Whatever the merits of a nearly $1 billion bond proposal for Denver Public Schools that could appear on next fall’s ballot — as reported Wednesday by The Denver Gazette — the school district’s battered image very likely has eroded trust among voters. If so, it’s warranted.

Since the outset of Superintendent Alex Marrero’s tenure, the DPS administration has been seemingly cloaked in secrecy. It has shut the press and public out of various public meetings and fought tooth and nail in court to prevent the release of critical documents. Among the more notable examples was last year’s court battle — which The Gazette and other media ultimately won — to compel the release of recorded school board deliberations following a student’s shooting of two administrators at East High School.

Marrero’s time at the helm has in fact represented an utter failure at transparency.

Meanwhile, the district’s cavalier approach to student safety has unnerved parents and the rest of the public, as well. An internal report the district had refused to release — but that was leaked to the media last year — revealed an alarming indifference to student and staff safety by the DPS administration. The priority instead appeared to be keeping dangerous kids in school.

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The shooter at East High 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 district and was on probation for a weapons charge. Incredibly, DPS admitted him. And that was only one of many cases. Indeed, the internal report found that safety plans have become a substitute for expulsions or denying admission in DPS.

Underlying all of it, of course, has been a fundamental failure in leadership over the past several years by Denver’s school board itself. Since 2019, it was mired in infighting, obsessed with internal political rivalries and as secretive as its superintendent was about its proceedings.

Perhaps worst of all, the board was oblivious to floundering student achievement.

Significantly, some rays of hope appeared in last November’s school board election, when three board members were replaced — two of them ousted by voters and the third so unpopular, he declined to seek reelection. Their successors, endorsed by The Gazette’s editorial board, have brought new vitality, integrity and just plain common sense to the board.

Above all, they seem more inclined to place kids above politics.

But the new members still comprise only a minority on the board. Not only have ensuing policy votes by the board reflected a divide at times, but more telling is Marrero’s continued presence as the district’s chief exec. And his approach to administration continues to prevail.

Only weeks ago, for example, The Gazette’s news staff discovered that district officials apparently had begun requiring some district employees to sign confidentiality agreements.

It was Will Jones, the district’s former communications chief, who first exposed the development. Jones was “blindsided,” as he put it, when the district fired him and offered him a five-figure settlement if he signed a confidentiality agreement. He refused, maintaining he had done nothing to warrant termination. Good for Jones.

It turns out the practice is unusual among area school districts; neither neighboring Cherry Creek nor Jefferson County school systems require such agreements. Former DPS school board member Theresa Peña told The Gazette the confidentiality agreements were “nonsense” and confirmed they weren’t in use when she served on the board, from 2003 through 2011.

Critics of the agreements point out they silence employees who otherwise might call out wide-ranging malfeasance and misconduct. What is the district trying to hide?

None of which bodes well for a district seeking to restore public confidence — just when it needs it most.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board