Children are trapped in dysfunctional schools that continue to waste taxpayer dollars because some Denver School Board members prefer petty politics to the grim reality of doing their job and making difficult management decisions.
PeakNation™ will know right off the bat which member is as the center of controversy. Again.
The school district is facing a deficit of nearly $24 million, and their newly hired superintendent was given a mandate to develop a school consolidation plan.
So imagine the shock and horror of certain board members when Superintendent Alex Marrero actually presented a consolidation plan.
Why didn’t Marrero warn the board he was going to do as directed and recommend schools be closed, they demanded to know.
Why didn’t he tell them which schools should be closed before telling them which schools should be closed, they further demanded.
Why is the school board led by president Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, who is Hispanic, so racist, impugned Auon’tai Anderson and his political operative buddy Hashim Coates.
The temper tantrums these men throw are just so extra.
Jimmy Sengenberger gives the ringside view in his Denver Gazette column:
Around an hour into the meeting, Anderson left the dais to sit in the audience for hours – an unorthodox thing for a board member to do at a school board meeting. It was as if he wanted to appear as the sole board member aligned with a distraught public. It also meant that Anderson was not far from his friend, political operative Hashim Coates, when the latter spoke nearly four hours into the meeting.
Coates’ testimony became extraordinarily combative when Gaytán interrupted him for addressing unrelated issues and cut him off due to time limits. She ultimately called on security to remove him when he refused to leave. Anderson stood behind Coates, arms crossed, staring up at his colleagues in a clear show of opposition. From the dais, Esserman likewise backed Coates and objected to security.
Eventually, Gaytán requested that Anderson “please join us over here at the Dais.” They went to a ten-minute recess. Upon return, Coates was allowed more time.
“They love to silence the voices of people that are not white,” he bemoaned, speaking of Gaytán and Superintendent Alex Marrero. “Skinfolks are not our kinfolk.”
Read how the whole drama unfolded here.
So when Tay and pals objected to the original plan to close 10 schools, the superintendent shaved the list down to five, and then again down to two.
Guess who took issue with removing schools from the closure list?
From the Denver Post:
Anderson said he felt blindsided by Marrero’s alteration of his closure recommendation for a second time, saying that he felt the superintendent was trying to win votes. (An accusation Marrero denied by saying, “Look at the outcome.”)
“As the vice president of the board, at the very least, I should have been read into this,” Anderson said, adding, “That was very frustrating and I hope the superintendent will understand this is not the appropriate way. I will be taking steps to investigate further if there was prior knowledge of this revised recommendation to any board member.”
Anderson said he has filed a request under the Colorado Open Records Act for copies of any emails and text messages his colleagues on the school board might have exchanged with Marrero related to the vote.
As best we can tell, what Anderson wants is for the superintended to kiss his ring and personally brief him on everything before it goes to any other board members.
It’s all very childish. So embarrassing. So Tay.
The only board director to vote for closing at least two schools was director Scott Baldermann.
