School systems began curtailing their spending last year by pulling back on staff raises, but now they are taking more drastic measures — marking a period of retrenchment that administrators say is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

“This is probably the first of a number of difficult budget years because the state of Colorado simply can’t invest in K-12 — not to say that (the state) really invested in K-12 over the last number of years either,” said Scott Smith, chief financial officer for , during a school board meeting last week.

The K-12 budget crunch stems from the fact that��enrollment is falling nationwide as fewer people have children and rising housing costs change where families live.

Generally, districts receive less money from the state when there are fewer children in their classrooms. The state uses a mechanism called averaging to determine how much money individual districts receive and to soften the impact of declining enrollment.

This year, Colorado used a three-year enrollment average, a change from last year’s four-year average. The change in how the state counts students is affecting districts’ bottom lines, and education officials are concerned about the state’s ability to implement the funding formula in the future given the government’s own budget constraints, officials who spoke to The Denver Post said.

While districts didn’t seeing a decrease in state funding this year, some, such as the , are receiving the same amount of money they did two years — which is a problem because the dollars that districts do receive aren’t stretching as far as they used to, as costs for health insurance, fuel and other expenses have increased, said Tracie Rainey, executive director of the .

“Every district is facing very different challenges,” she said. “They are very unique to every community.”

Democratic state legislators hope voters will approve a ballot measure in November that would exempt K-12 education funding from the spending cap set by the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights, which would increase education funding by giving the state a $4.5 billion buffer before it needs to refund money.

Several metro Denver school districts have recorded deficits in recent years, using money they had saved in their reserves to balance their budgets. But district officials said they can’t continue to rely on those savings to make ends meet.

As a result, and Cherry Creek Schools began cutting jobs this year, slashing 139 and 159 positions, respectively. Adams 12 Five Star Schools eliminated roughly 150 positions in 2025.

Cherry Creek will reduce about $23 million via the cuts, a move that enabled the district to balance its roughly $846 million budget without using reserves.

Jeffco Public Schools, the state’s second-largest district, has spent most of the school year implementing a plan to trim $45 million, which included laying off 50 employees this month and cutting 89 unfilled positions.

The district expects to use $13 million from its reserves to balance the 2026-27 budget, an improvement from the $49 million deficit Jeffco ran last year. Jeffco Public Schools’ budget is nearly $1 billion.

“We are doing the work to live within our means, we’re making financially responsible decisions, and yet the declines in enrollment are so great that we continue to grapple with it,” outgoing Superintendent Tracy Dorland said.

Jeffco Public Schools leaders are hoping voters will approve a $15 million mill levy override in November that can increase funding��for the district. Otherwise, the district will have a second round of reductions, Dorland said.

The , the state’s third-largest K-12 system, will��close three elementary schools at the end of the month in an effort to save money. Still, the district will operate at a $22 million deficit next year because leaders plan to give staff 2% raises.

The Douglas County district saved money during the pandemic when schools struggled to fill staffing shortages, which is now enabling it to increase employee wages — a priority in recent years —by dipping into those reserves, Chief Financial Officer Jana Schleusner said.

However, the district can’t continue to use the money stashed away and is planning to slash between $15 million and $18 million — cuts that are likely to include jobs — in the 2027-28 fiscal year, she said.

“This is probably about the last year to use our reserves to stay where we are,” Schleusner said. “…As a nation, our demographics are changing. People aren’t having as many kids.”

, the state’s largest district, was able to balance its billion-dollar budget for next year without using reserves. But district officials expect to begin running a deficit by the 2027-28 academic year, according to the

The district is facing a cumulative four-year deficit of $28 million between the 2027-28 and 2030-31 fiscal years, according to a presentation district officials gave the Board of Education in May.

“We can’t continue to do everything we are doing when we have substantially fewer children,” DPS Chief Financial Officer Chuck Carpenter said.

The district’s financial outlook for the next four years “is something to be concerned about,” he added.

The agency’s�� on Monday accused the district of having clubs that “exclude students based on race” and of using students’ race to determine class assignments and academic support, according to a news release announcing the investigation.

The Office of Civil Rights did not identify the clubs in question or provide further details about those allegations.

“We strongly disagree with the characterization of district programming,” Cherry Creek Schools spokeswoman Ashey Verville said in a statement. “The district has not yet received a copy of the complaint. Without the complaint, we are not in a position to respond further.”

The Education Department said it is also investigating a parent committee — called the — that the Office of Civil Rights said grants access based solely on race, “denying other parents an equal opportunity to participate in the decisions that directly impact their children’s education.”

The Voices of Color Committee is made up of parents, teachers and administrators and has a goal of creating “an inclusive and safe environment” for students of color, according to the district’s website.

