Episode 16: Mariana del Hierro, DPS board candidate

Transcript

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 0:08

Welcome back everyone. We are so excited to have another school board candidate joining us on the podcast today. It is my pleasure to welcome Mariana ero, who is running for the district two seat in southwest Denver. Mariana is an executive director of a local nonprofit focused on food security in Southwest Denver. She has a background in public health equity and has worked on statewide youth policy at C-D-P-H-E, which is the Colorado Department of Public Health and Employment. And I think most exciting and this is my bias, she's a DPS mom. Mariana, we are so excited to have you and welcome to the podcast. Hello. Thank you so much for this opportunity.

Alan Gottlieb: 0:46

Great to have you Mariana. Can you tell us a little more about yourself, your background, and why you decided to run for school board this year?

Mariana del Hierro: 0:54

Yes. Thank you so much and great to meet you, Alan, and to speak with you. Alexis. My name is Mariana Dero. My pronouns are she her Asia. And I'm running for Denver School Board because I believe that every child deserves to be truly seen, supported, and challenged to reach their full potential. I'm a DPS mom. I have deep roots in Southwest Denver through my work, running a local nonprofit here. And for me I Keenly because of the population that we serve here in Southwest Denver. I keenly want to focus on Latin key student achievement and closing that gap. And not only closing the gap, but looking at excellence for our students.

Alan Gottlieb: 1:34

Great, thank you.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 1:35

Thanks, Mariana. So the current board major, the current board the majority of them voted to extend the contract for superintendent Alex Madero before he had gone through a thorough evaluation or had completed his evaluation of his performance metrics. I know you were involved in engaging Latino community around opposing this. Why was this so important to you?

Mariana del Hierro: 1:59

For me, it was important because a, in terms of accountability and following a clear process that was put in place for me, it was important to allow for the process that was put in place to be completed when it comes to the proper evaluation of our superintendent. But from a personal standpoint. Knowing the data that is clearly reported out in Raza report about our Latini students that came out two years ago. For me that personally, I felt that it was even more important to conduct a proper evaluation really focusing on. The our Latin key student achievement and what those results are before renewing a superintendent's contract, the superintendent that is tasked to oversee those educational outcomes.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 2:52

Thanks Mariana. And in full transparency to our listeners, Mariana and I actually got. Connected. We've known each other for years, but really became reengaged through that process. So it's been really nice to see your advocacy for students in because of that work. As a follow up, I wanna know if you're elected, you would obviously be the superintendent's boss. You would have one sole employee to to manage, and that would be the superintendent, along with your board colleagues. Currently what is your view of Dr. Eros performance as superintendent?

Mariana del Hierro: 3:24

Currently my view of Dr. Eros performance, there's a big question mark. Because the evaluation did not, was not conducted properly, as was established. And you're looking at a superintendent that has not completed their evaluation. And then you're looking at specifically what I'm focusing on. And for me, what should be the focus for Southwest Denver is our Latina case youth and our immigrant youth and our multilingual learner youth. And so you have these two. Issues in place. And so for me, it's a big question mark about what is going on, where are we at? How is our superintendent performing? And most importantly, how is he performing in relation to what this priority is? In terms of our Latina students, our multilanguage learners are immigrant youth. Thank you.

Alan Gottlieb: 4:20

Mariana, how would you differentiate your proposed policies and your approach to being a board member from the incumbent? Sochi Gaitan, who by the way, has not yet announced that she's running for reelection specifically, I'm really interested and she has often. Really blamed charter schools for almost all the ills of Southwest Denver. Which seems to me to be a bit simplistic. And I'm curious so specifically on that, on your view on that, but also just her approach has been very confrontational and in my opinion, toxic at times. And I'm just curious about how you would be a different board member, both in terms of policies and positions, but also in just your behavior as a board member.

