The Douglas County School Board may ask voters to end its collective-bargaining agreement with the teachers union and permanently break other ties between district and union.
During a Tuesday night board meeting, members discussed three potential questions for the November general-election ballot that union officials said are further evidence of the deteriorating relationship between union and district.
Those questions are:
• Should the district be prohibited from engaging in collective bargaining with the union?
• Should the district be prohibited from using public funding for the compensation of union leaders?
• Should the district be prohibited from collecting union dues from employee paychecks on the union’s behalf?
“Instead of paying the high-dollar salaries of the union executives and a host of other union expenses, we ought to be focusing on restoring our focus on the classroom, both financially and pedagogically,” board member Craig Richardson said. “I suggest that we consider at the next meeting ballot language that would prohibit the district from ever funding with taxpayer dollars union salaries and public pension benefits going forward.”
The school board has until Sept. 7 to decide whether any of the questions will be placed on the Nov. 6 ballot.
Richardson called the current collective-bargaining system “old fashioned” and said it leads to an unending, yearly conversation with the union concerning money.
Union members said the move by the board is nothing more than a power grab, hurting teachers and, ultimately, students’ education.
“Members of this board don’t believe rules or laws apply to them,” said Brenda Smith, president of the Douglas County Federation of Teachers.
Smith said the board is attempting to limit the power of future members, binding the district to its current policies and practices.
Those practices include keeping the union from being able to canvass on school grounds, communicate independently with members and not collect union dues from teacher paychecks.
The district’s contract with teachers expired in June after the sides could not settle issues of a
salary increase, a pay-for-performance structure and the district’s desire to remove the union’s status as the exclusive bargaining unit representing the teachers.
Tuesday night, the board approved an additional $2.8 million in employee compensation, which will be distributed on a per-capita basis.
Board president John Carson said the three questions contemplated for the ballot are an appropriate means for establishing the district’s future relationship with the union.
“We need to consider asking the voters whether we have approached this properly,” Carson said. “Some people feel we have not, and I think maybe the voters should be asked to weigh in on it.”
Smith said the union is looking into the legality of the proposal.
“We’ve never even heard of a referendum vote on a public issue from a school board before, anywhere,” she said.
Ryan Parker: 303-954-2409, rparker@denverpost.com or
