Superintendent Alex Marrero met virtually 74% of his targets throughout the 2024-25 educational yr, a measure that the Denver Public Colleges board stated displays a change in coverage governance and monitoring “moderately than a departure from progress or accountability,” in response to his analysis.
Marrero met a minimum of 85% of his targets throughout the earlier educational yr, in response to his 2024 analysis.
The board unanimously accepted the superintendent’s analysis at a public assembly Thursday after a number of discussions that had been held behind closed doorways in government classes. Board members didn’t communicate at size in regards to the analysis past praising Marrero.
“Your ardour actually is Denver Public Colleges,” board President Carrie Olson.
The seven-member college board prolonged Marrero’s contract by means of 2028 earlier this yr.
On the time, administrators stated they did so as a result of they needed DPS to have constant management as Ok-12 establishments face threats to federal funding, however neighborhood and political teams criticized the contract extension as a result of members hadn’t but carried out this yr’s analysis of Marrero’s management and since management of the varsity board might change after subsequent week’s election.
In extending Marrero’s contract, administrators additionally stripped Marrero’s skill to earn a bonus and made it more durable for future boards to fireside the superintendent with out trigger by requiring a supermajority, or 5 votes.
Marrero, who was employed in 2021, has led DPS by means of college closures due to declining enrollment, and because the district probably grew to become the primary within the nation to sue the Trump administration in an effort to forestall immigration raids from occurring in colleges. DPS dropped the lawsuit after the federal authorities stated it hadn’t modified federal coverage round immigration enforcement on college property.
“(I’m) actually appreciative of all that you just did to carry your groups collectively and work actually shut with us as a board to make sure that, at a time a extremely powerful resolution needed to be made, that we had been on board,” board member Kimberlee Sia advised Marrero about his dealing with of college closures.
DPS additionally met expectations in sufficient educational efficiency areas — similar to take a look at scores and commencement charges — throughout the 2024-25 educational yr that the district obtained a “inexperienced,” or Accredited ranking from the Colorado Division of Schooling for the primary time in six years. Inexperienced is likely one of the high rankings a district can obtain on the state’s educational framework.
DPS lately celebrated college students’ efficiency on final yr’s Colorado Measures of Tutorial Success, which noticed college students carry out the identical or higher in virtually each grade when in comparison with the 2023-24 educational yr.
The college board lauded Marrero for college kids’ progress on the standardized assessments, however famous that pupils’ efficiency in literacy failed to fulfill the district’s targets. “Persistent achievement gaps by race and particular inhabitants standing require continued focus, significantly in early literacy and differentiated helps,” members wrote within the 22-page report.
Neighborhood teams and college board candidates have criticized Marrero, and the district extra broadly, for not doing sufficient to handle educational gaps that persist amongst college students of colour and their white friends. For instance, solely 14.4% of fourth-graders who took the Spanish language arts examination confirmed proficiency within the topic, in response to the newest knowledge from the training division.
“This previous yr was troublesome due to all the pieces that was introduced as much as us,” Marrero stated when requested by Sia about educational outcomes. “We now have a chance upon us (to enhance educational outcomes).”
Get extra Colorado information by signing up for our Mile Excessive Roundup electronic mail publication.