For the second time this 12 months, Denver Public Colleges board members on Wednesday took John Youngquist to process for his conduct towards district employees, however the director was defiant within the face of his colleagues’ criticism as he reiterated his perception that district staff are retaliating in opposition to him.
Youngquist referred to as the allegations of racism and making a hostile work surroundings made by Superintendent Alex Marrero and different district employees in latest months an try and “intimidate and diminish me.”
“It has turn out to be clear sure members of the board and district management have tried to question my credibility,” he mentioned throughout Wednesday’s board assembly.
College board members referred to as the assembly to debate the outcomes of a third-party investigation that discovered Youngquist displayed “belittling, dismissive and condescending conduct” towards DPS employees. As administrators weighed in on the findings, which had been launched Monday, they referred to as for a second of reflection, however didn’t say what motion they could soak up response to the report.
Administrators are contemplating whether or not to censure — or formally rebuke — Youngquist and plan to proceed the dialog throughout a Nov. 13 assembly, which may lead to such a vote.
“There’s positively one thing that’s not working effectively in board interactions with employees, so we might need to discuss what can be subsequent steps,” board President Carrie Olson mentioned. “…That is one thing we don’t need to rush.”
The investigation was performed by attorneys with the Denver-based agency Garnett Powell Maximon Barlow and Farbes, which the board employed to look into Marrero’s allegations.
Within the spring, Marrero accused Youngquist of hostile conduct towards DPS staff — particularly employees of shade — and of wanting his job, in an electronic mail despatched to Olson. Marrero, in his electronic mail, requested that the board take the uncommon step of censuring Youngquist for his actions.
A censure is the strongest step the college board can take to formally reprimand a colleague. The board doesn’t have the authority to take away a member.
A DPS board final censured a member in 2021 after a third-party investigation discovered former director Auon’tai Anderson flirted on-line with a teenage pupil and made intimidating social media posts.
Wednesday’s assembly was the second time in 10 months that college board members have publicly scolded Youngquist for his conduct towards employees. Whereas latest DPS boards have turn out to be recognized for infighting lately, they not often air grievances brazenly as they did throughout the assembly.
“That is regarding repetitive conduct which will or could not change,” board member Xóchitl Gaytán mentioned of the investigation’s findings. “I’m nonetheless working by way of the findings of the report. Interested by how I need to deconstruct the white privilege that I learn in it and the way it’s taking part in out.”
Youngquist, who final week accused DPS leaders of retaliating in opposition to him, has repeatedly discovered himself in battle with district staff.
Employees, most of whom are individuals of shade, instructed investigators that Youngquist cuts them off in conversations, has refused to shake fingers and declines to fulfill with them. Staff mentioned Youngquist questions them to such an extent that it seems the director believes they’re mendacity or incapable of doing their jobs, in line with the report.
“We conclude it’s extra doubtless than not that Mr. Youngquist exhibited bias in interactions with some district leaders of shade,” investigators wrote of their findings.
In his assertion to the board, Youngquist, a white man, emphasised the investigation didn’t decide his conduct was pushed by overt racism — even because it additionally discovered that his actions had been the results of biases, together with when interacting with staff of shade.
“I maintain biases as every one in every of us,” Youngquist mentioned. “Our biases could or might not be represented in our conduct.”
Youngquist’s feedback fell in need of the accountability that a number of of his colleagues mentioned they had been looking for from him, and spurred board member Michelle Quattlebaum, who’s Black, to tears.
“I’m heartbroken,” she mentioned. “I’ve skilled racism, discrimination and oppression virtually each single day of my life. Mr. Youngquist, as I take heed to your assertion, my coronary heart broke.”
“What breaks my coronary heart is that I didn’t hear accountability,” Quattlebaum added.
Gaytán and Marlene De La Rosa — the opposite two administrators of shade on the board — pressed Youngquist on what in addition they mentioned was an absence of accountability in his assertion.
“I really feel disillusioned,” De La Rosa instructed Youngquist. “…I believed I knew you to be a unique particular person than that. If we don’t take accountability after we do issues that hurt individuals, that hurts their emotions, that make them really feel a sure means, we can not transfer ahead to succeed in our targets as a collective board.”
Youngquist responded by saying that he has beforehand reached out individually to district staffers whom he has offended. “Blanket degree of accountability will not be one thing that is smart to me,” he mentioned.
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