Mariana del Hierro: 4:57

No. Yes. And I also wanna highlight that I fully recognize that for representatives of the board folks who serve currently on the board, this is a volunteer position that has only shifted recently. And so I wanna give thanks to the folks who are on the board currently for all of the work that they have done. And for me, I also don't want to start a conversation in which I want to, start a negative conversation about other board members. They are tasked with a lot of work. But for me how I would approach being on the board is really grounding ourselves in community, grounding ourselves in community, in families and youth that this board serves, and really bringing those voices into the discussion with the board in relation to the whole DPS system. Now, when it comes to, focusing on specifically traditional schools or charter schools, that's not a focus that I will be bringing to the table because I know as a DPS mom, my child goes to a traditional school, but I have other DPS mom friends and they send their kids to charter schools to innovations. Schools, and I know that I am no one to judge a parent or a guardian on where they choose to send their youth. They're making their, the best decisions for their families. And also in Southwest Denver, it's a re I come to this to this possibility with the knowing that. Southwest Denver is a collection of all schools, and we need each and every one of them to be successful and to be able to provide youth with those opportunities.

Alan Gottlieb: 6:36

Okay, thanks. as a quick follow up, and I understand your desire not to get negative in any way, but what, how would you differentiate yourself and why you think you would be a better representative of the rep representatives of of the residents of district two than the current incumbent? Should she choose to run again?

Mariana del Hierro: 6:54

I think families right now feel left out of the conversation. And when it comes to the board and when it comes to DPS as a whole. And so for me, I would differentiate myself as acting as the bridge between families and community when it comes to DPS and the school board.

Alan Gottlieb: 7:12

Okay. Thanks.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 7:13

Thanks, Mariana. I. Certainly could appreciate you not wanting to go negative, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna make this about some negative stuff that's happened. As I've run for the school board previously and as have other Latinas in this space, including current city council member Diana Romero Campbell former school board member Angela Ian Carolina vi Granda, and many other incredible Latinas who I'm fortunate to call either friends or mentors. While I have seen on the campaigns, generally speaking, the candidates themselves try with some success to be fairly positive and not go negative with their opponents. I have also seen Latinas continue to be attacked from independent expenditures that have been funded by the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. When I ran Diana and I had our Latina surnames removed from mailers. Diana's face was certainly lightened. I would say my face was lightened, but I'm already pretty pale, so that's hard to do. If you were to run against A-D-C-T-A opponent, I would not be surprised if the independent expenditure from the DCTA continues their pattern of what I would say is racist mailers. How would you respond as a Latina in this race? To some the, then just the nastiness of how these campaigns can get and I'm sure you've heard friends call you a little bit, crazy for running.'cause these are toxic races at times.

Mariana del Hierro: 8:40

Yes. Thank you, Alexis. As much as we don't want. There to be negativity in the space that serves family and youth. Unfortunately there is. And I have encountered folks when I share with them that I am running for DPS school board. They have said that. They're are you sure?'cause you are stepping into the hardest race locally in Denver. And so I'm very aware that is a possibility, if not for sure will happen. And I think I am just. Going to, if and when that situation does occur, I am just going to try my best to not even address it because I think a lot of families and the community as a whole, that has been their main concern. One of their main, if not one of the most important concerns with the DPS board is the infighting, is the negativity, the drama. The poor example that is being set for our youth with those activities. And so for me I don't think it's a question of, if it's more of when that happens, I would I will do my best to ignore that those situations.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 9:52

Good luck. Good, thank you. I hope it doesn't happen. Thank you. But if it does And I'll be talking about it, don't you worry.

Alan Gottlieb: 9:58

When the stakes are as high as they seem to be again, this year, it seems to be many years that the stakes are high, but the balance, the board is, in question with this election. So I think it will get heated if not ugly. But I'm sure you're aware of that. How would you describe Mariana? The. This current state of student learning and DPS, especially among low income students of color who make up the majority of the district you would be representing?

Mariana del Hierro: 10:22

It very concerning. Not Okay. For me, as a DPS mom, I come from a border town in Texas, in which school system was not the most supportive, the not most funded. And so when I moved to Denver 10 years ago and I had my baby boy, I came to it with the assumption that Denver as a bigger city with more economic opportunity would be better. I've unfortunately learned that is. Not the case for our Latin key students, for our multi-language learners, for our immigrant youth. And that is really alarming to me. And when we are in a school system in which more than the majority identify as Latin kids, multi-language learners, immigrant youth, and based on RAA report, we are basically failing more than the majority. It's alarming to me and those exact youth who make up more than the majority are who lives and make up Southwest Denver, the district too. That's even more alarming for me.

Alan Gottlieb: 11:36

I'm jump in with this impromptu question. And this is a bit of a personal question, but I'm ask it anyone, if you don't feel comfortable answering it, just say you don't, that's fine. But how have you made DPS work for your own child or children? Or have you been able to navigate that so it works or are you concerned about the education that they're getting?

