A divided Denver school board voted Thursday morning to give Superintendent Alex Marrero a 10% pay raise, increasing his base salary to $305,000.

Three members of the Board of Education voted against the pay increase, with two questioning how the board went about negotiating the new contract.

Directors Auon’tai Anderson and Michelle Quattlebaum said they didn’t necessarily disagree with giving Marrero a raise, but, rather, they did not believe the process was transparent nor did it reflect the voices of all seven members of the board.

“I find it difficult to vote on something that I was not authentically nor transparently involved in,” Quattlebaum told her colleagues.

But, she said, denying an employee a pay increase “doesn’t sit right for me either.”

“I believe as a board we could do better,” Quattlebaum added.

Quattlebaum, along with Anderson and Scott Esserman, voted against the superintendent’s new contract, which also extends his employment at Denver Public Schools by a year, to June 30, 2026.

Four other directors voted in favor of the raise with little debate. Board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán noted that while Marrero was in charge of the largest school district in Colorado, his previous salary ranked lower among other superintendents.

“Our hope is that this pay raise would better align him with his peers,” Gaytán said.

Jeffco Public Schools’ board voted in December to extend Superintendent Tracy Dorland’s contract for three years to June 30, 2027. As of December, her salary was $279,916.

When the Douglas County School District hired Erin Kane as superintendent in 2022, the school board agreed to pay her $250,000. Kane can receive a raise any time the district grants one to administrators, according to her contract. The district has approved a 5% salary increase for administrators for the 2023-24 academic year, according to its website.

Aurora Public Schools will pay its new superintendent an annual base salary of $285,000 when he starts this summer, The Sentinel reported.

Marrero will earn $28,646 more a year than he did previously. His initial contract gave him an annual base salary of $260,000, but he currently is making $276,354 a year because of a cost-of-living increase.

Marrero’s new base salary will increase each year on Aug. 1 at the rate of the local Consumer Price Index and he can earn performance bonuses if he meets certain goals, according to his contract.

The board hired Marrero in 2021 after Susana Cordova, who led the district for about two years, resigned. About six months into Marrero’s tenure, the board extended his initial contract by two years so that it would run through June 30, 2025.

The vote on the new contract comes as city leaders and community members have criticized the district for plans to close schools amid declining enrollment and its response to school safety.

Board members have at times said they were blindsided by Marrero’s plans to close schools. The first plan, which was both proposed by the superintendent and rejected by the board last fall, was altered twice as DPS ultimately reduced the number of schools recommended for closure from 10 to two.

(The board later decided to close three schools in the coming months.)

There also was a dispute between the district and the Denver mayor’s office after the March 22 shooting at East High School and after the board voted to put school resource officers back into high schools nearly three years after deciding to remove them.

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson alleged Marrero told directors that if they didn’t act then there was a plan for Mayor Michael Hancock to use executive action to put armed police back into schools.

The mayor’s office has repeatedly denied the allegations, but Marrero told The Denver Post that he and Hancock did discuss such use of executive power.

In April, Denver City Council members criticized Marrero for not attending a meeting with them about school safety, Axios Denver reported.

The Board of Education has met with Marrero several times in executive sessions — which are closed to the public — since last year to discuss his contract.

Quattlebaum said the way the board handled the contract negotiations was “improper” because DPS’s general counsel represented the school board.

Instead of meeting in a closed session in April to discuss the contract, directors received emails about the negotiations and were told they had less than 24 hours to review potential changes and provide feedback, she said.

Quattlebaum said she was told that four board members already had given attorney Aaron Thompson authority to move forward with negotiations.

“Historically, when districts are negotiating contracts, it is done through general counsel,” Gaytán said in an interview, adding, “The process was a fair, equitable and transparent process.”

But Anderson said during the meeting that three board members were left out of the negotiations, although he did not specify who.

“I’m quite frankly upset,” Anderson said.

Thompson said during the meeting that he sought feedback from board members during negotiations.

“This is not a document approved by four board members,” he said. “I did seek input and only some board members decided to provide input.” 

But later in the meeting, Anderson asked: “Who was the one who helped craft this contract?”

Gaytán replied, saying the comment was “inappropriate.”

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Updated 1:50 p.m. May 18, 2023: This story previously reported an incorrect salary for DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero and incorrectly characterized his pay raise. Before Thursday’s vote, Marrero was making $276,354 a year because of a prior cost-of-living increase, meaning his new salary will increase by $28,646, or 10%.