Oct. 9, 2024

On Thursday, Aug. 15 the Denver Board of Education unanimously approved a $975 million bond package for the November ballot. The decision came after several months of a community-centric planning process, culminating in a formal presentation of the 2024 bond package proposal, which was given to the Board in June by the Community Planning and Advisory Committee, also known as the CPAC.

The 2024 CPAC was made up of 72 volunteers from the DPS community, including teachers, parents, students and professionals from all walks of life across the Denver Metro area. The committee was led by six volunteer co-chairs who have a strong background in student and education advocacy. 

The committee met together for several months to review recommendations for school improvement projects provided by DPS’ facilities team. Together, they worked to prioritize the recommendations and build the 2024 package proposal, with a strong focus on equity and addressing pressing student needs. For more information on the committee, the planning process and to review committee meeting documents, visit the 2024 CPAC page on ourwordourbonddps.org

The 2024 bond package includes funding for several key areas of school improvement:

For a closer look at the 2024 bond initiatives, the following resources are available for review: 2024 Bond Initiatives Overview and the 2024 Bond Allocation Dashboard. The allocation dashboard allows you to search for initiatives by school, project category or region. Use the filter report located in the upper righthand corner to begin your search.

The DPS 2024 bond proposal will require an increase in the district’s bond debt but will not increase property taxes.

For more information about the bond package and its impact on Denver Public Schools, visit ourwordourbonddps.org/2024-bond.

The Denver Public Schools Board of Education is considering changing our monthly meeting frequency and format to become more efficient and to align with what we see happening in other districts. Currently the Board of Education has one work session, one public comment session and one board meeting each month.  

One of the roles and responsibilities of school board members is to represent the interests of the community in order to provide a high quality education for the students of the district. One forum for receiving feedback is public comment. Public comment is an opportunity for the public to share their feelings, views, thoughts and ideas to assist the board members with decision-making through one-way communication. Public comment is also a way for the board to hear a wide range of viewpoints, which reflects the diversity of our district.  

It is especially necessary to hear from the public on proposed policies prior to a final decision being made. Public comment can hold the Board accountable by giving the community the opportunity to share views and potentially raise issues. It is in this spirit that the Board would like to hear from the diverse population reflected in the DPS community that we desire/wish to change our public comment policy. 

In an effort to spend more time focused on reviewing the superintendent's progress monitoring reports, hearing public comment on upcoming board meeting agenda items and increasing our two-way communication, we are considering reducing our meetings to two meetings per month.

An option we are considering is to have one work session to include public comment and one board meeting. Currently, we have 120 minutes of public comment allowing 40 people to speak for three minutes each on the topic of their choice. In a new proposed format, we would reduce time to two minutes per person on upcoming board agenda items for a certain portion of the time and other topics for the rest of the time.

With the addition of the Board’s community engagement plan, we will have an opportunity to more authentically engage with the DPS families and community regarding policies and other items the Board may be voting on. We have passed Governance Process Policy 15, which outlines our commitments to the community. In this, the Board is working on hosting at least two meetings per Board District per year as well as informal meetings. We are also working on this new monthly Board of Education newsletter and social media.

The change in our public comment policy is by no means meant to stifle/restrict/impede any member of the community from presenting comments. The Board welcomes public comment and we believe it is vital to our decision-making process. While under this plan there would be one less formal board meeting each month, it would also dramatically increase the public's opportunities to interact with the Board of Education to make their voices heard.

Lastly, if at any time during our decision-making process the Board deems it necessary to receive additional community input, we will schedule those opportunities/forums/meetings. We want to provide multiple avenues for receiving public feedback beyond structured time in public comment sessions.

We look forward to your feedback on this potential change before our vote in December. To share feedback, please email Board@dpsk12.net.

Welcome to our first edition featuring the Policy Governance Corner! Information shared in this section will focus on helping the Denver community understand Policy Governance and how it affects the district. Each month, a new topic will be covered to expand on previous topics. Let’s get started with our first topic: The Policy Governance Model.

Since their inception, boards worldwide have strived to become more effective, focused and efficient. Creating a productive and functional board has been elusive or very difficult, at best. In the 1970s, Dr. John Carver, the Policy Governance inventor, faced this same dilemma. Dr. Carver participated on boards that were not productive and did not fully understand their roles in the organizations. He embarked on a journey to learn as much as possible about different board types and how they govern themselves and their organizations. Throughout his research, Dr. Carver found a common theme: boards struggled to function effectively regardless of the industry. He likened boards to ants on a log in turbulent water, who think they are steering the log. Thus, Dr. Carver’s board governance model was created to improve productivity and functionality.

Policy Governance is a board model that defines and guides the appropriate relationships between the owners of the organization, the board of directors and the CEO (the superintendent in our case). The model holds the board accountable to the owners of the organization and the superintendent accountable to the board. It mandates that the board act as an informed “voice” of its owners, which in this case is the Denver community. It requires that boards focus on big-picture items, such as an organization's goals, visions and values, which they express through written policies called Ends policies. As the CEO, the superintendent plays a crucial role in achieving these Ends through operational means. The superintendent is responsible for all functions and staff of the operational side of the district. The model has ten guiding principles, which we will delve into in the upcoming months. Until then, we hope this lays the foundation for a better understanding of the Policy Governance Model.

Marcus Johnson
Senior Counsel

• For more information about board meetings, access the Meeting Calendar and Meeting Minutes via Board Docs.

• Visit the Denver Schools Thrive Initiative webpage for the Regional Engagement Session schedule, FAQs and feedback from previous meetings.

• Stay up-to-date by following the DPS Board of Education Facebook page.