For years, critics have hammered the Denver Public Schools board for flouting Colorado’s open meetings laws — something I first called out here in 2022, months before their notorious closed-door executive session following the shooting inside East High School in 2023.

Even with three new members, the board hasn’t learned. In May, they committed their most brazen violation yet: prematurely extending Superintendent Alex Marrero’s contract in a way legal experts say could be flat-out invalid.

By a 5-2 vote, the board locked Marrero in for two more years — with added protections. His $346,529 salary stays, but performance-based bonuses are gone. Termination “without cause” now requires a supermajority, a year’s severance and 90 days’ notice instead of 60.

Here’s the kicker: Just four months earlier, the board adopted new performance metrics for Marrero. But they ignored them, extending a contract that wasn’t set to auto-renew until next June — before he was even evaluated. And those metrics practically let him grade himself.

Board President Carrie Olson defended the absurdity, insisting his performance would be reviewed “in the fall” and May’s vote was “about the contract, not an annual evaluation.” As if job security and performance aren’t related. What employee gets guaranteed job security before a review?

It gets worse. As The Denver Gazette’s Nico Brambila reported, the contract may have been crafted illegally. A March executive session covered only “high-level” procedure, while an April 2 session was scrapped after backlash. Yet by May 1, a finished contract was ready for a vote.

How? Through a two-member board committee — Marlene De La Rosa and Michelle Quattlebaum — with General Counsel Aaron Thompson acting as the primary go-between for everyone else. All board feedback ran through them. The board didn’t even acknowledge the process until nearly two months after the vote, when Sochi Gaytán accidentally let it slip.

Colorado law requires three or more members to meet in public. By funneling everything through a two-member committee and Thompson, legal experts told The Denver Gazette, the board evaded the law.

Let’s be clear: Thompson reports to Marrero, not the board. That means one lawyer essentially represented both sides in a contract negotiation. Coupled with the open meetings dodge, that’s not just shady — it’s indefensible. And it’s hardly the first time Thompson’s fingerprints have been all over DPS’s most questionable decisions.

In March 2023, he greenlit the board’s illegal executive session after the East High shooting — later ruled unlawful by a judge who ordered the recording released.

Months earlier, he allowed another backroom meeting to proceed even after then-Director Scott Baldermann made it clear that he had “no idea what is gonna be discussed.” Seriously?

In December 2024, Thompson okayed yet another session where the board berated member John Youngquist. Youngquist blew the whistle soon after, and legal experts agreed the meeting wasn’t properly noticed.

In 2022, when Tay Anderson demanded $3,500 in legal fee reimbursement after being censured for “unbecoming behavior” with minors, Thompson directed staff to bury the payout in financial records as a “Settlement Payment.” Later, the district denied open records requests — including mine — until media pressure forced disclosure. Board members claimed ignorance, and no vote took place on the settlement.

In January, Quattlebaum claimed taxpayers spent $13,000 probing a request from Youngquist about his pay. But when I filed an open records request, the district admitted no documents existed. The figure was nothing more than an off-the-cuff “estimate” from Thompson — sloppy at best, but definitely disingenuous.

Now, with Marrero’s sweetheart contract, Thompson’s fingerprints are all over it again. His duty is to the district and to the taxpayers, yet time and again he’s carried water for Marrero — putting the superintendent first while sidelining transparency and the board’s independence.

Let’s be real: Thompson’s failures are nothing new. Some of us have been calling them out for years. Since DPS won’t terminate him, the least they can do is put guardrails in place.

Enter Kimberlee Sia. Last spring, she proposed a policy requiring outside counsel to represent the board in all matters between Marrero and the board, particularly evaluations and contract negotiations. It didn’t go anywhere.

But after the board’s most corrupt move yet — Marrero’s secretive contract extension — the idea resurfaced at Thursday’s board meeting. Even De La Rosa and President Carrie Olson showed interest. The proposal passed its first stage. If adopted, it will also enable the board to call outside counsel on a broader range of issues and even attend and advise at board meetings.

Gaytán came out swinging, warning about “fractured advice,” “dodging accountability” and somehow “escalat(ing) to a courthouse.” She griped it would change the board’s relationship with Thompson “in a very fundamental way.”

Exactly! Thompson has failed them time and again. If Marrero won’t cut him loose, the board owes it to the public as an elected body to find a lawyer who represents them, not the superintendent’s bureaucracy.

It isn’t radical, either: District 11 in Colorado Springs follows this model today; other districts have done it before.

Given Thompson’s history as DPS’ fox-in-the-henhouse lawyer, retaining outside counsel isn’t just reasonable — it’s necessary. If the board insists on breaking rules, the least they can do is hire a lawyer who won’t help them do it.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.