Mariana del Hierro: 11:53

Yeah, that's a very personal question and I proceed with that with great caution because I don't want to speak poorly about the amazing teachers that have supported my child throughout his education as of yet. The DPS system is not working for my child, to be honest. I am. My baby boy is a Latino. He's in a Spanish immersion program, and the progress reports that I received from my child this past year just kept saying that he was at grade level, he was at grade level and I was not concerned. And then at the end of the year when, when the customary, the teachers give you back all of the work that they've done. In class, and I go through and I review his work, specifically his math worksheets. And I see that his math worksheets are clean. They have the answers on them, but they're clean, no work shown. And that sent a red flag for me because no, then 8-year-old he just turned nine this summer, but no 8-year-old does math like that. And I sat my baby boy down and I said, baby boy, can you do this? Problem for me, and he couldn't do it. Second grader going into third grade, not being able to do basic subtraction and arithmetic. DPS was not working for me and so all summer long I, he hated me, but all summer long, every day we did math worksheets and I was able to catch him up and to be ready by August 18th. To be able to be at the grade level that I was told he was at in May. So that's, it's a very personal experience too.

Alan Gottlieb: 13:40

But it under, it helps'em underscore the motivation for running for board, right? Because personal what's stronger than that. So thank you for sharing that. I think that's powerful.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 13:49

Thanks Mariana, and as a fellow mom of an incoming third grader, I feel like you're doing something wrong if your third grader doesn't hate you at some point. I've gotten that a couple of times this summer trying to drag my kids out of the house and get to our summer camp. So they just wanna stay home and, do a lot of screen time and it's. It's a fun battle. So I'm there with you in solidarity. Thank you. He hates me and then he loves me back again. Exactly. But then he goes they hating me. It's pretty classic with moms. We were talking a little bit about incumbents earlier in the district leadership. By my perspective is the board members that are currently on the board that may or may not be seeking reelection, the district leaders within the DPS cabinet generally seem to feel the district is moving in the right direction. Specifically on student learning. They've been touting a lot of their successes and accomplishments. You answered this already, but do you agree with anything that, that they're saying from an accomplishment standpoint?

Mariana del Hierro: 14:47

Again, I tread lightly because I don't ever want it to come across as me speaking poorly of our educators and administrators who are doing just such amazing and tremendous job every day with our babies in their classrooms and in their schools. And for me, I've seen that they data from DPS that says that we are doing well, we're recovering from the COVID learning slump, et cetera. But for me personally, having a public health background that focuses on health and racial equity, the big question we always say to ask at the beginning of any type of analysis is when in doubt disaggregate by race. And that's the issue with DPS, where Yes, collectively we are doing well. But when we disaggregate by race and with DPS, when we disaggregate further by multilingual learners, by immigrant youth, by geographic area, that's when we get the truth. And that's where, for me, that's what informs my statement, saying that I don't think DPS is hitting the mark. We should be. Maria,

Alan Gottlieb: 15:55

I beat this from a lot but a great example of what you just explained, Mariana, is when the NAP scores, the national, the Nation's report card came out earlier this year and the subset Tuda, which are the urban districts, superintendent Ro and his supporters on the board trumpeted those results, especially the tuda results because DPS was one of the highest ranking urban school systems in terms of the performance of its students. But you only had to, and so they had to know, they had to have looked at the data and gone down one layer as you just described, and seen that actually the performance of low income students of color was worse than most urban districts and was terrible. And yet they were trumpeting the fact that. The district as a whole look good? Probably mostly because there are more affluent students mostly probably white who are performing extremely well in DPS for whatever reason, and that, that pulls up the averages. But it just seems to me to be, it's cynical. At, at best and worse than that, flat out dishonest to, to use to data that way when people don't have to look very far to see the truth.

Mariana del Hierro: 17:01

Exactly. And that's also the piece for me, in terms of my public health background and looking at health and racial equity, where data is biased. There is biases in data, depending on who it is that is doing the analysis and who it is that is doing the presentation of that data. And unfortunately, right now it feels like we have a board that does not wanna go that one level further into the data. And for me it, it baffles me. Why? Because there's nothing wrong with saying that we're not doing well. If anything, it gets us started in helping the youth that need to be helped in our district by saying, we're not doing well, we end up winning because that means we get started on helping youth that need, that help, that creating those strategies, really bringing youth up to where they should be. And so for me that's the part that I it does not make sense to me why we just can't admit that we're not doing well. So let's get started.