The Education Department said it has received complaints that the district trains teachers that the U.S. “was founded on ‘white supremacy’ and categorizes individuals as ‘oppressors’ and ‘oppressed’ based only on their skin color,”��according to the news release.

The agency accuses Cherry Creek Schools of violating .

The Denver Post asked the Education Department for more information about its allegations against Cherry Creek Schools, but an unidentified spokesperson said via email that the agency would not comment on an open investigation.

“These allegations of racially discriminatory conduct in this District seem to permeate almost every aspect of the school community, affecting students, teachers, and parents alike,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in a statement. “Federal law prohibits racial discrimination, which means that race cannot be a factor in how the school educates its students or trains its teachers.

The Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to pull federal funding from K-12 districts nationwide that implement policies the federal government has called discriminatory, such as those that aim to recruit more Black teachers, place more students of color in advanced classes or otherwise relate to diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

The Trump administration previously launched separate investigations into Denver Public Schools and Jeffco Public Schools, accusing those districts of discriminating against girls with policies that support transgender students.

Both DPS and Jeffco Public Schools — the state’s two largest districts — defied the Education Department, refusing to alter their policies despite pressure from the federal government.

DPS hasn’t heard from the Education Department in months. But last week, the department threatened for a second time to pull Jeffco Public Schools’ funding for allowing transgender students to play sports and use girls bathrooms.

At the college level, the Trump administration launched an investigation last year into the University of Colorado’s Colorado Springs campus, accusing the school of discriminating against students because it “supported” a conference held by a nonprofit that aims to help students from underrepresented groups earn business degrees.

Teacher discipline in Colorado spiked over the last five years, with the revocation, suspension and surrender of teachers’ licenses reaching a record high in 2022 with 31 lost licenses and remaining elevated in the following years, according to a Denver Post analysis of disciplinary records kept by the .

Incidents that led to educators losing their teaching licenses increased by 77% between 2021 and 2025��when compared to the previous five years, The Post found. Sexual offenses by teachers also went up along with the overall jump in disciplinary cases, though not as sharply: 29 teachers lost their licenses for sexual offenses between 2016 and 2020, compared to 45 between 2021 and 2025, a 55% increase, The Post found.

The uptick in the most serious type of educator discipline, which reflects a tiny fraction of the state’s teachers, comes after the COVID-19 pandemic threw schools into turmoil and follows a handful of high-profile cases of teacher abuse that have cost Colorado schools millions of dollars in legal settlements.��The increased discipline also follows legislative changes that strengthened the state’s mandatory reporting laws and comes as the state faces a shortage of teachers.

Each of those factors might be influencing the increased levels of discipline, experts told The Post. They generally felt the higher number of disciplinary actions reflected better training and reporting, rather than an actual increase in bad behavior.

“As a society, our community has done a much better job of making it possible for people to come forward and feel safe,” said George Brauchler, who has handled a number of teacher sex assault cases as the elected district attorney for the 23rd Judicial District, which includes Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties.

“What I don’t want to believe — and I’m not convinced is true — is we are seeing an increased number of teachers who are going to prey on our kids,” he said. “My hope and thought is that because we are looking harder, we are taking it more seriously, the outcry is increased, and we are able to investigate and hold more people accountable for this.”

Colorado has about 54,000 teachers at the kindergarten through 12th-grade levels, according to the state Department of Education.

The Post examined 341 cases in which teachers surrendered their licenses or state authorities revoked or suspended licenses between 2000 and 2025 and sifted through thousands of pages of to build a complete picture of the state’s teacher disciplinary history during the last quarter century.

That analysis showed that sexual offenses by teachers led to nearly half — 44% — of lost teaching licenses in Colorado over the last 25 years.

The most common reason for teachers to lose their licenses was sexual contact with students, accounting for 76 cases, according to The Post’s review. The second most frequent reason was a non-sexual criminal conviction, seen in 52 cases, followed by sexual contact with minors who weren’t students, noted in 20 cases.

Theft, excessive physical force on students, possession of child sexual abuse material and domestic violence were also common reasons for teachers to lose their licenses.

Colorado’s upswing not reflected nationally

The disciplinary cases included a Morgan County wrestling coach who taped a boy to a bench as punishment for misbehaving in 2006, including taping over his hands and mouth, as well as a Pueblo middle school teacher who watched pornography and masturbated in his classroom in 2012 — an act that was observed by two 13-year-old girls who peered into the classroom through a partially covered window.

A Montrose teacher sent sexually explicit text messages to a teenage student and tried to arrange to have sex with him in 2024. A Douglas County middle school teacher sexually assaulted a 14-year-old boy for more than a year beginning in 2023, then stalked the student, creating fake phone numbers to try to reach him by text.

