DENVER — In a letter sent Monday from former Denver Mayor Federico Peña and Mayor Michael Hancock to the members of the Denver Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education, the mayors expressed concern for political fights among board members and the alleged mistreatment of the district's superintendent – who resigned earlier this month.
"What’s clear is that the road to our collective vision of a great city begins with great schools," the letter reads. "We have been involved in education for decades and are deeply concerned about the current Board of Education’s undermining of Superintendent Susana Cordova, which caused her to take her many talents to Dallas, Texas."
RELATED: 'It is truly bittersweet': DPS superintendent heading to Dallas after building career in Denver
As it continues to work through challenges from COVID-19, the district has been under scrutiny for months – less than a week after Cordova announced her resignation, the deputy superintendent announced he's also leaving.
Cordova said in a briefing following her announcement she hadn't' been looking to leave but was approached by the leader of the district in Dallas, who has been a mentor of hers for years.
The letter from the mayors says over the past two decades, DPS has steadily made improvements in reading abilities, graduation rates and the number of students moving on to higher education. DPS today has a growing number of Colorado’s highest performing high schools for low-income and students of color.
"Tragically, this steady progress is now jeopardized as we lose Superintendent Susana Cordova, the first Latina school superintendent in Denver," the letter reads.
The mayors go on to say Cordova was mistreated at board meetings, and board members "interfered in the day-to-day management of the school system" and "opposed her efforts at almost at every opportunity."
"It is tragic to watch political fights among adult school board members with personal agendas and little focus on student success," the letter reads, going on to say the mayors "do not believe that this dysfunctional board can now attract a more capable superintendent than Susana Cordova, the leader who has worked her entire adult career for the students of Denver and for our city."
The letter urges the school board to take specific steps to "regain some semblance of credibility among the broader community." Those steps include an independent committee of residents to lead the hiring of a new superintendent, immediately developing a new strategic plan and taking action to restore that confidence.
Tay Anderson, a vocal DPS board member and community activist immediately fired back at the mayors' letter calling it an "overreach of government."
Late Monday, the board released a video statement saying they were sad about Cordova's departure.
"Any time we spend discussing external claims takes us away from our priorities focused on placing an interim superintendent to guide us through this transition; and reopening our schools for our students and teachers. Like we always say to our students, be kind to each other," the statement reads in part.
>> Watch the video statement below or read a full transcript at the bottom of this story.
In a recent Op-Ed published in Westword written by former DPS board members, they say "the district lost a highly gifted and effective superintendent with an extraordinary record of accomplishment. And responsibility for this loss can be attributed in large measure to school-board members who created a hostile work environment."
The Op-Ed claims Cordova was regularly interrupted, talked over and routinely discounted by board members.
For nonprofit Transform Education Now, an organization focused on uniting families with their school leaders, their main concern about the DPS Board of Education is that there is not a strategic plan for the future.
" I think our board has championed issues and has done some incredible work to date but I couldn’t tell you what our plan as a district was," the organization's co-founder and executive director, Nicholas Martinez, told 9NEWS.
"We owe it to our communities to have a plan on where we want this district to head towards," Martinez said. "Without that, I think it’s’ going to make it even more challenging to attract someone who has the big ideas and the big solutions and to really get them excited to work with our communities to improve our schools."
Full letter from Peña and Hickenlooper
Full statement from DPS Board of Education
Thank you to everyone for your continued support and feedback as we navigate yet another difficult transition for Denver Public Schools. We are sending this statement to speak to Denverites who are made up of our students, our staff, our neighbors, and our community members.
We speak to you as duly elected members, selected by you, to represent your voice on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education. We are former teachers in DPS, we are organizers, we are parents of DPS students, we are bilingual. We are a recent alum, a reverend, a lawyer, a child of immigrants, and a former lieutenant governor. We are honored to lead the students of DPS into a future where all students can receive the best public education to thrive and learn. Students are always at the forefront of all we do. We are grateful for the many comments, suggestions, and voices that have provided us with a lot of feedback and much to consider. We welcome the chance to talk with everyone including fellow elected leaders, once we have a process in place. We also want and encourage the many voices in our community, who care so deeply about our schools, to help us during this process.
We always receive feedback from the communities we represent with openness and reflection. Our goal has remained steadfast; ensuring we have the best schools for the students in our community. We have been working through the timeline for transition, naming an interim, and a process for a superintendent search. We ask for your patience keeping in mind we are in the midst of a pandemic. We will share the process with the community before any decisions are made. We will also announce an interim leader during the first week of December.
The Board has been clear that the Superintendent and her staff focus on the crisis priorities over the last 6 months in order to best serve our students and staff during this pandemic. In addition, the superintendent and the Board agreed to delay work on the next Denver Plan to best meet the urgent needs of our families in DPS. And, we know that this board believes in community voice as evidenced by the work we’ve taken on and how we’ve elevated students, teachers and principals voices. In addition we’ve highlighted the voices of the communities who elected us. We are committed to listening to all voices in our search, so that our students can have the public schools that they deserve.
All Board members were surprised and saddened by Susana Cordova’s departure. We wish her the best of luck in her new job in Dallas. Any superintendent taking over when she did would have stepped into a difficult position. When she started, DPS was in transition as we came off of 10 years of one administration. That meant there were challenging situations to manage, with new POVs When we hired her, we recognized that she had the skills and passion to work with DPS. As we face leadership changes, one thing that stays the same is our commitment to prioritizing our students.
How we spend our time over the next days and months will be critical. Any time we spend discussing external claims takes us away from our priorities focused on placing an interim superintendent to guide us through this transition; and reopening our schools for our students and teachers. Like we always say to our students, be kind to each other.
We are community and we will need each other. We call on everyone to model for our students how we can work together to build a strong public education system that we can all be proud of. We too always welcome constructive help and feedback. We particularly welcome help from any city leader, former school board member, and any concerned community leader to reopen our schools for a safe return in January. Again, we look forward to finding the next great leader of DPS. We will continue to work towards our vision of grassroots decision making, and elevating the voices of our most precious stakeholders.
We commit to seeing this moment as an opportunity to reflect on the past but not repeat it, and embrace the possibilities for all of our students. We will be providing updates to the community as we work to find a new leader for DPS.
- a statement from the Board of Education, Denver Public Schools
November 23, 2020