Denver Has Spent More Than $160,000 Searching For A New Supt.

DENVER, CO –By Melanie Asmar, Chalkbeat Colorado. The Denver school district spent $161,375 over the past four months on a superintendent search that has resulted in a single finalist: Deputy Superintendent Susana Cordova.

A public records request shows that the district paid more than $100,000 to a Denver political consulting firm, Dimension Strategies, which ran nine of 11 community meetings. The firm produced a detailed report on the characteristics and qualifications that students, parents, teachers, and city residents said they wanted in the next superintendent of Denver Public Schools. The district paid another $30,000 to an executive search firm.

The school board is expected to vote to appoint the next superintendent Dec. 17, wrapping up a process that started in August shortly after former Superintendent Tom Boasberg announced he would step down. Boasberg led Colorado’s largest school district for nearly 10 years.

Students, parents, and community members have criticized the board for rushing the search, with some encouraging the board to stretch it out over an entire year. But a survey of four other large metro area districts that have conducted superintendent searches in the past two years found that Denver’s timeline was not abnormal. It wasn’t even the shortest search.

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Photo by Melanie Asmar, Chalkbeat Colorado