The Post’s analysis is based on the date the offenses occurred, not the year the teachers’ licenses were revoked, as the license actions routinely trail incidents by months or years. In some cases, teachers lost their licenses occurred because an adult victim came forward about prior childhood abuse, the records showed.

That pattern suggests that lost licenses for incidents that occurred in 2025 are likely to rise over the next year.

The upswing in Colorado’s discipline wasn’t seen to the same degree nationwide, said Jimmy Adams, executive director of the , can organization that maintains a nationwide database of teacher license actions. Prior to 2020, the agency received, on average, records of 6,000 teacher license actions annually from all 50 states, Adams said.

That nudged up to an average of 6,100 actions annually beginning in 2020 and has remained around that average since, he said, noting that each state sets its own standards for discipline, which makes it difficult to draw comparisons across state lines. The vast majority of teachers never face license-level discipline, Adams said.

Until 2022, Colorado saw 18 or fewer lost teaching licenses annually, the records reviewed by The Post show. That jumped to 31 in 2022, then 24 in 2023 and 28 in 2024. So far, 16 teachers have lost licenses for incidents in 2025, according to the records.

“When you are driving down the road somewhere, the vast majority of other cars are doing exactly what they are supposed to do,” Adams said. “When you go to the doctor, the vast majority of doctors do exactly what you want them to do. And the same is true for teachers.”

Shifts in discipline are often caused by changes to the state’s approach to enforcement, improved training and education, or shifts in state law, Adams said.

Colorado Department of Education spokesman Jeremy Meyer said the state agency has not changed the way it handles discipline in recent years. He declined to make anyone available to speak with The Post about the shifts in discipline, saying agency staff — who do not track how many teachers are disciplined annually or why — could not comment on The Post’s findings without doing their own additional research.

Spotlight on teacher sexual abuse

The jump in Colorado teacher discipline came soon after a handful of high-profile cases put a spotlight on teacher sexual abuse and the responsibility of administrators and colleagues to report such allegations to outside authorities.

In 2018, Denver prosecutors brought criminal charges against five East High School staff members for failing to report an alleged sexual assault by one student on another. The charges were all dropped in 2019.

Also in 2018, three staff members at Aurora’s Prairie Middle School were charged with failure to report child abuse after they pressured a 14-year-old student to recant her claims that a teacher sexually abused her, ultimately forcing the student to apologize to the teacher and hug him before suspending the girl for making a false report. The teacher later confessed to sexually assaulting five students at the school.

The Cherry Creek School District paid $11.5 million to settle a lawsuit from the five victims. The failure-to-report charges were dismissed against the staffers in that case as well, because they fell outside the statute of limitations. In 2019, Colorado lawmakers extended the statute of limitations on failure to report child abuse from 18 months to three years.

As part of that $11.5 million settlement, the school district agreed to put together a comprehensive training on mandatory reporting, said attorney Siddhartha Rathod, whose law firm represented the five victims. The district went on to put together a “phenomenal” program that reached beyond just the Cherry Creek district, he said.

“So when teachers do see something, they are starting to realize, ‘Hey, we really do need to say something,’ ” he said, adding that he thinks the license actions show just “the tip of the iceberg.”

Similarly, more people have attended trainings offered by the in recent years, with annual attendees climbing from about 8,000 in 2018 to nearly 12,000 in 2025, according to the .

Those trainings cover topics like child sexual abuse prevention, mandatory reporting and cyber safety, said Gianna De Fries, a spokeswoman for the , which houses the office.

State lawmakers reformed Colorado’s mandatory reporting laws in 2025 in an attempt to clarify the often-misunderstood law, which requires certain professionals to report suspected child abuse to state authorities. Across the state, 27 people were charged with failure to report child abuse between 2018 and 2025, according to the . The highest annual count was six cases in 2022.

The new director replaces Terry Bates, who resigned in April after being accused of making racist remarks. He was one of five candidates considered by the school board for the position.

“We had a great set of applicants and we appreciate members of our community stepping forward to serve this district,” the board said in a statement. “Mr. Frazier’s interview was exceptional, and he demonstrated a strong commitment to this district. We are excited about welcoming Mr. Frazier as a colleague on the board.”

Frazier will be sworn in as a board member on June 8 and his term will run through November 2027.

He joins the school board at a tumultuous period for Cherry Creek Schools, which has experienced multiple leadership changes that began when former Superintendent Christopher Smith resigned in January.

District officials fired Smith’s wife, Brenda, the human resources director, last month after an outside investigation found multiple policy violations related to contracts and travel. Assistant Superintendent Tony Poole is also leaving the district after he was suspended in February for alleged insubordination.

