The author of a controversial survey of principals in Denver Public Schools is speaking publicly about it for the first time. It’s a survey that DPS originally kept hidden from the public, but ultimately released a draft copy to CBS News Colorado Friday.
This is a survey conducted among multiple high school principals and their safety teams, which highlights their perspectives on significant deficiencies in the safety and discipline policies within the district.
The survey’s author is John Youngquist, who is also a Denver School Board At Large candidate in the upcoming board race this November.
Youngquist explained that due to the numerous safety concerns and violent incidents that occurred at Denver Public Schools in the past year, the school district approached him to collaborate on improving safety measures. As an experienced safety expert, he was contracted to conduct interviews with high school principals and safety teams. The purpose of these interviews was to identify the challenges they faced, explore potential opportunities, determine the areas where current strategies were ineffective, and devise ways in which the school district could assist in securing schools for the benefit of students and staff.
Based on Youngquist’s contract with DPS, PrincipalEd Consulting was supposed to receive $46,000 for a year of consulting work. Nevertheless, Youngquist claims that his contract did not extend beyond completing the survey, resulting in him not receiving the entire $46,000 payment.
The survey revealed several concerns expressed by principals. These concerns encompassed various areas such as the absence of appropriate consequences for students accused of engaging in dangerous criminal activities, insufficient alternative school choices for students when required, inadequate security measures to assist staff in dealing with threatening students, and the necessity for safety enhancements in school infrastructure, such as increasing the number of cameras.
To date, the only publicly available document is Youngquist’s initial deportation draft, which he finished in early May. However, the district has declined to disclose the final report that Youngquist finished in June, despite its inclusion of crucial safety recommendations for DPS spanning several pages.
Although he claims that discussing the details of those recommendations would breach his contract with DPS, he expresses his frustration over the district’s lack of substantial improvements to support students and staff.
Due to my commitment to the district, I cannot offer specific comments on the report. However, as the chief academic officer in the Aurora Public Schools, I can speak from my own experiences. When I first joined the Aurora Public Schools, there were significant concerns regarding high expulsion rates, frequent suspensions, and violent incidents in schools. Our main focus at that time was to assist schools in providing students with the necessary support to prevent engagement in behaviors that lead to such consequences.
It is crucial for DPS, as well as every other school district, to prioritize the provision of appropriate mental health services, behavioral health services, and support systems for students. Additionally, schools need to be equipped with the knowledge to respond appropriately and fairly, ensuring the well-being and support of our children during challenging experiences. This will ultimately lead to greater success for students in the long run.
Kwame Spearman, Youngquist’s rival in the Denver school board race, asserts his capability to discuss his distinct plans for bringing about change. He emphasizes that his utmost priority, during the initial month in office, would be to establish an improved safety plan.
Spearman emphasized the urgent need for a well-defined strategy to ensure the safety of our schools. The first step, in her opinion, is a complete revamp of our discipline matrix. Additionally, she emphasized the importance of allocating funds for alternative learning environments, particularly for students who are facing challenges outside of school within the criminal justice system. Spearman believes this is the way forward, as the current report merely confirms what is already known – that students, teachers, and administrators are grappling with safety issues within their educational institutions.
All principals in the survey expressed their desire to reinstate school resource officers in DPS. However, concerns have been raised about the disproportionate arrest rates of students of color by SROs in schools.
According to Spearman, he has devised a plan that safeguards the interests of both parties.
Spearman emphasized the importance of having a well-thought-out plan before removing SROs in 2020. While advocating for the presence of SROs in schools, Spearman acknowledged being the sole candidate committed to developing a comprehensive strategy, within their first term, to ensure gun-free environments in schools. Spearman further suggested transitioning towards community resource officers and expressed dedication to collaborating with the community over the next four years to establish a community-based safety plan for schools.
Furthermore, according to the survey, principals expressed that they are only able to address 50% of the mental health requirements of students within schools.
According to DPS, they have allocated $82 million towards mental health resources in response to the survey. However, Youngquist argues that this investment is unrelated to the report they had prepared for the district.
According to Youngquist, it has been noted that the district has not fulfilled some of its commitments in relation to conducting mental health surveys for students.
Youngquist said that the plan promised students would receive the survey three times throughout the year. However, there is no proof that this is happening in most schools in the district. Youngquist believes it is important to have confidence that commitments are actually fulfilled.
DPS Superintendent Alex Marrero said in a statement Monday that “DPS has made great progress in addressing the concerns expressed by our school leaders,” however Youngquist and Spearman disagree.
Spearman expressed her concern about the lack of a safety plan currently in place. Despite hearing reassurances from the board and superintendent, she remains unaware of the specifics of the plan. She believes that the teachers are also uninformed about it. Spearman emphasizes the need for strong leadership to develop a concrete plan, starting with a revamped discipline matrix. The new matrix should be easily understandable, promote alternative learning environments, and address the issue of expulsions. Many expelled students from outside Denver Public Schools are ending up within the district, which is deemed unacceptable. Spearman suggests reaching out to neighboring school districts to improve their expulsion policies and carefully consider the placement of these students within Denver Public Schools.
Youngquist expressed her concern about the safety of her two children at East High School. She mentioned being summoned to the school on four separate occasions, during instances of challenges, threats, and three separate shootings. Throughout these incidents, she claimed to have been unaware of the events unfolding, highlighting the lack of communication. Youngquist further emphasized the absence of substantial measures taken to ensure the safety of both students and staff at the school since those incidents occurred.
On Thursday, Spearman and Youngquist’s comments were responded to by a spokesperson from DPS, who provided a written statement.
“Denver Public Schools is dedicated to improving school safety for all of our students. This is an ongoing process. Safety is a layered approach that encompasses many different areas including mental health supports, training within the existing work day, technology, buildings and systems. In addition to the list of safety enhancements that we shared in our previous statement on Friday, Oct. 6, we are starting the work to address security issues that have been identified in building safety assessments and completing the first round of the BESS screenings. This screening will be completed three times each year.
“Much of the work that is being done may not be immediately visible to the public, but it is continuing while we educate and support our 88,000 students. It requires extensive collaboration with the City of Denver and our broader community and we look forward to partnering with everyone to ensure our students learn in a safe and welcoming community where they can thrive. Ensuring the safety of our students is a project without an end date. Every day, every semester, every year, we will be working to find new and better ways to keep our schools safe.”
