The November 29 announcement that Susana Cordova had been chosen as the sole finalist for Denver Public Schools (DPS) Superintendent came as good news to some but an unpleasant shock to others. Ever since former DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg said on July 17 that he would step down, rumors persisted that DPS insiders had already handpicked Deputy Superintendent Cordova as his successor. But days after Boasberg’s announcement, Denver’s Board of Education (BOE) made one of their own: they would conduct an utterly transparent, community-informed, nationwide “Super Search” to find, as BOE President Anne Rowe said, “the best possible individual to lead DPS forward.”For four and one-half months, over 4,500 citizens — families, students,educators, even DPS’s staunchest critics — attended community forums to say what they wanted in a new superintendent. Then the BOE called a last-minute meeting to say they had a finalist: Susana Cordova.
Community Engagement: Many Denver citizens participated inthe Super Search Community Engagement process. On September 22, 2018, at the Montbello Community Center, a table of educators, former educators, former BOEmember and community leaders try and nail down what attributes they prize in aschool superintendent. Left to right: Rachael Lehman, Margaret Bobb, CarolMarch, Xochitl Gaytan, Amy Carrington, Earleen Brown, Jeannie Kaplan and MarySam.
Critics got their mojo back and denounced DPS for wasting
taxpayer money with the elaborate (nine Town Halls, 100 small forums, two
consulting firms) and expensive ($161,375) Super Search. But Rowe proudly
pointed to the high level of community involvement and, brandishing the 86-page
Community Report, she defended the coincidental nature of the board’s choice:
“Cordova possesses every attribute the community said it wanted.”
Was Susana Cordova truly the best person to lead DPS
forward? Or had the Super Search been, as many claimed, a “super sham?”
Continue Or Confront?
Part of the answer, some said, lay in the mess Boasberg left
behind as he flew off to Singapore for his new job. Besides scandals at several
high schools, a more difficult-to-address mess lay in the educational policies
Boasberg had cemented into the city’s school system, policies that a new
superintendent would either continue — or confront.
Many parents and educators agree with East High Principal
John Youngquist’s statement that “DPS needs to address failure.”
For 15 years, DPS has hewed to only one education theory:
the data-driven “reform” model. Boasberg did not just follow his friend and
predecessor Michael Bennet’s reform ideas. Aided by an unusually long tenure
(10 years) and cooperative (or convinced) boards, Boasberg brooked no
opposition as he installed reform notions like high stakes testing, evaluating
teachers on student test scores and closing neighborhood schools.
In recent years, however, evidence has flowed in that reform
educational notions make bold promises but bear little fruit. The Gates
Foundation admits “We haven’t seen the large impact we had hoped for.” Closer
to home, in April 2018, the National Association of Education Progress (NAEP)
released data showing DPS’s “achievement gap” between low-income students and
those from more affluent backgrounds as unusually large. Another study showed
that gap to be third largest in the nation. Even pro-reform groups like A+
Colorado admit “Denver has “some of the largest [achievement] gaps between
different groups of students.” Since 70% of DPS students are black or Hispanic,
a majority low-income, many parents have grasped the significance of the
achievement gap.
Increasing numbers of Denver parents and teachers haveformed and joined community groups to “take back” their public schools. Manyworked to elect school board candidates who felt similarly. This last election,two such candidates, Dr. Carrie Olson and Jennifer Bacon, won seats — and on November 29, voted “no” on the resolution to approve Cordova as sole finalist.(There were three finalists, but two dropped out.)
Educational Activists: Education activists, who representdifferent groups and perspectives, but are united in their belief that DPSneeds to create loving and safe neighborhood schools — left to right, frontrow: Xochitl (Sochi) Gaytan and Earleen Brown; back row: Sadie Castleberry,Samantha Pryor, Brandon Pryor, H-Soul Ashemu, Cassandra Craft-Johnson, DeronnTurner, Alan Belliston, Mr. Gaytan, Mary Sam, Jeannie Kaplan, Kelly Molinet,Gabe Lindsay. Ashemu, Craft-Johnson, and Gaytan are leaders of Our Voice OurSchools (OVOS); Craft-Johnson is a leader with the Black Child DevelopmentInstitute of Denver (BCDI) and the Pryors are activists with Warriors for HighQuality Schools.
After the resolution passed, 5-2, Cordova said, “I learned a
lot from Tom, but I am not him … I’m a much more collaborative leader.” Some
believed Cordova was signaling her intention, once appointed, to listen more
closely to the community than Boasberg ever did.
The BOE is due to appoint someone — almost certainly Cordova
— on December 17. Until then, Cordova anticipates showing — at community
meetings around the city — ”what I believe and who I am.”
