Denver school board on sabbatical as superintendent contract dispute deepens
With seven weeks left before the start of the school year, uncertainty over leadership at Denver Public Schools has some community members sounding the alarm.
Last month, Superintendent Alex Marrero said he had applied to lead Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida. Around the same time, he sent a letter to the Denver school board's president alleging his employment contract was being violated and saying his current trajectory at DPS was "increasingly untenable."
"To me, this is a 911 emergency," said Theresa Peña, a former Denver school board president, a DPS graduate and the parent of DPS graduates.
"It just feels like if he wants out of Denver, just say that," Peña said.
In the four-page letter, sent June 8, Marrero accuses board members of micromanagement and says governance policies are "repeatedly disregarded, circumvented, or selectively applied." He also alleges continued "contractual violations".
"So I think Superintendent Marrero wrote that four-page letter specifically because he wants to execute a clause in his contract that if he gives 30 days' notice, then he could leave with full benefits if he believes unilaterally that the board has violated the terms and conditions of policy governance," Peña said.
Under that clause, Marrero would not only leave with benefits but would also receive a full year's pay -- about $365,000. Wednesday July 8th marks 30 days since the letter was sent.
"I would hope that the board understands the seriousness of this situation," Peña said. "If they want to keep him, they need to start meeting with him before July 8. And if they don't want to keep him, they need to create a rationale for cause."
Dr. Manuel Escamilla, who represents the Latino Education Coalition, is also raising concerns about the stability of leadership at the state's largest school district.
"This is very important and should be dealt with as soon as possible," Escamilla said. "I think that if we were to lose Dr. Marrero, we would lose all of the work that he has completed."
Escamilla said he believes Marrero prefers to stay in Denver and work things out with the board.
"We think Dr. Marrero likes it here. He's been successful. I think that this is a place where he could spend another 10 years," Escamilla said.
Peña believes Superintendent Marrero has made it clear he wants to leave, she also does not give him high marks on job performance, arguing that the achievement gap between high income and low income students has widened under his leadership in the past five years.
Board President Xochitl Gaytan declined an interview request about the letter. In a statement, she said the board "is on our traditional July sabbatical and we will return for our regularly scheduled work session on Aug. 13. My hope is that we continue honoring our governance role."
Marrero also declined to be interviewed for this story. In a statement, he said he has "clearly articulated my concerns" and that the board has not "responded substantively to the concerns I raised."
The school board has not scheduled a meeting to respond to the superintendent's concerns.
When Marrero's contract was renegotiated last year, board members serving at the time agreed to raise the number of votes needed to terminate him from four to five -- a supermajority of the seven-member board.
Read a copy of the superintendent's letter:
And see his contract:
