Superintendent Alex Marrero has asked Denver Public Schools’ Board of Education to censure director John Youngquist, alleging the former East High principal is gunning for his job and actively working against the district.
Marrero made the request in a scathing email to school board President Carrie Olson on April 22 in which he laid out numerous grievances against Youngquist, including accusations that the director has created a toxic work environment, undermined DPS leaders and showed racial insensitivity to district staff.
Youngquist’s behavior, the superintendent wrote, “constitutes a serious threat to the health, functionality and integrity of our school district.”
“His obsession with my removal, coupled with his private aspirations to assume district leadership, strongly suggests a conflict of interest,” Marrero wrote in the email, obtained by The Denver Post under the Colorado Open Records Act. “It is becoming increasingly clear that his actions are driven by a personal ambition to become superintendent himself, as he had previously pursued repeatedly, unsuccessfully.”
Youngquist, in an interview Monday, said Marrero’s letter “feels like a very clear personal attack, which I do not understand.”
“I have actively worked for every child in DPS to be successful for over 30 years,” he said. “Every decision I have made has been in support of children in Denver Public Schools.”
Youngquist denied wanting Marrero’s job despite having applied for the superintendency after Susana Cordova resigned in 2020. Marrero was hired to replace Cordova the following year. “I didn’t get the job. That was OK then and that’s OK now,” he said.
Bill Good, a spokesman for DPS, declined to comment for this story.
“We have not yet taken any action or made any decisions in relation to the complaint,” Olson said in an interview, noting that the school board will meet with an outside attorney.
Tensions between Youngquist, district staff and other school board members flared publicly earlier this year when the director faced allegations that he mistreated employees of color. Marrero’s email shows the conflict has escalated.
“I cannot, in good faith, engage professionally with someone whose conduct suggests he actively wants me — and this district — to fail,” Marrero wrote to Olson.
Youngquist said there hasn’t been any conversation about his behavior since January. In his time as a DPS educator, Youngquist said, “never has there been a concern about my behavior.”
Allegations preceded contract vote
The email is also notable in that the superintendent’s allegations came a week before the school board voted to extend Marrero’s contract and made it harder for the board to fire him by requiring a supermajority vote by directors — a decision Youngquist opposed.
“(Youngquist) has suggested the possibility of a buyout of my contract to raise this as a strategic option — not out of concern for the district, but as a tactic of intimidation,” Marrero wrote to Olson.
Youngquist denied having ever suggested a buyout of Marrero’s contract. He also said Marrero’s email, which he had read before last week’s board meeting, did not influence his decision to vote against the superintendent’s contract extension.
Marrero’s contract extension drew criticism from community members who questioned the timing, given November’s school board election, and whether the superintendent has had enough time to show he’s improving student academic outcomes, especially among Latino pupils.
The board voted on the extension at Thursday’s public meeting, during which members were also expected to go into a closed session to receive legal advice regarding a discrimination complaint. Directors did not go into executive session because they ran out of time and opted to vote on Marrero’s contract instead.
The board did not specify what complaint would have been addressed during the closed session, but Marrero’s email also accused Youngquist of hostile behavior toward staff, particularly employees of color.
The superintendent, in the email, did not detail specific events that led him to make that allegation, but said Youngquist dismissed “equity-focused progress” and engaged in the “undermining of diverse leadership.” Marrero accused Youngquist of “belittling, dismissive and condescending behavior toward district staff, especially employees of color.”
Marrero alleged Youngquist routinely ignores board protocol and directs district staffers. Youngquist has also accused Marrero of “conspiring with educators to ensure students are not failed, implying that our graduation data is manipulated and dishonest,” the superintendent wrote.
“Most troubling, it is increasingly clear that Mr. Youngquist is not invested in the success of Denver Public Schools,” Marrero wrote to Olson. “Instead, his behavior signals an intent to cause harm — in pursuit of personal ambition.”
Youngquist called Marrero’s allegations “misrepresentations.” For example, Youngquist said, his question about graduation data was related to how DPS paused failing grades temporarily during the pandemic compared to other years when that wasn’t a policy.
“It was the right thing to do at that moment,” Youngquist said of the pause. “But, I think, it also likely supported (failing) students’ progress toward graduation.”
Requesting a rare board censure
In his email, Marrero requested that the board censure Youngquist for his behavior. Such a move is rare. The last time a DPS board censured a member was when members voted to formally rebuke Auon’tai Anderson in 2021 after an investigation found he flirted online with a teenage student and made intimidating social media posts.
Marrero also asked the board to prohibit the director’s contact with staff “outside of official channels”; require Youngquist to attend anti-bias training; and review whether there’s a conflict of interest if Youngquist intends to seek the superintendency.
Youngquist was elected to the school board in 2023, along with board Vice President Marlene De La Rosa and Treasurer Kimberlee Sia.
School board members criticized Youngquist publicly in January after he accused them of violating the state’s open meeting law. They also took Youngquist to task for his treatment of DPS employees, although they did not say how he acted improperly, except for noting that he was persistent in trying to receive full compensation for his official board duties.
While directors have become known for past infighting, January’s meeting was rare in that board members aired their grievances publicly.
Three board members — Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, Michelle Quattlebaum and Scott Esserman — specifically accused Youngquist of “behavior unbecoming of a board member toward DPS staff” last year.
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Originally Published: May 5, 2025 at 4:32 PM MDT