Who Are You?
Referencing the list of attributes the community said it
wanted, one DPS principal said, “They want an educator above everything. Susana
has spent her entire career as a teacher, principal, administrator. Check. They
want someone committed to Denver … who sends their kids to DPS schools. Check,
check, check …”
Board Vice President Barbara O’Brien said Cordova fulfills
other community requests “coming from the Latino community and being
bilingual.”
On December 5, at North High, in Cordova’s first appearance
since being named finalist, a colleague described Cordova as “warm, caring and
sensitive,” then opened the floor for questions.
“What will you do about the achievement gap?” a parent
asked.
“Being Latina … the achievement gap is very personal to me,”
Cordova began. “I know what that gap means to families … jobs …” She then
proceeded to deliver upbeat generalities; e.g., “With support, our schools can
improve”; “We need to value our teachers more”; which caused an observer to
mutter, “Platitudes will get her nowhere. She needs a specific plan!”
Only when asked twice if “school closings are still on the
table, “ did Cordova go specific. “I think [closing a school] has to be one of
the tools in our toolbox,” she finally said.
Why Not Cordova?
“The strategies [Cordova] championed as deputy
superintendent are now being held up as examples of why the reform movement is
not working,” says teacher Anna Noble.
Final Candidate: Denver Public Schools has advanced just onename for its top job: Susana Cordova. The current Deputy Superintendent forDPS, Cordova would succeed longtime superintendent Tom Boasberg, who announcedhis retirement in July.
“If these policies aren’t working, why would we want someone
who believes in them to be superintendent?” says former BOE member Jeannie
Kaplan.
“I went to the [December 5] meeting with an open mind,” says
Jane Diamond, activist and DPS parent. “I believe that Susana is a bright and
sincere person. What I didn’t hear was passion, innovation, energy, anything
new or inspiring.”
“New direction is needed,” insists DPS parent Maggie Miller.
Activist Brandon Pryor recently brought attention to
Cordova’s involvement in the “AmeriCorps scandal.” The AmeriCorps program,
overseen by Cordova and two others, was terminated in June 2018, when a state
agency discovered DPS hadn’t complied with requirements and must pay the
program back. “This will set taxpayers back millions,” said Pryor, who said the
real scandal was Cordova’s complicity “with a program that allowed unlicensed
individuals to teach in DPS classrooms.”
Conflict Of Interest?
Cordova is married to Eric Duran, Managing Director in the
Denver office of D.A. Davidson, a firm that has participated in bonds where
Denver tax dollars go to a charter school. Contradicting O’Brien’s insistence
that “there is no conflict of interest … Eric’s firm has not done business with
DPS charters for 10 years,” public records show only a few years back, Duran’s
firm did an $8.3 million-dollar deal with a DPS Charter School known as
Highline.
Duran’s firm has pledged “not to conduct business with DPS.”
But some point to Cordova’s already profiting from charter school bond deals as
sufficient conflict of interest.
A Little Help From Her Friends
Months before the Super Search meetings began, parents and
community leaders were urged through phone calls from a DPS insider to be “part
of the campaign to support Susana Cordova.” One parent said the caller
“insisted ‘Susana was her own person.’ So I asked, ‘Then why does she support
Boasberg’s policies?’ and they said, ‘Oh, she can’t say no to her boss!’”
“It could be Susana has been in DPS too long,” mused Kaplan,
whose vast store of knowledge about DPS and fairmindedness are respected on all
sides. “But maybe … she’s biding her time, waiting till she’s confirmed to
break out of the mold.”
Endgame
In a November 28 post on her blog Kaplan for Kids, Kaplan
gave a blistering assessment of DPS’s history and suggested that DPS, rather
than learning from failure, seeks to hide that failure by appointing Cordova.
In a more recent conversation, Kaplan said she wished
Cordova well. “I want her to succeed! And I think she could, if she sees this
as a great opportunity. But in order to succeed, she has to reach out to the
other side.
“A perfect way to do that,” Kaplan said, “would be to name
Antwan Jefferson — he does amazing work — as deputy superintendent. That would
bring a whole other part of the community into this discussion.” “She could, if
she really wanted to, be a bridge-builder! And that would be so amazing for
DPS.” Others say that Cordova should pick a deputy superintendent that aligns
with her as well as the majority of the BOE opinions.
It is said that politicians are attracted to money like
flies to a dung heap. In Denver no one loves the smell of money more than City
Council President Albus Brooks, a close ally of ethically challenged Mayor
Michael Hancock. He is expected to succeed Hancock in four years assuming
Hancock prevails in his quest for a third term this spring.
