Dougco schools pass on ballot issue; vote to end talks with union
The Douglas County School Board voted Wednesday night to end discussions with the union over the collective-bargaining agreement and to no longer pay union leaders’ salaries with public funds.
In addition, the board voted that the district is prohibited from collecting union dues from employee paychecks on the union’s behalf.
Originally, the board contemplated putting the issues on the November ballot but decided the measure would cost too much for actions on which the group could act on alone.
“This is a school district committed to education reform,” said board president John Carson. “We are committed to paying our teachers better salaries based on results in the classroom.”
Brenda Smith, president of the Douglas County Federation of Teachers, said after the meeting that the board realized that what it was going to attempt with the ballot was illegal and that is why they chose to vote on resolutions.
“What they did tonight has no future impact on our direction,” she said.
About 150 people were packed into the school board meeting waiting to comment on the proposed ballot questions, which some called anti-teacher.
It was standing room only at 7 p.m. as picketers brought in signs supporting the teachers union and opposing possible board action concerning the future of collective bargaining in the district.
During the public-comment section of the meeting, board president John Carson had to ask multiple times for decorum as some hissed and booed while others spoke.
Before the meeting, picketers protested a plan by the school board to ask voter approval to eliminate collective bargaining and other links to its teachers union.
Police were on hand, turning people away from the meeting room because it was overflowing.
As people attending the meeting filed into district headquarters, the protesters walked back and forth, carrying signs saying the school board’s attitude toward the union shows disregard for teachers.
“I wholeheartedly disagree with the district’s treatment of teachers,” said protester Randi Allison, who has three grandchildren enrolled in the district.
She said she has seen firsthand how important Douglas County teachers are to a child’s success.
Anne Kleinkopf, a director for Taxpayers for Public Education, said the school board overstepped its bounds even suggesting union matters go before the voters.
“It’s about the board’s flagrant violation of the specific legal limitations on its own power,” she said.
Those who favored the proposed union questions be placed on the November ballot addressed the board during public comment, praising the move.
“Paying for union activities is not in the best interest of our children,” Daniel Krueger said.
Protesters picked the Wednesday meeting because the agenda included board discussion of three potential questions for the November general election ballot.
The board convened briefly and then went into executive session.
The proposed questions discussed:
• Should the district be prohibited from engaging in collective bargaining with the union?
• Should the district be prohibited from using public funding for the compensation of union leaders?
• Should the district be prohibited from collecting union dues from employee paychecks on the union’s behalf?
Union members said the proposed ballot questions were illegal.
But the board members disagreed.
In addition to the opposition to the proposed ballot questions, protesters urged negotiations to resume between the district and union so a collective-bargaining agreement could be reached.
The district has been without a contract with teachers since June, when the union and board reached an impasse.
“The teachers are too busy educating our children to fight the district, so we will do it for them,” said Katie Gilliland, a district parent and protester.
When the ballot questions were first discussed at the Aug. 21 board meeting, members said the move made sense, as the teachers union was an outdated model for schools.
“Instead of paying the high-dollar salaries of the union executives and a host of other union expenses, we ought to be focusing on restoring our focus on the classroom, both financially and pedagogically,” board member Craig Richardson said during the Aug. 21 meeting.
Ryan Parker, Photo
For a bit of perspective on what’s really important – DougCo is now something like 10th in the state in CSAP/TCAP scores, after having fallen from 8th – behind other districts that have no problems working with teachers’ organizations and getting good results. And yet DougCo is one of the 10 wealthiest counties in the whole country, which usually coincides with extremely high student performance; every similarly well-off district I’ve looked at posts ACT scores 10% – 20% higher than DougCo, and again do so while working with their teachers’ representatives (with the possible exception of one non-union district in Illinois – which pays its teachers average salaries over $100,000).
This is a board that is obviously pushing an ideological agenda that has nothing to do with things that make a difference in education. In fact, one of the differences between us and countries often cited as outperforming us in education, isn’t that they don’t have unions – most or all do, and they are often even more involved in school management – but that they don’t run their schools through politicized amateur boards.
“Members of this board don’t believe rules or laws apply to them,” said Brenda Smith, president of the Douglas County Federation of Teachers.”
