Denver’s school board violated Colorado law when members met behind closed doors the day after the shooting inside East High School, a judge ruled Friday, ordering Denver Public Schools to publicly release the recording of the entire meeting within three days.
The Denver Post and five other Colorado news organizations sued the school district, alleging the Board of Education violated the Colorado Open Meetings Law when it met in an executive session — which was closed to the public — on March 23, one day after a student shot and injured two administrators inside East.
As part of the lawsuit, the media coalition sought the release of the meeting’s recording.
“We’re pleased that the court found that the Denver Public Schools violated the open meetings law and that the public will soon have access to the recording of the closed executive session during which school officials discussed re-deploying armed police officers to local high schools,” said Rachael Johnson, attorney for the media coalition, in a statement. “A discussion about the public’s business, especially school safety, cannot be conducted in secret.”
Bill Good, a spokesman for DPS, released a statement, saying, “While we respect the Court, we disagree with the ruling and will be appealing the decision.”
But at least one school board member — Vice President Auon’tai Anderson — said the district should not appeal the ruling.
“Let’s admit if we got it wrong and utilize this opportunity to learn and move forward rather than engage in a costly and potentially reputation-damaging appeal,” he told his colleagues on the board in an email obtained by The Post.
“We have nothing to hide and the public should know what took place on that day,” Anderson said in an interview.
Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen on Friday issued an order that found the executive session was “convened in violation of statute” because the topics discussed during the five-hour meeting were not properly noticed beforehand.
As a result, “no resolution, rule, regulation, ordinance or formal action of the Denver School Board adopted during the executive session is valid, by operation of law,” Luxen wrote.
Earlier in the week, Luxen had ordered DPS to turn over a recording of the meeting to the court for a review, saying that there was “a reasonable belief” that the board adopted a policy or position or discussed topics behind closed doors that were not permitted by state statute.
When the school board emerged from its executive session on March 23, members had a prepared memo that temporarily suspended a 2020 board policy banning armed police in schools. Board members voted unanimously to approve the memo without any debate.
The board fully reversed that 2020 policy last week, allowing school resource officers — or SROs — to return more permanently. Superintendent Alex Marrero is expected to release his final districtwide safety plan, which he has been crafting following the board’s directive in the March 23 memo, next week.
Anderson on Friday questioned whether the board — which was divided in its decision to reinstate SROs — would have done so if not for the memo. He also questioned whether the judge’s ruling would impact Marrero’s safety plan.
“I have a lot of questions,” he said, adding that members have not yet met to discuss the court’s ruling and that he believes the decision to appeal should be made by the board instead of district leaders.
“I’m deeply frustrated with finding out such a crucial decision in the media and not the district,” he said.
The media organizations alleged that the board violated state law by making policy decisions behind closed doors and by not properly declaring an executive session beforehand.
In his order, Luxen found that board members discussed topics behind closed doors that are not permitted by state law, and adopted a policy or took formal action. The board also did not properly notice the executive session, he wrote.
The Colorado Open Meetings Law states that “the formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret,” according to the lawsuit.
The board did not cite specific state or federal statutes or rules that supported keeping information confidential and it was unclear what information members considered subject to such laws, Luxen found.
“(T)he court could not identify instances within the executive session with discussion of issues subject to federal or state confidentiality law or rules or regulations,” the judge wrote.
The board also did not discuss the topics cited in the meeting notice that it issued for the executive session, the judge found.
For example, it is appropriate to call an executive session to discuss security arrangements or investigations, such as defenses against terrorism, or where disclosure might reveal information that could be used to carry out a crime, Luxen said.
But the board only discussed general security arrangements, including the return of school resource officers to Denver campuses, and such discussions are not covered by the law cited, he wrote.
The board had also cited a state law that allows members to go into a closed-door meeting to discuss individual students when the public disclosure of that information would harm the person involved.
“Although there was a discussion of an individual student during the executive session, the nature of that discussion would not adversely affect the person involved,” Luxen ruled.
Luxen has ordered DPS and the school board to release the recording of the entire executive session to the media organizations and the public by noon Monday.
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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