Author: Melanie Asmar

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.Hiring an external attorney to help negotiate the superintendent’s contract could cost the Denver school board as much as $1,000 an hour.The board voted 5-1 Thursday to approve an agreement with a law firm called Holland & Knight, which has locations nationwide, including in Denver. Board member Marlene De La Rosa was the sole no vote because she said the agreement was too expensive. An attorney the board has sometimes used in the past, whose…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.The Denver school board has ordered an investigation into allegations that Vice President Monica Hunter used a derogatory term to refer to a Jewish board member. The board voted unanimously on Thursday to hire an independent investigator to look into claims by board President Xóchitl Gaytán and Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero that Hunter allegedly called board member Amy Klein Molk a “Zionist bitch” in separate conversations with them in December and January. Hunter…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.Two Denver school board members accused of policy violations are demanding an independent investigation into the allegations, which include that one of them used antisemitic language.Board Vice President Monica Hunter and member DJ Torres sent a letter Friday to the school board president, Denver Public Schools’ superintendent, and the district’s attorney asking that the board hold off on taking any action until an investigation is complete.After an initial discussion about the allegations Wednesday, board President…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.A discussion of alleged policy violations by two Denver school board members began with a quarrel about whether the board was properly following the policy on alleged violations.It ended with most members saying they take such accusations seriously, especially an allegation that Vice President Monica Hunter used antisemitic language. But they didn’t say how they would vote on a possible censure, with some saying they don’t have all of the facts.Last Friday, board President Xóchitl…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.Jefferson County voters will decide in November whether to approve $133 million in tax increases to boost teacher salaries, fund more career and technical education classes, repair school buildings, and improve security systems.The Jeffco school board voted unanimously Thursday to put two measures on the Nov. 3 ballot. If passed, the measures would increase property taxes by about $42 per year on every $100,000 of a home’s value, according to a district spokesperson. For a…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.Denver Public Schools’ standardized test scores have gone up under the watch of Superintendent Alex Marrero, but not enough to meet all of his goals.In 2022, a year into his tenure as superintendent, Marrero released his first-ever strategic plan. Among the plan’s academic goals: to increase the number of students scoring at grade level on math and literacy tests by 10 percentage points by 2026.None of Denver’s overall scores improved by 10 percentage points, data…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.The Trump administration on Friday gave Jeffco Public Schools 10 days to change its policies on transgender students’ rights or risk losing federal funding.The federal Office for Civil Rights previously found that Jeffco’s policies on bathroom use, sports participation, and overnight accommodations violated Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination. Investigators said they found 61 boys’ names on Jeffco girls’ sports rosters. The district said the names belonged to managers, trainers, and mascots…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.An all-gender bathroom in a Denver high school was at the center of the first sex discrimination investigation of the second Trump administration. A year and a half later, the federal Office for Civil Rights has taken no enforcement action. Neighboring Jeffco Public Schools, meanwhile, has been threatened with the loss of federal funds after investigators said they found boys’ names on girls’ sports rosters. Citing policies on locker room access and overnight field trips,…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.When the federal education department announced in March that Jeffco Public Schools had in its view run afoul of anti-discrimination law, it cited one key piece of evidence: rosters indicating 61 boys were on girls’ sports teams. In a letter to the community this week, Colorado’s second largest school district said no boys were competing on those teams — and offered an explanation.“Some teams had male managers, trainers, or mascots — not athletes,” the letter…

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.Before a ban on cellphones, Jill Haffley said her classroom “was like Vegas.”“The cellphones were lighting up all the time,” said Haffley, who was a teacher for 30 years before being elected to the Colorado Springs School District 11 school board.Weary of the distractions, Haffley ran for office in 2023 on a platform of banning cellphones, and the 23,000-student District 11 did it starting in the fall of 2024. Haffley said that if you ask…