Mamás v. DPS - Complaint filed.
On December 19, 2024, Mamás de DPS, a grassroots parent organization, filed a 142-page complaint against School District No. 1, its Superintendent Alex Marrero, the Denver Board of Education and each of its members, and a consultant named Ben Kleban, whom the Board hired in 2024, alleging serious mismanagement of DPS funds and unconstitutional conditions in DPS schools. Mamás was spurred to action by Marrero’s November 7, 2024, recommendation and request that the Board vote to close 10 schools (7 totally, 3 partially) for the 2025-26 school year. The Board voted unanimously to approve Marrero’s closure request just two weeks later, on November 21, 2024.
Mamás asserts seven claims for relief against the Defendants. Two of the claims seek to halt and reverse the 2024 school closures; one alleges that Marrero, the individual Board members, and Kleban acted with an “ulterior” motive in pushing through the school closures; one alleges breaches of the Board members’ and Marrero’s fiduciary duties; and three allege that DPS is running its schools in violation of the Colorado Constitution.
Why should the closures be stopped?
In 2024, DPS (working with Kleban) enacted a policy called Executive Limitation-18 (“EL-18”) that explains the process that Marrero was required to follow in order to recommend and request school closures. Mamás’ Complaint alleges that Marrero did not follow the process, including by presenting inaccurate and incomplete information about the district’s enrollment numbers, “building utilization,” and financial condition; violating numerous other Board policies in requesting the closures, including those that require equity, adequate teaching and learning, and reducing DPS’ climate impact; and failing to meaningfully engage the community in deciding whether to request and recommend the closures.
Colorado law requires public officials (like Marrero) to follow their own policies, and allows people who are impacted by public officials’ failure to follow their own policies to get a court order requiring policy compliance. The law also prohibits arbitrary and capricious decision-making by governing bodies (like the Board). Mamás invokes these procedural rules in its Complaint in order to stop DPS from recklessly moving forward with the closures, as they currently plan to do.
What is really going on in DPS?
Mamás alleges that the reason that Marrero and the Board failed to follow their own policies, and made an arbitrary and capricious decision to close 10 schools in November 2024, is because of serious, widespread, systemic problems and mismanagement of the district’s resources.
Mamás alleges that DPS is unlawfully enriching private corporations, including charter schools (and the whole industry that goes with them), finance professionals, and real estate investors. This transfer of resources out of the public school fund and into private ownership and control is draining the district of resources that would otherwise go to running public schools.
Mamás also alleges that this conduct goes back to at least 1984, when a shadow “nonprofit” corporation formed, run exclusively by exceptionally wealthy private citizens, for the purpose of acquiring real estate and leasing it back to DPS. Since then, and especially starting when now-U.S. Senator Michael Bennet was appointed as DPS Superintendent in 2005, DPS has been using this corporation to engage in risky financial transactions like variable interest rate loans and derivative swaps to borrow money without voter approval.
Meanwhile, DPS has been sending requests to voters to approve billions of dollars in “bond” debt—really, really expensive loans—which have largely gone to finance building improvements and purchases, including in school buildings charter schools get to use essentially for free and buildings DPS says it won’t be using anymore. By using language suggesting that DPS will use the money to do things like put air conditioning in schools, reduce class size, and expand access to early childhood care and education, DPS has convinced voters to overwhelmingly approve bond initiatives that it places on the ballot. Years later, DPS still has not done many of the things it suggested it would do with the bond money, but instead has used the money to facilitate its capital improvements and purchasing behavior.
What happens next?
Mamás will file a motion for preliminary injunction asking the Court to suspend the closures until the lawsuit is resolved. The standard the court applies to order preliminary injunctive relief is high. Whether or not the Court orders the closures stopped, the lawsuit will proceed. We’ll continue to update you here.
What is the end goal of the lawsuit?
Using the lawsuit as a tool, Mamás is working to create order in DPS’ system of public schools. Mamas believes in a robust, vibrant public school system that brings communities together, creates intergenerational stability, and promotes a free and democratic society. While that is a bigger job than the courts can and should do, the lawsuit is designed to ensure there are limitations on how DPS runs its schools, preventing private corporations and individuals from profiting off the system and draining resources from our neighborhood schools.
Mamás is also asking the Court to make it clear to DPS that it never has been and never will be ok to run a school system that is segregated by race or class. The district has an affirmative obligation—whether a court is ordering it to do so or not—to ensure that every child in Denver is able to attend a school that has all kinds of different people in it. By integrating schools, DPS can do the front-line work of reducing hate and violence, promoting cooperative decision making, and ensuring we have a healthy democracy for generations to come.
What can you do while the lawsuit is pending?
Our family empowerment toolkit (coming soon!) will have all the information you need to stand up for public schools in Denver and to empower yourself to make the best choice for your family while we work to create order in DPS and get the district back on track.