Yes, Ms. smith, as Union president we’ve come to expect your ranting rhetoric against the BOE at every opportunity. Appears the citizens of Douglas County will decide this issue. We take it from there. If measure defeated, you win and we move on.
No teacher in Douglas County should set foot in a classroom until the present School Board is replaced and its successor unequivocally acknowledges teachers’ right to collective bargaining.
No taxpayer dollars should go toward any union expenses.
School boards should be required to negotiate with the union.
It’s either negotiate or face a teacher’s strike.
All very good news!
Good job. Paying unions doesn’t help educate children. Schools have to higher substitutes while teachers engage in union activities while drawing their salaries. This is nonsense.
Yeah that same excellent legal representation got whooped in the last stupid political fight these morons chose to waste time and money on. This board could not give a darn about kids. They spend their time making big political gestures and not a second about what helps kids. This is a group of political grandstanders, unworthy of attention or respect.
Republicans voted in the DC school board a few years ago; they were present at all meetings, which puzzled some Parker parents–why was the Republican Party so visible? Then, in his moment(s) of gullible pride, Chris Holbert announced that he was “responsible for getting the Republicans voted onto the board.” After all, that’s his job; he’s a campaign finance manager–and proud of it! I watched this same Chris Holbert suck a lolly pop and slurp a large Coke while superintendents and police officers testified about concerns and consequences of education cuts before the state’s education committee. He could have cared less. He did his job for the DC Republicans–he put 4 members on the board–members who could care less about class size and quality of teachers–they had a different agenda: eliminating public schools and the voice of teachers. As an “unaffiliated” voter, I can no longer vote Republican in DC. National election, maybe, but if DC is any reflection of the “big picture,” I’ll vote for the “lesser of two evils,” and it won’t be Republican.
It’s a brave new world at the Douglas County School Board.
Well done!
The “big money” in Douglas County is not coming from the union but rather by $500,000+ donations to the Board’s legal fund from the likes of the Walton Family Foundation and the Daniels Fund. The board members are puppets for a much bigger agenda.
The DougCo school board is simply trying to draw public attention away from its own struggling image by appealing to the rather simplistic anti-union sentiment held by so many. I’m impressed to see that so many DougCo parents and taxpayers are far too savy to fall for the board’s shenanigans, though. I only hope there will be better organization to replace the current board members in future elections.
Are these extremists out of their minds? Stop playing politics with children. Stop attacking your workers. Stop union-busting. Focus on education.
Douglass County school board is an embarrassment to the state of Colorado.
there is ZERO negotiating in good faith, rather every single move has been made to destroy the teachers and destroy the children.
The next school board election should be quite illuminating, and no single district in the state will ever be able to say that “it is just a school board election.”
As a matter of fact, without DC, Jeffco might have elected neo-cons last time, but the EXTREME agenda of the DougCo School Board illustrated the EXTREME agenda of the Jeffco candidates, and they both lost.
We must do a better job of communicating the extremism in our society.
Teachers in Douglas County should work only to the conditions specified in their contract. They can start by:
1. Working at the school for 8 hrs each day, and doing all grading and planning during this time. Planning, of course, takes precedence, so if it takes a week or two to return assignments, then so be it. Carve out a time for lunch, and do not perform and job-related duties during that time.
2. Not volunteering to sponsor or coach after school programs, clubs, or sports. If the school needs volunteers, then I am sure they will be able to find suitable replacements from the community. Maybe members of the school board can pick up the slack.
During this year, I suggest getting your resume ready and applying for jobs in other school districts where teachers are more valued. Try Cherry Creek or Littleton.
Here is the problem
The teachers actually CARE about the students.
Therefore it would take much more for them all to go on strike and affect the students.
The school board knows like. Much like slave owners of old, if you hold the family hostage, the father will work to death.
The neo-cons KNOW that the teachers love and care for the students, and they use this against them. Would that the right-wing extremists care about anyone but themselves…but that is a pipe-dream.
This school board is working very hard to destroy our public schools. I support innovation and I agree that teachers should be paid based, at least in part, on the results they secure in the classroom. But that’s the thing: the union and the district administration have been partners for decades in building this innovative district. Now, the partisan members of the school board are not only wrecking that productive team that built one of the best school districts in Colorado, they are setting up DCSD as a place where few quality teachers will want to work. It’s sad and so very unnecessary.