Until Greg Cazzell takes the helm next month, Denver Public Schools will have had an interim Climate and Safety chief – in lieu of the interim chief – for more than a month.

Earlier this month, DPS announced the hiring of Cazzell, 54.

Cazzell starts July 10.

The position has been open since the last chief, Mike Eaton, left the post in November. Interim Safety Chief Robert Grossaint – who has been out on medical leave for months – has been replaced by Interim Chief Lisa Wehrli, said Scott Pribble, a district spokesperson.

Wehrli, according to a DPS directory, was formerly an operations lieutenant.

Cazzell sat down for a brief interview with The Denver Gazette on Tuesday.

He will oversee and implement, in part, Superintendent Alex Marrero’s long-term safety plan. A final draft is expected by the end of the month.

He assumes the possession as DPS has lacked a safety chief for seven months and grapples with rising youth gun violence and a shooting inside the district’s flagship campus, East High School.

“I’m not afraid to jump into the fire,” Cazzell said.

Roughly 120 candidates submitted applications for the position.

Cazzell was formerly the director of Safety and Security for Aurora Public Schools for eight years. He had served 22 years with the Glendale Police Department before retiring in 2015 as a detective sergeant.

The new chief’s annual salary will be $160,000.

In the 10 minutes The Denver Gazette was allotted, Cazzell touched on a range of issues that included the inevitable return of school resource officers (SRO) to DPS campuses and the shortage of campus safety officers.

The new chief will oversee a proposed safety budget of $9.1 million, which the board of education is expected to approve later this month.

Cazzell was not aware of the budget nor could he say whether he would seek an increase.

Here’s what Cazzell had to say about these major topics. 

School Resource Officers

In 2020, the DPS board of education voted unanimously to cut ties with the Denver Police Department and removed police from campuses over claims their presence perpetuates the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

After two deans were shot at East High School in March, the board temporarily reinstated police in the district’s comprehensive high schools, but they will likely be a permanent fixture moving forward.

“There are legitimate concerns,” Cazzell said. “We have to make sure that we’re not criminalizing adolescent behavior.”

He hopes to have an internal database in place before the start of school to track – for good and for bad – all police interactions.

Staffing

As of mid-April, about 20% of the district’s campus safety officer (CSO) positions were unfilled, according to Melissa Craven, the district’s former interim deputy chief of Support Services for Department of Climate and Safety.

CSOs – who wear ballistic t-shirts and carry handcuffs and pepper spray – provide “proactive safety services” for the district’s campuses.

“I don’t think that there’s any surprises that staffing continues to be an issue,” Cazzell said.

Marrero’s long-term safety plan

Cazzell said he is reviewing the latest draft of Marrero’s plan. He declined to give his impression of the proposal, saying it amounted to policy decisions.

“You have to evaluate safety and security every year,” Cazzell said.