Author: Nicole C. Brambila nico.brambila@denvergazette.com
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DPS board extends Kaiser health contract one year, restarts bidding process
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero declined to endorse his staff’s recommendation to award Motiv Health and UnitedHealthcare a three-year contract during Thursday’s board meeting. The staff recommendation came after Kaiser Permanente — which has held the contract for more than five decades — was outbid last year by three other insurers. Marrero cited “interference”…
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Colorado Medicaid spending doubled over the past decade, study finds
Spending by Colorado’s Department of Health Care Policy and Financing reached $16 billion in 2025 — a 101% increase from 2015 — while Medicaid enrollment has returned to nearly its 2015 level, according to an analysis by a think tank. Pointing to 182 health care bills Colorado lawmakers enacted since 2019, the report from the…
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Denver school board to consider property swap
The Denver Public Schools board will consider replacing an administrative building with Pascual LeDoux Academy in the district’s 2020 lease-purchase structure, a financing arrangement tied to the sale and leaseback of several school buildings now under legal challenge. The deed swap is part of a financial maneuver to sell the administrative property on Yuma Street…
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Cherry Creek orders outside audit, tightens contract oversight amid leadership shakeup
Amid heightened public scrutiny following recent leadership upheaval, the Cherry Creek School District will launch an independent audit of its internal controls and impose stricter contract approval rules, lowering the dollar threshold for board oversight and requiring additional executive and legal sign-offs on spending. Friday was the fifth time the board has met over the…
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Cherry Creek School District Assistant Superintendent Tony Poole placed on administrative leave
Cherry Creek School District Assistant Superintendent Tony Poole has been placed on administrative leave, district officials confirmed Wednesday. Lauren Snell, a district spokesperson, declined to say whether Poole’s administrative leave was paid or not. Poole started with the school district in 1989 as a teacher and worked his way up the ranks to assistant superintendent…
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Denver Gazette reporter injured in scooter crash examines Denver’s e-scooter safety
My last scooter ride was my last. It ended the way far too many electric scooter rides in Denver do — in the hospital. On New Year’s Eve — while much of the city was toasting with champagne or watching the fireworks downtown — I was recovering from surgery. After one split-second misjudgment, I managed…
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Cherry Creek assistant superintendent to leave full-time post amid district leadership upheaval
Cherry Creek School District Assistant Superintendent Tony Poole will not return to full-time work at the end of the school year and will instead transition to a limited post-employment arrangement. Ashley Verville, a district spokesperson, said the move was not a signal that Poole is retiring while acknowledging “110s are often a transition into retirement.”…
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Wife of former Cherry Creek superintendent placed on paid administrative leave
Less than a week after Cherry Creek Schools Superintendent Chris Smith abruptly resigned following allegations of a toxic work environment, his wife, Brenda Smith, has been placed on paid, administrative leave, officials confirmed Tuesday. Brenda Smith is the district’s chief human resource officer, a position she has held since 2019. “As of Monday, February 2,…
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Avian flu spreads to backyard flocks in Larimer and Logan counties
The new cases follow last week’s disaster declaration tied to a commercial outbreak in Weld County. The Colorado Department of Agriculture confirmed three additional cases of the highly pathogenic avian flu in backyard flocks in Larimer and Logan counties, in addition to the one in Weld County that prompted the governor’s office to declare a…
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Conflict-of-interest safeguards at Cherry Creek Schools lacked clear oversight, memo shows
To avoid a conflict of interest, the wife of Cherry Creek Schools Superintendent Chris Smith — who resigned this week amid allegations of a toxic work environment — was supposed to report to Deputy Superintendent Jennifer Perry. In the wake of Smith’s resignation Wednesday, Perry was named interim superintendent. According to a Denver7 investigation, insiders…