DPS superintendent accuses board member of ambitions to take superintendent position
That board member was identified as John Youngquist, with Marrero claiming he 'consistently demonstrated a pattern of hostility, policy violations, racial insensitivity, and unethical conduct that has created a toxic working environment, undermined district leadership, and distracted from our core mission of serving all students equitably.'
Denver Public Schools' board votes to extend superintendent's contract, minus bonus
Youngquist, who once served as principal of East High School, spoke with FOX31 on Monday night and denied the allegations made by Marrero.
'Most troubling, it is increasingly clear that Mr. Youngquist is not invested in the success of Denver Public Schools,' Marrero's letter continued. 'Instead, his behavior signals an intent to cause harm — in pursuit of personal ambition.'
Marrero also argued that Youngquist suggested a buyout of the superintendent's contract 'as a tactic of intimidation.' Marrero's contract was extended until June 2028 in a 5-2 vote earlier this month. Youngquist and Board Treasurer Kimberlee Sia both voted against the contract extension.
'His obsession with my removal, coupled with his private aspirations to assume district leadership, strongly suggests a conflict of interest,' Marrero wrote to the board. 'It is becoming increasingly clear that his actions are driven by personal ambition to become superintendent himself as he had previously pursued repeatedly, unsuccessfully.'
Youngquist, while speaking with FOX31, was asked if he thinks his 'no' vote spurred the letter.
'It feels that way coming at this particular time, he mentions, also that I want to be superintendent. I don't want to be superintendent,' Youngquist told FOX31 on Monday night. 'I had applied and interviewed for that job. Didn't get it and I was good with that then, and I'm good with that now. I'm here to lead on the school board, and to lead effectively on the board for our community.'
Aurora City Council implements changes to public comment rules
Youngquist was elected to the school board in 2023.
Marrero named seven topics that he believes Youngquist has demonstrated, ranging from 'hostile and demeaning behavior toward staff, particularly staff of color,' to violations of governance policies BSR2 and BSR3, breaches of confidentiality and ethics violations, as well as 'public undermining of district leadership and strategy.'
Marrero said the Youngquist 'actively' worked to discredit leadership and strategic vision, 'including by challenging the validity of state-mandated student data and assessment outcomes,' and by allegedly meeting privately with individuals or groups to 'undermine district initiatives.'
Marrero said he has tried to 'work beyond this behavior and even tried coaching' his team members, who he alleged were at the receiving end of 'attacks' by Youngquist.
FOX31 Newsletters: Sign up to get breaking news sent to your inbox
He asked the school board to:
Censure Youngquist for repeated violations of board policy, inappropriate conduct and unethical behavior
Clearly prohibit his direct engagement with district staff outside of official channels
Reaffirm the board's governance protocols
Require immediate governance and anti-bias training, specifically related to policy governance and equity-centered leadership
Review potential conflicts of interest if Youngquist's intent is to seek leadership within the district
The district did not issue a comment on the matter on Monday, nor has it acted on the request to censure Youngquist. The last time a DPS board member was censured was in 2021 against Auon'tai Anderson.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
‘Would drag our country backward': Officials react to Trump's plan to end mail-in ballots
Mail-in voting is popular and is used by about a third of all voters, and some form of voting machines is used in almost every election jurisdiction across the country. FOX31's Jared Dean takes a look at what ending mail-in voting would look like. Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
09-08-2025
- CBS News
With "1950s summer camp," Denver volunteers engage migrant kids as families fear separation, deportation
Caught in the middle of Denver's immigrant population surge -- and the consequent federal government crackdown -- are children. This summer a group of volunteers came together in Denver to address the students' challenges with both attendance and community. In 2023 and 2024, according to City of Denver data, 42,911 people arrived in Denver -- migrants from the Southern Border -- leaving places such as Venezuela, Colombia and Central American countries. Denver Public Schools received 4,759 new migrant students in the 23-24 school year, and 2,319 in the 24-25 school year. Resources were especially strained at the schools receiving the most students. A nonprofit funded by private donors called TeamUp Colorado put together a summer camp to address chronic absenteeism and to keep young children and their families engaged and connected to learning even as their families say they fear the risk of separation with increased immigration enforcement. "It is eerie when you go into these complexes and you don't see a soul, nobody, nobody. They're