Episode 13: School board candidate Alex Magaña lays out his vision for Denver Pubic Schools

Transcript

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 0:08

Hi everyone. Thanks for joining us today. We have a special guest joining us on the podcast today. Alex Magana recently announced his candidacy for the Denver Public Schools at Large Seat currently held by Scott Erman. It's not clear to us right now if Scott Erman will be running. The rumor on the street is that he will be running for the District three seat, which is currently held by Carrie Ton. Alex is a veteran DPS educator, and most notably, and most recently led. The Beacon Network until it was dismantled by the board and current administration. Alex, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast.

Alex Magaña: 0:45

Wow. Thanks for having me. My first ever podcast, by the way.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 0:48

Oh, that's great. This was my first time ever hosting a podcast, so I dunno about Alan.

Alan Gottlieb: 0:53

No, I actually did one way back in the dinosaur days before podcasts were cool.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 0:57

Awesome. Alex, you've had such a long career in DPS. Can we just start what it talk, walk us through the career you've had within the district.

Alex Magaña: 1:06

Walk through my career. Yes, please. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Or run through it. Yeah. My wife and I, we moved here from, she's Canadian. I'm from Florida. We met in Florida. We moved down. We decided Denver was our spot. So we came up here and my first school was Kepner Middle School. That was a math Spanish speaking math teacher. And then I realized that Denver is expensive. My degree is in accounting and finance. So I ended up I was recruited by a company to as a business analyst. So I left teaching for a couple years. But when I, it just always brought me back and my first when I decided to come back, I, my first job was at Lake Middle School. I. Sure enough, in the middle of the year, that was my first challenge. And at Lake Middle School, I was a math teacher, assistant principal, and then I mo I moved on, I was also a math coach. Great. I was there about five or six years. And when was this,

Alan Gottlieb: 2:02

Alex? Like how many years? What year was this? That

Alex Magaña: 2:04

was about 2001 all the way to about 2005. And I had a short stint at Koons Miller, and then I met Greta Martinez. Her and I were principals together, and she said, come on over. I I need your help at Grant Middle School. And I came over there and I've been at Grant Middle School, which we formed to be Grant Beacon Middle School ever since. And then at Grant, as the, my experience at Grant Middle School was just. It was incredible and it still is incredible because we took a school that was the third lowest performing and we turned it around and made it into the Grant Beacon Middle School. Then parents asked me to open another school, which was Kepner Beacon Middle School. So past few years I've been the executive director for Beacon Network Schools, and then I'm also, now I'm the executive principal of as for Grant Beginning Kepner Beacon Middle School. But yeah, that's a short version. I can go into the long version as well.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 2:57

Thanks, Alex, but just before we move on, can you explain to our listeners who may not know what a network is, can you explain what a network is and so how that worked with the two schools?

Alex Magaña: 3:09

Yeah I think it's important to know, like the story behind it. I was, we got to redesign Ramp Beacon Middle School, so we created something unique where we focused around personalized learning, character development, enrichments, and we did that with teachers in the community. Happened was we had a group of some families come and visit. Grand Beacon and wanted to learn what we were doing because they wanted to see some changes in their school. And all of a sudden, this young, the lady stands up and she says that they have the same. So I want my kids like this. They have the same opportunities. And that's really where the Beacon Network was formed, because I didn't wanna leave Grant. Beacon Middle School, because that's what traditionally we do, right? You take out a principal, put'em in another school, and then hope to hope for the best. And I didn't want to do that. So I was given support by the district, Tom Boberg, Susanna Cordova, the board at that time. And we said, what would it take for you to go to Keppner beacon Middle School? And we designed Keppner Beacon Middle School and replicated what we had at Grant Beacon Middle School and. It's, and that's how the network was formed where I became the executive principal and I share resources and people I worked with individuals that helped me get there from the principals, Michelle Saab to Dan Walsh. That helped out to Kevin Rogan. I. For the personalized learning and we created the IMO. So we were the first innovation management organization, which I joke because I took that from the CMO Charter Management organization and I said, why can't we be an IMO? And that's how the network was born.

Alan Gottlieb: 4:52

And this isn't on our list of questions, but grant has continued to be pretty high performing. I, if I haven't looked at the data lately, so correct me if I'm wrong, Kepner has continued to be a challenge. Can you talk a little bit about the challenges in terms of student achievement at Kepner and what you've done to address those and how they've changed in the years since it became part of, the innovation zone or the network.

Alex Magaña: 5:15

I'll say right now both schools are green and we are considered high performing because of the work that we've done. We took the principals that we did over at Grant Beacon and we brought'em over to Kepner Beacon and we, and also the leadership piece, right? A lot of teacher leaders came over to share that. When we launched, we were, we when we launched at Kepner beacon Middle School and started redesigning the school. And it wasn't just about the programming, it was about going in and creating a whole new look and feel in the entire school. And we received, support around, we redesigned classrooms, we focused around personalized learning. We brought in enrichments and. All of a sudden we started getting the trust back from the community and families started coming into the school, and we brought the school up to green and we were moving in that trajectory. Unfortunately COVID hit. I will say that one thing that I'm proud of, although COVID hit, we were one of the only schools that were already one-to-one, and our kids were already well prepared. So when COVID hit, when you say one-to-one, can you just elaborate on what that means? Oh. Were one-to-one technology. So we already had that in place and our teachers are already putting lesson plans in place on, online and using a learning management system at LMS. So when COVID hit, it was very unfortunate. Of course, buildings were clear. Safety, health, safety, health and safety was a number of priority. But we just said, take your computer. And then I was still operating at the school during COVID helping kids along as they were. Trying to make it through during those difficult years. And afterwards we worked with the district on bringing the kids back. Just Governor Beacon does have its challenges. Yeah. And as far as the, where the kids are coming in,'cause of many of our students are already coming in at about 11, 12% meets and exceeds or even lower at sixth grade, they're coming in at that level. So we don't focus necessarily just on the status. Of course, the status is important and we want to get to it. What's important is the growth that we need to expect growth from our kids and our literacy scores demonstrated growth. Our math scores. We were always striving to get those improvements made.

Alan Gottlieb: 7:27

And when you say, just to be clear, 11 and 12 meets and exceeds, what you're saying is basically that's the percentage of kids who came into the school performing on grade level, essentially. That's what that means, right? Absolutely. So you've had a success then as a school leader and a school leader and a network leader. What's made you decide to take this step now and run for board? What do you feel like you can do from the position of a school board director that you can't do as a school leader?

Alex Magaña: 7:52

I'll say I've had success, but I've also, lots of people have been with me to make that successful. So I wanna make sure to count the people out, and that's where, that's one of my skill sets of bringing people together to identify a problem and work together in finding a solution. Why am I running for the school board? Yeah. My friends and my family asked me the same question, but after thinking about it for quite some time and talking to my family and talking to mentors, I, I'm excited for the, this challenge and this opportunity. I think my experience in the past 25 years of being a teacher and being a principal, an assistant principal and an executive director, being on a board, being running a board gives me the skills to help kids move forward. I.'cause we need to put our students first. We really need to focus on ensuring that every child succeeds, both academically and emotionally. And we also need to create safe, welcoming environments in all of our schools. And we're not quite there yet. And the only way we're gonna get there is if we push the status quo.'cause every child deserves to succeed. And I'm adamant about that. And if you know anything about me, I have been a big proponent, and I've always done this with our teachers. With our students and with our families. So that's the other component, is I wanna bring the voices from our families into the conversations to say, okay, what are you looking for? What do we need to be focusing and targeting on? And the last thing I'll say, and this is more personal, I've always re, I've always, every time a challenge has been given to me. From being at Grant Middle School and suddenly realizing that we needed to make significant changes, otherwise there was gonna be a closure happening at Grant Middle School. I stood in front of the staff and said, do we make the changes or do others? We said we'll make the changes. At that point, that was a challenge. And then when that mom stood up and said, Hey, we want this over in our school, that was a challenge. That was probably one of the most challenging things I did in my career, where you replicate something.'cause it's not that easy. You can easily move five people, but it's suddenly expanding. So tho so the, and this was people asking me, why don't you consider, I started thinking about it. I thought it was absurd two years ago. A year ago, and then people kept mentioning it and I'm like, okay, why not? Because a kid like me, where I'm from, I'm surprised I'm where I'm at. So it's just, it's amazing and I'm rising up to the challenge.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 10:21

Thanks Alex. So in 2023 you experienced firsthand this administration the superintendent and board, asserting their power and influence is the way I'll say that. And they essentially under a split vote of the board dismantled the Beacon network. You and your families I saw firsthand, really fought to try to protect that. That's special, something that you had built through the network. Can you talk a little bit about your firsthand experience with the superintendent and his style of governing? I'll just say and when the board dismantled the beacon zone, what was that like for you? And then second question to that, what lessons did you learn from it? That will inform how you show up as a board member if you're elected.

Alex Magaña: 11:09

Questions on that one? I'll start with this, Alexis, is that you mentioned families and Yes, it was our family speaking up, but in that group were our teachers. Our teachers were advocating for it. A hundred percent of our teachers voted for the network to continue because they saw the benefits. We also approved our innovation plans, which I don't know need to get get into, but they approved it and were fully in support of it, along with our families. And the reason that we pushed back is the information that was shared. Was inaccurate. It was not fully accurate, and it was not recognizing the hard work that we did over the years. And when you took a look at data right after COVID, we're like, you're going, you're not looking at the right data. Let's take a look at the whole thing. So the thing I learned and then as far as the superintendent, I'd rather focus on the board. On the board. The superintendent and I have zero issues or con concerns. But the su the board is responsible for monitoring and ensuring the superintendent makes the right decisions. And the board did not do their homework. They did not come in and visit our schools. They did not, a week before the decision, they did not know the data. I was talking to individual board members and they were not hearing, I will give credit to Dr. Olson and a Anderson. They were showing up. Dr. Olson was at that school, and she knows how incredibly important it was. And not only just did they traumatize the school one time, they did it again years, later, as we are doing an upward swing. And the lesson that I learned through it all is. A lot of lessons is that the, that the one major lesson is that as a board member, I need to do my homework, I need to make sure to ask the hard questions. I need to go talk to the parents, talk to the teachers, talk to the community of what the overall impact is. And that's what I would serious would do as a board is, I just remember looking there going, and statements were being made. And people were using in the board as a pulpit and making incorrect comments about people's character, which is unfortunate. And that's not the responsibility of a board. The board is to ensure the success of our kids. And you know what, right after that, that those schools, our two schools were green. So the, once again, we were right in what we were saying. We said, our data shows good. You can't take this one snippet of data yet, they went ahead and voted against it. And it's, and the last thing I'll say, it's important for the, and i for the board to guide the superintendent, talk with the superintendent is to ensure that we're making the right decision.

Alan Gottlieb: 14:02

You talk about, you would go in and talk to parents and families and all of that. One of the things that, and we're gonna get to this question in a few minutes more directly, but what recently with John Youngquist, one of the things he's been accused of by the superintendent is that he's like meddling. Where school board members aren't supposed to, and under this really extreme version of policy government. Governance that the board is in the administration practice. You might not, you, you might be reprimanded for going into schools on your own without getting permission. So I guess I'm just interested in your take on the way that the district and the board runs under policy governance, how it seems to be working and what, if anything, you would want to do or try to do to change it if you got on the board.

Alex Magaña: 14:43

I think the key point, Alan, is that it seems to be working and the question is it working in the past six months, I've I've learned a lot about the policy governance and I have a better understanding of why all of a sudden we made these statements that board members can't do this and they can't do this. Looking at that, not all districts are doing that. Boards are permitted to go and talk to community and be a part of it. The way we established a policy governance, DPS established a policy governance was these are the rules, follow the rules and then step aside, and then superintendent will monitor it and I said, but that has how we decided to do it. So just like they were. In place. We, those are some of the conversations we need to ask ourselves. And I even asked a board member as that same exact question was statement was made that you just said we can't do that. I'm going are we meeting our goals? As a principle. I can't say that. I can't say, oh, I can't do that. I'm sorry. I can't say that to a parent. I'm sorry. I can't do that. It's about. What is working and what's in the best interest of our kids and will produce positive outcomes, with our with our, for our students. So I look forward to taking a look at and with the board and talking to the senior leadership team and the superintendent and say, all right, what's not working?'cause we're not hitting our marks. It's obvious, right? So let's be honest and what's getting in the way. And I will ask hard questions and I will ask for additional data and we'll push to get that information.'cause our that's why. From my understanding, that's why you're elected to, to advocate for your constituents.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 16:21

So Alex, this next, oh, you said, go ahead, Alan.

Alan Gottlieb: 16:24

I was just gonna say, you said let's be honest. And that's the problem right there, is that there's a real lack of honesty about the way they present the data right now. And yeah, I think you're absolutely right Alex, I just wanted to, this is maybe more of a comment than a question, but technically the board was under policy governance back in the Boasberg days too. In the Susana Cordova days. Policy governance is, can be broadly interpreted in different ways, and this is a very extreme orthodox version of it that they've decided to employ. That basically gives board members a kind of cop out, but to say that. This isn't their responsibility. They don't meddle in operations. That's up to the superintendent. And certainly the superintendent jealously guards that and wants board members to stay the hell away from everything that he's involved in. Yeah, I think it definitely hope as you as if and when you're on the board that you take a look at that and see if there are ways to modify the current form of. Of policy governance.

Alex Magaña: 17:13

I'll just add, I'll just add on that. You talked about the data. The data that they're presenting isn't necessarily false. The data that they're presenting is one piece of data. We need to go deeper into the data, right? And ask those additional questions. Especially when we're talking about closing the gap with our black and brown students. That bothers me. I'm one of those kids, right? And I, fortunately, and we need to ensure why aren't they growing at the same level, but you're absolutely right. We need to have additional data ensure that is, that we are looking at the right things and asking the right questions so every child grows.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 17:48

So to get that additional data, if it's not being presented to you by the district or by the superintendent and his team, you need two other board members to go in with you to request that data. What are your thoughts on that being, how you get data from the district?

Alex Magaña: 18:03

There's two things. One is. I need to work with the board members firsthand and say, what are our goals? What information do we need? And then ask ourselves, are we about all kids? Are we about all groups of students? And then can we agree to get this additional information? And then the second part of that is shouldn't that be a norm? Shouldn't that be a expectation as a principal? I've had supervisors come in and they say. Did you know about this? And I'm going no. And if I ever say, no, that's not a good thing. So as a board member, I'm responsible for knowing all the details, behind the scenes on it. I'm not going to do the work, but I should be able to monitor and ask questions, around it. So there's two things. Work with the board members, and I think I I've worked with lots of people and find some common ground. And then the second piece is look at the policy.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 19:01

Alex, I'm gonna, I'm gonna hold you to that just a little bit more because this is me being kind to you by prepping you for the tough questions you're gonna get at forums. That was a good answer that didn't answer the question. So let me ask it a little bit more. More concretely, do you support or do you oppose the current policy? That requires board members to get to, to get three people, you need to have three people in order to get data. Do you support or oppose that currently?

Alex Magaña: 19:32

As I said, the one is I need to work with the board members that are there. The two is we need to look at the policies, the policy makes sense with what you're saying. That part, what you just said, does not make sense that I need to get a four three vote, but I can't wait and go through a six month process, piece. I want to go ahead and say, Hey. To each board member, this is the information we need.'cause we need to get started, right away. Then we need to take a look at our policies and go, what is preventing us from moving things forward? And that's when I asked one of the board members, so this would be something that would probably come up. This prevents us from asking hard questions.'cause what we're supposed to do is just do a stamp of approval. All the rules are being followed in the box. And we check it off and we walk and walk away. And you can't do that. I could not do that as a principal. Teachers can't do that in the classroom, right? We need to ensure that we have the the information we need and make informed decisions. That's how I would proceed.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 20:28

Thanks, Alex.

Alan Gottlieb: 20:32

How would you describe, you've touched on this, Alex, but how would you describe the current state of student learning or student achievement at DPS and how would you go about addressing it? In particular, the gaps in performance that you were talking about for, between low income kids and kids of color and more affluent, mostly white rather Asian kids.

Alex Magaña: 20:53

I'm gonna take this, I'm gonna answer this as a parent, my. My kids were not well prepared coming outta high school. They did not lack, they lacked the skills of knowing how to learn. And

Alan Gottlieb: 21:06

you went to DPS just to be clear.

Alex Magaña: 21:08

And yes, they did not know how to learn. They did all the checklists, the standard, traditional stuff that goes on, but they don't know how to learn. So that's the one thing that I would bring into this is as a parent, why, how is it that our kids. Are graduating, yet they don't have the skills they need to be successful at that next level. We can talk about social media, we can talk about cell phones, but those are just and those are major issues. We need to be thinking outside the box and providing the kids the skills that they need, to, to support that example Alan. My son my son, he struggled in reading when he was young and still does, and I remember fighting the schools of trying to get him the support that he needed. I walked into a teacher's, the teacher's classroom, and I said, how are you gonna help my child learn to read? And the teacher did not have the skills to do so I had to fight with the school. Fortunately, we were, IW we, my wife and I. We're able to get him the resources and get him the specialized tutoring that he needed so that he could read a book. And then that, what that triggered for me is why don't all kids have this opportunity? Why don't all schools have that? And then, so what I did is I took that back to my school and we created a special a reading class where a hundred percent of the students participate in reading. We partner with a foundation. That brings book or that, and we have two robust libraries and every kid is expected to read for 30 minutes a day. And we measure their progress and we train teachers, on doing it. And that's why our literacy scores at Grant Beacon and Cabinet Beacon have always been relatively high because we are, we not, don't only focus on just language arts, we're focusing on reading. So I always love, so that's what motivated me to go. To answer your question on the students, we need to pro pro make sure our teachers are well trained to support the students, but we also need to focus on how, what skills are their kids leaving with because they're we're not doing that effectively to, for the gap, for the gaps. There's no reason why a hundred percent of kids don't grow. There isn't, and we need to look at the resources that are being provided. We need to also look at the systemic things that we put in place that prevents them from growing as moving forward. We can easily identify students in IEPs, but it's not about identifying a student. It's about, Hey, what special instruction are you gonna give to that child to ensure that they can get back up to grade level? And we also need to have multiple measures. CMAs is one test, right? We have, there's a lot of other tests that we look at. For us we look at, we put together our interim data, our CMAs data. We look at teachers' grade books, we look at multiple pieces of data to show is this kid, is this child growing? And if they're not, what's preventing it? And it could be something personal, it could be a learning disability, it could be a language issue. And we need to put those things in place. And that's some of the stuff. Yeah. Most recently they talked about the graduation rates, right? And we celebrate it, and I'm like, yeah, high five. I always celebrate data. Every time I meet with my leadership team, we're going, all right, what's good? High five, but then what do we miss? And if our black and brown students are not growing at the same level and graduating at the same level, especially when the one of those years was during COVID, that's a question go, what's going on there? How many were in remedial classes? How many have gone to college? Or gone to the next level and finding work that they're striving to excel in. So those are the things I would. Really look at what are we doing for the students that are in our subgroup data, and why are we not growing at the same level?

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 24:59

Thanks, Alex. I really appreciate how seriously you take making data informed decisions. Something we've observed recently as director Youngquist, who is currently on the board, has been asking for data and is struggling to get that data as I referenced earlier, with the need to have those three three superintendents requesting it. As a result of maybe his style, his behavior and many other things we probably don't know. The superintendent wrote a letter to the board or letter to President Olson asking for the board to cen director Youngquist. How do you think this board is responding to that and just what is your perspective in general about this censure. Request from the superintendent

Alex Magaña: 25:49

that I was, I was surprised because I know John Youngquist well. He was my area supervisor back when I was a assistant principal at Lake Middle School. I've never seen anything to that effect. I do wanna respect the fact that if someone says something, it needs to be investigated. And we need to, because there should be a process. But then I'm gonna question the process. I don't understand how that suddenly there is this whatever email that goes out and all of a sudden that's leaked and then it becomes public and assumptions are being made. Once something is said, it's impossible to take it away, even through a full investigation. And that's where, was there a pro? Was that the proper procedure? I would hope, if this happens with a teacher, there's strict procedures or employee, there's strict procedures. I protect the people and say, don't say one word because we need to go through this process to ensure it.'cause we're, we need to respect the fact that everyone that to follow the procedures of a full investigation. So I look forward to the final outcome. We will see what it, says, I'm not gonna say anything about Marrero, but I do question I. How is that released and why is that? Okay? Is that what we're gonna do with all of our employees? Because if that's the case, that we're gonna have a major issue and that's not, and that's not okay. And I would never condone it or support, that. So I look forward to the outcome of that so we can move on.

Alan Gottlieb: 27:21

I can answer your question, Alex, because that was a very closely held letter. So that letter was either leaked by the administration or a board member. Full stop.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 27:28

Or a, a reporter was tipped off to court. Well, Kora, that's what it was exactly. Yeah. That, that,

Alan Gottlieb: 27:34

that, that's actually what it was. Yeah. A reporter co, a particular reporter from the Denver Post was, but they

Alex Magaña: 27:39

knew what Kora

Alan Gottlieb: 27:40

exactly.

Alex Magaña: 27:41

And I go to I've been corded, but it's important to protect the all parties involved and the victim to the, person that's involved, with this. And when those happen, it's everyone's quiet. You need to respect that process and let that roll out. And I don't know, it's unfortunate that I was leaked out'cause that's not the proper procedures that should be followed. I think whoever. To leak it out. There should be conversations with that individual. If that's the case,

Alan Gottlieb: 28:14

it's also gonna cost tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to investigate this. That's when Anonte Anderson was centered and there was an investigation that was very, I don't have the dollar figures in front of me, but it's out, it was about a quarter of a

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 28:26

quarter million or a little bit higher, I think.

Alex Magaña: 28:28

To respect the process. Okay. That is unfortunate, that is the cost, right? Of it. But there was an accusation that's made, alright? We need to go ahead and investigate it. And so unfortunate that the cost is so high, but those are the procedures and I look forward to the final outcome. I'll be, and we'll see what ends up transpiring, from that.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 28:51

Sticking with sort of the board decision board votes recently on a five two split. The board recently agreed to not only extend the superintendent's contract, but amend the contract. And some of those amendments, as we've discussed in a previous episode of the podcast, are requiring a super majority to fire the superintendent paying out a year severance on a approximately$350,000 a year salary for the superintendent. What's your reaction to that? What are your thoughts? The timing of

Alan Gottlieb: 29:19

it in particular? Yeah.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 29:21

There we go.

Alex Magaña: 29:24

Right now, I'm gonna answer this in like right now. There's a lot of tension in the district. I. I went to the bargaining session with DCTA and and I sat there and listened in and it was really eye-opening.'cause you saw teachers sitting there and they're grading their papers and they're listening and talking. But the level of, contention that was in that room as far as negotiating back and forth. And I was a little surprised with some of the things that were being negotiated. I was not, I don't know all the details, around it. There's a lot of frustration and it's, I can feel it in my schools'cause my teachers are getting information and they're getting hearing things I agree with Rob about when he says, when teachers are fighting,

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 30:09

can you explain who Rob is? I know we all know who that is. Oh, sorry.

Alex Magaña: 30:12

Robert. Robert Gould with DCTA when he's coming out and saying, Hey, we're fighting for this and here we're extending that. I'm going, yeah, I agree. I agree with that because there should have been there. People wanted to advocate, people wanted to speak up on some of the things that are going on. So I do question the fact of why weren't when people are asking to give input, why was that not considered? And then and then I'm not sure why suddenly we extend it to the additional requirements on the contract. I, I struggle with that'cause I do believe that there should be voice in my evaluation. In teacher's evaluation. There is a voice, teachers are given student perception surveys. I'm given, school perception surveys, and also my C, my CSC has to evaluate and get feedback on it. So I'm not sure why the process is any different. For any other DPS employee. So I had a lot of questions, on it. I can understand some other frustrations and I empathize.

Alan Gottlieb: 31:18

And finally just a couple of other quick questions, Alex, and then I think we'll be done. One is obviously ever since the shootings a couple of years ago at east of the two deans and the unfortunate, that the kid who shot them took his own life. There's been a lot of a lot of angst and concern about the state of safety in DPS and the kinds of policies, the discipline matrix, et cetera, that allow kids, that some people consider potentially dangerous to be attending school with other kids. What's your view of the state of safety in DPS? Is it, does it feel safe in the schools? Are the district's policies, do they promote safety for all kids or are they out of whack and like, how do you look at discussing and perhaps changing those things that's one of the hot button issues out there in the community? For sure.

Alex Magaña: 32:03

That's one of my first things on the, my, whatever you wanna call it, a platform, right? Is creating safe and welcoming environments. One is having the infrastructure of safety. The other piece is setting the expectations of get, educating everyone on it, but also looking at our systems. See, I'm not sure how much has changed significantly from the time of the East High School incident, which was such a tragedy. Sadly, I've been in that situation. Hundreds of times. Every principal that has worked with kids has been in that same situation hundreds of times. But the procedures have I question how much the procedures have changed since then. So I went to east High School and regarding the vestibule and. It was a eye-opening experience. One is the passion in that in the schools, not only in East, but in other schools. But the other part is the putting in the vestibule, is that really addressing the full problem that we're trying to deal with. And then the additional measures that we're putting in place, those are measures that we already have in place. So how can we improve that? So me as a principle that looks for safety is ensuring that we do have all those things in place and we're monitoring on a consistent basis. So from the plans to the evacuations to to the drills, the how people walk in. One that. Should be reviewed is and it was mentioned over at the high school, is everyone has to come in and check in, right? And they're gonna do the vestibule, but aside from that, everyone has to check in. Who are they checking in? When checking in with, they're checking in with our office staff. So then the office staff, they have to check the ID and then give them a, the, give them a label, and then they move on. The part is that the safety is being at the, with the office staff. We need to look at that entirely different because our office staff is doing so many other things, yet everyone that comes through the doors has to be checked in, with the office staff, which is which is something that we should really review and take a look at. And the last thing I'll say, I was a, the SROs was a topic. I was one of the principals. They didn't ask the principals and many of us were advocating for it. SROs are not the answer. Having a strong partnership with SROs and DPD is the answer, and that's what we need to continue to provide throughout the schools. So there I have a lot of opinion. I'm not sure if I gave you a solid answer, but those are things that need to be reviewed.

Alan Gottlieb: 34:34

Just one thing I wanted to clarify that you said to make sure I understand and the listeners understand, you said all of all principals have been through this kind of thing hundreds of times. Are you talking about patting down kids for weapons or what did you mean by that? Because I wasn't clear.

Alex Magaña: 34:46

Yeah. If and I'll, I shouldn't say all principals because there's, I'm sure other schools are not, but we there are schools and school leaders and deans and assistant principals. Yeah. We've had to pat students down. And I have the process where you come in, I'm there with my CSO and we check a backpack and we check, make sure everything's, not that that everything's okay. So when that incident happened at East High School, I can't say I was there and I want to, I have the utmost I have strong thoughts about when that incident happened at East High School. I could just see it all rolling out.'cause those are things that we've experienced and we've done. And I would question how much is the same now than it is before? Because I, I believe students are still coming into schools that have been accused. And yes, we need to educate them, but we also need to maintain the safety of all kids in that building. And then we also need to be careful of how much resources are going in that pulls away from all the other students.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 35:46

Thanks for clarifying, Alex. My last question for you is around school closures. So you obviously have a lot of experience as a teacher, as an assistant principal, a principal on the west side of town. West Denver, particularly southwest Denver has seen the largest numbers of schools either closing or attempted to be closed, whether that's under the current administration, under previous administrations. The board also, and this is me just providing context by the way, I'll get to my question in a second. The board recently rejected on a. I think it was actually a three, three vote, if I'm remembering correctly, because somebody was absent. It did not pass. They rejected the idea of doing a moratorium for three years on the on, on school closures. If you were elected to the board, how would you think about school closures, whether they be in terms of declining enrollment or in terms of, chronically low performing schools? How would you approach that challenge?

