By Melanie Asmar, Chalkbeat
The Denver school board voted Thursday to hire an outside law firm to represent it in legal matters involving the superintendent, whom the board is responsible for hiring, firing, and evaluating.
The vote comes at a tense time for Superintendent Alex Marrero and the school board, who met recently behind closed doors to discuss their working relationship.
The board will hire the firm Holland & Knight, which has locations across the country, including in Denver. The board could also ask the firm to conduct investigations or offer a second opinion on complex matters previously reviewed by the school district’s lawyers.
A contract hasn’t been finalized. But board member Kimberlee Sia said at the meeting that the cost was below the $250,000 threshold that requires the district to put a contract out for bid.
The district put out a request for proposals anyway, Sia said. But no law firms responded.
Instead, Sia said she reached out to firms to ask if they would be interested in the job. Of the two that responded, she and board President Xóchitl Gaytán chose Holland & Knight, Sia said.
The board voted unanimously to hire the firm without any substantive discussion.
The topic has generated debate in the past. Sia first proposed a policy on when and how the board should hire an outside lawyer in June 2025. Her thinking, she said, was to avoid conflicts of interest regarding the superintendent’s contract and performance evaluation.
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