Union leaders behind a teachers strike that began more than a week ago in Sheridan School District say they are prepared to pursue a recall of the district’s four school board members.
Educators belonging to the Sheridan Education Association, along with other school staff, parents and students, have walked the picket line since April 1. They are calling for district officials and the board to reinstate the teachers’ contract, recognize the local union and include education support professionals, such as bus drivers and janitors, in the bargaining unit. They also want the district to retract staff disciplinary policies.
Teachers in the small metro Denver district have been working without a contract since July 31.
The union and district have made little progress in negotiating a new contract since then, with months of gridlock hitting a high note this week when union leaders emailed the school board saying they will take steps to recall every board member “if the board continues to refuse to act.”
“It frankly just doesn’t seem like we’re having the same conversation,” Kate Biester, president of the Sheridan Education Association and a social studies teacher at Sheridan High School and SOAR Academy, told The Colorado Sun. “I’m not sure if it is them truly misunderstanding our demands or not being willing to meet them, but there has been a breakdown in our communication somewhere.”
In the email sent Tuesday, union leaders also demanded the school board schedule a meeting to jump-start negotiations by Thursday. No meeting was scheduled.
“At this point, we need you to take action,” the email states. “You were elected to lead. You were elected to govern. You were elected to act when your schools are in crisis. Instead, Sheridan students, families, and staff are watching a Board that has remained silent while Superintendent (Gionni) Thompson delays, deflects, and refuses to address the issues that brought us here.”
In an email response to the union Wednesday afternoon, board President Karla Najera wrote that the board is “hopeful” the union will “work through the recognition process in order to move forward with any potential recognition and bargaining in the future.”
“If the Association chooses not to move forward in this regard,” Najera wrote, “the Board will continue its work and provide the best education possible to our students and the best service possible to our families and community members.”
The district, which educates 924 students including many living in poverty, reopened its five schools by Tuesday after closing them last week after the strike started. District officials cited concerns over keeping students safe without enough staff to run schools as normal.
Students on Thursday said substitute teachers are still overseeing many of their classes. Some kids say they fear falling behind in subjects like math and English. They wonder if they’ll take standardized tests, including the SAT, next week as scheduled.
“I’m very worried about my grades because my grades will help me for next year and years on, so that can help me get a scholarship so that I can go to college and have a good life,” said Leo Vallejos, a first-year student at Sheridan High School who demonstrated alongside his teachers Thursday morning.
Leo, 15, said he is trying to pull up Ds in algebra and English.
“I think I could catch them up really quick if I had my teachers back,” he said.
Meanwhile, some high school seniors have questions about whether all the time without their teachers will keep them from graduating on May 22. Others are nervous they might not get to experience prom.
Students were among a crowd of protesters gathered Thursday morning near the district’s administration building in Englewood, chanting to the beat of an African drum, waving signs with phrases in English and Spanish and cheering on cars that honked in solidarity as they cruised by.
“One day longer, one day stronger,” the throng cried out at one point. One man flashed a sign reading, “It’s time to use our outside voice!”
In a phone interview with The Sun, Thompson described the ongoing strike as “unfortunate.” He said his focus is on “making sure our students get everything they need” and he wants to work through the strife “without harming our students and interrupting or disrupting their learning.”
“We understand this time is difficult,” Thompson said. “Together we can keep kids in the classroom and work on the outskirts of this to solve our misunderstandings or our differences without keeping kids out of the classrooms. I think it is very important regardless of our views, that we keep kids in the classroom so that they can be successful.”
Thompson tried to quell students’ concerns, insisting substitute teachers are instructing students with the district’s curriculum and creating lesson plans with help from principals and the district’s academic learning team.
The district will proceed with testing next week as planned, Thompson noted. Some assessments started Thursday.
“Our students are getting all the instructional content necessary for their graduation or their current year needs,” he said.
A bitter disagreement over one policy
Thompson and the district’s attorney met Saturday with union members in front of an outside mediator, with both sides hoping to reopen conversations around negotiations. Instead, the inertia continued.
