Less than a week after getting lambasted in a school board meeting by teachers angry over stalled contract talks, Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet offered a response Tuesday in an e-mailed letter sent to teachers.
Bennet’s letter clarified the district’s coming school closure announcement – saying it would be fewer schools than has been reported – and offered teachers an extra paid day of work.
The e-mail comes as the district is gearing up for Monday’s announcement of the closing of several schools that are not performing well academically and are underenrolled.
The district says it will save money by shutting the schools next year. The names of the schools and the number has been a well-kept secret.
Initially, officials with a group working on the school-closure criteria said as many as 40 could be shuttered. But Bennet in his letter says “there will be far fewer closures than some have speculated.”
The letter says schools getting new students from the closures will get more money because their enrollments will increase. And he said teachers from closed schools will be offered a “retention bonus.”
The president of the teachers union, Kim Ursetta, said the bonus had not been discussed in the contract negotiations, which she said were expected to resume Friday but that Bennet’s letter “circumvented the process.”
“We were surprised to see this letter come out and shocked to see there were issues that were raised that have not been discussed,” Ursetta said.
Bennet’s letter comes five days after angry teachers scolded him at a school board meeting and applauded loudly after speeches asking for more money, more planning time and better benefits than DPS is offering.
The district has tendered a 3.6 percent cost-of-living increase, and the union wants a 4.47 percent raise.
District officials say their offer, plus yearly step increases, is an average increase of 6.2 percent.
Bennet told the teachers in his e-mail the district’s offer would include an additional 0.6 percent if the extra day of work is added.
Bennet said money for the additional day is coming because DPS may have 400 more students this year than anticipated.
The district receives $6,800 from the state for each pupil.
Paying teachers for an extra day of work would cost DPS roughly $1.3 million.
Bennet said the district has been in financial trouble but it has a balanced budget for the first time in five years.
He thanked the teachers for their “excellent work” that has attracted more students to the district. And he said the district does not want to fund increases that result in cuts.
He decried the acrimony that has built between the administration and the teachers who both want better schools and better pay for teachers.
“Although public accusations … may make for good politics, they do little to help us attain these shared goals,” he said.
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer may be reached at 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
