Denver’s school board election has been full of curious twists, and one of the more interesting threads has been the influence of City Auditor Dennis Gallagher and his belief in recycling.
Gallagher, 68, the city’s auditor since 2003, endorsed three candidates for Denver’s school board who are calling for change and are not incumbents.
Larry Botnick in District 1, Ray Gutierrez in District 5 and at-large candidate John McBride are also supported by the teachers union.
Each candidate’s platform is similar, calling for more money for the classroom and more teacher and community involvement, among other things.
Gallagher, whose job it is to scrutinize the mayor’s office and city practices, says the endorsements have nothing to do with Mayor John Hickenlooper or his former chief of staff, Michael Bennet, who is now superintendent. Hickenlooper has not made an endorsement in the school board race.
“I do not think of it as competition with the mayor,” Gallagher said. “I am pleased to try to show the mayor the path to best business practices and procedures here in the city. The real reason I want to get involved is the future of the children in this city who are not being served by this current system.”
Gallagher said he encouraged Gutierrez, a 22-year-old dropout from North High School, to run for the seat in northwest Denver.
Gallagher knew Gutierrez, who was a checker at his favorite grocery store, and was impressed that Gutierrez went on to get his General Educational Development degree.
“He mentioned to me that he knows firsthand what is going on because he dropped out,” he said.
Gallagher’s office was accused of targeting city employees with a mailing campaign for the candidates he is supporting. But Gallagher said no campaign laws were broken because the addresses were obtained from a list of people who attended his private St. Patrick’s Day party.
Only two of nine DPS board candidates – Botnick and Gutierrez – have made recycling a top campaign issue. Gallagher agrees with them.
“It’s just very important,” Gallagher said. “I think they should get the kids out picking up the cans to recycle for the school district. That’s another community service that could be done.”
Gallagher said that he remembers a person at Regis University picked up aluminum cans and redeemed them for enough money to purchase a used van for the football team.
“Every chance we can, I think it is important to bring these (ideas) forward and save dollars,” Gallagher said.
Denver Public Schools has not developed a district-wide recycling policy, said Alex Sanchez, district spokesman. In the administration building, paper products and aluminum cans are recycled. But schools may develop their own programs, he said.
Botnick, who is a social worker, said getting kids to recycle would get them to think about global issues and how they affect the world around them.
“I want them to think outside of themselves,” said Botnick, who lists recycling as his No. 4 issue on his website – behind ending closed-door decision- making, getting kids appropriate learning materials and stopping teachers from leaving the district for better pay.
But others close to DPS and its issues say recycling is not a top-level problem.
“When kids can’t read, write or do arithmetic, I would rather spend our energies on that right now,” said school board member Michelle Moss.
Tony Lewis, executive director of the Donnell-Kay Foundation – a private education advocacy group – said the two critical issues facing DPS are student achievement and finances.
“My sense is that to fix the finances of the district, you probably should look at bigger issues than recycling.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