back in there with their doors closed and their blinds pulled," said Jean Boylan, founder of TeamUp Colorado. "We're finding more and more families just do not want to leave their apartments. They're afraid they're going to get deported, and they're deathly afraid that they're going to get separated from their children." "This past year, we realized that attendance is just a terrible, terrible problem," said Boylan. "We have many, many, many children who are missing 30, 40, 50, 60 days of school." Boylan worked for months to engage community members and philanthropists to develop a program to support the kids over the summer in hopes of promoting better attendance in the new school year. "We're really functioning in the here and now. It's like, what do these kids need now? And let's keep moving forward. Let's keep educating them," she said. "See if we can't get some good understanding of what's going on in their home life and then how to support them. We ended up with this concept that I'm calling a 1950s summer camp, 1950s Iowa summer camp. In the park. On blankets. Hotter than hot. Water coolers and bologna sandwiches. And that's how it started." Angie, a 17 year old high school student whose family immigrated from Colombia served as a mentor. "I understand English more or less, but I still have trouble with it, so that's why I understand them very well." "So the concept was to enroll some of the high school kids who could help mentor these kids. They work in workbooks, they do some academic work," said Boylan. "And a couple of people from the community loved that so much that they wrote checks that we were able to give the high school kids stipends." For Angie though, it wasn't about the money. She said, "It's about getting out of my house. Being Latino means practically living locked up in your house. It's mostly the adults in the family, because of the fear of being deported, things like that. They try to keep us from going out." Angie said that over the summer she tried to figure out new ways to engage the kids and spark a love of learning. "I try to understand them, mostly I try to understand them because, for example, I know there are two children who don't study," said Angie. "So I try to understand them by not making things so complicated, but rather taking things step by step. As if they were starting to study for the first time." Jason, who came to the U.S. with his young son from El Salvador, volunteered at the summer camp and made piñatas for a Fourth of July party and then more for each child, as a final gift for attending the camp. "Who doesn't love a star?" he said. Jason will always make the attempt to speak in English and counsels the high schoolers at the camp to use English whenever possible. "The United States is the country of dreams. But in truth, it's not easy here either. If you don't work hard, you won't get ahead," said Jason. He lives with family and recently learned he'd been approved for a work authorization. He and Angie both have pending asylum applications. Veronica LaCrue, a family liaison for TeamUp Colorado, said, "My philosophy is always, if you don't know what else to do, take love where it's needed. These little kids, they're just precious. They can take a lot of hits, but they should know that somebody loves them and cares about them and doesn't think of them as throwaways or not important." "We understand that we're on shaky ground, we understand we're on quicksand. But we want to offer hope anyway. We want people to try anyway. Even if it's a few weeks that we give them love and they remember that they are important and that they are loved. And that it's important for them to have education for the future," added LaCrue. Volunteers with TeamUp Colorado are hoping to organize more programs this school year, including after-school support. Denver Public School students return to classes Monday August 18. The district has launched a communications campaign to address chronic absenteeism. See more information at Learn about TeamUp Colorado at
.jpg&w=3840&q=100)
Miami Herald
16-07-2025
- Miami Herald
Cuba announces new rules for investing in hotels and a hike in state pensions
Facing worsening economic prospects, the Cuban government will allow joint ventures between state enterprises and local private companies, as well as what it calls 'selective swap' operations with foreign companies, involving hotels and real estate, the country's prime minister said in a speech before the National Assembly on Wednesday. The measures, he said, are part of a government plan to boost hard currency revenue and foreign investments, and increase production in the country, though their real impact cannot be measured until related regulations are published. Prime Minister Mario Marrero did not elaborate on the swap operations, but in the past, several Latin American countries have implemented so-called debt-for-equity swaps to reduce their foreign debt. In these transactions, a country reduces its foreign debt by giving a company an equity stake in a local company or property. Marrero said those transactions 'will be approved without ceding sovereignty. We already approved the first leased hotel by a foreign company, and there are several under analysis to