McAuliffe Principal Kurt Dennis’ firing upheld by Denver faculty board

In a 6-1 vote Thursday, the Denver faculty board permitted the firing of McAuliffe Worldwide College Principal Kurt Dennis, backing a choice by the superintendent that sparked each fierce backlash from Dennis’ supporters and a brand new set of accusations towards him.

The dialogue was heated, with board members condemning each the existence of a seclusion room at McAuliffe wherein college students have been locked inside alone and a televised information interview wherein Dennis shared redacted paperwork a few scholar who’d been charged with against the law.

Board member Scott Baldermann was the only no vote. He argued that the board didn’t comply with its personal insurance policies. He particularly took concern with a press convention at which different board members spoke concerning the seclusion room earlier than a district investigation was full.

Scott Esserman, one of many board members on the press convention, mentioned Baldermann’s take was “troubling.” Whereas Esserman denied that board members violated coverage, he additionally mentioned, “I occur to have the next ethical objective that’s extra necessary than any explicit self-imposed piece of coverage governance. And that’s to have interaction in guaranteeing our youngsters are secure.”

Board Vice President Auon’tai Anderson learn a poem he’d written that denounced using the seclusion room, which he and others have mentioned was used with Black college students.

“It pains my coronary heart to know a toddler was in a cage,” he mentioned, “considered as a spectacle, fury, and rage.”

Dennis was the founding principal at McAuliffe Worldwide, a preferred and high-performing center faculty. He was fired in July within the aftermath of a televised March interview he did with native information station 9News expressing issues about gun violence and scholar security. 

Dennis advised 9News that the workers at McAuliffe was having to do weapons searches on a scholar accused of tried homicide. The searches have been the identical sort that workers at East Excessive College had been doing with a scholar who shot and injured two deans in March.

In firing Dennis, DPS mentioned he had improperly “divulged confidential scholar and authorized data” within the 9News interview in violation of district coverage, put DPS at authorized danger, and prompted the scholar who was being searched to be ostracized, in line with a doc obtained by Chalkbeat.

The district additionally cited “a sample of administrative actions” at McAuliffe that had a detrimental affect on college students with disabilities and college students of colour. An investigator discovered the college’s “overuse of out-of-school suspensions … was having a disparate affect on college students of colour.”

Racial disparities in self-discipline did exist at McAuliffe final yr, district knowledge exhibits. Whereas 14% of McAuliffe college students have been Black, 30% of suspensions have been issued to Black college students — a disparity that exists at a number of different district center faculties as effectively.

Dennis retained civil rights lawyer David Lane, who has alleged the district retaliated towards Dennis for the 9News interview in violation of his First Modification rights. The Denver College Leaders Affiliation, the union that represents DPS principals, filed a grievance on behalf of Dennis in July. The standing of that grievance was not instantly out there Thursday night time. Lane expects to sue the district on Dennis’ behalf after the grievance course of performs out. 

Within the meantime, faculty board members mentioned an nameless whistleblower who works on the faculty advised them a few seclusion room wherein college students experiencing behavioral points have been locked inside alone. DPS opened an investigation, and Anderson, who acquired the preliminary tip, reported it to the Denver police.

DPS calls such rooms “de-escalation rooms” — and district coverage states the door have to be left open and an grownup should accompany a scholar inside. The room at McAuliffe “was clearly not in compliance with DPS’ acknowledged tips,” the district mentioned in a media launch final month, which additionally mentioned the McAuliffe room was “recognized as an incarceration room.” 

In an interview with the Denver Publish, Dennis acknowledged that he had a lock placed on the door to the room however mentioned it was eliminated after every week or two. He denied that college students have been left alone within the room as a result of he mentioned workers monitored them by means of a window within the door.

Pam Bisceglia, the chief director of Advocacy Denver, a corporation that advocates for college kids with disabilities and their households, mentioned she has filed extra state and federal complaints on behalf of or involving college students at McAuliffe than at every other faculty within the district. 

Since Dennis’ firing in July, many McAuliffe mother and father and college students have rallied to his protection. That continued at a faculty board public remark session Monday.

“I feel it is best to put Kurt again in his place as a result of he’s made McAuliffe into the very best faculty,” mentioned sixth grader Ella Rustici. Standardized take a look at scores at McAuliffe are excessive, she mentioned, “and he acquired fired and that’s not honest.”

“I hope from the underside of my coronary heart that the board of schooling rethinks this horrible determination,” mentioned Chloe Vause, a freshman at Northfield Excessive College who went to McAuliffe in center faculty.

However the help for Dennis shouldn’t be common. Board member Charmaine Lindsay famous that the “majority of all individuals we noticed talking out on behalf of Kurt have been white.”

Three of Deronn Turner’s kids have attended McAuliffe. Turner, who’s Black, mentioned her two older kids reported “stark variations in the way in which Black college students have been handled and white college students have been handled. Black college students have been punished far more harshly than the white college students.”

Turner mentioned that when she, as an concerned father or mother volunteer, tried to recommend an essay writing contest for Black Historical past Month, some McAuliffe workers members advised her, “Oh, these youngsters can’t write.” The workers members have been referring to Black college students, Turner mentioned.

Turner mentioned she helps Dennis’ termination. 

“I’m not celebrating anybody’s demise,” she mentioned. “However I received’t promote somebody that has been recognized to do some issues because it pertains to kids of colour that simply usually are not proper.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, protecting Denver Public Colleges. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.