Denver’s three new school board members were sworn in last Tuesday, and immediately grabbed the spotlight by assuming control of the board’s leadership.

The three newcomers were elected to executive positions: Xochitl Gaytan is president, Scott Esserman treasurer, and Michelle Quattlebaum secretary. Rounding out the executive team is Vice President Tay Anderson.

As Anderson proudly proclaimed on social media, he went from being censured by his colleagues for misbehavior on Sept. 17 to elected vice president on Nov. 30. That’s quite the quick comeback.

While all the drama took place behind the scenes, Anderson appeared the next day on Brother Jeff Fard’s Facebook Live program to dish out all the dirt to his fan base. It’s clear from what Anderson said that factionalism, in-fighting, and dysfunction threaten to consume this board before it even begins its work.

Anderson stressed during the program that the seven board members will unite and focus on children rather than adult politics. Perhaps so, but they’re not off to a great start. And some of Anderson’s external allies seem eager to stoke the flames of resentment and division.

Hashim Coates, a friend of Anderson’s who served as Esserman’s campaign manager, said on that same Brother Jeff program that “last night, you saw an array of emotions. between anger and pissed off, come from the three (white board members) that did not make an executive seat. And I will give maybe some passes and say that that wasn’t rooted in any type of thing that was anti-Black or anti-Brown. That was rooted in ‘I would have got away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky kids.’”

Incumbents Carrie Olson, Scott Baldermann, and Brad Laurvick are white, politically progressive, and teachers union backed. Already, though, they’re being branded as not fully with the program — whatever the program might be.

The real issue is that they voted to censure Anderson back in September.

And what seems clear is that because of their censure votes, they are viewed with skepticism bordering on hostility by the other four board members. If fences are to be mended, Olson, Baldermann, and Laurvick are going to have to go on an apology tour to get back in the good graces of the four board officers.

According to Anderson, the day of the vote he sought then-board-President Olson’s endorsement to run for vice president, and she declined to offer that endorsement. In response, he decided to run against her for president, and enlisted the support of his three new colleagues. They persuaded him to stick with the vice president’s seat so that a woman of color — Gaytan — could become president.

And while Baldermann seemed positioned to become treasurer, he didn’t put forward his name when it became clear that the new bloc would back Esserman instead.

This might all seem like inside baseball, but it gives us an early view of the new board’s dynamics. It’s not pretty.

Meanwhile, Superintendent Alex Marrero must be wondering how he will fare working with this highly assertive new board. The old board just adopted an updated version of what is known as policy governance, a system that keeps board members primarily operating at the policy level, and leaves operational responsibilities to their one employee, the superintendent. The board, however, also adopted a slew of what are known as “executive limitations,” areas in which it can become more directly involved in operations.

But Esserman has already signaled that he might be willing to color well outside the policy governance lines.

Speaking directly to Marrero at a gathering at Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center Nov. 20 and streamed on Facebook Live, Esserman said: “There are personnel changes that have to take place (in the central administration). Hard personnel changes.”

Last I checked, the composition of the district leadership team was the purview of the superintendent, not school board members. We’ll see how well that holds up as the turbo-charged new board digs into the work.

As a long-time advocate for public education, I will be rooting for this board’s success improving the lives and futures of DPS students. Were I a betting man, however, I would not be placing any wagers on that outcome.

Incumbents Carrie Olson, Scott Baldermann, and Brad Laurvick are white, politically progressive, and teachers union backed. Already, though, they’re being branded as not fully with the program — whatever the program might be.

Alan Gottlieb is editor of Denver-based public education watchdog boardhawk.org. Gottlieb covered Denver Public Schools as a newspaper reporter in the mid-1990s, worked as an education program officer for The Piton Foundation and co-founded Education News Colorado and Chalkbeat.