions in which these schools are located to engage their best thinking about how to “best serve students and neighborhoods” as part of “collaborative planning”?
Answer: Yes
Did your staff present multiple options to the Board tonight?
Answer: No
Are the recommendations your staff put forward tonight “community-led”?
Answer: Yes, through the DEAC
Did the Montclair and Palmer communities themselves “envision” the idea that Montclair should serve as a K-5 program and Palmer should serve as an ECE center?
Answer: No
To those who spent months on the DEAC, I am appalled that the district has now weaponized your work. I, for one, know what has happened to MSLA, Valverde, Columbian, Trevista, Schmitt, Godsman, Eagleton, Cowell, Palmer, Montclair, Colfax, Cheltenham, Swansea, Columbine, Harrington, Denver Discovery, Whittier was not at all your intention.
To all Denverites who care about our neighborhoods and communities, please stand with MSLA, Valverde, Columbian, Trevista, Schmitt, Godsman, Eagleton, Cowell, Palmer, Montclair, Colfax, Cheltenham, Swansea, Columbine, Harrington, Denver Discovery, and Whittier.
Top-down approaches like those we see reflected in these recommendations — and have seen consistently from staff — are emblematic of white supremacy culture, even if the people behaving that way are not white.
Just like last month, the District has again created a situation where communities of color are pitted against each other — there are “winner” schools and “loser” schools fighting over scraps. And the district has again consolidated all the power in its own hands rather than figuring out how to share power with directly impacted school communities, much less with the Board.
DPS has completely missed yet another opportunity to work shoulder-to-shoulder with our communities of color and empower communities of color to envision the future they want together, given the reality that the enrollment landscape has and is changing.
Despite a different Administration and Board, the District continues to behave like it is still 2016, and Tom Boasberg is still in charge.
I will be voting no on all of these recommendations.
Further, because the only tool for alignment the Superintendent and Board President seem to agree on right now is “policy governance,” I asked the Board this evening to make an emergency change at our November voting meeting to Executive Limitation 9, which currently states that:
“The Superintendent will … take reasonable steps to inform students, parents/guardians, families, and the community of district policies, procedures, and school choices within the district.”
“Inform” is far too low of a bar, especially on issues like those before us right now.
This Board — and our school communities — should expect that the Superintendent and his staff will work with — will “engage and empower” — directly impacted school communities and stakeholders on high-stakes issues that impact them, not decide for them and then simply inform them of the decision.
I say “emergency change,” as I recognize that GP 14 sets out a procedure that includes multiple steps and multiple readings the Board is supposed to take before it changes a policy. GP 14, however, allows the Board, “by a majority vote,” to waive those procedures “for a good cause or in case of emergency.”
This District’s ongoing behavior of doing to rather than with is a full-on emergency and has been for years.
The district's behavior in this situation has created trauma for ten school communities, regardless of whether a majority of Board members actually vote to approve the Superintendents recommendations to close and consolidate their schools. Harm has already been caused.
Enough.
Denver School Board Vice President — Auon’tai M. Anderson
