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Melanie Asmar, Chalkbeat Colorado
Denver Public Schools must release a recording of a five-hour closed-door meeting at which the school board discussed returning police officers to schools, a judge ruled Friday.
The meeting occurred on March 23, one day after a student shot and injured two deans inside East High School before fleeing and later taking his own life. After the meeting concluded, the school board voted unanimously to suspend its policy banning police officers in schools. Board members did not discuss the issue in public.
Chalkbeat and six other media organizations sued Denver Public Schools for the recording of the closed meeting, arguing that the topics of the executive session were not properly noticed and that the school board may have made a decision in private that was merely rubber-stamped by the public vote.
Colorado's open meetings law says the "formation of public policy is public business and may not be conducted in secret."
Denver District Court Judge Andrew Luxen listened to the recording of the closed meeting and ruled Friday that the school board "did engage in a substantial discussion" or "adopt a proposed policy, position, resolution, rule, regulation, or formal action" in the closed-door executive session in violation of state law that says meetings of public bodies must public.
State law would allow a school board to meet in executive session to discuss specialized security details or investigations, but the judge found the Denver board didn't discuss those.
Instead, he wrote, there was a "lengthy discussion of general security arrangements ... including the return of school resource officers to Denver public schools."
School boards are also allowed to meet in executive session to discuss individual students "where public disclosure would adversely affect the person or persons involved."
But the Denver board's executive session didn't meet that criteria either, the judge wrote.
"Although there was discussion of an individual student during the executive session, the nature of that discussion would not adversely affect the person involved," Luxen wrote.
By the time of the Denver school board's executive session, the student who shot the deans at East High, 17-year-old Austin Lyle, had taken his own life.
The judge ordered DPS to release the recording by Monday at noon. Denver Public Schools could still challenge the ruling.
In a hearing on June 16, DPS attorney Jonathan Fero said the district might object to the recording's release as contrary to the public interest, even if the judge ruled against the district.
A spokesperson for Denver Public Schools did not immediately provide a comment.
The Denver school board voted 4-3 last week to permanently return school resource officers to schools. That vote and discussion occurred publicly.
Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at [email protected].
