The Denver Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously this morning to release the March 23 recording of its executive session, 120 days after the secret meeting was held to discuss rescinding a district policy banning police on campus.
The vote marked a dramatic departure from what the district has maintained — that the closed meeting was warranted.
The board has not discussed a date for the release of the recording.
A coalition of media outlets — including The Denver Gazette and Colorado Politics — sued the Board of Education and Stacy Wheeler, the district records custodian, demanding the recording be released.
Last month, Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen — who spent two days listening to the five-hour executive session — ruled the district “engaged in substantial discussion of matters” not on the agenda and ordered the DPS to release the audio recording.
Luxen also said the school board failed to adequately cite the law that prompted the confidential meeting.
DPS exceeded two deadlines to release the recording.
Under Colorado law, state and local governments are required to discuss and take action in meetings that are open to the public. The law provides an exception for specific purposes, such as when consulting a lawyer or discussing personnel matters, among others.
However, any action must be carried out in public.
“This case involves a coalition of the media’s insistence on uncovering a local school board’s private discussions held immediately after a school shooting,” the district argued.
In response, the media coalition filed a motion for contempt, arguing that the district “has not, and cannot, make ‘strong evidence’ that it is likely to succeed on the merits of its appeal.”
The day after an East High School student shot and injured two administrators on March 22, the board held an executive meeting to discuss safety issues.
Unbeknownst to the time, Superintendent Alex Marrero had requested within hours of the shooting that the board meet in secret to discuss the district’s ban on school resource officers (SROs), according to an email obtained under the Colorado Open Records Act.
The legality of the five-hour executive session was questioned after the board emerged March 23 with a memo temporarily lifting the district’s policy banning SROs and unanimously approving the measure, without discussion.
The long-term return of SROs was formally approved by the board last month. By 2020, the district had severed ties with the Denver Police Department over concerns about what activists described as the school-to-jail pipeline.
Several controversies have since surfaced.
These include Mayor Michael B. Hancock’s threat to intervene with an executive order if the council does not act and Council Speaker Xóchitl Gaytán’s unsuccessful attempt to reprimand Vice Council Speaker Auon’tai Anderson for leaking information shared in executive session at a press conference.
Anderson has since been the only voice calling for the recording to be released, saying on Twitter that the community “deserves to see the tape”.
Editor’s Note: This is a developing story and will be updated.