Alan Gottlieb: 18:05

I think some of the board members would say that this tests themselves are so inherently biased that using them as a measure is in itself possibly racist, but certainly an incomplete picture of how students are doing

Mariana del Hierro: 18:20

well. Yes, and if they, if current board members don't want to use theTests that we currently have in place in order to measure success specifically for our students of color. Then let's find another way to do that analysis to learn about it so that we can get started in helping our students.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 18:39

I really appreciate your comments, Mariana, when I was at the district something that I am reflecting on now many years later that we used to do or the leadership used to do, and I don't see it as much as a lot of internal reflection on progress and historic. Work that was done, even if not by that board. So when I was working at DPS and I worked closely with board members at the time the Dr. Bailey report had come out, which was, the report that was really focused on African American black students and teachers similar to the LARESA report. Around that time, that's when the board took a position to basically say we are a historically racist institution. And acknowledge the wrongs that have taken place, the wrongs that were taking place even under their own leadership. And that's not something that I see very often is acknowledging what's going wrong now. I see a lot of pointing blame to previous superintendents, previous boards but not a lot of self-reflection. Your comments certainly resonate with me.

Alan Gottlieb: 19:37

And an example of what you were talking about now, Mariana, about using different measures. The district used to have its own school performance framework, which had multiple measures of how students were doing and how students and parents perceived the district and this board. Or the previous board, to be perfectly fair, did away with that in favor of using the state SPF, which ironically actually is more heavily weighted towards standardized tests. So I don't understand. That's one of the many things this board has done that I don't understand. Next question is this gets into the weeds a little bit. I think it's important. So the board operates currently under a very stringent version of policy governance. How would you propose, if you would revising that current method of policy governance to give the board a bit more authority without getting overly involved in sort of day-to-day operations of the district?

Mariana del Hierro: 20:27

No. Yes. And thank you for that.'cause I know with the new policy, government structure, it's supposed to make things clearer by making the roles of both the superintendent and the board more clear. But for me, currently it does seem like this structure is being used as an excuse to avoid accountability. And so for me it. I would propose an increased partnership between the board and the superintendent. Me being an executive director of a nonprofit with the board, I fully recognize that yes, it is helpful to have a policy governance structure because you don't want the board to get too deep into the weeds of everyday logistics and decision making, but I also recognize that. As an executive director with my board, I recognize that sometimes there are decisions that are really big that should not be left up to one person, and that is why you have the board there to be your partners, to support you through to be your thought partners and also strategic thinkers to support you through those decisions. And so I would explore the ability to embed more of that strategic partnership between the superintendent and the board.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 21:42

Thank you. A question we asked to Maya when she was on because some of the comments around trust and community are similar. How would you go about building trust with the community if you were elected? Do you feel trust has been lost and if so, how would you go about rebuilding it?

Mariana del Hierro: 22:00

For me, I think I would go about it. Of course, visiting every school in the district, getting to know every school, but also providing a space where every school gets to know the director for their district. And then also being able to have quarterly community meetings in which community members and families get to know what is the school board, what are their roles, what are their responsibilities? In what ways can I ask for help in those spaces and helping community members and families walk through? What type of decisions does the school board have to make and how do those decisions take place so that you really create this relationship and this momentum of connectivity and trust so that when big decisions happen, like school board closures, you're not meeting with community members. After the fact, which we recently saw when the recent school closures happened, you're making those decisions with community prior to that happening.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 23:03

Thank you. And I have a follow up since you had mentioned school closures. As this last school year, the board has had to make really tough decisions, as has the superintendent and his team around recommending and ultimately voting to support school closures. A disproportionate number of those. Closures were happening in Southwest Denver on the west side in Latino communities. How would you go about if the superintendent came to the board, a year or two from now and if you were elected, how would you go about evaluating when and if a school should be closed? And in what circumstances would you support that type of recommendation?

