At the Jan. 9 meeting of the Denver Public Schools board, drama was plentiful, but facts seemed scarce. For half an hour, members vented grievances about at-large Director John Youngquist, ostensibly over unidentified allegations of “behavior unbecoming of a board member towards DPS staff.”
As the meeting dragged on, their real gripe became clear: Youngquist had dared to call out his colleagues for violating state open meetings laws during a Dec. 12 closed-door executive session. Legal experts agreed with him, deeming the meeting improperly noticed. Yet the district’s general and outside legal counsel vouched for it.
Then came the bombshell. Board member Michelle Quattlebaum claimed that an ill-advised request by Youngquist to bypass state pension limits and claim his full $33,000 board pay had cost taxpayers $13,000 — supposedly from 120 staff hours investigating his request. The claim sounded precise, extraordinary and worth scrutiny — if true…