At least 2,600 educators across the Denver Public Schools system left their classrooms Monday to demand better pay, chanting and picketing outside schools and rallying at the state Capitol as the city’s first teachers strike in 25 years unfolded.
Denver’s 160 schools remained open despite more than half the district’s teachers walking out, and an as-yet-untold number of student absences. Some of those who did go to class reported disorder in their schools and dissatisfaction with the quality of work they encountered.
All DPS schools will be open on Tuesday as well, said Anna Alejo, a schools spokeswoman.
The first strike by Denver teachers since 1994 — the exact number of participants remained in dispute — follows 15 months of negotiations over wages and an incentive pay structure that educators have said complicates their ability to plan for the future.
“We’re just asking for a predictable, fair living wage,” said Aimee Baker, a teacher at East High School and 12-year veteran of DPS who joined the walkout Monday.
The strike will continue Tuesday, with one key difference: representatives from DPS and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association will return to the bargaining table for the first time since Saturday night, when the union abruptly called off contract talks.
“We felt like we had to use the last tool in our tool chest to get them to listen,” Rob Gould, the union’s lead negotiator, said of the strike at a morning news conference outside South High School. “…We think it’s important that DPS sees and knows and understands what it’s like not to have teachers in the classroom.”
After touring schools staffed by substitutes and teachers who crossed the picket lines, DPS Superintendent Susana Cordova announced the district and union will resume bargaining at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
“It’s a problem for our kids not to have their teachers in class,” she said, “so I want to get this done now. I’m very happy that we will be back at the table. We were ready to negotiate yesterday.”
The union and school district have negotiated to a point where the two sides’ proposed starting salaries are now the same.
But DPS’s latest offer on Saturday — which cut additional central-office staff in an effort to free up more money for teachers — increased the annual incentives for teachers working in Denver’s high-poverty schools to $3,000 from $2,500.
Those incentives have been a particular sticking point for Denver’s teachers, who have said they’d rather see that money put into base pay — and that increase in the district’s latest proposal is what led the union to walk out Saturday night.
Dispute over strike participation
One area where the teachers union and school district failed to agree on Monday was the number of educators participating strike.
DPS officials announced that 2,631 of the 4,725 teachers working in non-charter schools — the district’s charter schools are not affected by the strike — did not report to school Monday. That’s 56 percent of non-charter teachers.
The Denver teachers union countered that its own headcounts and sign-in sheets showed 3,769 teachers and special service providers walked picket lines on Monday.
District representatives acknowledged their 2,631 figure did not include those service providers — but DPS did not release a total number that did. DPS does not employ enough service providers to account for the 1,138 difference between the two sides’ participation figures.
To make up for striking teachers, DPS on Monday said it had enlisted approximately 400 substitutes and used 1,400 central-office staff in city classrooms.
Student attendance figures for Monday won’t be released until Tuesday. But signs point to depressed turnout, with the number of students who rode the bus Monday morning being about half the usual number. The district also reported that it served more than 10,000 fewer breakfasts than normal.
DPS preschool classes have canceled for the duration of the strike because the district doesn’t have sufficient licensed support staff. That cancellation affected 4,714 students.
Chants, signs and marchers
Across Denver, teachers and their supporters gathered outside schools, marching with hand-crafted signs as they demanded better wages from the district. Not surprisingly, the city’s larger high schools drew bigger crowds than some of the smaller middle and elementary schools.
Kimberly Beckeman, a ceramics teacher at South High School, was among the throng of teachers picketing outside that school early Monday morning.
“I hope my students see me out here standing up for what’s right,” she said.
Beckerman said she’s considered leaving the district for better pay and wants her students to have quality teachers.
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Emma Hoeschler, 17, is a junior at South High who came out to picket with her teachers. “I think our teachers are such great influences on our lives,” she said. “They deserve to be paid fairly.”
The crowd outside South High even included a canine protester: a dog named Ollie wrapped in a sign that said, “Hey DPS, throw us a BONE.”
The dog’s owner, Ryan Marini, has worked for DPS for 17 years, and said his wife, also an educator, left the Denver district for the Cherry Creek School District.
“I’ve seen so many good teachers leave,” Marini said. “That’s why I’m here.”
At East High School, just off Colfax Avenue, a large crowd of teachers paced the sidewalk, with one using a bullhorn to lead chants of “Hey, hey DPS, time to clean this filthy mess.”
Kent Yamazaki, a science teacher at East High, has been with the district for more than 22 years. He said he’s at the end of his career but is striking for his colleagues who can barely afford rent and have to make tough decisions about adding to their families.
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At William (Bill) Roberts Elementary School on the east side of Denver, a crowd of about 50 people marched outside the school carrying signs with slogans such as “I only got into teaching for the $$$$! — Said NO teacher EVER.”
Parents at the school brought doughnuts and coffee for the teachers as they dropped their students off at the school. Students hugged their teachers as they crossed the picket line to go to class.
Amanda Phillips said she had told her two children who attend the elementary school that Monday would be different and that there would be a protest outside the school. She wanted them to know their teachers are mad at the district, not their students.
“I told them, ‘You guys didn’t do anything wrong,’ ” she said. “‘Your teachers love you.’ ”
An even smaller crowd was assembling outside Denver Discovery School, where about nine teachers gathered with signs, and one parent brought breakfast for them. One of their signs read: “We work hard for the money, so you better pay us NOW!”
Melea Mayen, a Denver Discovery teacher, said she walked out of her classroom last year when she was teaching in North Carolina.
“Even though I get paid more here, the cost of living is triple what it was there,” she said.
A group of hundreds of teachers and students from West High School and other district campuses marched along Speer Boulevard and Colfax Avenue on Monday morning. While the group received dozens of supportive honks and cheers, at least one driver was unhappy with the striking teachers.
“Get back to work!” a man yelled from his car.
“We want to!” a teacher yelled back.