Bates, who was elected in November, resigned after three people filed complaints, accusing the former board member of asking a group of people if they came to the United States from Mexico with the help of a “coyote,” according to documents obtained by The Denver Post.

District officials said they also received two verbal complaints from administrators regarding inappropriate sexual remarks allegedly made by Bates during an incident that happened before he was elected.

Separately, Chief Financial Officer Scott Smith accused Bates of “intimidation, bullying, and unethical behavior” and of planning to interfere with an external audit into the district����ap systems and structures, including fiscal responsibilities.

Bates has denied all allegations made against him.

The expenses show former Superintendent Christopher Smith — whose travel drew scrutiny in recent months — isn’t the only frequent-flying K-12 leader in metro Denver.

His peers at the Denver, Jefferson County, Aurora and Douglas County school districts have also had the chance to accrue miles in the past two years as they traveled to places such as Breckenridge, New Orleans and Helsinki, Finland, the expenditures showed.

It’s not unusual for K-12 district leaders to travel to conferences across the U.S. to receive professional development, but it’s becoming “increasingly more common” for superintendents to undertake international travel, said Melissa Gibson, executive director for the .

“Professional learning has always been a priority and, frankly, should be a priority,” she said. “…A lot of the highest quality conferences really occur at the national level.”

The expenditures reviewed by The Post covered a range of costs, including the superintendents’ airfare, mileage, meals, hotels and other travel expenses for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 fiscal years.

The travel costs for each superintendent reflect a small portion of each district����ap budget, but come as K-12 systems are tightening spending and closing schools amid declining enrollment and other financial pressures.

“It just sounds like a lot of money when schools are laying off teachers,” said Jane Feldman, an ethics consultant who previously was executive director of the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission, of the superintendents’ travel expenses. She is also chair of the. “…It’s a lot given the current economic pinch that all governments are under.”

Among the state’s five largest districts, Superintendent Alex Marrero spent the most money — $37,433 — on travel to conferences, including to Helsinki and Shanghai, China, documents show.

Marrero’s travel appears to exceed similar trips taken by his predecessors.

Former DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg spent at least $8,927 traveling to conferences during his final two years leading Colorado’s largest K-12 district — although records for him were incomplete. Susana Córdova, who preceded Marrero, spent less than $5,000 on travel as her tenure overlapped with the pandemic.

“It is important for the superintendent to also collaborate with, and learn from, other similar districts nationwide for the benefit of our students,” spokesman Bill Good said in a statement. “As such, travel is an expected and endorsed part of the superintendent����ap role and has been included in each of his contracts.”

Marrero traveled abroad to attend conferences held by the , an organization that Good said has a long history with DPS. Boasberg also attended conferences hosted by the organization, he said.

outgoing Superintendent Tracy Dorland spent the least amount of money — $6,408.53 — of the five metro Denver leaders, The Post found.

DPS and Jeffco Public Schools are the state’s largest and second-largest K-12 districts, respectively. They each operate a roughly $1 billion budget.

Superintendent Michael Giles and Superintendent Erin Kane spent $29,039 and $25,212, respectively, on travel during the same time period.

Smith, who previously ran Cherry Creek Schools, spent $23,499 on travel to conferences before he resigned in January.

An outside investigation found that Smith and his wife, Brenda Smith, the district����ap former human resources director, likely violated district policy by charging Cherry Creek Schools for costs of events they did not attend or only partially attended.

The district fired Brenda Smith earlier this month, citing multiple policy violations related to travel and contracts. The outside investigation did not find the Smiths violated district policy by accepting��paid trips to Brazil and Guatemala, but ethics experts told The Post likely violated a state law that prohibits government officials from accepting gifts that can influence their decision-making.

Re: “Trump IRS lawsuit settlement: U.S. agrees to drop tax claims,” May 20 news story

This blatant, shameful, corrupt and illegal agreement is simply President Trump taking $1.776 billion of taxpayer money to benefit himself and his rightfully convicted supporters, with the addition of a get-out-of-jail-free card for himself and his family for probable tax shenanigans in their businesses. It avoids the question of whether or not he can pardon himself for crimes committed while in office.

David Schroeder, Golden

President Trump established a $1.8 billion fund to compensate people who feel they were harmed by former President Biden’s Democratic policies. That is exactly what reparations are.

Trump accidentally made the case that when the government’s policies cause harm, reparations should be paid by the government to make those who were wronged whole again, or that they should be compensated in some way.

Democrats need to seize on this in two ways. First, they need to call it what it is. Secondly, they need to make sure that this farcical version of reparations is clawed back and given to immigrants currently being harmed by this administration’s policies.

Nate Craig, Boulder

As a conservative Republican, I appreciated the “drain the swamp” idea pitched by Republicans several years ago. The problem is that after the most recent announcements from Washington, D.C. I even more fervently believe this is necessary. Unfortunately, it’s the Republican administration that has to go.

