Denver school board to review principal firing

The Denver Public Schools Board of Education on Thursday is expected to review and give its stamp of approval for the most recent employee moves — including former McAuliffe International Middle School Principal Kurt Dennis — since the last personnel report.

It is unknown, as a personnel matter, how many employees comprise what’s called the “Personnel Transaction Report” and includes new hires, layoffs and terminations.

Typically, the report is included in the consent agenda, which contains a number of items board members can vote on with a single motion.

The personnel report, which is not made public, generally passes without much notice.

Not this time.

A popular principal among many parents, Dennis’ July 3 firing has generated public outrage and a petition with more than 6,200 signatures demanding the district reinstate him.

Roughly a dozen parents and students spoke in support of reinstating Dennis during public comment in front of the board on Monday.

“This is not a dictatorship,” said Madeleine Senger, an East High School junior and McAuliffe alum. “That was my first thought when I heard that McAuliffe Principal Kurt Dennis had been fired by DPS for speaking out about safety concerns at his school.”

It was sentiment echoed again and again.

“This board claims to protect privacy and yet the same board holds press conferences to push their attacks, laundering their narrative in the press, who barely pushes back,” said Sebastian Hernandez, who has a child at McAuliffe.

Hernandez added that the board was eager to “find a reason to bury Dennis.”

Supporters described Dennis as “an all-around good guy” and his firing as arbitrary. They also credited Dennis for the academic performance of the middle school.

That is not how district officials would describe his leadership.

The firing, Dennis’ attorney David Lane has said, stemmed from an interview the then principal gave the Gazette’s news partner 9News, after two administrators at East High School were shot by a student on March 22. In that 9News interview, Dennis said the district pressured him to accommodate potentially dangerous students — including one accused of attempted murder.

District officials have denied the TV interview was the impetus for Dennis’ termination, while also identifying the concern that he had “divulged confidential student and legal records” during the 9News interview, according to a letter from Debra Watson, the district’s Human Resources director.

Fast forward 30 days.

At least seven whistleblowers have since stepped forward with concerns over a monitored “seclusion room” at McAuliffe International School under Dennis’ leadership. Photos show a latch on the outside of the door to room 121E and a padlock on a window at McAuliffe.

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson and others have characterized room 121E as an “incarceration room.”

Under Colorado law, students in seclusion rooms must be continually monitored either through a window, if the door is closed, or with a video camera. State law also permits staff to physically restrain a student for more than one minute but less than five so long as school officials notify the parent or guardian in writing.

The district widely uses what’s referred to as a “de-escalation” room as a sort of time out for agitated students to calm down.

“That was not a de-escalation room, that was a prison,” Anderson has said.

Lane said previously the seclusion room at McAuliffe was used for a couple of students last academic year, as dictated by an “Individual Education Program” for special education students, which is approved by the district, a school psychologist and the students’ parents.

Director Scott Esserman has since said three minority students were placed in the room, one without a plan calling for the use of a seclusion room, according to reporting by 9News.

The latch, Lane has said, was placed on the door several years ago, but hadn’t been used since DPS officials instructed Dennis not to lock students inside.

The incident is being investigated by DPS and was referred to the Denver Police Department, Anderson has said.

State Rep. Regina English, D-El Paso County, wants to ban seclusion rooms in K-12 schools statewide.

While the majority of the public speakers on Monday expressed support for Dennis, at least two shared that the experiences of Black students at McAuliffe was vastly different from the mostly White speakers.

MiDian Homes chastised the community on Monday, rather than the board, saying one perspective didn’t have to be wrong for another to also be correct. Dennis, Homes argued, could have been inspirational to some students while also being a threat to others.

No one’s story is fictional, she said.

“Tell your story, but hold the tension that there are other people that don’t share your narrative,” Homes said. “Hold the tension and understand that there are Black students that are afraid of Kurt Dennis and some of his staff.”

Denver Board of Education Vice President Auon'Tai Anderson said at a news conference Monday that a total of seven whistleblowers have come for…