Following a string of violence in Denver Public Schools last academic year, the board held a closed door executive session.

Tom Hellauer
tom.hellauer@denvergazette.comTomHellauer
tom.hellauer@denvergazette.com
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The Denver Public Schools Board of Education unanimously voted Friday to release the March 23 recording of its executive session, 120 days after holding the secret meeting to discuss reversing a district policy prohibiting police on campus.

The vote marked a stark departure from what the district has maintained – that the closed-door meeting was justified.

The board did not discuss a date for the recording’s release.

Board President Xóchitl Gaytán said she called for the special meeting after a consensus with colleagues to move forward and put their energy toward putting students first.

Directors questioned that.

“What is the urgency now?” asked Director Michelle Quattlebaum.

It was a sentiment echoed by others.

Quattlebaum also said she believed, like Vice President Auon’tai Anderson, that the recording should be released.

Denver Public Schools superintendent requested secret meeting to discuss policy change

“I believe we could have done this before a lawsuit was initiated,” Anderson said.

A coalition of news outlets – including The Denver Gazette and Colorado Politics – sued the Board of Education and Stacy Wheeler, the district’s custodian of records, seeking the recording’s release.

An attorney representing the media coalition said if not for the lawsuit, it is doubtful the public would have access to the recording because the district denied Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests and fought its release in court.

“There’s no doubt whatsoever that, but for this litigation, that Denver Public Schools would not be releasing the recording today or any day,” said Steve Zansberg, an attorney for the media coalition.

Zansberg, a First Amendment attorney in Denver and president of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, said this practice of denying access is not unique to DPS.

“I’m hopeful that this result is not limited to Denver Public Schools,” Zansberg said. “It is not – I repeat – it is not an isolated incident.”

In a press conference following the special meeting, Anderson speculated political optics closer to the November election may have played a role in the decision to release the video.

Director Scott Baldermann, who made the motion Friday to discuss releasing the executive session, told The Denver Gazette after the meeting that he was convinced the district was going to lose its legal battle with the media coalition.

“It’s more problematic, to me, the narrative of us hiding something,” Baldermann said. “It is way worse because everyone fills in the blanks.”

Baldermann added, “We don’t need this to be a distraction heading into the school year.”

DPS fights court order to release executive session tape to media coalition

‘We should have released the footage’  

Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen – who spent two days listening to the five-hour executive session – ruled last month that the district “did engage in a substantial discussion of matters” not stated on the agenda and ordered DPS to release the audio recording.

Luxen also said the school board did not sufficiently cite the statute forming the basis for the confidential meeting.

DPS has blown by two deadlines to release the recording.

Under Colorado law, state and local governments are required to discuss and take action in meetings open to the public. The law includes a carve out for specific purposes, such as when consulting an attorney or discussing personnel matters, among other things.

Any actions, however, must be conducted in public.

“This case is about a press coalition’s insistence on discovering the private discussions of a local school board held in the immediate wake of a school shooting,” the district has argued.

In response, the media coalition filed a motion for contempt, arguing the district has “not made, nor can they make, a ‘strong showing’ that they are likely to succeed on the merits of their appeal.”

The day after an East High School student shot and wounded two administrators on March 22, the board held an executive session to discuss security issues.

Unbeknownst at the time, Superintendent Alex Marrero had requested in the hours after the shooting that the board meet in secret to discuss the district’s prohibition on school resource officers (SRO), according to an email obtained under CORA.

The legality of the five-hour executive session was called into question after the board emerged on March 23 with a memo temporarily lifting the district’s policy barring SROs and unanimously approving the measure, without discussion.

The long-term return of SROs was formally approved by the board last month. In 2020, the district had cut ties with the Denver Police Department over concerns over what activists described as the “school-to-prison pipeline.”

Several controversies have since surfaced.

These include the threat by then-Mayor Michael B. Hancock to step in with an executive order if the board failed to act and Gaytán’s unsuccessful attempt to reprimand Anderson for disclosing in a press conference information shared in executive session.

Anderson had been the lone public voice calling for the recording’s release, saying on Twitter that the community “deserves to see the tape.”

He echoed that sentiment again Friday.

“We should have released the footage months ago,” Anderson said.

Denver judge finds ‘reasonable’ belief DPS executive session violated Open Meetings Law