Nearly a month into the school year and teachers in several Front Range districts are still working without a contract.
“We have more locals that have not been able to settle than is typical for this time of year,” said Deborah Fallin, spokeswoman for the Colorado Education Association. “Usually, most of the contracts are settled before school starts.”
Colorado teachers have not waged a strike for 15 years — since Denver teachers struck for five days in 1994.
No one expects a strike this year, but teachers unions from Pueblo to Greeley are battling their districts over contract offers they say are unfair.
Districts say they have less money this year, citing plummeting state revenues and an overall financial crisis.
The state already asked districts to hold back $110 million from their spending for a crisis reserve that most expect the legislature will raid in January.
Many districts are saying they have been saved from disaster this year by federal stimulus money.
“It’s a wild time, but at the same time, teacher workload has increased so much, and demands on teachers have increased,” said Kerrie Dallman, president of the Jefferson County Education Association, which represents about 4,200 teachers. “We’re looking at less and less in teacher compensation when we are asking them to do more and more.”
Jefferson County, the state’s largest local teachers union, was at an impasse through the summer and only recently ratified a contract for the current school year that is awaiting the school board’s approval.
Jeffco voters rejected a mill- levy increase that would have helped pay for the salaries. The district has eliminated about 50 positions and increased class sizes.
Under the agreement, Jeffco teachers get a 1 percent cost- of-living raise, a 1 percent bonus in November and a 1 percent bonus in April that would become permanent if the state decides against pulling back the $110 million.
In most districts, teachers get cost-of-living raises and increases that reflect their education level, and they also get compensated based on the number of years they have worked. Throughout the state, teachers and school districts are wrestling over those pay increments.
Federal mediators are being called in to help negotiations this week in Boulder Valley and next week in Greeley.
Boulder Valley is offering its teachers 1 percent, one-year stipends and no cost-of-living raises. Yet step increases would continue.
In Greeley, the district is offering no step increases, no cost-of-living raises and no educational advancement, said Andi Lee, Greeley Education Association president.
“They are offering us flat-out nothing,” she said.
A call to the Greeley school district spokesman was not returned.
Fact-finding sessions — dispute resolution that uses a neutral third party to listen to the evidence from both sides — are scheduled this month in St. Vrain and Pueblo 60.
St. Vrain teachers are asking for a 3 percent cost-of-living increase instead of the 2.5 percent being offered by the district.
Denver Classroom Teachers Association, the state’s second- largest local teachers union, agreed to reopen its three-year contract that was signed last year and renegotiate new terms.
Teachers will vote Tuesday on whether to accept the undisclosed tentative agreement reached last week between the union and the district.
Last year, Denver’s teachers waged a furious fight over the district’s proposed changes to the incentive system that had some speculating that a strike could occur during the Democratic National Convention. The union issued a vote of no confidence in then-Superintendent Michael Bennet and protested by calling in sick en masse.
Teachers eventually approved a three-year contract that gave more money to larger numbers of teachers whose students show academic growth or whose school earns a “distinguished” rating.
The new contract gave teachers an annual cost-of-living raise based on the rate of inflation. This year, that cost-of-living raise plus 0.25 percent would amount to a 4.15 percent salary increase for the 2009-10 school year.
In Douglas County, the district has cut $35 million from the budget over two years, eliminated about 300 positions and increased class sizes. Teachers are expected to reach an agreement on their contract soon, said Brenda Smith, president of the Douglas County Federation of Teachers.
“It’s going to be very minimal pay increase this year,” Smith said. “It makes me sad as a teacher. I know how hard these employees work.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
