This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at ckbe.at/newsletters
A group of Latino community leaders called Tuesday for the Denver school board to delay its vote to confirm Alex Marrero as the next leader of Denver Public Schools after he was named in a lawsuit filed against his previous district.
The board’s sole Latino representative, however, told Chalkbeat the board is confident in its choice and has not discussed putting off the vote, saying it would be unfair to a qualified, competent Latino candidate who also has strong support in the community.
The Denver school board announced last Wednesday that Marrero, most recently the interim superintendent in New Rochelle, New York, was its choice to serve as the Denver district’s next superintendent. On the same day, the New Rochelle board selected an outside candidate, Jonathan Raymond, to be that district’s next leader, passing over Marrero.
A vote to finalize the Denver decision is scheduled for Thursday.
Latino community leaders had previously expressed concerns about the experience level of the superintendent candidates and called on the district to pause and reopen the search. In particular, they worried that none of the finalists had enough experience serving English language learners. After Marrero was named, those leaders said they were willing to work with him.