Face the State

Move could come at expense of higher salaries for top performing staff
Face the State Staff Report

Many teachers in Colorado’s largest school district are critcizing their union for passing up a major pay increase, solely to protect a few underperforming teachers.

On April 5, the Jefferson County Public Schools and the Jefferson County Education Association announced they had reached an impasse in their negotiation of a new teacher contract. At issue is a provision that grants extensive grievance rights to teachers who are dismissed during their three-year probationary period.

The contract says a high standard of “just cause” must be met, and it guarantees multiple appeals and possible arbitration before the district can fire a probationary teacher.

“The vast majority of our teachers are extraordinary, but we want the ability to dismiss probationary teachers, without a long grievance process, who don’t meet the district’s and JCEA’s expectations,” said JPS superintendent Cindy Stevenson.

JPS is the only school district in Colorado that gives probationary teachers special protection. This year, the Board of Education decided to remove the special grievance right, because it has become an obstacle in removing new instructors who don't meet a basic level of performance.

The union reportedly turned down the district’s offer of a 6 percent total compensation increase for all teachers, solely to preserve the special grievance rights. In a statement posted on the union website, JCEA president Nancy Henderson laid down her organization’s demand.

“In over 37 years of bargaining history between us, this situation is an unexpected and unfortunate first. JPS has said that it will not settle the contract unless we agree to eliminate a provision that has been in our contract since 1970, providing fundamental fairness for new teachers,” Henderson said. “This is a demand we simply cannot accept.”

Some veteran JPS instructors believe JCEA does not share their priorities in the contract dispute.

“I can’t imagine experienced teachers, and I have yet to talk to one, who think it’s a good idea for the union to hold up a 6 percent pay package increase to preserve protections for new teachers that no other district in the state provides,” said Michael Alcorn, a Jeffco music teacher.

Erik Bell, a probationary high school math teacher and JCEA member, is similarly confused by the union’s course of action.

“I cannot begin to fathom why the union has chosen this argument to draw its line in the sand,” he said. “I always assumed that ‘probationary’ meant that I did not have any grievance rights should I be dismissed.”

Bell cannot understand why both the district and the union refused to budge over the unique provision.

“I can’t see why either side is unwilling to compromise on this issue,” he said. “If I had to list one
hundred issues that I would not be willing to compromise, this would never come up.”

Another JCEA member said that a union representative told colleagues in her school that the Board wants to remove the unique provision as a first step toward taking away “just cause” from all teachers. Yet under state law all non-probationary teachers are protected from dismissal in almost any case, except where certain kinds of crimes have been committed against children.

Dismissing non-probationary teachers can be a costly and time-consuming process. In the mid-90s, Jeffco Schools spent an estimated $125,000 to remove Columbine High School teacher Alfred Wilder for unprofessional behavior. More recently, the district paid $140,000 to dismiss a teacher accused by numerous students of intimidation and harassment.

Alcorn believes JCEA’s strident defense of a few unfit probationary teachers will harm its standing among many of the educators it represents.

“If teachers are forced into a bad labor relationship, or forced to take a lesser pay bump now that this one has been dangled in front of them, to fight this battle, I don’t think it’ll be pretty for the union,” he said.