Denver school board member Donald “D.J.” Torres resigned unexpectedly Thursday, a decision that comes after months of infighting among the seven directors overseeing Colorado’s largest K-12 district.
The Board of Education met virtually Thursday for an already planned meeting, during which directors accepted Torres’ resignation and once again delayed a vote on whether to censure — or publicly rebuke — member Monica Hunter until Oct. 8.
The board was expected to vote on whether to censure either — or both — Hunter and Torres on Thursday after board President Xóchitl Gaytán levied numerous allegations of policy violations against the pair. But directors decided to wait until next week when an outside investigation into accusations that Hunter made antisemitic comments about a Jewish colleague was completed.
Gaytán on Thursday asked her colleagues to prepare to have a discussion and vote on Hunter’s censure at next week’s meeting.
“We can’t continue to postpone and push this off further,” she said. “Continuing to put this off would not be good for this board.”
Gaytán has accused Torres and Hunter both of not fulfilling their duties as elected board members, saying that Torres, specifically, has repeatedly missed board meetings. The board president has made numerous allegations against Hunter, including that she made antisemitic comments about a Jewish colleague.
“…I have experienced an environment where an extraordinary amount of energy is spent on the adult conflict itself,” Torres wrote in his resignation letter. “I no longer believe continuing to invest my time and energy in that environment is an effective way for me to serve students, families, or the broader Denver Public Schools community.”
Torres did not attend Thursday’s board meeting and declined to comment further about his decision.
The remaining six directors will now have to appoint a replacement for Torres’ seat and has 60 days to do so.
“This should serve as a wake-up call to this School Board and DPS leadership,” said Rob Gould, president of the , in a statement about Torres’ resignation. “For far too long, too much time and energy has been consumed by interpersonal conflict among the people at the very top, while failing to address the urgent challenges facing our students, families, schools, and educators.”
Allegations against Torres and Hunter
Torres spent almost 10 months on the school board after being elected last year and his term wasn’t expected to expire until 2029.
Torres issued a statement about his resignation, which he said is effective immediately, in a four-page letter. He attributed his decision to the infighting that has plagued the board this year, saying that he has “been pulled away too many times from focusing on kids” because of the disagreements among DPS leaders.
“I did not run for office to spend countless hours navigating interpersonal conflict,” Torres wrote in a statement. “I did not run to participate in cycles of accusation and response. I did not run to watch personalities, procedures, power, and politics consume time that should belong to students. I did not run believing adult problems should become the defining work of a board responsible for nearly 90,000 children.”
He was one of three new members who joined the board in December. The new directors, which included Hunter, were all backed by DCTA. Gaytán, also backed by the union, was re-elected last year.
Despite being on the same slate during the election, divisions quickly appeared among school board members this year. Torres and Hunter have had disputes with DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero and Gaytán about how the board should operate under the district’s governance model.
Earlier this year, Marrero accused board members of overstepping their authority by wading into the day-to-day operations of the district.
Likewise, Torres and Hunter have indicated possible willingness to replace Marrero as superintendent, including when they tried to schedule a meeting this summer to discuss and take action on Marrero’s employment. The pair failed to gain enough support to convene the board, saying that two of their colleagues backed out after initially supporting the meeting.
Tensions between board members escalated last month when Gaytán accused Torres of violating board policy by not regularly attending meetings and carrying out his role as treasurer.
She also accused Hunter of numerous policy violations, including that her employment with the state’s largest teachers union carries potential conflicts of interests for the board.
Gaytán accused Torres of missing regular meeting, several work sessions, and meetings of the finance and audit committee — and canceled or failed to attend virtual meetings with district employees. Torres previously pushed back on Gaytán’s assertions that his behavior amounted to policy violations.
In his resignation letter on Thursday, Torres said the stress from board’s conflict “has negatively affected my mental health and overall well-being.”
The impact of Torres’ absence from the board was already apparent on Thursday. Without him, Hunter and director John Youngquist were left to shift as the board’s minority on certain votes.
This includes when the board voted to rescind a previous vote initiating the investigation into the antisemitic allegations against Hunter. The reason for the vote was to open the door for a conversation about the other allegations against Hunter and Torres.
Last month, when the board initially voted to launch the investigation, Youngquist asked his colleagues to also drop further discussion of the additional accusations made against Hunter and Torres.
All six directors present for the vote approved Youngquist’s request, but Gaytán, Amy Klein Molk and Marlene De La Rosa later said they misunderstood his amendment and still wanted to have a conversation. (Director Kimberlee Sia was absent from last month’s meeting.)
The board met in a closed session for more than a hour with an attorney to discuss the third-party investigation and other matters related to the allegations made against Hunter.
Board shortens timeline for Hunter investigation
After rescinding last month’s vote, the board voted for a second time to approve the antisemitic investigation into Hunter but significantly narrowed the scope of the inquiry.
Gaytán pushed for an investigation that would only have an outside investigator interview herself, Hunter, Klein Molk, and Marrero with a findings report finished by next week — a move the board president said she wanted because of costs.
The board recently approved an agreement with law firm Holland & Knight. The firm can charge as much as $1,000 an hour for services provided to the school board, according to the agreement.
“The concern for me is the cost and how we use taxpayer dollars,” Gaytán said.
Gaytán, Marrero and Klein Molk have each submitted statements to the board that accuse Hunter of referring to Klein Molk, who is Jewish, as a “Zionist bitch.” Hunter has denied the allegations.
Hunter and Youngquist pushed for a wider inquiry — which was ultimately approved by the board — that would give the investigator more leeway to talk to other potential witnesses.
“I do think itap very important to investigate,” Hunter said. “… I’d rather be thorough and let them take their time and do a professional job rather than quickly and cheaply.”
The fact that the board would only allow a week for the investigation stands out compared to similar actions taken by past DPS boards. Last year, outside attorneys spent several months investigating allegations that Youngquist mistreated employees of color. That investigation cost DPS more than $78,000 and resulted in the board censuring Youngquist.
A censure is a formal reprimand of a board member and is the strongest step board members can take against a colleague. A school board can not remove a director from their position.
“I believe (an investigation) is clearly supported by the community,” Youngquist said about the inquiry into Hunter.
Klein Molk said she was open to the investigation’s scope expanding, but not changing the timeframe for the finalized report. The report will be finished on Oct. 8, a day after the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel three years ago.
“There are folks that have had things to say and this will give them the opportunity,” Klein Molk said. “It has been my desire to do this in a way that brings people together and stops dividing us.”
