NEWSLETTERS
SUBSCRIBE
Colorado Politics

Print Edition

Log in
My Account
Log in
Subscribe
My Account
Log in

Denver school board shifts public comment to before agenda is posted

By 09/05/2025 | updated 2 hours ago

Marathon meetings with lengthy public testimony prompted the Denver school board to move community input to workshops held weeks before regular meetings — before even an agenda is published.

Take the workshop meeting Thursday.

The notice said, in part: “Public comment will now be divided into two sections — one limited to action items scheduled for the upcoming regular board meeting and the other for topics unrestricted to upcoming action items.”

The problem?

The next regular board meeting isn’t until Sept. 18.

Anyone wishing to speak during public comment on Thursday had to sign up by Tuesday.

The agenda, staff said, wasn’t posted until Thursday.

“They should stop this funny business of only hearing what they want to hear,” said Steve Katsaros, co-founder of the Parents Safety Advocacy Group, or P-SAG.

Denver Public Schools’ officials say a special carve out addresses the issue.

“In the event that an action item is added to the Board’s regular meeting after the public comment meeting has already occurred, then the Board adds a special public comment opportunity at that regular board meeting that is limited to just that topic,” Bill Good, a district spokesperson, said in an email to The Denver Gazette.

Since January, the board has cast votes at 10 meetings.

At only one of those meetings — May 1 when the board approved, in a 5-2 vote, on an early extension of Superintendent Alex Marrero’s contract — was the public granted the opportunity Good described.

The last public comment before the May 1 vote was a month earlier on April 2, well before any agenda was drafted.

Director Xóchitl Gaytán said the public has several opportunities to provide public input, citing the recent “engagement meetings” board members have been holding.

“Those that are following and watching the videos will know the work we’re doing,” Gaytán said. “We’ve made all of this known to the public.”

Thursday, Board Vice President Marlene De La Rosa provided the board with a review of public comment over the past year, saying about half of the speakers addressed issues on the agenda and half spoke about other things.

Director John Youngquist asked whether the Sept. 18 agenda had been posted, but he failed to ask when.

And then the board discussion went onto other items.

Theresa Peña — who served eight years on the Denver school board, four as president — said she never relished nights with public comment, which sometimes lasted into the wee hours.

But she also recognized that sometimes public comment is the only way some issues get raised.

“As much as I hated public comment, I do believe it’s part of a thriving democracy,” Peña said.

“I do believe that public comment is part of a healthy discourse.”

Avatar photo
Nico Brambila

Reporter

PREV

PREVIOUS

Colorado remains among a shrinking pool of states with glass ceilings at top of the ticket | TRAIL MIX

Will 2026 be the year Colorado voters shatter one of the state’s stubborn and seemingly incongruous glass ceilings? The Centennial State approaches next year’s sesquicentennial — preparing to celebrate the 150th anniversary of statehood — with an increasingly rare distinction in the almanac of American politics. Across all those years, voters have never elected a […]

NEXT

NEXT UP

Tri-State electric co-op seeks FERC approval for new heavy-load regulations

In a bid to tame the energy appetites of large power users, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association filed a regulatory tariff proposal with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission intended to manage massive power demands without sparking chaos on the grid or hiking bills for ratepayers. The nonprofit wholesale power supplier, serving 42 member cooperatives across […]
Welcome Back.

Streak: 9 days i

Stories you've missed since your last login:

Stories you've saved for later:

Recommended stories based on your interests:

Edit my interests