A total of 342 teachers in six Boulder Valley schools did not show up for work Monday, apparently protesting a breakdown in contract negotiations between the teachers union and the district.
District officials said it was the second straight school day that teachers allegedly staged a “sickout.”
On Friday, 84 teachers at Broomfield High failed to show up.
School officials scrambled to staff the classes with substitutes and administrators at Centaurus, Boulder and Fairview high schools as well as Flatirons, Sanchez and University Hill elementary schools, district spokesman Briggs Gamblin said.
A total of 224 classes were covered, but 118 were not and had to be combined.
“The extra challenge for us today was that this was finals for seniors,” Gamblin said. “It may, at first glance, sound easier because you are proctoring an exam, but review sessions before school and explanations for tests are harder to get done when the regular teacher is not there.”
The district has offered its 2,000 teachers a 1 percent stipend raise over the 2009-10 school year. But the raise would not be applied to the base pay, meaning it would not be added into teachers’ permanent pay.
District officials cite the state’s withholding of $110 million from school districts until Jan. 29, 2010, when state officials will determine whether they need the money. That equates to about a $3.8 million holdback for the Boulder Valley School District, Gamblin said.
Teachers point out the school-funding formula requires the state to give districts a 1 percentage-point increase on top of the annual inflation figure, which this year was 3.9 percent. That gives every district a 4.9 percent increase over the previous year.
For 2009-10, all Colorado school districts will receive a base amount of $5,507 per student, about $250 more per student than the year before.
Teachers want the district to pass on that increase, said Melissa Tingley, president-elect of the Boulder Valley Education Association.
“Teachers want . . . inflation plus 1 percent,” Tingley said. “We are asking for something reasonable — much more than the zero they are offering.”
The union did not direct teachers to call in absent out of protest, she said.
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