Mariana del Hierro: 23:43

No. Yes, I'm aware that and recently I think there was a story that came out that there are going to be population ships and that West Denver and Southwest Denver are going to be the schools that will be most impacted by those population ships and impacted in terms of, lower enrollment, which can lead to a school closure. And so for me, I would propose that we start thinking about that one to two years before so that the ground can be set for having those conversations with families and community. Because for me the closing of a school is not a decision that I would take lightly at all, or, would rush through. For me, I've done a lot of community engagement focused around public health. And I know that a school is more often than not the heart of any community. That is always the first place that I go to when I want to learn about a specific community. And so understanding and knowing that when you close a school, you do remove the heart of a community. And so being able to look at. What decisions have to be made, what metrics are used be to inform a school closure? And prior to looking at that school closure, asking the tough question of what supports did we put in place for this school so as to avoid this closure in the future. And so approaching it more holistically rather than a straightforward numbers analysis.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 25:24

Thank you.

Alan Gottlieb: 25:27

Last question. Obviously in the last election cycle in 2023, it came right on the heels of the shootings at East High School and safety was a major issue. I don't think safety is still far from the front of people's minds. Even though we have, thank goodness, not had any similar incidents in the last year or two. What's your view of. State of safety and DPS and what should the district be doing to ensure that not only are students educated the way they need to be educated in a, but in a safe environment. And that kids who might pose a danger, who also deserve an education. how do you deal with that situation and has the district dealt with that situation correctly and properly up to now?

Mariana del Hierro: 26:09

Yes. And so for me that question of school safety is, it's so big and every child deserves to feel safe in any academic setting, in any setting overall. For me, I approach it from a very southwest Denver specific kind of analysis where for us in Southwest Denver the question around ice rates. Immigration, PO anti-immigrant policy is very central to to our student safety. Not physically, but also mental health and sense of belonging. And I feel that DPS has done a good job in terms of working with families and youth to learn how we can best protect our youth and families when it comes to anti-immigrant policies. But I would ask to expand a little bit more and providing those opportunities in which we're continuously evolving, what those policies and practices are to help. Our students and families feel Safe at DPS for us in at the organization that I run, we're continuously evaluating our safety protocols when it comes to anti-immigrant policies and ICE raids. As I mentioned, Southwest Denver has the highest incidents of ICE raids in all of the city, and so that doesn't Impact our youth and family's physical world wellbeing. It also impacts our youth mental health state and for youth who are already dealing with the stressors of mental health issues both socially, economically, and now adding anti-immigrant policy to that stressor. building that up a lot more so that youth don't have to worry about. Their parents dropping them off at school or picking them up, and what if they're not able to? Come and pick up their youth. What if when youth go home and their parents are not home? And so continuously evaluating what those practices and protocol are that help protect their families when they're dropping off and picking up their youth from schools when they're trying to be more involved with schools in terms of participation in activities, but also for our youth Reminding, continuously evaluating and informing our youth of those shifts in practices and protocol to keep them safe.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 28:32

Thank you so much. I don't have any other questions. Alan, do you.

Alan Gottlieb: 28:37

No, but I wanted to give Mariana a chance to make a closing statement if she wanted to. Anything we didn't ask you wanted to make sure you got across, that is your chance to do that.

Mariana del Hierro: 28:46

Thank you. I think this is always the question that always stumps me, which is a good signal to, for me to work on it or no? I think for me it's the fact that for me, it running for this seat, it's highly personal. as someone who identifies as Latin East, the child of Mexican immigrants who grew up in an education system, that was not the most helpful. And knowing how hard I had to fight to make that system work for me, and I say I because my parents, as much as they tried to help me with the system, my, my mother had a second grade education. My father had a fifth grade education. I'm the first person in my family to get a college education, and for me, I so deeply know the impact that a good education has on the trajectory of anyone's life in which I know how much it has changed me. It has provided for me in terms of opportunities, and I also know that I'm the exception, not the rule, and that should not be the case. And so for me, it's highly personal because I hope to be able to sit in a seat that helps create a school system in Denver where our Latin case youth success in Southwest Denver and across the DPS system for our students of color. Provides those opportunities equally across the board.

Alan Gottlieb: 30:17

Okay. Very well said, Mariana, thank you so much for giving us a little bit of your time as you gear up your campaign. And I think that will do it for this episode of the Board Hawk podcast. And we will be back next week with yet another candidate interview. There's still quite a few to go and it's going to be an interesting campaign season. Goodbye everybody, and we will see you soon.

Alexis Menocal Harrigan: 30:42

Thank you.