In the first test of a new Colorado law, the Beacon Network Schools Zone Board of Directors requested a state review of Denver Public Schools’ decision to revoke the network’s innovation zone status.

The Beacon Zone Board also filed a lawsuit to keep the district from breaking up the zone, which has 750 students, while the state process plays out.

A complaint filed in Denver District Court Thursday alleges the decision by the DPS Board of Education is illegal and has caused the innovation zone irreparable harm.

“We believe the district’s decision is about power and politics, and not about what’s best for students,” the Beacon Zone Board said in a statement.

The statement added: “The board further failed to conduct anything more than a pretextual review of academic performance in the zone, as illustrated by the board’s and superintendent’s reliance on insufficient and flawed academic data.”

The complaint requests a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order against DPS to prevent the district from taking action to dissolve the innovation zone.

The lawsuit follows a Wednesday appeal to the Colorado Board of Education to review the revocation decision.

District officials declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

Policymakers in 2008 passed the Innovation Schools Act, in part, in response to public school and district leaders who sought autonomy structures similar to charter schools, which enjoy advantages not available to traditional schools.

Under the law, any public school can request to become an innovation school from its local school board to implement more flexible programs to meet students’ needs. Groups of innovation schools may apply to form an “Innovation School Zone” – or iZone – which operates under a separate governing board.

DPS has about 50 innovation schools and three iZones, including Beacon.

The Beacon iZone was created in 2018 after DPS, under a former superintendent, requested then Grant Beacon Middle School Principal Alex Magaña to replicate his program at Kepner Middle School.

Magaña serves as both executive principal and executive director of the Beacon Network Schools, a sticking point for DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero.

In a split vote April 10, the DPS Board of Education revoked Beacon’s iZone because of low test scores and concerns over its organizational health.

Beacon’s complaint alleges the revocation must be “based solely on the finding that the academic performance of students enrolled” at an innovation school or zone are not sufficiently improving.

And it further alleges that DPS changed the goal posts by using the district’s current metric for judging the academic success of a school – which was not in place when Beacon’s innovation zone plan was approved.

The Beacon complaint also pointed to a policy shift two years ago by the DPS board away from the Colorado legislature’s preference for innovation in education. The DPS board has since rejected petitions from at least two schools to join innovation zones, which have an alternative governance with a separate board.

Last year, the legislature approved a new law designed to give innovation schools and iZones recourse when disagreements with district decisions arise. It is this new law – which Marrero opposed – that is the grounds for Beacon’s appeal.

The law does not permit the state to override the DPS board.

The DPS board, though, will have to ratify or reject the state’s decision.

Bill Kottenstette, executive director of the Schools of Choice Office for the Colorado Department of Education, has said the review provides a check to “strengthen public confidence.”

The Innovation Schools Act does not require an existing zone plan be renewed, but rather provides for a district review every three years to determine whether a school or iZone is “making adequate progress toward achieving the academic performance” identified in the plan.

DPS is moving away from using academic test scores to judge a school’s success.

The Beacon board disagreed that changes to its organizational structure are in the students’ best interests.

The complaint also alleges Marrero’s revocation recommendation is not actually based on academic performance, but a preference for local control because the superintendent left the innovation designation for Grant and Kepner in place.

The state Board of Education must hold a public hearing within 60 days of a written request, which would be July 3.