Yesterday, May 16, 2018, the Pueblo School District 60 Teacher strike came to a successful conclusion with the School Board’s ratification of the proposed settlement. The 5-member Board voted unanimously to ratify the new contract, which was a dichotomy from the 3-2 vote that the Board took on April 23, 2018. That was the date that 3 former educators on the School Board decided that the district didn’t have the money to give the teachers and paraprofessionals a raise.
Strengthened with the knowledge of what the independent, 3rdparty, fact finder provided, they decided to exercise their right to strike. Thus, the strike began on Monday, May 7, 2018. It lasted a total of 6 days. On the 12thof May, a Saturday, the two sides came back together to the bargaining table. Prior to the 12th, the school district appeared to be attempting to play a waiting game and thus force the staff back into the classroom. However, the events leading up to the settlement can inform others as to good strategies in future negotiations.
After the walkout the first day of the strike on Monday the 7th, student council representatives from all four high schools requested a meeting with Superintendent Charlotte Macaluso. The students were there in support of their teachers! The meeting was thought to be successful as the word was that the bargaining team would meet the next day (Wednesday) in an attempt to settle the strike. It didn’t happen. Ms. Macaluso decided to take a personal day of leave, stating that she had to go pick up her son from college.
It was agreed that the two sides would come together on Thursday, and the negotiating team for the teachers and paraprofessionals went inside the school administration building at the announced time. They proceeded to wait an hour for the school district’s bargaining team to show up. They cancelled because they said that the high-priced lawyer that the administration had hired from Boulder, CO, was unable to attend the meeting.
By the time the 5thday of the strike came on Friday the 12th the community, who had been strongly behind the strikers, was starting to see the pattern of lying, denying, and obfuscation that the school district administration was employing. It was also obvious at that time that the district had another motive for not wanting to give in to the striking education professionals…they didn’t want the truth to be known.
The professional community poured support on their striking teachers and paraprofessionals. The local fire, police, and steelworker unions marched. Leaders of the communities various faiths came out in support. The rural school district has a 4-day school week, and they came out in full support of their city colleagues on their day off. Even the School District #70’s Superintendent, Mr. Ed Smith, came out on Friday in full support of the strikers. The 2 school board members that initially voted for the raise, Taylor Voss and Dennis Maes, came out in support. State Representative Daneya Esgar, and former State Senator Abel Tapia came out and spoke out for the strikers. The support of the Colorado and National Education Associations was also apparent throughout the strike.
The support of the rest of the community was apparent from the thousands of passing motorists’ honking and giving the thumbs-up to the picketers during the entire length of the strike. In fact, there were so many community members that supported the striking teachers and paraprofessionals, that on Wednesday the 9th, their picket lines stretched over a mile long. From the School District #60 Administration building to the Pueblo Riverwalk the strikers and their supporters marched in a peaceful mass demonstration demanding that the educators get the increase that the independent fact-finder said that the school district could afford.
The school district was forced back to the bargaining table on Saturday the 12th.
Then the facts started to become known. Instead of giving the educators the 2% raises that the fact-finder showed the district could afford, the school administration had decided to put $4 million dollars in the capital projects fund to improve buildings! While the initial bargaining was taking place, the administration decided to add another $1.3 million to that to increase the allocation to $5.3 million. It was clear that the school district was placing the value of buildings ahead of staff members in their negotiating.
The local newspaper, the Pueblo Chieftain, also reported during the strike that Ms. Macaluso was not licensed as a Superintendent in the state of Colorado. This means that, in addition to her salary of $180,000 a year, the school district is reportedly paying a “consultant” with a license to help her with decision-making (it was rumored to be an additional $100,000 for that salary). The lawyer from Boulder cost the district an additional $400,000. Between the Superintendents, the consultant, and the lawyer, that expenditure alone was well over half a million dollars. How many additional teachers and paraprofessionals could be hired with that money? Yesterday, May 16, 2018, the Pueblo School District 60 Teacher strike came to a successful conclusion with the School Board’s ratification of the proposed settlement. The 5-member Board voted unanimously to ratify the new contract, which was a dichotomy from the 3-2 vote that the Board took on April 23, 2018. That was the date that 3 former educators on the School Board decided that the district didn’t have the money to give the teachers and paraprofessionals a raise.
Other facts began to become known. In the past 10 years, the school district had eliminated 72 teaching positions while they either created or filled 88 non-classroom positions. Thus, the knowledge that the school district was becoming “top heavy” with more administrators was out in the open. During the fact-finding process, the school district made a policy change to increase their monetary reserves by an additional $1.1 million dollars. The school district currently has $7 million dollars more tucked away in reserves than what is required by law. The 3 board members that initially voted against the educator raises said that they didn’t have enough money in reserves.
Armed with the facts and the support of nearly the entire community of Pueblo and Pueblo County, the daylong negotiations took place on Saturday, May 12th. The teachers came away from the bargaining table as the clear victors. Teachers won the 2% cost-of-living (COLA) raise they had asked for, retroactive to January, 2018; amnesty for 3 of the 5 days they were on strike, with the ability to either take personal days for the other two, or work an additional 2 days at the end of the school year in June; for the upcoming 2018-2019 school year, effective September 1, 2018, teachers will receive a step on the salary scale, a 2.5% COLA and an additional $50 contribution by the district toward the monthly health insurance premium; also agreed to was a memorandum of understanding regarding compensation and working hours in relation to the transition to the 4-day week that will start next year. The paraprofessionals also will receive compensatory raises, that are well deserved, for the oft times difficult work that they perform.
The increases in salary will help teachers cover the costs of their expenses in education (there are few other jobs where you must continue to spend a good amount of money to get a slight pay increase), and the amount that they spend every year on their students in their classrooms. The business community will benefit in the additional money that will be spent in their businesses, which will, in turn, increase the amount of tax dollars that the city and county take in. This is a win-win for all concerned.
The successful conclusion to the strike elucidates the fact that when people come together for the benefit of their entire community, everyone wins. People of every ethnic and racial background, from every political party, and from every socio-economic background came together to support the educators-the very people who love and nurture their children.
The next steps could be any number of things that would help prevent such things from happening again. A citizen oversight committee could be developed to be a watchdog over the budget to prevent the possibility of the covering up what is actually being spent and how. Maybe a shakeup of the administration staff is in order? Is it possible that school administrations need to have limits as to how large they are able to be? I would think that the number of full-time administration staff can be, at the very least, be placed back in the classroom at least on a part-time basis? I am sure those that are in the daily battle to educate our children can come up with much better advice than I have written here. The point is, I believe it’s time to seriously look at developing oversight and fiscal responsibility at the administrative levels. You can’t let the fox continue to run the hen house!
Finally, perhaps the best thing to come out of this medium-sized town’s teacher’s strike was the fact that it proves that Democracy still exists here, at least at the local level. The people in the community discovered the facts, cried foul, and took action against the lying, denying, and obfuscation that the local school district used in an attempt to deny the very people who do the day-to-day work in their classrooms a raise. A betting person would not place their money on the 3 board members when they are up for re-election in 2019. For that, I applaud the community loudly, and thank those outside the community for having their backs!