Denver Families Action is proud to endorse the following candidates for the Denver Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education. These endorsements reflect what we heard loud and clear across the city: families want a school board that puts students and teachers first and focuses on the issues that matter most: academic achievement, school safety, and student and teacher well-being. We believe these candidates are best positioned to deliver on that vision:
Mariana del Hierro
District 2
Caron Blanke
District 3
Timiya Jackson
District 4
Alex Magaña
At-Large
This November, our community will be at a crossroads when it comes to the future of public education in Denver. Across the city, DPS students, families, educators, and voters have made it clear that they want change. These candidates reflect the kind of leadership our community is calling for. They bring decades of combined classroom, school leadership, and community advocacy experience, and each has a proven record of delivering results for students. Their election is critical to ensuring a high-quality public education for every student in Denver.
The stakes in this election are high and our endorsements reflect the priorities we’ve heard directly from the community.
Denver Families Action Community-Centered Endorsement Process
Valuing not just community input but community involvement, Denver Families Action convened a panel of 37 DPS parents, alumni, educators, and community members. This year’s panel was made up of approximately 48% parents, 46% educators, and 24% DPS alumni.
Each of these passionate individuals on the community interview panel spent time learning about the candidates, what their values are, and how they would address the issues that the community cares most about.
“Each time I engage with Denver Families, I’m amazed by their ability and dedication to pull community voices together,” said Larry Blackshear, community panel member and Founder & Chief Executive Officer of The Multilingual Project. “Their commitment to language accessibility opened the endorsement process to multilingual community members, making the process even more robust. These endorsements tell voters that their voices matter, that they’ve been heard and included in a process where they might otherwise have been left out.”
Beginning in February 2023, Denver Families for Public Schools — the 501(c)(3) sister organization of Denver Families Action — launched the largest listening campaign on public education in Denver’s history to understand what matters most to the city’s residents. From kitchen table surveys, nonpartisan canvassing, and public polling, the policy priorities of families, alumni, educators and voters were identified. When Denver Families for Public Schools published the results of their listening campaign, Denver Families Action measured candidates’ responses against the publicly available priorities gathered by its sister organization.
Utilizing the community’s priorities as the foundation, we developed the Denver Families Action Candidate Questionnaire in partnership with community representatives, which was provided to each school board candidate. This gave every candidate a meaningful opportunity to clearly demonstrate how their values, priorities, and vision align with the needs and aspirations of Denver’s students, families, and educators. Eight of twelve declared candidates opted to participate in this process.
Denver Families Action then created a space where members of the community panel could hear directly from candidates running for school board. This gave community members the opportunity to ask questions of each candidate and hear who would best address the issues they care about the most.
“By inviting DPS community members from across the city to participate in the endorsement process, we ensured diverse perspectives and lived experiences were at the heart of the conversations,” said Cynthia Barragán, Denver Families Action community organizer. “It wasn’t just about reviewing candidates, it was about building a process that truly reflects the diversity and priorities of our community”
Following their vetting of the candidates, the community panel discussed which candidates demonstrated the deepest understanding of the challenges facing DPS and presented a thoughtful, comprehensive vision for the future of public education in our city.
From the first doors we knocked to the final panel discussions, this has been a truly community-driven process. These candidates rose to the top because they listened, they showed up, and they earned the trust of the people most impacted by public education in our city. They not only share our community’s priorities but have a demonstrated history of acting on them. We believe they will bring the kind of leadership our students, families, and educators deserve and our city urgently needs.
Denver Families Action (DFA) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization dedicated to uplifting the voices of public school families, educators, and community members across Denver. DFA develops and supports the next generation of education advocates and leaders through hands-on training and leadership programs that empower families, educators and community members to shape the future of public education.
Denver Families for Public Schools is a non-partisan, 501(c)(3) nonprofit whose mission is to reimagine an equitable public education system in Denver by increasing civic engagement, shaping education policy, and developing the next generation of grassroots and civic leaders. The work of Denver Families is grounded in listening to the community, learning what issues they care about the most deeply, and partnering with communities as they take action to reimagine an equitable public education system. Denver Families for Public Schools did not participate in Denver Families Action’s endorsement process nor does it make any endorsements of political candidates.