Brooks has the full confidence and support of the
high-density developers that own and control Mayor Hancock. Brooks’
subservience to developers has gotten him in trouble at times with some of his
constituents in District 9. Developers have begun to gentrify his district with
high-density developments driving some African American families out of Denver
where they have lived for generations. His tone deafness over the Ink! Coffee
shop controversy highlighted how out of touch he was with the many issues
important to the residents of his District. Brooks has only exasperated his
problems by his remarks on Colorado Public Radio where he appeared not to grasp
the concept that “involuntary displacement” was very much of a concern to
homeowners in Five Points, Elyria-Swansea and other neighborhoods in his
District.
Brooks infamously declared on the radio: “Displacement is
not in the home ownership category. It’s in the rental category and someone
cannot afford what their landowner is jacking up the price with, right? And so,
that is something that we are working very hard on.”
These comments helped Candi CdeBaca decide to run against
him this spring in the city election. She has stated: “He didn’t understand the
nuances of involuntary displacement. That is directly connected to his power
and his purview. He should know all of the ins and outs of it.”
What Brooks does understand is money or more specifically
how as a politician he gets his hands on as much of it as possible. While high
density developers strongly support him as he does their bidding, he is not
particularly liked by them on a personal basis. His cryptic nickname among some
developers and lobbyists is “The Buddha.” It is not that he has any interest in
that Eastern religion but rather the fact that many statues of the Buddha have
him sitting with his left palm pointing upward. According to his critics Brooks
shakes your hand with his right hand while his left palm points upward to be
greased.
This leads to his latest money-making scheme — heroin
injection sites. There is big money to be had by politicians in drugs these
days. On the Republican side Colorado Senator Cory Gardner and former Speaker
of the U.S. House John Boehner have become ardent advocates for the
legalization of marijuana across the country notwithstanding spending most of
their political careers adamantly opposed the same. What changed? Once pot was
legalized in states like Colorado and California there arrived a river of money
for politicians and lobbyists who would help overcome federal constraints on
the drug.
Brooks’ nose for money has led him to an even more lucrative
drug field — heroin. Mexican drug cartels are facing a crisis. With
legalization of marijuana in various states no one needs the cartels to grow
marijuana in Mexico and ship it across the border. Moreover, cocaine is no
longer the drug of the young and the hip and usage is dramatically down. What
is up is opioid addiction and in particular heroin addiction. What is holding
back this growth market is the terrible stigma attached to heroin use.
That is where politicians like Brooks can help. He has
gotten the Denver City Council to approve so called “safe injection sites.”
Heroin users are provided free needles, syringes, septic pads and a private
place to shoot up. Medical attendants will be there to administer Naloxone in
case of an overdose. Of course, once you have one site you will need many more
as addicts driving to and from a single injection site to get their multiple
daily fixes is generally not to be encouraged.
If you want more of something you subsidize it, but that is
not the key service Brooks is providing to the cartels. What the cartels need
to grow their heroin businesses is for the stigma of heroin use to disappear.
What better way than state and municipal sanctioned and supported “safe”
injection sites to say to today’s youth that the hellish existence of a heroin
addict is just one of many different but acceptable lifestyle choices. In
places like Vancouver, Canada where there are safe injection sites, the use of
heroin has skyrocketed and while there are no reported deaths at the sites
there plenty nearby.
The Buddha, of course, is just trying to be “compassionate”
to heroin users and the cartels who support and nurture them. Brooks will get
rich in the process. If there is any justice in this world, kids and their
families who become addicted to heroin because of the actions of Councilman
Albus Brooks will someday go visit him in what grand mansion he will be
ensconced in to personally thank him for the destruction and damage he has wrought to them.
As 2018 ends and 2019 peeks its head around the corner I
have a news flash that should not come as a news flash: raising kids is damn
hard! It appears as if raising kids in 2019 will be as challenging as raising
kids in 2018. As a father of three teenagers I face the daily struggle of
limiting phone time, arbitrating sibling arguments, and trying to figure out
where the heck they are all the time and who they are with.
Teenagers can really test a parent’s patience and sanity.
Don’t get me wrong, I like my kids. A lot. But parenting is really hard. And
now that my kids are knee deep in high school and middle school we have to
address the alcohol and marijuana issue. You know, that issue.
It’s a balancing act talking to your kids about the dangers
of drugs/alcohol and at the same time letting them know that IF they choose to
indulge that we absolutely do not want them to be afraid to let us know if they
need a safe ride home or need our help if they are struggling with substance
issues.
