Denver teachers will not walk out of their classrooms Monday and it’s unlikely the strike they voted to authorize can begin next week, a state union official said Thursday.
The Denver Classroom Teachers Association’s vote this week to strike meant teachers would be able to walk out as early as Monday. But Denver Public Schools’ request for intervention from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment has disrupted that plan.
“With the timeline for DCTA to submit a response and the state to make a decision, there’s no way a strike could start Monday,” said Mike Wetzel, a spokesman for the Colorado Education Association who has been coordinating communications with the Denver teachers union. “We see it unlikely that a strike could start anytime next week.”
But that didn’t deter educators from showing up to protest and speak at a Denver Board of Education meeting in downtown Denver on Thursday evening.
Crowds of Denver teachers, students, parents and community members marched, chanted and hoisted protest signs in the air outside of the Emily Griffith campus as a board meeting carried on inside.
The protesters shouted about wanting a fair wage, singing “You’ve left us no choice. You made us use our teacher’s voice.”
As the Denver board of education members and DPS Superintendent Susana Cordova conducted their board meeting inside, sounds of the protest outside floated through the walls. Protest signs like “I support kids even if I can’t support myself” were held up against windows into the board meeting while protesters knocked to draw attention.
A long line of public comment rounded out the meeting with DPS students.
Rebecca Ryan is a first-year teacher at Gilliam Youth Services Center, which she described as a holding center for juvenile detention. Ryan said she loves her students and encourages them every day. But she said she fears for what might happen in the event of a strike, when people who don’t know them or how to handle them are brought into her English classroom.
“My students are going to be put in danger, as is our staff, faced with inconsistency while our teachers fight for a fair wage,” Ryan said.
As a single mom, Ryan said she’s unable to feed her family without the help of a food bank on her DPS salary.
“I want you to look me in the eye and tell me why it’s OK that you have all this money you put in central administration, and I can’t feed my family,” Ryan said to the board.
Lauren Bell, a DPS school nurse, reminded the crowd that nurses, school psychologists and other services for students beyond their classroom teachers also would be hitting the streets, leaving a void the district is urgently trying to fill.
“We know when your headache means you didn’t sleep enough and when yours means you forgot your glasses and yours means you didn’t eat breakfast,” Bell said. “We know that you have extra clothes in your backpack in case you have an accident. We know who picks you up on Fridays. We know that our doors and ears are always open. … There are no substitutes.”
A decision by the state to intervene could force the postponement of any classroom walkout by up to 180 days.
The DPS request, made in a 19-page document, came as representatives from the school district and the union representing two-thirds of its 5,600 educators each met with Gov. Jared Polis to discuss the strike.
The Colorado Department of Labor and Employmentap Division of Labor Standards and Statistics now will give the union up to 10 days to respond to the DPS request, according to information provided by the state Department of Labor. Itap not clear how quickly the union plans to file its response.
The union issued a statement Wednesday expressing disappointment that the district involved the state agency in the strike.
Once both parties respond to the districtap intervention request, the Division of Labor Standards will review the facts and determine whether to get involved. The division doesn’t have a deadline to make that choice but will try to reach a decision within 14 days of receiving all responses.
In the interim, teachers are not legally allowed to strike.
The Denver teachers union asked its members to keep an eye on their communications and to continue teaching until otherwise notified.
Denver mayoral candidate Lisa Calderón spoke during the board meeting’s public comment session, urging Polis not to intervene and further delay a strike.
“This is not a state issue. This is a local workers rights issue,” Calderon said. “This has been a strike years in the making.”
