Despite an anodyne name, the dormant City-School Coordinating Committee that Denver city officials are seeking to revive has become a flashpoint in a seeming power struggle with leaders of Denver Public Schools.
The intent of the committee is simple enough, as city officials want to establish a formal channel for regular discussion of safety challenges and other school issues of public concern. But debate that played out in public Wednesday between district officials and City Council members — including over who will serve on the new panel and how it will operate — underlined potentially higher stakes, especially as Mayor Mike Johnston this week took sides in the contentious fall DPS board elections.
Johnston previously referred to the fractious school board as “a public embarrassment” during this year’s mayoral campaign. He called for change Tuesday when he endorsed a trio of reform-minded candidates. Those three have all backed a reform platform for the district put forth by Educate Denver, a civic group that also supports the coordinating committee’s reactivation.
Two of Johnston’s favored candidates are running against incumbent school board members who have the backing of the teacher’s union.
Deep Badhesha, Denver Public Schools’ government political liaison, on Wednesday lamented what he described as City Councilwoman Amanda Sandoval — a member of Educate Denver — pushing through the proposed ordinance language on an “express timeline,” despite repeated requests by the district to slow down and work more collaboratively.
A council committee that DPS hoped to delay went ahead anyway on Wednesday. The panel advanced the proposal, which would revive and update the City-School Coordinating Committee in the city’s laws, to the full council for potential consideration next month.
The coordinating committee, an advisory body, has been part of Denver’s municipal code since the 1930s, according to Sandoval. But the group hasn’t been convened in years, since the first term of former Mayor Michael Hancock’s 12-year tenure.
In the wake of significant recent school safety challenges in DPS and an affordable housing crunch more broadly, Sandoval said she felt it was time to bring it back. Joining her last week in announcing the move were Johnston as well as former mayors Wellington Webb and Federico Peña, also members of Educate Denver.
But some DPS leaders view city officials’ intentions suspiciously — or worry that DPS critics will latch onto it.
“I believe that there are some folks in community that also would weaponize this ordinance and think of this as the council taking over control of the school board, and that’s just not true,” DPS board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson said during the committee meeting. He went on to defend the current board’s track record and said “this ordinance does need a little bit of work before the council takes a final vote.”
“Not a move to take over DPS”
Johnston, a former educator, long has been viewed as a political foe by teachers unions dating back to his time as a state senator, when he championed reform legislation that included a law overhauling teacher evaluations.
Last week, mayoral spokeswoman Jordan Fuja said the efforts to revive the coordinating committee are “not a move to take over DPS, but rather increase collaboration for overall success of kids.”
Johnston also is not the first Denver mayor to issue endorsements in DPS board races, something Hancock also did while in office.
The DPS board has come under scrutiny for its frequent infighting and some decisions regarding the district, most notably those related to school safety following the March shooting at East High School. The board voted in 2020 to remove Denver police officers from schools, a decision reversed this year.
On Denver’s Nov. 7 ballot, three school board seats are up for election, including Anderson’s at-large seat; he has chosen not to run for reelection as he pursues a bid for the state House.
Johnston endorsed John Youngquist for the at-large seat in a four-way race, along with Kimberlee Sia for District 1 and Marlene De La Rosa for District 5. The Denver Classroom Teachers Association is supporting Kwame Spearman for at-large and incumbents Scott Baldermann in District 1 and Charmaine Lindsay in District 5.
District officials and members of the Board of Education have been irked by the ordinance-drafting process for the coordinating committee’s revival. They have questioned its intent, especially since last week’s news conference unveiling the move was planned without their advance knowledge.
Appearing before the council’s safety, housing, education and homelessness committee Wednesday, ordinance co-sponsors Sandoval and Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez defended their proposal.
“So the intent of this ordinance is to achieve the most effective possible coordination and utilization of all resources of the city and the school district that may serve the recreational, educational, cultural and social needs of the city,” Sandoval said.
The two council members emphasized that they have been seeking district input on the ordinance since Aug. 21.
Their hope: that the group would meet at least six times per year to discuss ways city government and the school district can work together on shared goals. There would be no penalty for committee members who miss meetings.
Also, the committee would have no power to enact policies on it own — only to bring ideas back to the City Council and school board.
“More opportunity for collaboration”
Sandoval and Gonzales-Gutierrez said they would work more with DPS to iron out sticking points over the next few weeks. They agreed not to schedule a final vote on the ordinance until after the council’s Nov. 6 meeting, which would avoid conflicting with the council’s consideration of the city’s 2024 proposed budget.
“This is not the only time that changes can be made. This is not the end-all, be-all,” Gonzales-Gutierrez said. “There is absolutely, of course, more opportunity for collaboration.”
Even as the committee advanced the ordinance to the full council, it was clear some council members had reservations.
Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, who isn’t a voting member of the safety and education committee, urged her colleagues to take a pause to “focus on bridge building instead of bridge burning.”
DPS officials last week had asked Sandoval and Gonzales-Gutierrez to delay consideration in part because of concern the proposed ordinance might infringe upon the district’s legal autonomy and governance model.
Badhesha, the district’s political liaison, said the district has been working diligently with the sponsors to get the legislation to a place where the district can accept it.
Concerns remain about a perceived imbalance of power in the makeup of what would be a nine-member city-school committee. As proposed, the mayor or a designee would get a seat, as would the DPS superintendent or a designee. Then would come two City Council members and two members of the district’s board.
Finally, there would be seat for the director of the city’s Office of Children’s Affairs and two community members — one chosen by the superintendent and one chosen by the City Council president.
DPS officials view that as a 5-4 advantage for the city.
Some district leaders also express concern about calls for the creation of bylaws for the coordinating committee without specifics about what those bylaws would entail. Badesha, in an earlier email that requested a delay in this week’s council hearing, called out Sandoval for publicly putting forward a timeline the district felt was unworkable, with a final vote in a matter of weeks.
“Councilwoman Gonzales-Gutierrez did a lot of the heavy lifting to make sure this was collaborative and came at it with good intentions,” Badhesha said in a hallway outside the council chamber Wednesday. “I wish I could say that for her co-sponsor.”
Anderson said that despite misgivings about the council’s early approach, in the last two weeks he has appreciated his near daily communication with Sandoval and Gonzales-Gutierrez.
Updated 12:16 p.m. Oct. 19, 2023: This story has been corrected since publication to remove a mistaken characterization of the relationship between the civic group Educate Denver and three school board candidates endorsed by Mayor Mike Johnston. Those candidates have backed the group’s reform platform for Denver Public Schools.
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