DPS Teacher Negotiations and Strike Events Timeline - A Central Administrative Employee Perspective

05-Feb-19 | Categories: education | Tags: redfored, denverpublicschools, denverteacherstrike, dcta

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I will continue to update this timeline as event occur.

IMPORTANT! Before reviewing this timeline, please read my statements and Instagram post at the bottom of the page. There, you will learn about: how I stand with the teachers of DPS, where I stand with all of these events, the requirement I was given without choice to cross the picket line, and the potential impacts these events have on my employment.


Timeline item categories: Central staff, Teachers, News article, Personal job

March 1

  • Central staff: all impacted departments notified of their internal reductions and applicable department shifts
  • Central staff: Susana hosts district-wide webinar to introduce her entry and focus. She also speaks on the impacts of the strike/negotiations/reductions/reorganizations
  • News article: cuts involve real elimination of services
  • Personal job: my position is not included in the reductions, but my team/co-workers sustained massive impacts from the reductions as well as the team being moved under an entirely different department

February 27

  • Central staff: start of individual meetings are being held/scheduled to notify employees of how they are being impacted

February 25

February 16

February 15

  • Teachers: return to work in their classrooms.
  • Personal job: central office work resumes. 1.5hr meeting with team to share experiences. Overall somber atmosphere.

February 14 - STRIKE ENDS

  • Teachers: offered another day, unpaid, or to come into work - many return to work.
  • Personal job: I reported to DSISD and "guest taught" as a sub for Spanish, period 1, with a colleague since the teacher did not report to work. After the first period, my colleague and I were dismissed to return to our normal positions
  • News article: tentative agreement reached

February 13 - STRIKE DAY 3

  • Teachers: another day of negotiation rounds, both parties now starting to agree on "we are close" status
  • Personal job: I reported to DSISD and "guest taught" as a sub for Spanish (Monday's schedule again) with a colleague. Sit-in occurred for a bit starting at 10am.

February 12 - STRIKE DAY 2

  • Teachers: another negotiation round this afternoon into the evening
  • News article: large demonstrations at East and North HS
  • Personal job: I reported to DSISD and "guest taught" as a sub for Spanish, History, and Math. Attendance was low. Walk-out occurred with slight impact to already low attendance at 9:30am

February 11 - STRIKE DAY 1

  • Teachers: strike day 1
  • News article: major disruption at East HS
  • News article: lawsuit filed against DPS for SWD impacts
  • Personal job: I reported to DSISD and "guest taught" as a sub for Spanish with a colleague, attendance unexpectedly high
  • Central staff: original deadline for Polis/CO Dept of Labor to step in. This is based on DCTA submission, Jan 28 and DPS submission, Jan 23. Actual decision was made on Feb 6 not to intervene (see earlier event).

February 9

  • Teachers: negotiation meeting held today, did not lead to breakthrough/changes, strike scheduled for Monday
  • Central staff: most recent proposal rejected by DCTA

February 8

  • Central staff: meeting/webinar held about status of the negotiations and when budget reductions, no specifics provided
  • Central staff: during webinar, it is conveyed that negotiations would be available to DCTA through the weekend, any hour
  • Teachers: negotiation meeting held tonight, another negotiation session being held tomorrow

February 7

  • Central staff: sent school assignments in mass mail merge type
  • Personal job: I'm assigned to DSISD with reporting times for Monday, Feb 11
  • DPS snow day called

February 6

February 4

  • News article: Polis/CO Dept of Labor ask for teams to give it another try
  • News article: "sub-tubs", DPS spends $136k on strike sub plans

February 1

January 31

  • Teachers: march from capital to central admin building
  • Teachers/Central staff: back to negotiations

January 30

  • Teachers: announce march from capital to central admin building

January 29

  • Personal job: obtain information that all district PD for schools postponed/Teal Day canceled
  • Personal job: dept purchases sub supplies for us

January 28

  • Teachers: officially submits to CO Dept of Labor not to intervene. Clock starts for gov't/state/polis decision, 2wks. Due date: Feb 11

January 25

  • News article: Denver Post publishes online article about central staff freezing vacation/personal time requests and consequences of not crossing picket line
  • Personal job: my management sends me the lesson plans in google drive folders.
  • Central staff: 2 trainings. 1 webinar, all required to view for school safety/security. 1 optional in 14er about classroom management. No curriculum specifics provided to all staff (my management gave me the lesson plans that day).

