The Denver teacher’s union has filed a class-action grievance in anticipation of a budget plan that Denver Public Schools is expected to announce Wednesday that would extend middle school hours.
“We are not against extended learning opportunities, but the district so far has refused to negotiate with us,” said Carolyn Crowder, executive director of the Denver Classroom Teacher’s Association.
The filing means DPS will be required to sit down with officials from the teachers union within seven days. If parties aren’t able to start a negotiation process, they will have to go to an arbitrator.
The DPS plan would extend the school day by an hour in the afternoon, so students are in class until 3:30 p.m. at some schools.
Crowder said the union would like to ensure the ultimate decision on extending the school day is a school-level choice.
“DPS communication to parents has centered around announcing changes instead of soliciting ideas. The planning teams from the fourteen schools were told to design their own plans and “think outside of the box” and yet, this past week were given “one-size-fits all” directives ,” according to a union news release.
DPS disagrees, and said the process will allow schools to apply for funds to extend the day, and DPS will select a few schools based on the best proposals.
“The opportunity for extended learning time for our students has remarkable promise for additional enrichment, student advancement, and extra learning for students who are behind,” said DPS spokesman, Mike Vaughn. “We look forward to receiving the school-based proposals for how they might extend their time and benefit their kids.”
Crowder said teachers also want to create clear guidelines on who will be supervising students during the additional time, and want to ensure they will be paid at the regular rate.
“As I understand what they propose is to pay teachers the professional development rate that they pay when teachers stay an extra day for a training session for instance, but this is not the same thing,” Crowder said. “We’re not asking for them to make more money, just their regular teaching rate.”
Professional rates for teachers vary, but are usually half or one third of teacher’s regular hourly wages, Crowder said.
Vaughn said the district will abide by the contract language.
“Any teacher who volunteers to work a longer day in these extended-time pilots will, of course, receive the extra pay specified in the collective bargaining agreement,” Vaughn said. “We do not believe that this needs to be a conflict in any way with our teachers’ union.”
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372 or yrobles@denverpost.com