The Trump proposal of giving almost two billion dollars of taxpayers’ money to his allies is obscene. He doesn’t even rule out giving funds to Jan. 6 rioters who were convicted of felonies. He then has the nerve to have his IRS agree not to audit him, his family, or his businesses! What the heck is this? Are we now a third-world nation where one person just runs the place as a family business?

This administration personifies “the swamp.” I hate saying it, but I’m voting Democrat in the midterms in the hope of bringing balance and control back to our government.

Michael Scanlan, Arvada

Re: “AG doesn’t rule out payments for Jan. 6 rioters,” May 20 news story

Wow, you can break into the Watergate Hotel and go to prison, but if you break into the Capitol and hurt people, you can get money for it! Let this be a lesson to all you crooks out there: Crime really does pay!

Peggy Caughlan, Windsor

Gov. Polis should face consequences for Peters clemency

Re: “Polis faces possible rebuke by party,” May 20 news story

I find it an outrage that Gov. Jared Polis commuted the sentence of a convicted felon who showed no remorse whatsoever. I support any and all actions the Democratic Party of Colorado takes in sanctioning Polis.

Walter Pummill Jr., Littleton

Cherry Creek school board showed poor judgment

Re: “Cherry Creek Schools: Officials’ travel raises questions,” May 17 news story

Can someone please ask the Cherry Creek school board why they thought it was a good idea to have the district superintendent be married to the district human resources director? That does not pass the red face test for poor judgment. The entire board should be dismissed. The citizens of the district should have no confidence in that dismal leadership group.

Scott Bridgford, Highlands Ranch

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The inquiry by attorneys at Caplan & Earnest, released Monday, says former Superintendent Christopher Smith and his wife, Brenda Smith, the district����ap human resources director, “more likely than not” violated board policy in their dealings with Education Accelerated and spent district money on personal travel costs.

�ճ���� provided new details on the Smiths’ travel to conferences, with the investigation finding that the couple charged Cherry Creek for costs of events they did not attend or only partially attended.

The investigation also found that the Smiths “had a close personal relationship with EA’s principal, David Palumbo, and further that the Smiths actively discouraged criticism of EA by district employees.”

Cherry Creek Schools hired Education Accelerated in 2023 to help the district create a teacher residency program called the Aspiring Educator Pathway.

Tony Leffert, an attorney for the Smiths, declined to comment for this story.

The Denver Post reported on the investigation report’s major findings in a story Monday. Here are other takeaways from the report:

Contracts should get a legal review — but don’t always

All district contracts requiring a signature are supposed to be reviewed and approved by Cherry Creek Schools’ legal department before an employee signs off on the document, according to district policy.

The investigation found that employees didn’t always follow that policy, with one person telling the outside attorneys the district had a history of not getting a legal review of contracts because “they do not want to be told no.”

“They described, prior to October 2025, a culture among district employees of asking for forgiveness after the fact rather than asking for permission before,” the attorneys wrote. The version of the report released by the district had the names of interviewed employees redacted.

Report questions more expenses by Education Accelerated

For months now, Cherry Creek has investigated reimbursements billed to the district by Education Accelerated, with a focus on whether the company overbilled the district for monthly travel expenses and sought reimbursement for alcohol purchases.

Caplan & Earnest found that it����ap “more likely than not” that Education Accelerated sought reimbursements for alcohol at least twice, and Brenda Smith approved the invoices. Cherry Creek’s policy prohibits employees from spending district money on alcohol.

An Education Accelerated employee sought reimbursement for two tickets to a game on July 20, 2025, totaling $169.50, according to the report. And in 2024, a company employee rented a car for $1,803.71 and a home rental on Airbnb for $5,613.09, which was paid for by Cherry Creek Schools. The expenses were made during a multiweek summer institute event organized by the company, the investigation found.

Cherry Creek employees told attorneys that the Education Accelerated staffer rented the car and the Airbnb because he was moving from Virginia to Texas and had sold his car. He brought his family with him to Denver for the summer institute, according to the report.

All of the expenses were approved by Brenda Smith, the report stated.

A request for comment was not returned by Palumbo and Education Accelerated CEO Alicia Densford.

Smiths defended EA to district employees

Cherry Creek employees spoke highly of the teacher residency program created with Education Accelerated, but they also said the Smiths were “highly defensive regarding Mr. Palumbo,” the report says.

For example, it says, Brenda Smith “screamed” at employees when they questioned Education Accelerated’s expenses with the HR director. Later, she sent a text message to employees that said Education Accelerated was “an ethical company” and told them not to spread misinformation, according to the report.

