Denver Public Schools officials said they were excluded from collaborations after city officials Thursday announced an ordinance proposing the revival of a coordination committee between the city and the school system.

The ordinance would restructure Denver’s former City-School Coordinating Committee and have them meet six times a year – creating added dialogue between city and school leaders  and granting more city leaders’ voices in DPS policies and operations.

Standing before journalists and the public on Thursday, Council President Pro Tem Amanda Sandoval was joined by Mayor Mike Johnston and former mayors Federico Peña and Wellington Webb at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library.

The council’s proposal for the committee was created by Sandoval and at-large Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez.

“The committee would work to improve Denver’s educational, recreational and social needs and I think that’s something we can all agree on that all Denverites deserve,” Sandoval said.

Sandoval specified: “In my proposal, it’s the mayor, city council, two representatives from city council, two representatives from the Denver School Board, the superintendent and the Office of Children’s Affairs.”

Thursday’s announcement also included the involvement of EDUCATE Denver, a coalition for DPS students. Former mayor Peña, in cooperation with EDUCATE Denver, is a senior advisor with the Colorado Impact Fund.

“EDUCATE Denver, let me be very blunt, is very disappointed with the Denver Public School leadership today,” Peña said. “We’re disappointed because of his lack of focus on students. We’re tired of all the debates and personal tirades on the school board. Very rarely do we hear about the students and their success.”

Despite Peña’s comments, it was Sandoval’s proposed ordinance which stirred DPS leaders.

Two DPS board members showed up. Both Vice President Auon’tai Anderson and Treasurer Scott Esserman said they had not received enough notice along with other board members.

“The school board is for collaboration and partnership,” Esserman told The Denver Gazette. “There’s nobody who I spoke to today who I’ve had a conversation with during my time on the board.”

Esserman is a two-year board member.

Former mayor Webb chimed in and said Superintendant Alex Marrero, and a couple other members, were notified of Thursday’s press conference days prior.

“Today’s press conference changed the direction that we were heading in our board,” Anderson said. “I was under the impression that we weren’t going to be releasing any official language today. The Board of Education is set to take this issue up at our next board meeting, thanks to Director Esserman and I who have heard that this is being fast tracked.

“Now we’re having to work with language that we never agreed to being publicly released.”

“I want to be clear. This is not about education reform. I am not about that. I am a bridge builder,” Sandoval said.

“We may not all agree,” Sandoval told Anderson and Esserman. “But we do not have to be disagreeable and you are an elected official and both of you deserve to be honored and acknowledged.”

The ideal situation for DPS was for them to coordinate with the city, but instead it was “not a collaborative approach,” said DPS Government Political Liaison Deep Singh Badhesha. “Our hesitation comes from ‘you had a year’s worth of planning. And you brought us in at the 11th hour saying take it or leave it.’ That’s where our issue is.”

DPS also directly interacts with city departments like Parks and Recreation, Denver police and fire departments, and transportation authorities for student programming and experience.

Badhesha said he asked to extend the timeline on creating the ordinance.

“We actually are disappointed in this,” Badhesha added “The mayor has a vote, two city council members and the Office of Children affairs. Then we would have the superintendent and two board members, right. So there’s four-to-three to the city. So let’s say this committee is starting to come out with motions and bylaws and chairs and is like ‘we recommend that Denver Public Schools give up a tennis court to make more housing’ … That’s not something we feel comfortable with.”

“What we’re seeing from Councilman Sandoval is definitely not a collaborative spirit.”

Sandoval told The Denver Gazette: “We would ask that this commission, or committee, start meeting in January or February so that it would give the Denver Public Schools Board of Education time to figure out what they’d like to move in and how to move forward together.”

The goal is to start enabling actions upon meetings, according to Sandoval.

“I beg of you to start doing even more,” DPS parent Steve Katsaros told Sandoval. “Because January or February to start convening, to then enable, to then cause some change somewhere down the line. And then the house is on fire. We need urgency around all of this.”

Policy governance was brought up about how the ordinance would interrupt DPS decision making.

“Policy governance is now how Denver Public Schools runs so that’s why we have a new type of ordinary action,” Badhesha said.

A policy governance model, which represents a shift for the district, establishes the responsibilities and relationship between the superintendent and board of education. In theory, the new model will allow the board to focus on advancing its vision for the district.

“We are looking forward to a path to collaborate even more deeply,” mayor Johnston said. “What we know is there is no way to deliver ongoing and sustained success without a deep collaboration between the city and its schools.”

As a former teacher and principal, Johnston mentioned school safety as one of his priorities.

“We think that our commitment to safety is both what we do in schools, what we do around schools, and what we do in all the neighborhoods that our students come from,” he said.

“We have to place the emphasis on high expectations,” former mayor Webb said during his speech. “We want high expectations for our students the same as what we have for our athletic teams and the same as what we had for our city.”

Webb said he was there in support of the ordinance.

The city council will have final say on the ordinance, which at the earliest, can be approved by the end of October.

Denver Gazette reporter Nicole C. Brambila contributed to this report.