The historic Five Points neighborhood — known as the “Harlem of the West — will remain in District 4 represented by the sole Black director serving on the Denver Public Schools’ Board of Education.
The board on Thursday night took two votes that pitted three proposed redistricting maps against each other.
Melissa Rosales, senior program manager for the district’s Board and Community Planning, pulled the maps in the order directors voted on out of a blue baseball cap.
Map C — which was favored in two voting rounds by five of the seven directors — won the board’s approval.
The Five Points neighborhood has been touted as Denver’s oldest and most diverse and is represented by Director Michelle Quattlebaum.
Thursday’s redistricting vote was required by state law after the decennial census, the last in 2020, for the purpose of equally dividing each of five districts.
School districts across the state are required to balance — within 10% — district populations after each census. Balancing district populations is required to ensure equal representation, in compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The five districts in Denver were no longer equal, in terms of population.
For example, Quattlebaum’s District 4 in the far northeast had 33,000 more people than Director Xóchitl Gaytán’s in district 2 in southwest Denver, according to Denver Public Schools.
In addition to these five districts, the board also has two at-large seats filled by Directors John Youngquist and Scott Esserman.
The map vote unwittingly pitted two historically marginalized groups — Blacks and Latinos — against each other.
“Systems of oppression are those that would set our marginalized communities against each other,” Esserman said.
For Esserman, his vote came down to what he believes is important to Denver students.
“Our students being represented by people who look like them is really important,” he said.
Gaytán and Director Marlene De La Rosa in District 5 supported maps A and B in separate votes.
Everyone else supported map C.
Over the last decade, Denver’s population has not grown equally across the city. Gentrification has threatened to decrease voter turnout among longstanding residents in predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods.
The board last adjusted its districts in 2014.
Last spring, the board was presented with a single option to change the boundaries, which was later expanded to five. When the board held community meetings to receive feedback from the public district officials reduced the number of maps under consideration to three.
Former Board Vice President Auon'tai Anderson had expressed concerns over the past two months during public comment that scenarios A and B posed the risk of disenfranchising Black voters.
In a joint statement with MiDian Holmes, CEO of the Epitome of Black Excellence & Partnership and Anderson, CEO of the Center for Advancing Black Excellence in Education, applauded Thursday's vote.
“This area, renowned for its rich cultural heritage and historical significance as a hub of African-American culture, businesses, and historic schools such as Manual High School, Whittier K-8 School, etc., has been represented by a Black School Board member for many decades,” the statement said in part.
“This representation is crucial in ensuring that the voices and needs of the community are heard and addressed.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0