Daily Weather Report Powered By:
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero's office was part of a recent renovation, as seen on Thursday, June 13, 2024 in the Emily Griffith Campus building downtown. sound treatment panels
FILE PHOTO: Denver Public Schools superintendent Alex Marrero looks on during a Denver Public School Board of Education meeting for the election of Board Officers on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023, at the DPS Central Office in Denver, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/Denver Gazette)
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero displays various degrees in his newly-renovated office in the Emily Griffith Campus downtown on Thursday, June 13, 2024.
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero's office was part of a recent renovation, as seen on Thursday, June 13, 2024 in the Emily Griffith Campus building downtown.
FILE PHOTO: Denver Public Schools superintendent Alex Marrero looks on during a Denver Public School Board of Education meeting for the election of Board Officers on Friday, Dec. 1, 2023, at the DPS Central Office in Denver, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/Denver Gazette)
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero displays various degrees in his newly-renovated office in the Emily Griffith Campus downtown on Thursday, June 13, 2024.
Roughly two years ago, as the economy was emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and when construction prices were soaring, Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero got an office upgrade.
A district official told The Denver Gazette that the project, which included relocating and sound proofing Marrero’s office, cost $78,022.
Documents obtained through a records request show otherwise.
Purchase orders indicate the remodel actually cost taxpayers $96,902.
When asked about the nearly $19,000 discrepancy, Bill Good, a district spokesperson, said: “We didn’t know what you had.”
Before approaching district officials, The Denver Gazette already obtained purchase orders detailing the expenses from a source who sought the information through the Colorado’s Open Record Act.
Later, Good explained — not knowing what documents The Denver Gazette had obtained — that staff tried to piece together the expenditures using the district’s final response to other record requests seeking the cost of the remodel.
Good confirmed the higher cost.
Part of the difficulty also could lie in the fact that district officials had to suss out the cost of Marrero’s new office from a combined project that included flex offices and meeting spaces for the board of education, which directors previously did not have.
Officials combined these projects for logistical purposes and to achieve economies of scale because of constructions costs at the time, Good and others said.
During the pandemic and its aftermath, construction costs skyrocketed for various reasons that included supply chain disruptions, labor shortages and increased demand for materials.
Marrero now has a corner office with a view of downtown.
Previously, the superintendent’s office — now occupied by Deputy Chief of Staff Deborah Staten — was centrally located on the floor. Officials requested that The Denver Gazette not disclose the floor on which Marrero’s office is located for security reasons.
“It would not be accurate to characterize this construction project as the office move of Dr. Marrero,” Scott Pribble, a district spokesperson, said in an email to The Denver Gazette. “Rather, this project was undertaken to provide the position of superintendent (Dr. Marrero, as well as those who come after him) with an appropriate and private office space that befits the responsibility inherent in the role of the superintendent.”
Good did not know the dimensions of Marrero’s new office.
District offices, including the superintendent, have been located downtown on the Emily Griffith campus for a decade.
The projects were paid for by using left over money from an earlier bond. In 2016, voters approved a bond and mill levy override to raise more than $600 million in taxes to expand educational programs and to pay for school construction, among other things.
About $3.5 million remains from the 2016 bond, Pribble said. Of that, $1.3 million has been allocated for emergency facilities work and the remaining $2.3 million is earmarked to complete outstanding projects from the 2016 bond.
Because bond money, which is restricted for specific purposes, was used to buildout a corner office for Marrero, he had to receive approval from the Scope, Schedule and Budget (SSB) committee.
The internal committee is comprised of staff from finance, facilities and other departments that are tasked with ensuring projects stay on budget.
The project was sent to the committee three times.
• The initial $30,000 request to hire an architect team to work with district officials on the project’s scope.
• An additional $20,000 request for furniture, fixtures and equipment for the board of education’s office buildout on the seventh floor.
• And $342,000 for the lowest bidder to complete both remodels, Marrero’s and the board.
Not much else is known about the committee’s project approval.
“Because this is an internal committee, minutes are not taken,” Pribble said.
In his three years as superintendent, Marrero has weathered public criticism over his handling of a number of controversies.
In the hours after a troubled student last year shot two administrators at the district's flagship campus East High School, Marrero called for and held a secret board meeting to discuss returning armed police officers to campus. Later, a court ruled the executive session was illegal. According to state law, some meetings can be held in private for specific exemptions like obtaining legal advice or dealing with personnel issues.
A Denver Gazette investigation last year found that in his first 18 months on the job, Marrero spent more than $16,000 on travel-related expenses — more than his four predecessors, combined.
And then earlier this year, former Executive Director of Communications Will Jones disclosed Marrero’s use of confidentiality agreements to restrict employees from speaking about their experiences with the district.
A confidentiality agreement, or non-disclosure agreement (NDA), is a legal contract designed to protect confidential or sensitive information.
NDAs are typically invoked in business to protect trade secrets and proprietary information, but public agencies are increasingly mandating employees to sign non-disclosure agreements.
“This isn’t Coca Cola with their secret recipe,” Jones has said of the NDAs. “This isn’t KFC with their 11 herbs and spices."
Denver Public Schools appears to have begun using non-disclosure agreements earlier this that typically are used in business to protect proprietary information. Is DPS an outlier?
Your browser is out of date and potentially vulnerable to security risks. We recommend switching to one of the following browsers:
Welcome to the Denver Gazette Subscribe to stay up to date with all things Colorado. Subscribe .99cents
Stories you've missed since your last login:
Stories you've saved for later:
sound deadening foam Recommended stories based on your interests: