Episode 15: Timiya Jackson, DPS board candidate

Transcript

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 0:08

Welcome back everyone. here recording the Board Hawk Podcast in the middle of summer when many of our DPS friends and stakeholders are hopefully enjoying. So much deserved time off, including the current DPS Board of directors. Today, Alan and I are very excited to welcome Tam Maya Jackson onto the podcast. She is a DPS parent, an education advocate, a community leader, and she is currently running for the DPS school board district four seat. Welcome, Tam.

Timiya Jackson: 0:37

Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here and I'm excited to dive into this conversation with you guys.

Alan Gottlieb: 0:45

Great. We'll just start by having you tell us a little bit about yourself, Tamaya, your background and where you're from originally, and what made you decide to run for school board this year.

Timiya Jackson: 0:55

Thanks so much. I'm Tamaya Jackson and I'm running for the Denver Public School Board to represent District four because I believe that all students, regardless of their background, deserve access to a high quality education. Me, myself, I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and I was raised by my grandmother. My grandmother taught me at a very young age that school was my job and my grades were my paycheck, and ultimately what I took that to mean is that education would be the resource that would change my life. I went to school to be a teacher because when I was in the sixth grade, I actually met my mentor who for the first time I had heard out loud, someone say to me and look me directly in my eyes and say, you have so much potential and I see greatness in you. Honestly, if it wasn't for that pivotal moment, I don't believe that I would be sitting here today. That being said, I am a mom of a student who's in the district, and I've spent my entire career supporting young people both in schools and through my nonprofit work. And some of the hats that I've had the privileges of wearing include director of student services, dean of students, executive director, and now in my current role. As a re-engagement specialist for students who have either dropped outta school or on the pathway to dropping out. So that being said, I know that we're at a very pivotal moment where our kids deserve so much better than what they are currently getting. And from my listening sessions with community, I'm hearing that our board is tired of what's been happening, and they want to see leadership who is going to work alongside community. To uplift the voices of our students and our educators to ensure that our schools are safe places and that we are being held accountable when we're falling short to those themes. I'm at a point where my personal and professional experience allows me to be able to dive into this work. And so with that being said, that's why I'm running for the board to ensure that all kids get what they deserve.

Alan Gottlieb: 3:08

Just one really quick thing before Alexis, you jump in with a question. I think I'm always guilty of this and I just wanna make sure in case we have some listeners who aren't total education nerds. District four represents basically a large swath of Northeast Denver.

Timiya Jackson: 3:23

It does. And we're talking about the anchor neighborhoods of Green Valley Ranch, Montbello, central Park, park Hill, and Five Points. So those are the big NA anchor neighborhoods for District four.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 3:37

Thank you so much and thanks for naming us specific neighborhoods as well. This is a seat district four that currently does have a board member who's on the board, who's an incumbent running for reelection. That's board member Michelle Cuttle Baum. How would you differentiate yourself from our current school board director for that district?

Timiya Jackson: 3:57

I think, I appreciate anyone who chooses to step into public service and I definitely, have nothing but gratitude for those who have come before me. But this moment that we're currently in calls for new type of leadership, one that's gonna be visible and proactive, as well as someone who's focused on delivering outcomes for our kids. I'm running because what I hear from families, they are frustrated that their voices are not being heard and they're not being reflected in the decisions that are being made right now. And so my commitment as a board member is to ensure that we are. Bringing all of the voices to the table and that we are working collaboratively in order to ensure that ultimately, that our kids are able to achieve that we do this work through transparency. And then ultimately that there's accountability if we're falling short of that

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 4:52

one follow up question on that Tam Maya, speaking of, the incumbent here, there's other incumbents running as well. And the incumbents and the existing district leaders from my perspective and probably from some of our listeners as well, seem to feel that the district, that they think the district is moving in the right direction. I don't think that if they didn't feel that way, they wouldn't have some of those board members renewed the superintendent's contract prematurely. They've talked about some of the progress that has been made. Do you agree or disagree that the district is moving in the right direction, specifically on student learning?

Timiya Jackson: 5:28

I think when we talk about student learning, it's more complicated than just saying if you agree or disagree. The current data shows that we've had an uptick in our graduation rates for our students, and I think that is a testament to our teachers who show up day in and day out to support our kids and ensure that they're in those classrooms. And I would also argue that when you look. More deeply at the data. The data reflects that students from our black and Latino students, as well as our students with individual education plans, also known as IEPs, are not meeting the achievement marks of their white. Peers. And so that in of itself is an inequity and a dis justice. And so we as a board and as a district, as a community, owe it to our students to make sure that they are, getting everything that they deserve. And that includes making sure that our kids are achieving,

Alan Gottlieb: 6:27

Just as a follow up to that. Tamaya. One thing that's been distressing to me is that I agree with everything you just said about the state of learning and DPS, and especially for the kids who really most need the help that schools can provide, and yet. The superintendent, the administration, let's say, and the board and certain members of the board seem more interested in spinning the data to make it look as positive as possible, rather than just laying it out there and saying, yes, this is where we have a lot of work to do. Recently, when the national report, the Nation's report card NAP scores came out, and more specifically the Urban District Data, those board members in that, and the administration touted how highly rated DPS was compared to other urban districts. And yet when you pulled the data apart even a little bit, what you saw was what you just said, which was that low income kids of color are really struggling in Denver more even than in many other urban districts. And that it's the fact that there are more affluent white students in DPS than many other urban districts who are performing extremely well in this district that pull the average up. And so I don't know what their motivation is for doing that, but I would hope that the board could get a little more honest about truth telling and laying out the information so that the public understands where the challenges lie. I'm just interested in your thoughts on that.

Timiya Jackson: 7:49

Transparency is something that is extremely critical to me, and it's how I've always led as a leader by having really honest and radical conversations around where we are, but also taking moments to celebrate the things that are going well. And so when elected to the board, I wanna ensure that we are. Creating dashboards and that data is accessible so that we all understand where we exactly we are, so that we can understand where we need to go. There's a quote from one of my favorite education scholars, Charlotte Danielson, that says, monitor to adjust. That is exactly what I am proposing that we do as a board, that we monitor where we currently are, that we make the necessary adjustments, whether that means that we are deploying our resources in a different way in order to make sure that we're getting the outcomes that we've promised that our kids deserve.

Alan Gottlieb: 8:44

I am interested in how you would respond to, as a board member to, to maybe harsher critics of the district. People like Brandon Pryor, who have come out very forcefully and with data to show the district that it is not fulfilling its promise and he is. As a result been treated as a pariah. In fact, they tried to ban him from DPS board meetings in public comment, and from all DPS buildings until a judge forced them to rescind the, those blockages. I'm just curious about how you think the board and or as a individual board member and you would be Brandon Pryor's representative, how you would approach, strong critics of the district who want to help, but maybe are always the most diplomatic in the way they present that information.

Timiya Jackson: 9:29

Alan, if you've spent any time working with young people, you know that they are some of the most honest individuals that you'll ever meet. And sometimes they will tell you hard. That, you just have to take it on the chin. And I have not had the pleasure of meeting Brandon prior, but I know that he is a fierce advocate for our community, and he continues to advocate on behalf of those who may not be aware and may not have the ability to advocate for themselves or for their kids. And throughout my work, whenever you hear hard hard truths, it calls for a moment of pause and reflection. And as a board member, that is something that we have to be, we have to model that type of, radical honesty and feedback from our constituents.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 10:21

I, go ahead, Alan.

Alan Gottlieb: 10:23

No. Go ahead.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 10:24

I really appreciate, just as a quick aside, the comment you made a second, a few minutes ago about the Danielson framework and I think the average person probably has no idea what that is. And Charlotte Danielson specifically, but I know that many educators listening who have been in the teaching profession for a little bit will, will appreciate the shout out for the Danielson framework. So just something that I think is a nice little touch there. Okay. Next question. We talked a little bit about this, but the current board did extend Metos contract or Superintendent Metos contract before he had undergone an evaluation. What do you think of that decision?

Timiya Jackson: 11:00

I had an opportunity to speak at the limited public comment back in March when we first learned that the board was even considering extending the contract. And my thoughts and views on it still remain the same today as they did back in March when I did public comment is, for me I question and I just wanted to have clarity around the process. And I know that evaluations are something that we hold our principals and our teachers to. And so just wanted to make sure that once again, that there is transparency. I know that the board spent a lot of time putting together an evaluation and then identifying the specific goals that they wanted to have the superintendent meet, and when they decided to have, start having this conversation in March ahead of the evaluation. For me, it raised the kind of all kinds of questions around transparency in the process. And if this is a process that we use for our principals and for our teachers, why are we not holding that same expectation at the highest level of leadership within the district? And I think we still have questions around that. And so that was my thoughts back in March. It's my thoughts still in July.

Alan Gottlieb: 12:17

Thanks. At this time Tamaya that this was all going on at about the time they were considering this extension it was pretty clear that two board members were gonna oppose it. And the other five were gonna support it. And the superintendent went very hard after board. Director John Youngquist, basically accusing him of a number of things, including racial insensitivity and heavy handedness, but also of being directly interested in assuming the superintendent's job and that was his motivation and asked the board to censure the youngquist. And so they've now had to. Implemented or they're in the process of finding somebody to do an investigation. I'm just curious what your thoughts are about that whole situation and how that was handled by the superintendent.

Timiya Jackson: 13:05

I am not privy or don't really know the inside details to that. And so I don't feel that it's appropriate for me to give an opinion on something that I don't have facts. And in fact, as a board member, we've talked a little bit about transparency. It is important to me that you have access to all data before you're making decisions. And so I think for me, this would be another example of, really wanting to lead. Through what I believe and hold to be true. So to make a comment without having all of the details to me feels really outta line with how I show up. Thanks.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 13:38

I certainly appreciate your call for transparency. And your comments about, not having all the facts to be able to weigh in on the situation between director Youngquist and the superintendent. One of the things that. Director Youngquist has brought up on this podcast was the fact that you do need three board members to request information and data. So you've spoken about the importance of data in your decision making. Under this board's current interpretation of policy governance, which is the the way that the board chooses to govern and hold the superintendent accountable. They, they do limit in information. They do limit what access board members have and speaking to. Former board members, current board members, I think, everyone's gonna have a slightly different view of what they think is the appropriate amount of information that the district should be sharing with the board and how in the weeds the board members should get. I'm curious to hear from you, how would you propose, revising the current policy governance model to maybe give the board a little bit more AAU authority. Do you think the current policy governance model is working? What would you change about it?

Timiya Jackson: 14:48

Certainly. I know that the board moved into this policy governance model back in 2021, and I've had the ability to read John Carvers, who is the person that thought and brought this whole theory of policy governance. To light. And so one of the things that I read in his book that really stood out to me was around there was a quote, something to the extent of policy governance is really designed to ensure that the board is wrapping its arms around the organization and does not have its fingers in it. We took on this model of governance in 2021, and here in 2025, we're having conversations around the fact that our most vulnerable students are far below where they're supposed to be, far below Colorado, averages, far below national averages. And so what that indicates is that something is not working and. If elected to the board, one of the first orders of business for me would really want to explore a hybrid based governance model. One that will allow the board to have a little bit more access to the data so that we can truly make data informed decisions. That is the only way that you can continue to. Really lean into equity because equity without measurements is not real equity. It just means that you're actually just using words and not really making sure that you're having the progress that you seek.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 16:20

I love that last part that you just said, equity without measurements. A critique I have of. The current leadership of this district from the superintendent, and to the board and maybe even some of the senior leaders. I'm not sure where they're at, they are at on this, but. We talk a lot about inputs with this current school districts, meaning here's the things that we're doing, right? We have the the Latina student success team. We have the Bailey report, we have the RAA report, and that's all good and that we have documentation to show that we know that there's a problem and we're creating systems to try to address those problems, but that in and of itself is not something to celebrate. It's good that we're making progress. To me, I won't celebrate until we start seeing those gaps close. So not really a question necessarily, but just really appreciate that that perspective around equity and the importance of measuring equity. I think that's often lost on this current the current leadership of this district.

Timiya Jackson: 17:19

And that's really the only real way that you can actually understand if you are having those achievement methods. It's through that transparency of the data. In education we often collect so much data but sometimes we're really slow to make those implementations and. I'm proposing that we need new leadership in order to really move the needle on this work. I know that this district has so much potential and has done a lot of amazing things and there's still room to grow. It's time for us to roll up our sleeves, be the adults in the room, and making sure that we're ultimately doing what's best for our kids, and that every kid that walks through our doors gets exactly what they need, that they have a clear. Pathway forward. And for me that could look like a variety of different things. It could look like a traditional diploma track. It could look like GED, it could look like apprenticeship. It could look like college. It could look like community college. It could look like trade school, but whatever that. Plan of action is I want to make sure that we're starting that work at a very young age so that kids are engaged in their learning and then from there, when they leave our care, that we are focusing on them social, emotionally. That we have a holistic approach to how we're supporting our kids and when they leave our care, they're prepared for that next chapter. That is something that I'm also very much interested in looking forward to getting to work on that when elected to the board.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 18:44

Thanks, mayor.

Alan Gottlieb: 18:46

Alexis, I have a question that just came to me that I'd really love to hear Tamiya's thoughts on. A couple years ago, before the most recent election, the board was labeled justifiably, I think as very dysfunctional. There was a lot of personal infighting, a lot of animosity, a just a lot of the. It was not the kind of decorum you'd like to see from a publicly elected body. It's gotten somewhat better for sure since the last election and just the different composition of the board. But I'm just curious how your thoughts about as a board member, at times when there are going to obviously be policy or belief conflicts among board members, even though I would say everybody who runs for school board in Denver is in a fairly narrow band. You don't have a lot of MAGA candidates running for Denver School Board. But how would you manage and handle hence moments with your colleagues and how do you keep them from. Kind of deteriorating into personal animosity, how would you approach that?

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 19:48

Tamiya's gonna throw down let's hear how this goes.

Timiya Jackson: 19:52

I believe in modeling the behavior that you wish to see. And I keep in mind that we are, ultimately, our kids are watching everything that we're doing. Even when we think they're not watching, they are, they're listening. And so for me, it's important that we establish norms on the board. For when those critical moments come up and things get hard and tough, what do we fall back on? What are our collective shared values? I believe in approaching things always in a respectful way, asking questions that are designed to come up from a place of curiosity. And ultimately, I'm not interested in fighting for amongst ourselves. I'm interested in outcomes for kids. And anything short of that is not what we were elected to be the rep to represent our districts. And I'm not above taking a BA break if you need to and coming back to it and just kind of level setting if necessary. But ultimately we are the adults in the room and it's time for us to get to work for kids.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 20:58

Okay, thanks. Thanks. Tamaya cooler head down here. Sorry. Okay, that's fine. I think it's probably good that I never ended up on the board'cause I'm sure there'd be some times it'd be getting kind of spicy. I wanted to ask about you're probably going through the endorsement process now with some organizations. For better or worse, there's really two major funders from organiz, from the organizational perspective that lean in heavily into these races and invest dollars and manpower. And those organizations or the teachers union, also known as the DCTA and then Denver families for public schools, I'm curious to know, have you sought the endorsement of one or both of these organizations?

Timiya Jackson: 21:40

I have spoken with both organizations at this moment in time, yes, I have.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 21:45

Okay, great. Do you have any insight, I know that the DCTA has endorsed in at least two races have they made a decision in your race yet?

Timiya Jackson: 21:55

When I had my conversation with Rob Gold, who is the president of the DCTA, he indicated to me that they were still making some decisions and that we would have potentially some further communication in the future. Thank you.