On the one hand we cannot, as mature, law-abiding parents,
condone our kids engaging in illegal and self-destructive behavior, but on the
other hand we don’t want to see their bad choices have deadly consequences. Our
law firm has for years hosted a free community seminar titled “High School Boot
Camp” for parents and students to address the dangers associated with
alcohol/drugs as well as a host of other issues. Even with all my knowledge and
training I am often frustrated by the complexities of how to raise kids.
Telling our kids that we will be there for them, no
questions asked, if ever they need our help during such a drug/alcohol crisis
is a mixed message. However, it is a mixed message that is entirely reasonable
in light of the fact that teenagers’ decision making can often be suspect. I am
willing to say that in this case a mixed message is pragmatic and essential to
the well-being of our children.
But the mixed messages our children face are even more
complicated now that marijuana has become ubiquitous in Colorado. What once was
taboo a few years ago is now mainstream. And now just in time for 2019, the
City of Denver is making it even harder for parents to teach our children correctly
with the nation’s first legal heroin injection sites. Yes, you read that
correctly.
Just this past month the Denver City Council voted 12-1 to
legalize heroin injection sites with city support. Call me old-school but I
don’t think we should be making it easier to shoot heroin; yet the Denver City
Council thinks that the benefit of being able to provide “safe places” for
heroin addicts to get high outweighs the negative impact this will have on the
City. This is the city’s attempt to play parent to the teenager. Except we are
not talking about being too drunk to drive home from a party and getting a safe
ride home, we are talking about engaging in highly illegal and self-destructive
behavior that ruins lives and destroys neighborhoods.
Trying to rationalize this city ordinance in any context is
dangerous. I applaud the city council’s desire to save lives, but this proposal
normalizes and essentially condones heroin use, with zero evidence that it will
save lives. Further, the crime and homeless problem will only get worse. Been
to Civic Center Park lately? Neither have I. It has become a mecca for heroin
abuse and violent encounters. That problem will only worsen. If you build it,
they will come.
While it is highly unlikely this heroin ordinance will survive
the state legislature’s ratification or U.S. Attorney’s challenge, the fact
that the city council wants to make our beautiful city more enticing to heroin
abuse is a sad commentary on what we deem to be permissible nowadays.
Thankfully councilman Kevin Flynn voted against this ordinance and I urge
everyone to call his office and thank him for his courage to do the right
thing. I also urge everyone to call their state representative and urge them to
vote against this bill if it comes up for discussion in 2019. It is an
unreasonable and dangerous response to a national epidemic. There are not a lot
of easy solutions to the opioid epidemic, but this is certainly going in the
opposite direction.
So parents, I hope 2019 brings joy, peace and lots of love to
your families. I hope you can devise a way to discuss these complicated issues
with your teenagers because I for one am tired of seeing good kids suffer
because their parents refused to engage in these challenging discussions. And I
hope the state legislature puts a swift and resounding end to Denver’s decision
to normalize heroin use in our city.
Danny is a managing partner of Foster, Graham, Milstein
& Calisher (FGMC). His practice focuses on personal injury. The law firm of
FGMC, located in Cherry Creek, is a full service law firm focusing on: criminal
defense, personal injury, real estate, litigation, liquor licensing,
construction law, tax/estate planning, bankruptcy and zoning. This article does
not create an attorney-client relationship and is for informational use only
(what do you expect from an attorney!)
Holiday shoppers will find bargains galore at Le Grue’s flower and Christmas store. LeGrue’s has been a must see decorating destination for 40 years at 476 South Broadway in Denver. The expansive store has one of the largest galleries of artificial Christmas trees in the area and has every style of holiday lights and decorations you could imagine.
But the owners are retiring after receiving an offer to purchase the building that was too good to pass up. That’s resulting in a new adventure for them and great deals for shoppers.
You will be able to find high quality artificial Christmas trees and decorations as well as silk flowers and plants. Le Grue’s also offers antiques and unique gifts. And everything in the store is for sale at huge discounts, as much as 50% off or more. “Everything must go,” the owners explain. They expect it will go fast and suggest people stop by and check it out sooner rather than later.
LeGrue’s owners say their customers and business neighbors have become their friends over the years and they say a special “Thank You” for all the support and great memories. “Le Grue’s has been an amazing journey,” they say. “And we are looking forward to new possibilities, adventures and beginnings.”
Le Grue’s is centrally located at 476 S. Broadway in Denver. The retirement sale is underway and will run through the beginning of the New Year.
Denver Landmark Closing: Le Grue’s, a shopper’s destination for 40 years on South Broadway, is closing its doors and holding a retirement sale.
