Denver Public Schools Board of Education approves $975 million bond package

The Denver Public Schools Board of Education on Thursday unanimously approved a nearly $1 billion bond package that voters will consider in November.

The vote came shortly after Superintendent Alex Marrero quizzed board members on various aspects of the proposed bond, including whether it would increase taxes.

“No,” the board answered in unison.

“This is not a rubber stamp,” said Chuck Carpenter, the district’s chief financial officer. “This was really intense community work.”

The $975 million bond package includes:

• $301 million for “critical maintenance” with 154 buildings receiving upgrades.

• $240 million to equip 29 schools with air conditioning.

• $100 million for “learning environments” in 136 schools.

• $124 million for new facilities in the far northeast

• $127 million for Arts, Athletics and Innovation.

• $83 million for safety and technology.

“Every school in the district will receive something,” said Trena Marsal, chief of operations.

With the average building across the district 55 years old, nearly $1 out of every $3 of the proposed bond will be used to update the district’s aging buildings.

“That’s really old,” Carpenter has said. “They break and we need to fix them.”

The Community Planning and Advisory Committee — which unveiled their recommendations in May — was tasked with identifying school needs for a bond package.

The package also includes more than $200 million to give air conditioning and cooling upgrades to 29 schools. Hot classrooms have remained a stubborn issue in Denver. Officials have attempted to tackle the issue by throwing millions at the problem for years and created an interim solution: “heat days” in which students are sent home early.

The district in 2021 also pushed back the return to school by a week in an attempt to mitigate the high temperatures Denver often experiences in August.

Classrooms can get as hot as 92 degrees.

The proposed $975 million bond package represents the largest to be put before voters.

To date, voters have approved $2.3 billion in ballot measures the past four presidential elections.

The district’s ballot measures have been so successful that Marrero joked that he had to keep reminding himself — during the advisory committee meeting in May — to say “proposed” bond.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, a former English teacher and principal, has endorsed the bond proposal, calling it a “big vision for what is possible for Denver.”

“We know that there’s no way you can have a great city without a great school district,” Johnston has said.

Colorado Schools are funded, based on enrollment, by the state’s General Fund and through local property taxes.

The proposed bond comes as the district faces declining enrollment, tighter school budgets, teacher layoffs, and likely additional school closures.

Denver Families for Public Schools and EDUCATE Denver — civic organizations concerned about the state of public education — have both endorsed the bond proposal.

“All DPS students deserve learning environments that are safe, comfortable and highly functional,” said Rosemary Rodriguez, chair of EDUCATE Denver, in a statement. “The capital resources on the table can support them to that end.

“As civic leaders, we endorse an effort to procure critical resources, but emphasize the need for very sound oversight," she said. "We owe that to the Denver community and especially to our DPS families.”

In other district news, officials on Thursday released the new discipline matrix used to address student misbehaviors that has a dozen new conduct categories, including students who commit or attempt murder.

Characterized as a “level 7,” students who cause “the death of another person” could receive five days of out-of-school suspension and a mandatory expulsion request.

Level 7 offenses also include attempted homicide and possession of a firearm.

The upgraded discipline matrix is expected to go into effect this school year.

The matrix came under fire last year from parents after a troubled student at East High School shot and wounded two administrators. The teen, Austin Lyle, was accepted as an out-of-district transfer student who required a daily patted down for weapons as part of his safety plan.

Parents have contended that those who pose a safety threat should not attend class with the general student body.

“The Discipline matrix is not the entirety of the DPS behavior prevention and intervention plans, programs and resources,” district officials said in a statement. “It is also not the entirety of the DPS student safety work, such as the details of search processes, threat response processes and emergency management.”

The district's former interim deputy chief of Support Services for Department of Climate and Safety Melissa Craven has said that the single most effective thing the district can do to protect its nearly 90,000 students is to rework the discipline matrix.

“The circumstances that lead to the shooting at East on March 22 were not a failure of the department of safety, but that of DPS policy that has become offender centric rather than student safety centric,” Craven has said.