One employee told attorneys that after Christopher Smith resigned in January, the former superintendent told the person: “I know how you feel, but I need you to say that Education Accelerated was the best thing that ever happened to this district and the Aspiring Educator Pathway would not have happened without them.”

The report says the attorneys confirmed that the employee, who had criticized the company, shared details of the conversation with Smith with a coworker at the time.

Personal trips to Costa Rica, other places

Nearly every person interviewed in the investigation told Caplan & Earnest attorneys that the Smiths had a personal relationship with Palumbo, whom the couple had met on a cruise in 2022.

Brenda Smith downplayed the relationship in her interview with the attorneys, who wrote that they found other witnesses’ credibility “outweighed” the HR director’s characterization of the relationship.

Cherry Creek employees told the attorneys that Palumbo stayed at the Smiths’ house when he was in town and that the couple’s children called him “Uncle David,” according to the report. The Smiths also took personal vacations with Palumbo to Costa Rica and stayed with him in Texas.

Trips to Guatemala, Brazil didn’t violate policy

The Denver Post reported Sunday that the Smiths accepted at least two international trips paid for by international schools with ties to Education Accelerated. The couple accepted the trips before and after they approved nearly $3 million worth of contracts with the company.

When the Smiths accepted the trips to Guatemala and Brazil, they also accepted an extra night of accommodation in each and spent their extra days in the countries sightseeing, Caplan & Earnest found.

But the investigation found that the trips did not violate board policy because Cherry Creek places few restrictions on the gifts the superintendent can accept. However, ethics experts told The Post that the trips appeared to violate that prohibits government employees from receiving gifts that could influence their decision-making.

The released by the district late Monday is the result of a law firm’s probe of former Superintendent Christopher Smith and Brenda Smith, the district’s outgoing chief human resources officer. It says the potential policy violations happened in their relationship with the company and in trips they took using district money.

The investigation’s findings provide new details related to the Smiths’ travel to conferences, which the outside attorneys found likely violated district policy. That’s because the couple charged Cherry Creek Schools for events they did not attend or only partially attended — and encouraged other employees to do the same, the report says.

“This is taxpayer money,” said Jane Feldman, an ethics consultant who previously was executive director of the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission. She is also chair of the . “You need to be careful and understand that you have an obligation to make sure taxpayer money is spent appropriately.”

An attorney for the Smiths could not be reached for comment Monday.

The district hired Caplan & Earnest to investigate business travel expenses and vendor contracts approved by the couple after Christopher Smith’s resignation earlier this year. Cherry Creek Schools doesn’t know yet how much the district spent on the third-party investigation, spokeswoman Ashley Verville said.

The investigation did not find evidence that “the Smiths had any conflicts of interest or accepted improper gifts.”

Cherry Creek Schools officials’ international travel raises ethics questions — even if it����ap ‘how people do business’

The Denver Post on Sunday reported on concerns raised by ethics experts about the Smiths' acceptance of at least two international trips paid for by international schools with ties to . Christopher and Brenda Smith accepted the trips before and after they approved nearly $3 million worth of contracts with Education Accelerated, which was hired by the district in 2023 to help create a teacher residency program, The Post found.

Emails reviewed by The Post also suggested personal travel between the Smiths and Education Accelerated executives.

The monthslong investigation for the district by the outside law firm, , found that the Smiths “had a close personal relationship with EA’s principal, David Palumbo, and further that the Smiths actively discouraged criticism of EA by district employees."

“… (W)e find that it is more likely than not that the Smiths violated board policy by engaging in favoritism toward EA and EA-related vendors and creating the appearance of impropriety,” the attorneys wrote.

The report cites that Brenda Smith approved the company’s travel expenses and she signed off on a contract with the company that exceeded her authority.

Cherry Creek Schools paid Education Accelerated more than $1.9 million between May 2023 and January, including more than $110,000 in approved travel expenses, according to the report.

According to the report, Christopher and Brenda Smith met Palumbo, the chairman of Education Accelerated, in October 2022 while in line at a bar on a cruise ship. Palumbo introduced himself to the couple, the report says, and attempted to get a free drink using the couple's drink package.

"Everyone we spoke to, with the exception of Brenda Smith, freely shared their negative impressions of Mr. Palumbo," the Caplan & Earnest attorneys wrote. "These employees used strong and similar phrases to describe Mr. Palumbo, including 'unimpressive,' 'snake oil salesman,' and 'all puffery.' Brenda Smith expressed a different opinion."

Report cites personal trips

Attorneys with Caplan & Earnest interviewed nine district employees and Brenda Smith in their investigation. Christopher Smith declined to be interviewed, according to the report. The district redacted the names of employees interviewed in the document.