Alex Magaña: 36:51

Yeah, I've experienced it. I've been there. When I said about Grant Middle School, that school was in the verge of closure. We were under enrolled, we weren't performing. There was a really strong demand around the neighborhood, and we redesigned and we created something unique and different and brought students back into the schools with the same students, not the same students, go. We do need to look at our resources and ensure that we're getting as many resources possible to all of our kids. And yes, we need to be proactive. In the declining enrollment or the decline in enrollment and set high expectations for academics, will there be schools that are closing? I'm sure. Yeah. There it makes sense because we're by 2000, I believe the last data was at 2027. They're looking at, we're at 83,000 students, which is significant from the recurrent 89 thousand students. But if we know this is gonna happen, just like a good principal and a good teacher, I know if my enrollment's going down, I don't continue hiring. I stop hiring and we start redesigning. I'm gonna take the same exact mentality and the school closure is okay, we know this is happening. Let's be proactive. Let's start talking to our families. Let's see what the criteria is. Have we talked to the city? Did we could take into consider other options of what we're gonna do with that building? For example, the incident that happened at Castro Elementary, they closed the school. It was under-enrolled. But there, the trauma in that, and Dr. Olson mentions that, right? The trauma in that from the Castro Elementary, it was very intense. Very intense. There was no decision made of what they were gonna do to this school. And then a month later they said, oh, we're gonna put Summit summit in middle school and high school, which I'm going, wait a second. And that's okay. They deserve a building, but I'm going. Couldn't have this been discussed before. Shouldn't have. We been proactive, before that.'cause we need to really take care, of our community. And the last thing I'll say, and I have the utmost respect, I admire Dr. Olson. She, she is, she has helped us and she's advocated for West for she worked at West captain Beacon or Captain Middle School. But I don't. I would push on that. We do need to look at schools and ensure they're highly performing the, and the bar does need to be at a certain level. We need to set those expectations. I was in the building at Kepner Middle School when the performance was low, enrollment was low. There were all kinds of issues that were going on. Families were leaving the, leaving the school and they were wanting something different. We came in and we redesigned the school with the, with the community. And every teacher that was there was. Given the opportunity to jump on board with us as long as you're committed to the plan. So that's one thing is we, sometimes we do need to make those decisions to create the positive change that's needed, but we do it with the community. We don't wanna do it to the community.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 39:42

Thanks, Alex. I do have one follow up to that. You mentioned Summit being a considered, and I can't remember, was it actually placed or was being considered for placement at the Castro building? I can't recall. But Rega, regardless, I guess my question to you is. Currently the superintendent has say over what, how facilities are used, right? So empty school buildings. School buildings that have been closed, or schools that have been closed, those buildings are sitting empty. Do you think that should be a superintendent decision or should facility use and school placement be a board decision?

Alex Magaña: 40:18

I think anything that impacts our community, that we need to stand in front of our families and talk to our, and also our educators that in the, in that area, we should be involved in that decision making. I. And so to answer your question, I would say I would want to know and I would wanna be able to push back. And I'd also wanna be able to vote on if this is a good thing.'cause I'm here for the long haul, right? I've been here for 25 years. I'm gonna be you, probably another 25. But it, what is the long term plan? What does that look like and what steps have we been taking? Because they're gonna ask me and they're gonna say, why'd you do that? My God, I don't know. And I want to be able to say this is our plan. We're gonna do this and this is what we worked out. And we're partnering with the city and working together. And that's one of my things that I take pride in is I really, I think I'm pretty good about bringing people together and finding some common ground and some solutions. And to answer your question, I think that should be a board decision

Alan Gottlieb: 41:15

or highly involved.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 41:17

Thank you.

Alan Gottlieb: 41:18

Thanks, Alex. You're bringing people together. Skills will certainly be tested if you're part of this board, although there could be some new, there could be some other new members so it could change. I think that's it. Any last words, Alex? I don't think we have any more questions. I.

Alex Magaña: 41:32

I'll just I wanna say thank you and thank you for having me on my first podcast. You guys can give me some feedback later. Just let me know how I did. But no, I'm excited. I'm excited for the opportunity I am to bring my expertise in and focus on ensuring that all kids or excel academically and emotionally and those create those environments and work with our community. And right now. And we didn't talk about it. But right now we have so many outside forces, current administration that we need to be concerned, heavily concerned about, which I am concerned about. We need to make, we need to be working together to address that because the rule book has changed so we can start looking and being proactive and focus on our students and what is in the best interest of our kids, which will require us to look at things differently. And I'm excited to. Give people my thoughts and work with people on finding solutions.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 42:27

Thanks, Alex. Okay,

Alan Gottlieb: 42:28

thanks Alex. Appreciate having you on and we'll talk again soon.