The Sheridan School District teachers strike has thrown the future of the tiny K-12 system into question as educators on Wednesday begin their third week on the picket lines.
The walkout is now Colorado’s longest teachers strike in more than 40 years, drawing the attention of Gov. Jared Polis and at least one state legislator, who is drafting a bill that would merge the Sheridan School District with .
Polis issued two statements last week urging the district and union to negotiate an end to the strike, saying it was “derailing student learning for families who cannot afford to lose another day of instruction.”
“This needs to happen right now,” Eric Maruyama, a spokesman for Polis, said in a statement Tuesday. “Failure to reach an agreement is not an option and students missing more classroom instruction is unacceptable to the governor.”
Nearly 100 Sheridan School District employees went on strike on April 1 after they accused administrators of refusing to reinstate the teachers union’s collective bargaining agreement or to recognize classified employees in the union.
The strike closed schools during the first few days of the walkout, but the district’s five campuses have since reopened — though union representatives have said few students returned to school.
“We did not expect it to go this long,” Sheridan Educators Association President Kate Biester said Tuesday. “I was really hoping the district would have taken less than a week to take our strike and demands seriously.”
Superintendent Gionni Thompson did not respond to a request for comment.
“We’ve been trying to work with them,” Sheridan school board member Daniel Stange said of the teachers union. “We never wanted this to be public. If the teachers would have just worked with us from the beginning, we would have a renewed contract. They wanted the old contract back and that one expired.”
The Sheridan strike is the longest teachers strike to take place in the state in at least 45 years, said Kailee Stiles, spokesperson for the Colorado Education Association. By comparison, the last DPS teachers strike, which saw thousands of educators leave their classrooms in 2019, lasted just three days.
The Sheridan strike doesn’t — yet — show signs of abating, although district officials made an offer to the union Monday afternoon that could end the walkout if the educators approve.
That offer, made after eight hours of negotiations, does not meet all of the union’s demands, Biester said. She did not elaborate or provide details of the offer.
The association has asked Sheridan officials to recognize the union, reinstate the group’s original contract and add classified staff — such as paraprofessionals, custodians and bus drivers — to the bargaining unit, Biester said.
“We did receive some significant movement from the district,” she said. “…Currently, my members don’t seem to be very interested in that offer.”
Tensions between district and union officials have remained high during the strike, with the association announcing plans to seek the recall of Sheridan’s four elected school board members.
“They are welcome to it,” Stange said when asked about the potential recall. “I’ve been here for eight years. I’ve already done my term.”
Additionally, state Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Greenwood Village Democrat, is drafting a bill that could consolidate the Sheridan School District into DPS, the state’s largest K-12 system. Bridges did not provide details on how exactly the two districts, which serve different counties, could merge, saying the legislation is still being crafted.
Sheridan students would benefit if the district is absorbed by DPS because larger districts have more resources, including money, for classrooms, Bridges said.
Sheridan has 997 students as of the 2025-26 academic year, while DPS has 89,210, according to state data.
A DPS spokesman declined to comment on the potential Sheridan merger.
“Governor Polis appreciates Senator Bridges’ leadership on this issue and is open to whatever is best for the students of Sheridan to receive better services and more investment, and will review any legislation that reaches his desk,” Maruyama said.
The senator said the idea for the consolidation began before the strike, and he informed Thompson, the district’s superintendent, in November that the bill was a possibility.
“I sort of let everybody know … ‘Hey, this is a thing that could come if you all demonstrate your inability to serve the students that you are paid to serve,’ ” Bridges said.
He also expressed concern with the length of the teachers strike — even as schools have reopened with substitute teachers.
“At some point, you have lost the authority to claim that you are running a school district if you don’t have teachers in classrooms,” Bridges said. “They’re the most important part of the classroom. Whatap going on?”
Stange, the school board member, said he believed Bridges’ goal with the bill was to get the district and union back to the negotiating table. The community, he said, won’t support a merger with DPS.
“I was kind of disappointed to think that they would even do that,” Stange said. “…My feeling is Bridges and (others) just tried to say that to threaten, to push us to get into demands.”
The Sheridan Educators Association will only support Bridges’ bill if parents and community members support consolidation with DPS, Biester said.
“There could be potential benefits on a merger like that,” she said. “Seeing movement like this from the state shows that what we are doing in Sheridan is important to the entire state of Colorado.”