January 24

  • Teachers: rally in lobby and outside of 1860 Lincoln
  • News article: DPS goofs with HR wrong notice to immigrants with visas, in relation to CO Dept of Labor submission January 23 (section 12d, "potential denial of H1-B visas")

January 23

  • Central staff: DPS files with CO Dept of Labor, here's the document
  • Personal job: reading the submission section 9, it states that employees will be notified in February if they are being let go due to the negotiations.
  • Personal job: told no new personal or vacation requests will be approved for time during strike (freezing requests). Originally told by my management that we could take personal/vacation time to join teachers - but this has changed due to the requirement of being in schools
  • Personal job: told that not reporting to a school and crossing the picket line will result in minimum letter of reprimand, max termination
  • Personal job: told all work related travel is canceled

January 22

  • Teachers: vote count YES to strike, 93% of voting members vote to strike
  • Central staff: notified they will be required to work in schools to keep them open
  • Central staff: those with teaching licenses asked strongly to teach
  • Central staff: those without licenses may apply for guest teaching license

January 19

  • Teachers: decide vote on strike, 2 voting days 19 and 22
  • Central staff: obtain email notice that there have been not agreements made

January 8

  • Central staff: start obtaining special announcements/emails about the negotiations.
  • Personal job: wording from these announces begins and I start reading sentences like "$7 million in cuts to central administration supports." This wording continues for weeks in emails about where the money is coming from.

IT'S IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO KNOW MY BELIEFS AND VIEWS

I'm in support of #redfored My strong, general belief with my employment at Denver Public Schools is self-destructive. While I like my job and I'm very fortunate that the DPS sees the need for it, I believe my job shouldn't exist. I believe that there are too many central administration employees. I believe that this is because we ("as DPS"... maybe during these times we should say, "as DPS central administration"...) create and continue a cycle of excessive initiatives that require more central administration staff. See example: SPF.

ADDITIONALLY YOU SHOULD KNOW

I believe that teachers must get paid more. A LOT MORE! LIKE STARTING SALARY $80K! But, I don't believe just laying off central admin employees to free up kapital/cash for teachers' salaries fixes the problem entirely. Sure, a lot of central administration staff should be let go (including me) along with the initiatives in order to start showing value in teachers. But, there are many central employees that can be strategically repurposed and reassigned to support schools (including me). Whether they have a license/experience or not, there's is so much talent that's been acquired in the administration staff, I believe many can serve in supporting our schools, teachers, and students.

FINALLY

Education and the success of an educational system must come from the people, the communities, that value the growth of children. Money helps, a lot, but you can't just throw money at a problem expecting it to go away. The community must value, embrace, and lift up education as an extremely important aspect of its success and survival. That means the voters need to vote in support of it. It means the people must be a part of it, whether they have kids of their own or not (I don't).
So, if I must say goodbye to help teachers get and maintain the salaries they need, so be it. Until then, I'm happy that my job position/job goal is to make the lives of teachers easier and I will continue to serve and support them.

SOURCES/DISCLAIMER

All articles, documents, and communication referenced and linked in this post are open and available to the public. No confidentiality rights have been violated by providing any Constant Contact messages or shared .pdf documents. In fact, I chose this personal medium over other social channels that are provided in one-click share buttons at the top of the Constant Contact messages in order to prevent misuse. Should you have any concerns about my collection and presentation of this public information, please feel free to contact me.