The Denver school board will not meet to discuss and possibly take action on Superintendent Alex Marrero’s employment Wednesday, despite several directors having pushed for the Board of Education to convene on the matter.
Board Secretary Marlene De La Rosa notified her colleagues of her decision Monday, saying in an email obtained by The Denver Post that there wasn’t enough support for the meeting among the seven directors who govern Denver Public Schools.
“I have confirmed that a majority of the board does not support your request,” she wrote to Director Monica Hunter. “…I will not be instructing staff to prepare or serve notice, nor giving notice to the board president of your requested August 5 special meeting.”
Interviews with school board members and internal emails obtained by The Post show how several directors tried, but failed, to rally board support to meet for the second time in less than two weeks to weigh Marrero’s future at DPS, with one board member even considering legal action to force a meeting.
Hunter sent emails last week requesting a meeting be scheduled for Wednesday, saying that a majority of board members wanted to reconvene to discuss Marrero’s employment and “potentially future district leadership planning and possible board action.”
Directors had met days earlier — mostly behind closed doors — to discuss the superintendent’s performance and relationship with the board, but emerged from the talks without taking any action on Marrero’s employment nor voicing support for his leadership.
Board member Donald “D.J.” Torres said he wanted to convene this week because the previous discussion didn’t end with any outcome. Individual directors have said they want the board to consider potential action on Marrero, including “terminating” his employment or “reviewing contracts,” Torres said.
“I don’t think the meeting itself had the content I was expecting as a board member,” he said of last week’s meeting. “…I left feeling curious about what the point of that time was.”
Board members and the superintendent are struggling to work together because of their different views on how to operate under the district’s governance model. Marrero sent board President Xóchitl Gaytán a letter earlier this summer accusing directors of overstepping their authority over DPS’s day-to-day operations.
Directors have questioned Marrero’s commitment to DPS after he applied for a job in Miami this summer. He did not get the position.
Divisions have also risen on the board, including over whether to hold a meeting this week. Hunter told both De La Rosa and Gaytán in emails last week that she had the required majority needed to schedule the meeting. But both Gaytán and De La Rosa said there wasn’t enough support for the board to convene.
Hunter and Torres both accused Gaytán of refusing to call the meeting despite five board members supporting the decision. Hunter requested De La Rosa to publicly notice the meeting after Gaytán didn’t, according to an email obtained by The Post.
“As the week went on and (Gaytán) didn’t honor some of the responsibilities of her title, it just gave some fear to folks, so that by the time Secretary De La Rosa was asked to notify the meeting, I think, folks just had some logistic questions,” Torres said.
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Gaytán said there were “inaccuracies” to Torres’s timeline and that there wasn’t majority support for a meeting when she reached out to colleagues on both Wednesday and Friday.
“I am fulfilling my duties as board president,” she said. “…I called a couple of board members and confirmed there was not a majority and then waited for (De La Rosa) to do the same.”
At some point last week, some directors’ support for the meeting wavered, Hunter and Torres said.
“Although the timing has changed, our commitment to putting students first has not,” Hunter said in a statement. “I remain committed to working collaboratively with my colleagues and continuing to make decisions that reflect the best interests of Denver Public Schools students, families, educators and the broader community.”
Torres said the other board members who were supportive of meeting Wednesday to discuss Marrero’s employment included John Youngquist, Kimberlee Sia and Amy Klein Molk. But, he said, he believes Sia and Molk pulled their support.
Molk and Sia declined to comment for this story. Youngquist could not be reached Tuesday.
Following Hunter’s second request for a meeting, Torres said he spoke with the district’s general counsel about De La Rosa’s responsibilities as board secretary and whether he could request a judge to intervene and order her to call the meeting. Such a scenario would have been possible had De La Rosa circumvented the board’s majority, Torres said
In the end, he said he did not strongly pursue the legal route, mostly because the majority shifted. But, Torres added, since joining the board last year, he has questioned how seriously his colleagues take their responsibility to constituents and the law.
“We’ve seen examples of dishonesty and dragging of feet and trying to sway some of our opinions that I always want to know how aligned those actions are to the legality of what’s asked of us in our board positions,” Torres said.
De La Rosa said she was out of town last week and began asking her colleagues whether they wanted to meet after she returned to Denver. Most of the directors said they did not want to convene, she said, adding that she hasn’t spoken to Torres.
“There’s never been any time where I have not fulfilled my board duties,” she said.
The school board is next scheduled to meet on Aug. 13 for a work session. Directors will also hold a retreat on Aug. 17, at which time they are expected to discuss their relationship with the superintendent — and each other.
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