(Note: This complete article will be printed in the Dec. 3 Denver Herald-Dispatch. A feature on Michelle Moss's history on the board is scheduled to be printed in the Dec. 10 DHD.)
The Nov. 30 DPS Board meeting started out like an episode of Survivor rather than the celebratory send-off for leaving members.
Just as the meeting was starting, new Denver Public Schools Board Member Andrea Merida blindsided Michelle Moss, the member she was scheduled to replace later in the night.
As Michelle Moss stepped up to the dais for her final meeting as representative for southwest Denver on Denver Public Schools Board of Education, Merida told Moss to take a seat – somewhere else.
Holding the certification, Merida said, “I was sworn in this afternoon and you can't vote,” Moss recalled.
Merida, who won the fall election to replace the term-limited Moss, was sworn in at noon on Nov. 30, the Board announced. She had been scheduled to be sworn in after a special meeting. By getting sworn in early, Merida denied Moss her final votes, including a proposed new high school in southwest Denver and the fate of a middle school on northwest Denver.
New at-large representative Mary Seawell and northeast representative Nate Easley were sworn in at the originally scheduled time.
“That was probably one of my low points of service,” Moss said. “It's a classic example of putting yourself over the needs of the kids. I have served on this board for eight years and have never been accused of not putting our students first.”
In the end, after three hours of deliberation, Merida's votes didn't swing the rest of the Board. The main issue concerned co-locating a charter school and restructuring the leadership of the current program at Lake Middle School, next to Sloan's Lake about West 20th Avenue and Perry Street. The Board approved the motion 4-3, with Merida, Jeannie Kaplan and Arturo Jimenez voting against the change.
“I'm a (military) veteran, and I swore to uphold the Constitution. I had to make a stand,” Merida said.
Merida also joined Jimenez in voting against bringing an alternative high school to southwest Denver next school year – a school that had been proposed to first be put in northeast Denver. But Moss argued with the superintendent to place it in the southwest, and she won. Multiple Pathways and Choice Academy was passed by a 5-2 vote. The school would be an alternative school: a small-school, “family-friendly” environment geared toward students who may have acted like misfits in a regular school or who may be leaving jail. It doesn't have a plan for students with severe needs or students who need a self-contained environment.
“I made an impassioned plea to reevaluate where they would put the first charter,” Moss said. “We have a huge number of dropouts in southwest Denver.”
Merida said her decisions on the Board weren't to deny change, but to delay in order to hear more voices from the community and get more detailed data. Members who voted in opposition to Merida didn't want to delay indefinitely.
“One of the cornerstones of my platform was community engagement,” said Merida, who won the fall's election by 116 votes, or about 1.1 percent. “Even though there are good-faith reasons, we missed the essential component of community engagement. We haven't taken those opinions and hard work and the sweat from the brows of the people that send their children to school every day.”
With Pathways, Jimenez said that the school didn't have “enough meat,” meaning that the proposal lacked some specifics.
Other members of the Board noted that the the Multiple Pathways proposal wasn't complete, but they disagreed that it should be denied an opportunity to open.
“For four years on the Board, I've been waiting for more meat on the bones,” said at-large member Jill Conrad. “It is something I have waited for for a long time. There are some remaining questions, but I am happy to vote in support of it.”
She added, “This one's for Michelle.”
Former supporter
When Merida told Moss she couldn't sit down, Theresa Pena, the Board's president who had sat adjacent to Moss, hissed into the microphone, “Arturo, you have to win by any means necessary.”
Moss teared up and spoke out against her replacement.
Then, leaning on her cane, Moss, who fought cancer this year, limped out of the Board room, her head sunk, her eyes scrunched in anger.
Moss had endorsed Merida in Merida's election bid. Moss recorded a robo call, gave her advice and encouraged others to endorse her.
“I wish her success because the children of southwest Denver deserve it,” Moss said.
Moss said she won't talk to Merida.
During a break in the Board meeting, Merida told reporters, “I regret the emotional impact on Michelle Moss; I do not regret that the voters' voices were heard. If I had the opportunity to talk to her again, I would continue to apologize.”
Following the meeting, as Moss was talking to the Denver Herald-Dispatch in an office next to the Board room, Merida, silent, snuck in past Moss and just as quickly went out, her face half-hidden behind a certificate. Other Board members, community members and school leaders filed into the room for a quick hug, congratulations and good-bye, and Moss welcomed them with a warm smile, eye contact and open arms. When Kaplan entered, Moss, her tone of voice cold, kept her eyes on the table she was sitting at and refused Kaplan's request to talk.
Change coming
Merida has said that she is not against charters or changes to schools, but she is a proponent for looking at alternative choices. Jimenez echoed that sentiment.
“There's nobody against turnaround strategies,” Jimenez said. “No one is anti-charter. The community process is something we have not perfected yet. It is always important to begin with the data but not end with the data.”
However, even if the way that Merida, Jimenez and, at times, Kaplan voted weren't meant as knocks on charters, they did represent a shift from the quick and substantial change that the superintendent and the Board had been moving toward to improve student achievement in the district.
“The proposal isn't just about where to locate a charter school; it is about getting serious about matching real, timely effective solutions,” Conrad said. “These kids need a 'game-changer' at this point of their life.”
Schools in Denver are in desperate need of change, the superintendent and other Board members said.
“It is shameful we are a school district in 2009 where students of color and Hispanic students are 35 points behind our Caucasian students,” superintendent Tom Boasberg said. “In past years, it seemed there was an unwillingness to take on challenges. We’re seeing progress in our system, but it’s not fast enough. We still have too many students who aren’t on track to graduate from high school ready for success in college and careers. We owe it to our kids – to all of our kids – to make the very difficult but necessary decisions to give them far better opportunities than they have today.”
The actions at the Nov. 30 meeting gave concern to many, including the superintendent.
“This game of political destruction is so sad because it can serve to destroy only one thing: the hopes and opportunities of Denver students,” Boasberg told reporters after the meeting.
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