Denver Public Schools (DPS) Superintendent Alex Marrero will release his list of school closures today just before he leaves town for a speaking engagement, the Denver Gazette has learned.

It's unclear exactly when Marrero will leave town this month to speak at the Global Cities Education Network's annual symposium.

District officials won't say.

Scott Pribble, a district spokesman, cited security concerns over withholding the information. Specifically, Pribble referred to a death threat Marrero received via email last year, which Denver police have since described as not credible.

Marrero's trip comes at a time when the district is grappling with declining enrollment — which is tied to funding — and the school closures necessary to close a roughly $70 million budget gap. The coming weeks will likely be fraught with anxiety for a community closely tied to its community school.

The board is expected to vote on Marrero's proposed closures on Nov. 21.

An initiative of the Asia Society, the Global Cities Education Network is an “international learning community” that includes six countries in the United States, Canada and Asia, according to the organization’s website.

Pribble said Marrero was invited to speak at their annual symposium in February. Marrero is expected to speak about the International Educator Institute, which he founded last year.

The program was created to fill DPS teaching positions by hiring educators from around the world. With educators coming from more than five dozen countries, Marrero hopes to expand the program to more than 200.

The district began with the Dominican Republic.

“We have to think outside the box and the states,” Marrero told Denver Gazette news partner 9News in May.

The local initiative was a response to the influx of immigrants and their families that Denver has experienced since 2022. The nearly 43,000 immigrants that Denver accepted – mostly from South and Central America – cost taxpayers more than $75 million. This led to thousands of students enrolling in DPS.

Last year, the district added about 4,000 incoming students to its roster, temporarily boosting enrollment.

According to the Asia Society – which did not respond to an email requesting comment – the organization is hosting a series of events this month starting Thursday in New York, Texas, Hong Kong and Switzerland, among other places.

It is unclear which event Marrero will attend.

The district, Pribble said, has been part of the Center for Global Education collaboration since former Superintendent Tom Boasberg's involvement in the program.

This is the first time Marrero has attended the symposium, Pribble said.

“It is our practice”

Marrero often participates in conferences as an invited guest.

During his approximately two years as superintendent, Marrero traveled to several out-of-state locations to attend speaking engagements and national conferences, including trips to California, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Washington DC and Puerto Rico.

A Denver Gazette investigation last year found that he spent more on travel in his first 18 months on the job than his four predecessors combined.

Meanwhile, county officials defended their decision to withhold information about when Marrero will travel until he returns.

“As you know, last year a specific death threat was made against Dr. Marrero,” Pribble said in an email to the Denver Gazette. “Since then, it has been our practice not to share the exact dates of his trip (for security reasons).”

In an email dated September 25, 2023 to an unknown number of recipients, “Uryna G” claimed to have planted three bombs at one of a dozen school sites as well as at Marrero's home.

“We will kill Alex Marrero, we know where he lives (editor),” the email said.

Sergeant. Jay Casillas, a spokesman for the Denver Police Department, said in an email to the Denver Gazette that they “investigated the threats made and determined they were not credible.”

Chief Executive Officer Carrie Olson defended Marrero's trip but acknowledged the optics could be misinterpreted by the public.

“He needs to continue to run a large school system,” Olson said.

Pribble also defended the trip, saying Marrero had already engaged with the community and his absence would not be missed.

In particular, Pribble pointed to the six town hall meetings the district held leading up to the release of the school closure list. District officials have praised the more than 700 people who attended these six tightly scheduled meetings, which focused primarily on outlining the need to close schools.

Pribble also said Marrero will be available for community feedback beginning the week of Nov. 15.

“It seems kind of cowardly to me.”

Parents and advocates view those meetings — in advance of the closure list — as perfunctory, given public criticism that the district excluded the community two years ago when it identified 10 schools for closure.

“First and foremost, we don’t know which schools are closing. “What is the authentic feedback?” said Elizabeth Burciaga, community organizer at Movimiento Poder.

According to the group's website, Movimiento Poder is a grassroots organization led by working-class Latino immigrants committed to building collective power in their communities.

“It seems kind of cowardly for him to leave,” Burciago said.

Two years ago, Marrero recommended closing 10 campuses, seven of which required instruction in English and Spanish, an indicator that students have greater needs that require additional resources.

After public backlash, Marrero narrowed his list to three: Denver Discovery, Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy and Fairview Elementary.

All three had fewer than 120 students. District officials have determined that enrollment is critically low at fewer than 215 students.

The board voted 6-1 last March to close all three.

The board originally requested the list of school closures in October to give parents, teachers and students enough time to digest and respond to the recommendations before voting on campus closures. But Marrero successfully argued that his team needed more time after the so-called “October census,” in which school districts report enrollment numbers to the state for funding purposes.

Marrero received a one-time extension, even though the October count occurs every year.

The way Steve Katsaros sees it, there wouldn't have been a scheduling conflict for Marrero if the extension hadn't been in place until after the election — when voters overwhelmingly supported a nearly $1 billion bond.

“If it had been released on time, he wouldn’t have been out of town,” said Katsaros, co-founder of the Parents Safety Advocacy Group (P-SAG).

P-SAG was formed last year after a shooting at East High School that left two principals injured.

Katsaros added: “He delivers bad news and does not take charge of the situation when he should not be available.”