The investigation found that the Smiths “more likely than not” violated district policy by charging expenses to the district for travel that was not related to business, specifically on trips to New York City, San Diego and Seattle.

“The Smiths failed to exercise consistent, close control over their travel expenses to ensure that all expenses were ‘appropriate and necessary travel costs in carrying out their authorized duties’ and ‘related to district business,’ ” the attorneys wrote.

Employees told investigators that during conferences, the Smiths encouraged them to leave the events that Cherry Creek Schools had paid for them to attend and go sightseeing.

During a conference in New York City last year, the couple and others left each day to explore the city, including visits to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum and to Central Park, an employee told investigators. Cherry Creek Schools spent more than $3,000 to send Christopher Smith on the trip, according to the report.

On a trip to Seattle last year, an employee told attorneys, neither the employee nor the Smiths attended any of the conference sessions.

Cherry Creek Schools paid the Smiths’ parking fees at DIA and for their hotel room on the Seattle trip, which totaled $4,112.79, according to the report.

Two weeks after the Smiths returned from Seattle, they went to a conference in San Diego. The fees for the couple and an HR employee to attend that conference were $3,745 alone.

The three flew to San Diego on the Friday before the conference and were scheduled to return to Denver that Monday, the second day of the four-day conference. Instead, the Smiths and the other employee changed their flights -- a fee charged to the district -- and returned to Colorado the day the conference started. The total cost of this trip was nearly $7,000, the investigation found.

Feldman, the ethics expert, said government employees have an ethical obligation to attend conferences paid for by their employers.

"If they are encouraging people not to go and not attending ... to me, that is certainly unethical -- if not illegal," she said.

Attorneys found the Smiths changed their flights at least 21 times between September 2023 and November 2025, resulting in at least $3,076.93 in fees charged to the district. At least one flight change by Christopher Smith was made for personal travel, the report says.

District's growing travel budget

The Denver Post reported in February that the district spent $23,499.31 and $38,492.48, respectively, for Christopher Smith and Brenda Smith to travel to conferences during the 2024-25 and 2025-26 fiscal years.

Brenda Smith's travel expenses, in particular, were notably high for someone in her position, The Post found.

Cherry Creek Schools has 51,844 students and a $840 million budget. The district is projected to have a $15.4 million deficit this year, in large part because of declining enrollment, and plans to cut 159 jobs.

Cherry Creek Schools' board policies don’t detail how much business travel is appropriate for employees, nor do they set a travel budget or say what expenses can be charged to the district. The district also does not provide guidance on how many days employees can travel for work, the report found.

Instead, Brenda Smith and another employee told attorneys the budget was based on each department and on travel expenses incurred the previous year.

There was a notable increase in travel in Cherry Creek's human resources department in recent years, from $202,225 two years ago to $246,295 in the 2024-25 school year, which exceeded the budget by more than $35,000, according to the report. One employee told attorneys the increase was due to more people working there.

By comparison, the superintendent����ap travel budget dropped during that same time period from just under $100,000 to $78,500. But the expenses also exceeded the budget by $12,408, the investigation found.

Christopher Smith’s contract encouraged the former superintendent to travel, but the investigation did not find evidence that he notified the school board in writing when he planned to take a trip.

“The consensus ... is that the Smiths expended district resources liberally on business travel, both in time and financial resources as compared to others in the district, previous occupants of the same position, and similarly-situated colleagues in other districts,” the attorneys wrote.

Interim Superintendent Jennifer Perry and the Board of Education announced Friday that the district had terminated Brenda Smith's employment because of the law firm's findings in the new report. The district will continue to pay her until the end of her contract, which expires in late June. She will not receive any additional benefits, according to the district.

Christopher Smith resigned as superintendent in January. He earned a base salary of $332,601.15.

Brenda Smith was hired in 2019 and received a $232,142.40 salary.

The Smiths were married before either worked for the district. Brenda Smith reported to the deputy superintendent after the school board hired her husband in 2021, according to a district memo.��

Read the investigation report:

Bates resigned unexpectedly last month during a Board of Education meeting at which his colleagues said he had made racist remarks.��At the time, the school board did not reveal specifics about the comments that resulted in Bates’ resignation.

Documents obtained through a Colorado Open Records Act request by The Post show that on April 20 — four days before Bates resigned — three people filed complaints with Cherry Creek General Counsel Sonja McKenzie. The complaints alleged that Bates asked people sitting at a table with him at an event about their ethnicity and where they were from — and then inquired about their use of a “coyote.”

The word coyote is used as slang for paid smugglers who help immigrants cross the U.S. border without authorization.

District counsel also received “two verbal complaints from two district administrators regarding inappropriate sexual remarks by Mr. Bates,” confirmed spokeswoman Abbe Smith in an email.

