Editorial | Less squabbling from the Denver Public School Board, please
Denver Public Schools at-large board member and treasurer Scott Esserman, center, addresses board president Xóchitl Gaytán, with back to camera, during a DPS retreat held at the Wings Over The Rockies on August 8, 2022 in Denver, Colorado.
First, the board has been set up to fail by a new governance model adopted last year. It should not be the job of the board president to police the behavior and actions of other board members. Such a model would create conflict with any organization, let alone one that was already on edge following a months-long investigation. School Board Director Tay Anderson was accused of rape in 2021, but the investigators found the allegations were not credible .
Board directors are duly elected to represent voters and should be empowered to speak out on issues and advocate in the community for what they think is best, even if that is at odds with the majority vote of the board. And critically, Gaytán can’t police other directors’ behavior. Voters are the ones charged with judging the actions of directors at the ballot box, and their say is final.
Just how childish were the board members acting? One of the facilitators scolded them at the end of the meeting, noting that their conflict, some of which comes from a divide between the Black community in Denver and the Hispanic or Latino community, was doing real harm.
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