The sides have been stuck in a blame game over who has failed to maintain communications over returning to the bargaining table.
Now, they are diverging over what it should take to recognize a local union and the crux of their disagreement boils down to one policy adopted by the school board in January. Policy H spells out a process and requirements for a labor group to be recognized by the district. Thompson said the board adopted the policy because district officials could not find any existing policy around that kind of process and the board wanted a policy that would address multiple groups looking to be recognized as a bargaining unit.
“We were able to let them know that we’re willing to work with them on Policy H to be recognized as a labor group,” Thompson said, “but if they’re not recognized, then you can’t negotiate so we’re trying to get them recognized so we can start negotiations.”
The problem is, the union doesn’t agree to the specific terms of the policy.
“I think it is fair for any district to have a policy for what they do with unions,” Biester, the union president, said. “That makes sense. But this specific one is unnecessarily restrictive and feels retaliatory in this specific moment.”
Biester said the union takes issue with the policy ordering different groups of staff to unionize separately. She argues it’s not practical in a small district and it would make more sense to lump staff from different departments into one union and negotiate terms that work for each group of employees.
The union also rejects what it sees as stringent requirements dictating how a union would win a recognition election in order to be acknowledged by the district.
“They’re digging in on trying to have us follow the policy and we’re digging in on them rescinding it,” Biester said.
She said she had hoped to spend Saturday negotiating with district officials but instead listened to them rehash what they have previously offered. She added that the district has called the expiration of the contract a mistake.
“They keep saying it’s a mistake,” Biester said. “I have a hard time seeing it as a mistake when they passed a really restrictive policy like this months into the conflict after the expiration had happened.”
Thompson said the district plans to reach out to the union to tell them they are willing to meet again with a mediator on another date they can agree upon.
“The board is willing to work with SEA and adjust again anything that they believe is hindering or is going to be difficult,” Thompson said. “I don’t know why they don’t want to just go through the process. They have not shared that with me. I don’t know why they are refusing to go through the process.”
“Are we graduating?”
Josiah Hall isn’t usually awake at 6 a.m. on most school days, but in the past week he’s jumped out of bed early to race to his district and join his teachers in their battle cry for the district to reinstate their contract and recognize their bargaining unit. So far, he’s missed only one day of the strike.
“I genuinely believe that teachers need to be supported by the district, and if they ever feel like they’re not being supported, that’s when students should fill in,” Josiah, 17, said. “I believe that students genuinely are the backbone of this district and if we stand with them it just makes them seem stronger and it makes it more impactful.”
Josiah, a senior at Sheridan High School, said some of his peers have been rattled by the rift between the district and union, worried that it could cost them their shot at graduating should their grades plummet while teachers carry on with the strike. Their fears reverberated throughout a group chat on Instagram among 82 seniors.
“It’s stressful,” he said. “Our last message in the group chat right now is, are we graduating?”
He said most students support their teachers sticking to the picket line, but the divisiveness hangs all around them. Josiah, who plans to study political science and history next year at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, attended the meeting Saturday and could feel the friction. He watched as the sides struggled to talk to each other.
“I want them to actually get along,” he said. “I don’t want them to just get a contract and go back to school and still hate each other. What the school board and teachers should be doing is building a bridge between them instead of, let’s get this contract in and forget each other forever.”
Evelyn Garcia, an 8-year-old who attends Alice Terry Elementary School, traded a pencil for a megaphone Thursday morning and chimed in on chants. Evelyn said she has protested most of the week instead of going to school. She misses class a little bit but would rather stay outside supporting her teachers.
“When I grow up, I want to be a teacher and I really admire them by what they do and how nice they are,” Evelyn said, adding that she encourages her teachers “to never give up and keep going, keep protesting until the superintendent does the right thing.”
At one point, she grabbed a sign and proudly held it high above her.
“!Todo por lo mejor de nuestros niños!” it read.
“All for the best of our children!”