A judge on Tuesday denied Denver Public Schools’ request to put on hold his order requiring the district to publicly release its recording of a closed-door Board of Education meeting in March, but did give DPS two more weeks to turn it over.
Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen ruled last week that the school board violated state law when it met in an executive season on March 23, the day after the shooting inside East High School. He ordered the school district to release a recording of the meeting by noon Monday, but DPS appealed that ruling.
The judge’s order came after a coalition of media organizations, including The Denver Post, sued DPS, alleging the board violated Colorado law by making policy decisions behind closed doors and not properly declaring an executive session.
DPS now plans to ask the Colorado Court of Appeals to put a hold on Luxen’s order, district spokesman Bill Good said.
An attorney representing DPS argued during Tuesday’s hearing that releasing the recording while the district appeals the ruling “would effectively end this case.”
“Once you release it, it’s out there, it’s over,” attorney Jonathan Fero told the judge. “There’s no reason this can’t be held and preserved up until the time we have an appeal.”
But Steven Zansberg, an attorney representing the news organizations, said that they and the public have a “statutory right” to receive the meeting recording on a timely basis while the topic is still newsworthy and public debate is still occurring.
“We do have a statutory right to speedy access,” he said during the hearing, adding that the appeals process could postpone the disclosure of the recording for more than a year.
Fero countered, saying an appeal “doesn’t have to go on for years.”
“The Court of Appeals can expedite the appeal and we’re not categorically opposed to that,” he said, adding, “The defense here has always been to protect this recording.”
The board met in an executive session on March 23, a day after a student shot and wounded two administrators inside East. After the meeting, board members voted unanimously — and without any debate — to approve a memo that temporarily suspended a 2020 board policy prohibiting armed police in schools.
The board has since fully reversed that 2020 policy, allowing school resource officers, or SROs, to return more permanently to campuses. Superintendent Alex Marrero is also expected to release his final districtwide safety plan — which was also a directive included in the memo — later this week.
DPS moved Monday to prevent the release of the recording, requesting a hold on Luxen’s order while the district appeals the ruling.
Luxen denied the request during the hearing Tuesday morning but amended his order, giving DPS until noon on July 11 to release the recording.
Fero also argued during the hearing that the public interest in the recording has “lessened substantially” in the months since the meeting, notably because the board has since permanently reversed its ban on SROs.
“That previous action was temporary,” Fero said of the March memo. “Is there interest in knowing what individual board members felt about that decision at the time?”
“It’s over,” he added. “They debated it publicly.”
Zansberg pushed back on the argument, saying that the March meeting included “a discussion of the pros and cons of placing police officers” back into schools.
“This whole statute is about timely access to government information, not historical access,” he said.
The news organizations that filed the lawsuit include The Post, Chalkbeat Colorado, Colorado Newsline, KDVR Fox 31, KUSA 9News and the Denver Gazette/Colorado Politics.
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