The verbal complaints were made on April 20 and April 23, when Bates was still on the board, but they involved an incident that happened before he was elected last year, she said.

The incident involving the alleged racist comments occurred at a district event on April 17, Smith said.

Bates pushed back on the allegations on Monday, saying in a statement that he “only recently” learned of an accusation from a district administrator related to an incident that allegedly took place more than five years ago.

“No complaint was ever brought to my attention at the time, no investigation occurred, and no evidence has been presented to substantiate the allegation,” Bates said.

“Given the timing, immediately following the concerns raised regarding the Mexico-related conversation, I believe it is reasonable to question whether old, unsubstantiated allegations are now being revived in an effort to damage my reputation and credibility,” he added.

The complaints filed against Bates related to last month’s event were redacted, so it����ap unclear to whom he addressed his comments and who made the allegations against Bates.

When Bates learned people at the table were from Mexico City, one of the complaints says, he responded by saying: “Oh neat, my housekeeper is from there. I mean, no judgement (sic) or anything. She is like a member of our family.”

Bates asked if they��crossed the southern U.S. border with a “coyote” after discovering they had been in the country for nearly six decades, according to the complaints.

“We were disgusted and appalled,” one of the complainants wrote.

Bates said he told individuals at the table that he enjoys Mexico City and has visited frequently.

“During the conversation, I misunderstood part of what he said and asked a follow-up clarifying question,” he said. “I recognize that the question was inappropriate and could have caused offense.”

Bates sent an apology letter to the school board after the incident occurred.

Separately, Cherry Creek Schools’ Chief Financial Officer Scott Smith has accused Bates of “intimidation, bullying, and unethical behavior” and of planning to interfere with an external audit into the district����ap systems and structures, including fiscal responsibilities. Bates has denied those allegations.

The Post����ap findings come as the Board of Education has scrutinized expenses made by the company, — including the possibility that it overbilled Cherry Creek for monthly travel costs and sought reimbursements for alcohol purchases.

“The expense of it is primarily one of the larger pieces of it that we are definitely concerned about,” Angela Garland, who was board president at the time, said about the video. “Just the lack of communication that this was even happening. We have (a media team) in-house or have that available locally.”

The video, which was shot in the summer two years ago by a Brazilian company called , is less than six minutes long. It features both former Superintendent Christopher Smith and his wife, Brenda Smith, the district’s human resources officer, talking about the Aspiring Educator Pathway program.

David Palumbo and Richard Boerner, two executives with Education Accelerated, also make brief appearances in the video — as does Garland.

“I was clueless about them being from Brazil,” she said of the crew. “… I just thought it was something we were filming for the website — a social media or some educational piece down the road.”

The school board terminated the district����ap contracts with the company after investigating the Smiths’ connections with Education Accelerated, which the couple has awarded nearly $3 million worth of contracts since 2023.

Christopher Smith resigned in January. Cherry Creek Schools placed Brenda Smith on in February.

After Filmistas traveled to Colorado to shoot the video, Cherry Creek reimbursed Education Accelerated for an additional $6,914.55 in travel costs for the film crew, including airfare from São Paulo and hotels, according to expenditures reviewed by The Post.

The film crew’s travel expenses were dated for July 2024, but Cherry Creek did not approve their hiring until October, documents show.

At that time, Christopher Smith and the Board of Education signed off on a multiyear contract with Education Accelerated worth as much as $2.6 million, which included an allocation of $85,000 for media development. The funding included $65,000 for Education Accelerated to hire Filmistas to document the development, design and implementation of the Aspiring Educator Pathway program, according to the contract.

Education Accelerated’s CEO Alicia Densford did not respond to multiple requests for comment, including a detailed list of questions. Filmistas also did not respond to a request for comment.

Cherry Creek Schools isn’t the only district to question expenses made by Education Accelerated employees. The company also worked with , which signed a $300,000 deal with the firm in March 2025.

Palumbo, the chairman of Education Accelerated, sent APS Superintendent Michael Giles an invoice seeking $4,756.15 in reimbursement in travel expenses last summer, emails show. Giles, upon receiving the invoice, asked Palumbo if the travel costs were part of the memorandum of understanding setting out the arrangement between the district and the company.

“No,” Palumbo responded. “Not as we wrote it. Travel has been steep do (sic) to last minute airfares this time. It will be much less when we lock in travel going forward.”

“I guess I was unaware that travel and associated costs would be billed separately,” Giles replied. “… Of course, we will make good on this invoice, but I think we need to consider all future meetings virtual unless mutually agreed��(on) the need for an in-person meeting.”

APS stopped working with Education Accelerated last year and with TruFit Talent in January, said APS spokesman Corey Christiansen.