Alan Gottlieb: 22:13

Just curious also about your position about building or rebuilding trust with the community. There have been. Moments where the community has certainly felt, and this is, I've been following DPS for 25 years and this has been going on the entire time where they feel like trust has been broken, trust has been violated and that the district just doesn't get how to do public community engagement when there're tough issues like school closures to me. So I'm interested in how you would go about trying to build trust with community as an individual board member, but also collectively if you're elected and. As a sort of secondary question, the board recently, over the last year has really severely cur curtailed the public comment sessions that they hold during once a month during board meetings to limit the number of speakers, the amount of time they can speak, and the number amount of time public comment can take overall, and what your opinion is of those that curtailment and whether you would seek to reverse or modify it.

Timiya Jackson: 23:11

Absolutely. I know that I've done public comment a couple of times. With the board. The first time I did it, I believe I just signed up and it was three minutes. And then the most recent time I spoke at public comment was actually in March, 2025, and I was very taken aback by the fact that the current process asked you to. Select from a pre agenda of topics that the board will be addressing and what you wanna focus your public comment on. And also to find that the time had gone from three minutes to two minutes. For me, what elevated from that space is, are we silence of voices? Yes, we are. By cutting. And then also if you wanna speak about something that isn't on those. Agenda areas, then you have to kinda wait till the end of the work session. And so while I also appreciate the fact that the board has made it so that you can give your public comment virtually or you can do it in person, I do have some questions around why it was cut down. That being said, something that is important to me is to be able to hear from our constituents around what's working, what's not working, what are those moments that we wanna celebrate, and I am really excited about Coffee with Tamaya. That is my commitment to meeting with my community once a month. They'll know ahead of time. I wanna do it most likely on a weekend so that families who work during the week can have an opportunity to come and collaborate and just share and talk to me about what's going on. While I understand that right now, the board currently has, times when they meet with community, it feels very prescriptive. And so as a person when elected to the board who will be responsible for making decisions not only for my community, but also for the 90,000 plus. Students in the district as well as all of the support that goes into running this school district, I have to be able to hear from them to know what's going on, to get their input. And that is going to be critical as I continue to vote on policies that will have long lasting impact.

Alan Gottlieb: 25:28

Great. Thanks. I think we've gone through our questions and I just wanted to give you a chance to, Maya, to say anything more that you didn't get a chance to get across.

Timiya Jackson: 25:40

Absolutely

Alan Gottlieb: 25:40

during our short time together.

Timiya Jackson: 25:42

Thank you so much for this opportunity to come on. It has been really great speaking with you all this afternoon. As I said before, I am Tamaya Jackson and I'm running for the Denver Public School Board to represent District four. I'm a mom. I have spent my whole career supporting young people both in and out of the classroom, and it is important that we have strong leadership who wants to work alongside community to ultimately be transparent. To be held accountable and to ensure that our kids are achieving because when you set and have high expectations, they will rise to the occasion every single time. I have an upcoming lunch party that is scheduled for Thursday, July the 24th. It will be at the Tramway Nonprofit Center from five 30 until seven. It is a family friendly event. It's a great opportunity for you to meet me in person and learn a little bit more about my vision for DPS. So please feel free to stop by and be a part of that. And if that time doesn't work for you, I'm always open to hearing from community. You can connect with me on my website, which is Jackson four dps.com. That is Jackson with the number four dps.com. Thanks so much again, Alexis and Alan for having me on.

Alan Gottlieb: 26:57

Okay, thank you. And I don't think this will be our last conversation. We are planning to have candidates on, again through the election season as particular issues seem to rise to the surface. So we will be talking again, I'm sure.

Timiya Jackson: 27:11

Awesome. I look forward to that.

Alan Gottlieb: 27:13

Okay, thanks everybody. And that's it for this edition of the Board Hawk Podcast and we'll be back soon. With another candidate for d Ps Board to care everyone. Bye.