switch them to this very beneficial model for our country.' The minister also mentioned forthcoming regulations that would eliminate the requirement for foreign hotel chains to enter into a joint venture or a similar contract with a Cuban government entity in order to lease a hotel. Several international hotel chains have signed contracts with Cuban tourism companies, including some owned by the island's military, to lease and manage hotels on the island. Some of those properties — or the land on which they were built —have been the subject of lawsuits under the U.S. law known as the Helms-Burton Act because they were expropriated from U.S. citizens by the Cuban government without compensation shortly after it took power 1959. Many urban hotels owned by a Cuban military conglomerate known as GAESA are included in a list of sanctioned entities kept by the U.S State Department. Private sector imports over $1 billion Marrero's tone regarding private enterprises was notably softer than a previous address to the National Assembly last year, when he announced several new restrictions on micro, small, and medium enterprises as well as the self-employed. He provided figures revealing the extent of a crackdown on the private enterprises, including 2 billion pesos in fines for not following price control restrictions on certain food items, as well as the closure of over 8,000 points of sale for the same reason. Still, he at times explicitly referred to these enterprises as 'private companies,' and said the government is seeking partnerships beyond the current leasing of empty facilities, and would allow joint ventures. He said that already there are 2,741 partnerships between government entities and private enterprises to produce food. Notably, the government has so far rejected expanding the privatization to agriculture, and he mentioned only 55 such partnerships in that sector. Figures shared earlier this week by the country's economy minister, Joaquín Alonso, show that the private sector, including the self-employed and non-agricultural cooperatives, has imported over a billion dollars in goods and raw materials in the first six months this year. Without providing details, Marrero also announced several new measures to be implemented before the end of the year, including reducing red tape and simplifying the approval process for foreign investment, changes to the official currency exchange system, steps to promote remittances from abroad, and additional controls on electronic commerce. He also said the government is seeking partnerships with foreign companies to address the ongoing trash collection problem in the country's largest cities. But nothing in Marrero's speech signaled undertaking significant changes at the speed required by the country's colossal economic problems. His speech was followed by an address from the economy minister, Alonso, who described the collapse of the island's economy, which has contracted by 11% since 2019. Alonso said that while there have been some improvements in the repair of electrical plants and the production of certain crops, he acknowledged that the country still lacks the resources to purchase the oil needed to meet the country's electricity needs and feed the population. He said that continuing to import food to distribute to the public via the decades-old ration-card system is 'economically unsustainable.' Last week, the minister of energy and mines, Vicente de la O Levy, implied that Cuba no longer relies on oil shipments from Venezuela, which had been its principal provider. 'We don't have a stable fuel supply like we used to,' he said. 'We're turning to the international market to buy fuel, and the country's oil bill is over $4 billion.' Money for health and pensions Many of the measures Marrero announced Wednesday have been under discussion for several years, and some entail small changes that economists have been advocating for a long time. For example, he said 29 state entities have been approved to use the hard currency they earn to boost their own production, rather than passing the dollars to the central government. He mentioned the Ministry of Health is among those that would be allowed to 'retain 100% of what they earn in foreign currency for the services they export.' That statement implies that the money collected by the government as payment for its medical missions abroad was not spent mostly on maintaining the public health system. Health Minister José Ángel Portal told members of the National Assembly on Monday that the 'self-financing scheme' had been in place since last December, and the additional funds had been used to pay debts, purchase antibiotics and medical supplies. 'We had practically hit rock bottom, but these resources have been vital in prioritizing the most urgent needs,' he said. Still, Portal said, currently, only '30% of the basic medications list' is available in the country. The prime minister also announced a modest increase in state pensions, which will double the amount earned by those receiving the minimum (1,528 pesos monthly). However, the boost will barely add the equivalent of $4 a month. Those receiving more than 4,000 pesos a month will see no increase. The measure, he said, will benefit 1.3 million Cubans.
