7350 N. Broadway, Denver, CO 80221
Phone: 303.853.1000
Fax: 303.853.1086

March 26, 2019
Ms. Connie Quintana, President
Members of the Board of Education
Adams County School District 14
5291 East 60th Avenue
Commerce City, CO 80022
Dear Ms. Quintana and Members of the Board:
We are still shaking our heads in disbelief following the receipt of the surprise “resolution” from the Adams 14
Board of Education this past evening. We are both shocked and disappointed by this action.
We ended last week with the understanding and expectation that we would meet with you for a conversation
facilitated by the Commissioner of Education at the Colorado Department of Education by the first week of
April (per the doodle poll from CDE). Additionally, although we had prepared a response for your
consideration, following the equally-surprising letter that we received moments before our scheduled business
meeting last week, your board took additional action before we had the opportunity to deliver the letter.
We submitted our proposal in good-faith, expecting that you and your board would at least meet with us to
discuss your concerns at a reasonable time and with the willingness to reach agreement on matters within the
scope of our proposal.
With that said, as your board’s selected External Management Partner, this will confirm that we remain
committed to fulfilling our promise, establishing a successful intergovernmental relationship with you, and, by
working together, helping the Adams 14 School District community.
We, too, were disappointed that the State Board of Education deferred and did not make a decision on our
proposal and your board’s selection of Mapleton Public Schools as your public management entity. We both
know that time is of the essence. Every day that goes by is time that students cannot get back or fully recover.
Further, as your EMO, this will also confirm that we will, of course, engage additional partners to work with
you and us. The fact that Superintendent Ciancio did not “name” that partner at the State Board meeting
should not be interpreted as any indication of a lack of commitment in that regard, much less a refusal to do
so. To the contrary, Ms. Ciancio and our representatives have stated countless times that they and we will do
whatever is necessary to accomplish our mutual goal, including, as necessary, retaining the most qualified and
affordable experts to help guide and direct the work. Currently, Adams 14 holds contracts and partnerships
with both Schools Cubed and Beyond Textbooks. It is our operating assumption that those two partners would
continue their work alongside Mapleton, at least until further evaluations are complete. Is that a correct
assumption?
Our selection of any additional supporting partner or partners, however, must include you and your
stakeholders and be informed by on-the-ground assessment of root causes, any deficiencies, and
tightly-focused remedies and interventions. Any other, “top down,” unilateral approach is doomed to
stakeholder resistance and, quite likely, ultimate failure. We believe last evening’s resolution to be that type
of approach and to suffer from the same concerns regardless of whether the designated “additional partners”
might be regarded by some as the Board’s first runner-up to Mapleton Public Schools.

 To the extent the State Board’s comments implied any resistance on our district’s part to name an additional
partner on the spot, we feel that we were in good company with you as it seemed your board was equally
pressed to commit to a delegation of authority, particularly as related to hiring and “firing” or releasing
employees. We would like to meet and have a conversation with your board to hear what parameters you are
thinking of in that regard.
Tom Moe, the vice-president for our board, attended the community meeting held at Adams City High School
last Wednesday evening. Your attorney publicly stated that Mapleton’s request for “full-authority” in the
initial phases of a partnership, was “new information.” As a point of clarification, our proposal included a
framework for the gradual release of responsibility and authority in Section 3, number 8 (page 39). Since your
board approved Mapleton as the EMO, it was also our operating assumption that you were aware of that
section of the proposal.
The Resolution that you adopted yesterday does not clarify your board’s position on this critical authority
issue. While the Resolution “reiterates its willingness to delegate the authority required by the State Board of
Education’s Order,” there is no indication of the extent of that delegation. The State Board’s order is not clear
on these delegation issues as evidenced by the questions from State Board members and your responses at
the hearing. The Order uses words such as “recruiting and retaining personnel,” “recruiting and
recommending management operators needed for individual schools,” “recommending to the local board
needed changes to the District’s collective bargaining agreement,” “evaluating district policies and
recommending amendments, revisions, or deletions to the local board.” This language falls short of defining
the actual parameters of your board’s willingness to delegate, thus the reason for our request to meet.
As stated above, we invite you to explore your thoughts with us now before the next meeting of the State
Board members so that we can present a united front to them, either with discrete, delegated powers
concerning the points in the State Board’s Order or a deliberate and thoughtful way to resolve any issues that
may arise between us as we move forward together.
In short, we would like to discuss your comfort and openness in being more specific in defining the authority
that you are willing to delegate to meet both the letter and spirit of the State Board’s Order. In turn, we
pledge to accomplish sustainable change with additional partners, as we may mutually determine to be
necessary and select in the future.
Thank you for your courtesy.
Sincerely,

Cynthia R. Croisant, President
For the Board of Education
cc:

Tom Moe, Board Member
Steve Donnell, Board Member
Sheila Montoya, Board Member
Natalie Lord, Board Member
Charlotte Ciancio, Superintendent
Richard E. Bump, Caplan & Earnest LLC