The Denver school board will investigate allegations that Director Monica Hunter made antisemitic comments about a Jewish colleague, marking the third time in five years that the governing body of Colorado’s largest K-12 district has hired an outside firm to look into alleged misconduct by a board member.
The Board of Education approved the third-party investigation during a meeting Thursday night without any discussion or debate.
“I think we all agree this is an appropriate way to move forward,” board President Xóchitl Gaytán said.
But the board’s vote to initiate the investigation was marred by confusion, leaving it unclear what — if anything — the governing body will do about the numerous other policy violations Gaytán has accused Hunter and fellow Director Donald “D.J.” Torres of committing in recent months.
Thursday’s meeting was the latest in a line of recent gatherings by the board in which members have shied away from working out their disagreements with each other — a fact noted by Director Amy Klein Molk, who urged her colleagues to have a transparent conversation.
“In order to serve our kids we have to be a fully functioning body and we are not that right now,” she said. “I have very serious concerns over how conduct has been handled. We need to have a conversation at minimum. We keep skirting around these conversations.”
The meeting followed months-long infighting among school board members and, occasionally, district leaders, including Superintendent Alex Marrero. At the crux of DPS leadership’s conflict are differing views of how to work under the district’s governance model.
Marrero, board President Xóchitl Gaytán and others have accused Hunter and Torres of repeatedly overstepping their authority as board members and intruding into the day-to-day operations of the school district. Hunter and Torres have denied that their actions amount to violations of board policy.
Gaytán has accused Hunter and Torres of not fulfilling their duties as elected board members. She said Torres repeatedly missed meetings and levied numerous allegations against Hunter, ranging from concerns that the director’s job with the statewide teachers union presents a conflict of interest to the accusation that Hunter advocated for the potential transfer of her own son to a different school.
Hunter has said she believes the allegations made against her are retaliation for a push she and Torres spearheaded last month to have the board discuss and take action on Marrero’s employment as superintendent.
Confusion over Thursday’s vote
The most serious allegation levied against either director is the accusation that Hunter made antisemitic comments.
Gaytán and Marrero have said in statements submitted to the board that they had interactions with Hunter in late 2025 and early this year in which she allegedly made antisemitic remarks about Klein Molk, who is Jewish.
Hunter, the board’s vice president, has denied that allegation.
Gaytán, who said she first heard Hunter call Klein Molk a “racist Zionist bitch” in December, said Hunter’s comments were made in reference to not wanting Klein Molk to hold an officer position on the board, and that she didn’t want to sit beside Klein Molk during meetings.
“Tonight, I am asking every one of us to listen with curiosity, with courage and with compassion,” Klein Molk said earlier in the meeting. “Let us show our children that we can disagree without becoming divided. Let us show them that our differences can make our community stronger, not weaker.”
Zionism is the belief that Jewish statehood belongs in Israel.
“If the allegations are true, the language would be concerning not simply because it is offensive but because it appears to target, vilify or punish an individual because of a perceived connection to Israel,” Susan Rona, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League Mountain States, said in a statement.
During Thursday’s meeting, Director John Youngquist asked his colleagues to approve the investigation into the allegations of antisemitism, but cease any further discussion of the additional accusations made against Hunter and Torres.
Initially, all six of the board members who were present voted for Youngquist’s amendment. (Director Kimberlee Sia was absent because of a medical emergency.)
But Gaytán, Klein Molk and Director Marlene De La Rosa later said they hadn’t understood Youngquist meant to drop the additional allegations altogether.
“Director Youngquist read it multiple times,” Hunter told her colleagues. “Everybody’s responsible for understanding the motions.”
Gaytán, Klein Molk and De La Rosa said they preferred to postpone the discussion until the outside investigation was completed, but still believed the other accusations needed to be addressed.
“I don’t want to push all of that aside and say we are not showing good governance,” De La Rosa said. “…We are obligated to hold each other accountable to that, and I don’t want to just dismiss it.”
Klein Molk and De La Rosa then tried to recall their votes, prompting Gaytán to move the board into a recess so that directors could figure out how to proceed.
Directors tried to pass various measures when they returned from the recess, including Youngquist’s motion again and one by De La Rosa to table the discussion until Sia could join rejoin the board. But without Sia as the seventh — and tie-breaking — vote, each measure failed 3-3.
What happens now with the other allegations against Hunter and Torres — including whether the board will vote to censure the pair — is unclear. The board has the ability to take up the issue again at a different meeting, including to rescind Youngquist’s amendment.
Calls for an investigation
Hunter and Torres last week requested the board hire an outside firm to investigate the allegations, including what role DPS employees played in gathering and developing information. Torres on Tuesday echoed those calls in a statement in which he questioned the involvement of district staffers.
“I have also received deeply concerning information that district staff and counsel may have been involved in the development and advancement of these allegations,” Torres wrote, adding that he was concerned about whether such directives were an appropriate use of district resources.
“Denver Public Schools staff members provided minimal assistance that was consistent with their regular job duties in supporting the Board of Education,” district spokesman Bill Good said in a statement. “Any accusation that staff members acted improperly is categorically false.”
The last time the school board hired a firm to investigate a director was in 2025 after Marrero accused board member Youngquist of discriminating against employees of color. That investigation found Youngquist’s behavior toward DPS staffers was “belittling, dismissive and condescending,” and, ultimately, the board censured — or formally reprimanded — Youngquist for his behavior.
Youngquist denied the allegations, calling them retaliation from district employees.
A censure is a rare step DPS school boards can take to rebuke a colleague. The board does not have the authority to remove a member.
A previous board censured former director Auon’tai Anderson in 2021 after a third-party investigation found he flirted online with a teenage student and made intimidating social media posts.
On Thursday, the board heard from community members who encouraged the district to undertake an investigation into Hunter and others who took directors to task for their recent infighting.
“You all seem to be (more) focused on personality differences than real work,” said Mia McLellan, who supported Hunter, during public comments.
Other speakers said antisemitism is not uncommon in the district — pointing out that the sign-up period for Thursday’s public comment session occurred during Rosh Hashanah.
“A Jewish director whose public work has nothing to do with Israel is defined by it simply because she is Jewish,” said Brandon Rattiner, senior director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, during public comments.
