We occasionally check in with our colleagues at Chalkbeat about the education stories they're following. This time, Chalkbeat Colorado Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer joined us to discuss the Denver school board's unanimous vote last week to release a recording of the closed meeting where members took up the subject of bringing police officers back into schools.
Chalkbeat and a number of other media organizations sued Denver Public Schools to release this recording, citing open meetings laws. The meeting took place the day after a shooting at East High School in March.
“They met in private for many hours, emerged from the meeting, and voted with no discussion whatsoever to bring police back to Denver high schools after a two-year absence,” Meltzer told KUNC. “That raised questions for us about whether they had made the policy in private and then merely rubber stamped it in public.”
After the Denver District Court judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, the district appealed the decision. However, the school board voted Friday to release a redacted version of the meeting tape.
“They have not really explained why they fought so hard to keep this private, why they appealed, or why now,” Meltzer said. “I suspect that some board members began to feel like it was a distraction, or that it made them look worse to continue to keep it secret. But we don't really know because they haven't clearly addressed the reasons for it.”
Also of note, the vote cast during the meeting in March was over a temporary policy change allowing police in schools. Since that private meeting, the board has had numerous highly contentious public debates about police and schools - including a divided vote in June - to permanently allow police to stay in schools.
The recording, released over the weekend, confirms that board members spent about an hour and a half in private drafting the temporary policy that they then voted on during a public meeting.
“And at one point, one of the board members even asked their attorney, ‘Hey, we're drafting policy. Should this be public?’” Meltzer said. “But their attorney told them, ‘No, no, you're good, just as long as you vote for it in public.’ So they continued.”
Meltzer told KUNC school board members also expressed concerns on the tape about being blamed for the East High shooting and feeling a lot of pressure to act.
“We've seen a number of school board members say, ‘We don't think police will solve this problem, but the public really wants us to act. The mayor is pressuring us to act. We need to do something,’” Meltzer said.
