DPS board president calls out members’ “exorbitant” travel expenses amid uncertainty about spending limits

Members of Denver’s school board spent more than $40,000 traveling to conferences this past year, more than double the amount spent in other metro districts — and a figure that has spurred directors to call for changes in how the board handles expenses as the district faces financial constraints brought on by declining enrollment.

Denver Public Schools board members, including President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, said the elected body needs to create a new policy governing directors’ expenses, including potentially setting a per-person cap to curb overspending.

“I’m absolutely concerned about this level of spending,” Gaytán said of how much some board members have spent on travel. “I believe it’s an exorbitant amount.”

Previous DPS boards operated with a $5,000 limit on expenses per person, but that cap wasn’t in writing. In interviews with The Denver Post, directors said the district lacks a clear policy on personal spending by its elected leaders — and they even disagreed on whether the $5,000 threshold was still in place or not.

Three board members — Auon’tai Anderson, Scott Esserman and Michelle Quattlebaum — spent more than $5,000 apiece on travel alone, not including other expenses such as the cost of district cellphones or computers.

More than a third of the board’s total travel expenses were spent by Anderson, whose term ends in November, according to expense transactions reviewed by The Post.

Anderson, the board’s vice president, spent more than $13,680 on travel to and from conferences, including gatherings held by the National School Boards Association in Orlando, Florida, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials in New York City, and the Netroots Nation conference for progressive activists in Chicago.

“I’m grateful I’m able to travel across the country to be a global ambassador for this district,” Anderson said. He noted the board’s travel expenditures represented a small portion of DPS’s billion-dollar budget.

Overall, the seven-member school board spent $40,083.98 on travel between August 2022 and June. Most of that travel money was spent to send five members to conferences in other states and includes expenses such as registration, airfare and luggage fees, and meals, according to transactions reviewed by The Post.

The travel expenses also included a trip that five board members took to Houston in October, which they said was at the behest of former Denver Mayor Michael Hancock to look at how the Texas city was using empty school buildings to help people experiencing homelessness.

The expenses are part of the board’s overall budget, which was about $232,975 last fiscal year and covers other costs, such as cellphones, staff members and compensation for directors who qualify for a stipend. (The board voted in 2021 to pay members as much as $9,000 a year for their official duties.)

The board also spent more than $43,000 on consultants last year to mediate disagreements among members.

The Denver school board’s travel expenditures are more than double what was spent by the boards overseeing Jeffco Public Schools and the Douglas County School District, the second- and third-largest school districts in Colorado, behind DPS.

Members of those two boards only attended an in-state conference held by the Colorado Association of School Boards, which cost Jeffco Public Schools just over $10,000 and Douglas County School District $6,378, according to district officials and transitions obtained via a public records request.

“I hear that we may be comparing apples and oranges when we just broadly look at different school districts,” Quattlebaum said, noting that a district like Jeffco has different demographics and needs than an urban school district.

“Every conference that I’ve gone to — it pertains to the type of school district DPS is,” she said.

Denver school board members weren’t the only ones to travel to conferences out of state. Members of the Aurora Public Schools board also attended national conferences, according to transactions obtained via a public records request. But it was unclear how much that board spent, based on the documents provided and because the district has not yet processed more recent travel expenses.

“There’s really no policy”

DPS board members defended their travel, which increased after the pandemic, saying the conferences offered professional development as they and their colleagues were able to learn how other districts are responding to challenges DPS is also facing, such as school safety, student absenteeism and falling enrollment.

“It’s building contacts and relationships and bringing back some type of resource that the district is able to benefit from,” Quattlebaum said, adding, “I am a better board member for the professional development I’m receiving.’

Esserman, the board’s treasurer, spent more than $8,000 on travel and Quattlebaum spent more than $6,800. Carrie Olson traveled to two conferences, including one in-state, and spent about $3,584.

Charmaine Lindsay, who was appointed to the board in 2022, spent $3,782 on travel.

Scott Baldermann traveled with his colleagues when they went to Houston last year, but reimbursed the district $512.68 for his portion of the trip.

Gaytán did not incur any travel expenses during the period examined by The Post.

DPS policy is vague when it comes to board member expenses outside of the compensation they can receive for their board duties. The policy states that the maximum amount that can be reimbursed to board members will be set by the district’s finance department.

District spokesman Bill Good directed questions about the budget, including the maximum reimbursement amount, to the school board.

Historically, the Denver school board has used a $5,000-per-member spending limit, which members were told about when they joined the board. That cap was in place more than a decade ago when previous directors came under scrutiny for overspending and not repaying the district.

“But there’s really no policy on that,” Baldermann said. “That’s been something that’s been in place for at least 10 years. There’s no real guidelines on what that $5,000 could be spent on.”

Quattlebaum said she was told the $5,000 was to be used at board members’ discretion, such as when she hosted a screening for nearly 200 elementary school students to watch “The Little Mermaid” in June. The transactions show that Quattlebaum and Anderson spent $412.50 each for a total of $825 on the screening.

Most board members said that the $5,000 cap had little enforcement and wasn’t a firm amount. But Anderson said that, in the past, DPS employees would notify board members when they were approaching the limit. “They were very key about that,” he said.

Things changed, he said, two years ago.

“When Scott Esserman became treasurer he did away with the $5,000 spending budget,” Anderson said, adding, “That’s why I’ve been able to spend over the $5,000 limit.”

The changes to the policy came because not every board member spent $5,000 and Esserman wanted to make sure the money was spent equitably, Anderson said.

Esserman, in an interview, said the spending cap is no longer in place. When asked when the board stopped using the limit, he said, “I don’t know exactly.”

“I’m confounded about why we’re talking about this,” Esserman said, adding that he is focusing on student achievement and school safety. “Unless we’re talking about those things, I’m not interested in commenting or being part of the discussion.”

“Definitely needs to be a policy”

Baldermann said he believes the board should create a written policy that describes what DPS will reimburse members for, such as conferences for professional development. The board should also vote when expenses exceed $5,000 per person, he said.

“Do we as a board see this as a priority to improving student outcomes?” Baldermann asked. “We need to have that conversation.”

The district is facing declining revenue because fewer students are attending its schools and cuts will need to be made to “right-size” the district, he said.

Anderson questioned whether a cap on per-member spending was necessary, saying directors have different needs as they represent districts of varying sizes, and not everyone has the means to reimburse the DPS for travel.