Denver Public Schools and teachers union leaders reached tentative accord Thursday on a new contract that would give teachers not only raises and increases in health insurance allowances, but also an opportunity to create new schools.
The agreement, struck after three days of talks with a federal mediator, would give all teachers a 2.7 percent cost-of-living raise and a pledge to add a step to the 13-step scale if enrollment increases by 1,000 students this school year.
The starting salary for a DPS teacher is $33,301. The top pay for teachers with more than 15 years of experience and a doctorate is $67,595. There are roughly 4,000 Denver teachers.
The new contract would boost the monthly health insurance allowance by $28 to $375 a month.
“This is something that I believe in. It’s not something I would have agreed to if I didn’t think the teachers would have liked it,” said Kim Ursetta, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association.
Union members and the school board still have to approve the deal.
The contract spells out language for the union and the district to create new “blue-ribbon” schools. These schools would give teachers and principals opportunities to build high-quality schools using teacher input on the best practices, the contract said.
Superintendent Michael Bennet hopes to have 20 of these schools open by next fall.
“DPS has tremendous assets,” Bennet said. “This, I hope, will create the kind of deal now, rather than waiting for a school to be redesigned. … The district and the union can work together to make schools a lot better.”
Most teachers are opposed to a superintendent-ordered “redesign,” which means that all teachers and the principal have to reapply for their jobs at a school.
The tentative agreement also calls for task forces to look at how teachers could be part of principal evaluations and calls for a group that would study how teachers evaluate data they get on student achievement.
Also Thursday, district administrators released a rough draft of the eight standards parents, board members and teachers can look at to hold the district accountable.
Officials hope to use the “balanced scorecard” to look at things such as student performance, teacher quality, parent and community engagement and college-readiness to see if teachers, administrators and principals are doing their jobs.
By January, the scorecard should have quantified goals such as graduation rates and enrollment.
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
