After three days of denials, Denver Public School Board President Xóchitl Gaytán backed up Auon'tai M. Anderson's claim that the Denver mayor was poised to step in with an executive order if the Board of Education failed to act.
She did so with a five-page memorandum sent Wednesday to Anderson reprimanding him for disclosing to the press Monday information shared in executive session last week in the aftermath of a shooting at East High School.
“First and foremost, VP Anderson disclosed information divulged to the board in the Executive Session that took place on Thursday 03/23/2023,” Gaytán wrote. “Specifically, naming the Mayor’s private communication with the Superintendent regarding the creation of an Executive Order to address school safety.”
Anderson — who currently serves as the board's vice president and was among those leading the 2020 effort to remove armed police officers from Denver schools — held Monday’s press conference, in part, to explain his about-face vote.
“I don’t think our community needed the school board to get into a fight with our mayor, especially a mayor that only has six weeks, eight weeks left in office,” Anderson said Monday.
Anderson added: “We are the duly elected school board and what we say goes.”
Anderson reiterated his concerns about a legal battle with Mayor Michael Hancock in an interview with the Denver Gazette Thursday.
“I just did not have it in me to go toe-to-toe with Mayor Hancock at the time,” said Anderson, who was still recuperating from surgery when board met last Thursday.
The mayor’s office has denied Hancock was poised to intervene.
Denver City Attorney Kerry Tipper said in a statement to the Denver Gazette Wednesday that no executive order forcing school resource officers into DPS schools had been discussed, nor would the mayor issue such an emergency declaration.
“To the contrary, DPS approached Chief Thomas and the Mayor about our capacity to reinstate SROs and we scrambled to accommodate the request as much as possible,” Tipper said.
The mayor’s office doubled down on their denial Thursday.
“At no point did the Mayor propose an executive order, nor did he threaten to issue one as an ultimatum if the school board refused to act,” Mike Strott, the mayor’s spokesperson, said in an email to The Denver Gazette.
“Mayor Hancock does not bully or threaten people," he said.
In her memo, Gaytán expressed concern that Anderson may have opened Denver Public Schools up to a “lawsuit against the District regarding the Board’s culpability for the violence at East HS.”
She also said that at least two Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests have already been filed seeking information on the executive session.
The Denver Gazette, too, filed a CORA request seeking documents related to the executive session that preceded the board’s unanimous vote — without discussion — to return school resource officers to campuses.
In the wake of national protests in 2020 over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, school boards across the United States — including DPS — began cutting ties with police.
After two administrators police said were shot by a student at East High School last week, the board unanimously voted to return police to campus at 11 high schools through the remainder of the academic year.
Gaytán declined to comment Thursday.
But in a statement released through the district, Gaytán said she had not intended to publicly address her memo to Anderson.
The issue will likely be taken up by the board during its April 10 meeting.
Anderson could face censure or other discipline.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
In 2021, the board censured Anderson after an independent investigation found he had flirted online with a 16-year-old student while serving as a board member.
The censure was a formal expression board disapproval with little impact on his post.
