There's just one problem: The city couldn't care less, according to Montoya.
The former Department of Public Safety official has joined a growing list of individuals and organizations from the Denver community who believe that their thoughts about the safety plan have fallen on deaf ears. He calls the first draft of the plan a "cut-and-paste" version of many other safety plans he's seen put together by expert groups throughout the years.
"I don't see any enlightening or revealing new strategies put in place to counter the safety issues that we're facing," Montoya says.
The DPS Board of Education sent a memo to Superintendent Alex Marrero directing him to develop the safety plan on March 23, one day after East High School student Austin Lyle shot and injured deans Eric Sinclair and Wayne Mason at the school and later committed suicide. The incident marked a breaking point for the district. Weeks earlier, on February 13, student Luis Garcia was shot in his car outside of East and later died of his injuries. That incident ignited a conversation around SROs and school security.
Marrero has been vocal in his insistence that "experts" lead the safety plan development process. The district recruited Murphy Robinson and his company, Robinson Corporations Security Group, to draft the plan. Like Montoya, Robinson is a former Denver Department of Safety head. He spent two years in the role, leaving in January 2022.
Chalkbeat reports that the district will pay Robinson and his company up to $150,000 for the job.
Montoya, meanwhile, spent approximately six and a half years as the manager of safety for the city, starting in February 1994. He credits himself as a leader who helped head Denver's "effort to break gang violence after the 'Summer of Violence' in 1993."
Montoya says he contacted Marrero and school board president Xóchitl Gaytán to offer his expertise as a former safety official and community leader. "I didn't offer to be in charge," he says. "I just said, 'If you're looking for an expert, I think my years of experience and my résumé show that I could be just as much an expert as anyone.'"
Montoya, who claims his offer was ignored, is currently the executive director of the Latino Faith Initiative and a member of Resign DPS Board — an advocacy group that formed after the March 22 East High shooting and is calling for all seven DPS school board members to move on from their positions.
Both Montoya and Robinson generated controversy during their time with the Department of Safety. Robinson was criticized for his handling of the 2020 George Floyd protests in Denver, and former mayoral candidate Lisa Calderón once called for his resignation over what she called sexist and false accusations against her and Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca.
A Denver Post article from July 2000 reported that controversy in the final year of Montoya's tenure led to his ousting as safety manager. "Montoya for months has been under fire involving controversies over police recruits, alleged excessive force and a botched drug raid," the article reports.
The former safety manager is now the most recent addition to a large group of people who feel similarly shrugged off by the superintendent and school board.
Members of the East High associated Parents - Safety Advocacy Group (P-SAG), which formed after the March 22 shooting and has been holding weekly press conferences outside of East High since the incident, have been pushing their concerns about school safety on the school board. The group says DPS has been "dismissive" of its input.
Theresa Peña, an active P-SAG member who served on the DPS school board from 2003 to 2011, says it's disappointing but not surprising that the superintendent and board gave Montoya the cold shoulder. She says Montoya "represents the faith-based Latino community."
"[Montoya] asked to be invited and was not invited, so that wasn't cool," Peña says. "I think because we know that this is historically how DPS treats individuals and organizations, P-SAG said, 'We're not going to wait for an invitation. We are going to do our own work, and then we're going to deliver it to the board and the superintendent. And we are going to continue to push, because we are not going to just hand it off and hope for the best. We are going to insist that they listen and at least incorporate some of our recommendations."
Peña says P-SAG sent its recommendations — which include improving the district's discipline policies and training procedures for educators involved in discipline — to the superintendent and board on May 19. She says the group has been in touch with boardmembers Scott Baldermann and Carrie Olson.
According to Peña, P-SAG received an automatic reply from Marrero that stated: "Thank you for your email. I am currently out of the office. ... Please note that emails will go unread until my return on Wednesday, May 23, 2023."
Peña does feel optimistic that the group's persistent advocacy will result in its concerns being reflected in the revised safety plan. "We are all hopeful that some/most of our recommendations will be reflected in the next version," she says. "Many of the P-SAG recommendations on the discipline policy, matrix and ladder are also shared by the DPS community survey results."
Still, concerns about the engagement process persist, with Peña saying that P-SAG members have had to push tirelessly for their voices to be heard while DPS leaders are "abdicating their responsibility" to gather robust and meaningful feedback.
According to Peña, P-SAG received an automatic reply from Marrero that stated: "Thank you for your email. I am currently out of the office. ... Please note that emails will go unread until my return on Wednesday, May 23, 2023."
Peña does feel optimistic that the group's persistent advocacy will result in its concerns being reflected in the revised safety plan. "We are all hopeful that some/most of our recommendations will be reflected in the next version," she says. "Many of the P-SAG recommendations on the discipline policy, matrix and ladder are also shared by the DPS community survey results."
Still, concerns about the engagement process persist, with Peña saying that P-SAG members have had to push tirelessly for their voices to be heard while DPS leaders are "abdicating their responsibility" to gather robust and meaningful feedback.
Family members of victims of the recent incidents at East have said at P-SAG press conferences that most DPS leaders have made little or no effort to meet with them. Collinus Newsome, the sister of Dean Mason, said earlier this month that Auon'tai Anderson is the only DPS boardmember who had reached out to her and her family after the shooting.
Jovana Garcia, the sister of Luis Garcia, said last week that while Superintendent Marrero showed up at the hospital the day after Luis was shot, he did not say "any of the right things," and she never saw him again after that.
In early May, Latino community members from DPS expressed concern that the community engagement process for the development of the safety plan — which began after the release of the first draft of the plan on May 1 and will end on June 4 — has been rushed and inadequate. At a May 9 community feedback meeting hosted by the Latino Education Advisory Council, many attendees said they felt their voices were going unheard.
They also expressed that the reintroduction of school resource officers (SROs) after the March 22 shooting and their presence in the safety plan was a "slap in the face" after years of community advocacy for their removal.
Both Montoya and Peña think SROs receive too much attention relative to the impact they create. Montoya thinks DPS uses SROs as a distraction, saying, "'If we can get people talking about SROs, we don't have to worry about the plan because they'll go fight among themselves.'"
Montoya thinks district leaders need to focus on improving student learning and achievement scores in order to ultimately improve safety.
DPS has not yet responded to a Westword request for comment about Montoya or how community feedback will affect the second draft of the safety plan.
