Editor’s note: This column ran as a pro-con with another opinion piece that argued it is time for Superintendent Alex Marrero to lose his job.
Among us, we carry decades of struggle for Denver’s children. We have fought for Denver students, organizing around education, opportunity and justice. We have seen superintendents come and go. We have seen boards rise to the moment and boards collapse into politics. And we know a coordinated campaign when we see one.
In recent weeks, the drumbeat against Superintendent Alex聽Marrero聽has grown relentless.
A columnist has demanded he be fired “for cause.” Both of this city’s major editorial boards have now weighed in — one cheering last month that his departure would bring “overdue relief,” the other declaring this week that it “would say good riddance” to him, while simultaneously insisting he serve out the remainder of a contract it demands never be renewed. They want him gone, but not enough to honor his contract; they want him to stay, but only to run out the clock. The story being written across Denver’s commentary pages is one in which Superintendent Alex Marrero is the problem with Denver Public Schools. It is a story that requires readers to ignore the record, ignore the board’s own conduct, and ignore a double standard our communities recognize all too well.
Start with the supposed scandal: two of the largest school districts in America — Chicago and Miami-Dade 鈥� considered Marrero for their top job. In any other profession, this would be understood as evidence of caliber. Superintendents across the country are recruited constantly; their boards call it a point of pride. When was the last time the nation’s biggest districts came looking for a Denver superintendent? Yet here, an Afro-Latino leader being sought after is spun as betrayal, and his interest in professional opportunity is treated as grounds for termination. Only some leaders are vilified for being wanted. We notice which ones.
Now consider the record. Under Marrero’s leadership, Denver Public Schools returned to pre-pandemic academic performance, earned green accreditation status from the state, and posted historic graduation rates — all while navigating a once-in-a-century pandemic recovery, the trauma of school violence, declining enrollment, and a looming fiscal cliff facing every urban district in America.
Even his harshest critics cannot make those numbers disappear. The Denver Post’s editorial board concedes that Denver’s schools have thrived during his tenure — and then credits everyone but the leader, attributing the gains to principals, teachers, and staff. Our educators absolutely deserve that credit; they always do, and no superintendent succeeds without them. But notice the sleight of hand. When districts led by men and women of color struggle, the superintendent owns every failure alone. When they succeed, the credit suddenly becomes a group project. That is the double standard, printed in black and white on the editorial page.
Consider, too, what Marrero was mocked for saying: that his open commitment to Black and Latino students, immigrant families, and LGBTQ+ youth may have made him less attractive in Florida’s political climate. Anyone watching what is happening to public education in this country knows he told the truth. A superintendent who refuses to sanitize his commitment to historically underserved children should be defended by this city — not derided for his honesty.
Are the remaining achievement gaps unacceptable? Yes — and no one knows it more intimately than the Latino, Black, Native American, Asian, and low-income families who live those numbers every day. Our lives’ work has been closing those gaps. But let us be honest about what closes them: stability, sustained investment, community partnership, and educators empowered to lead. What does not close them is a revolving door of leadership, a board at war with its superintendent, and a press corps treating our schools as a political blood sport. Districts that churn through superintendents do not close achievement gaps. They widen them.
Which brings us to what these critics conveniently omit: the board’s conduct itself. A judge has already ruled that this board held an illegal closed-door meeting. Legal experts have publicly questioned other board processes. When a superintendent working in that climate formally documents his governance concerns in writing, that is not “gamesmanship.” That is what any responsible executive — and any competent attorney 鈥� would advise. The paper trail is not the dysfunction. The paper trail is the response to the dysfunction.
Our communities have seen this playbook before — with past board members, and now with new ones. Denver is living through a period of distrust and confusion about roles and responsibilities in DPS. Several new board members, less than eight months into their elected positions, appear to believe they know how to run the district better than the professional staff 鈥� interjecting personal instincts to circumvent district policy and undermine the superintendent. That is not acceptable. If this erratic governance behavior continues, our Black, Brown, and Native communities will not sit by while the education of DPS students is disrupted. This is not an indictment of every board member. Going forward, we will stand with those board members who stand with our kids and families.
We do not ask anyone to declare Marrero beyond criticism. Accountability is not the enemy — our communities built institutions on the belief that our children deserve excellence and should demand it. But accountability means honest measurement against honest conditions, applied equally. It does not mean manufactured outrage, selective statistics, and a standing invitation for the superintendent to fail.
Step back from the contract clauses and the column inches, and ask the question this entire debate keeps missing: What should be true for every child who walks through the doors of a Denver Public School? Regardless of neighborhood, race, language, or family income, every student should leave our schools prepared to think critically, solve problems, contribute to their community, and believe they belong. That is the standard our communities hold — for the superintendent, for the board, and for the press that covers them both. Every argument that does not serve that outcome is noise.
Denver’s children — the majority of them children of color 鈥� are watching how the adults behave. They deserve a board focused on their classrooms rather than on relitigating a contract. They deserve a press that scrutinizes power in all its seats, including the board’s. And they deserve leadership that supports them in doing the hard, unglamorous work of improvement rather than being pushed toward the exit and then mocked for looking at the door.
Our communities stand with the work. We will keep standing, as we have for generations. The question is whether the rest of this city’s leadership will stand with our children — or keep playing politics with their future.
Nita Gonzales is principal of Nuevo Amanecer, LLC, a longtime Denver educator and community leader, and led Escuela Tlatelolco for four decades. John Bailey is the director of the Colorado Black Round Table. Shannon Francis is the executive director of Spirit of the Sun, a Native American-led organization serving Indigenous youth and families in Colorado.
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