Just how unpopular is the current lineup on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education? One of three incumbents whose seats are in play on this fall’s ballot decided against a reelection bid after a poll showed his support among likely voters was only in the single digits. The other two incumbents still on the ballot are running scared.

Serving on a school board, even in the state’s largest district, is ordinarily a pretty obscure job. Which means the current DPS board really had to make an effort to alienate that much of the electorate.

Ushered in over the last two elections by the clout and campaign cash of the teachers union, this board has lost the public’s confidence in fundamental ways and to an unprecedented degree. The same could be said of the superintendent the board brought in.

It’s no wonder, as recent developments reported in The Gazette remind us.

An internal report the district had refused to release – but that was leaked to the media – revealed an alarming indifference to student and staff safety by the DPS administration. Its priority seems to be keeping dangerous kids in school.

The report reflected more than 150 hours of interviews with high school “safety teams.” The interviews took place in the weeks after two East High School deans were shot and seriously wounded while attempting to conduct a pat-down of a student last March 22.

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The shooter had been on a district “safety plan,” which sets specific conditions, like pat-downs, for students who pose a risk. He had been expelled from another school district and was on probation for a weapons charge. And yet, unbelievably, DPS let him in.

Among the report’s findings, as noted last week by The Gazette:

• Safety plans have become a substitute for expulsions or denying admission.
• Students don’t think the district is responsive enough to bad behavior by their peers.
• School leaders are unable to get an expulsion hearing even for students who engage in repeated violent behavior.

Almost any level of threat, it seems, won’t prompt DPS to keep potentially violent criminal suspects a safe distance from other students. 

The one sensible safety step DPS has taken – posting Denver police-staffed school resource officers on DPS high school campuses – occurred only last spring. That was after this same board had kicked the cops off campus in 2020. It took the East High shooting to shame board members into a grudging about-face on the policy.

Meanwhile, as a Gazette news analysis concluded last week, DPS has displayed a pattern of evading public scrutiny – especially when it comes to student safety. 

DPS has shut the press and public out of meetings – avoiding exposure of the board’s widely perceived incompetence and incessant squabbling – and it has repeatedly refused to disclose public records. The safety report was only the latest example. 

“This is not an isolated incident,” Steve Zansberg, a First Amendment attorney and president of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, told The Gazette’s news staff. “…There is a pattern of conduct that the district has not abided by the state’s transparency laws.”

A thorough housecleaning is needed at DPS – a whole new board and administration.

Too bad only three seats are on the ballot this fall, but it’s a start – and we’ve endorsed three top-flight candidates to begin the turnover.

Remember to vote for John Youngquist for the board’s at-large seat; Kimberlee Sia for District 1, and Marlene De La Rosa for District 5. 

Let’s restore transparency – and common sense – to policymaking at DPS.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board