School district raises alarm about strike; union still trying to negotiate

Park County School District RE-2’s board president is accusing its teachers union of jeopardizing the district’s future by planning to strike during student count day, but union representatives say they haven’t set a walk-out date and are trying to reach a contract agreement.

Kim Bundgaard, the board president, said in a news release that the South Park Education Association is “poised to strike” in early October, when the state counts students to determine how much per-pupil funding schools will receive. A strike at that time would cause “irreparable harm” to the district’s budget, she said.

Frank Valdez, communications director for the Coland orado Education Association, said Park County teachers voted Sept. 4 to authorize a strike, but haven’t set a date. The teachers are still hoping to meet with the district and come to an agreement, he said.

The strike notice allows teachers to go on strike any time beginning Sept. 26. The count date is Oct. 2, but students who are absent can still be counted if they were in school before the count, return to class before Nov. 1 and haven’t enrolled in a different school in the meantime, said Erica Grasmick, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Education.

The teachers’ contract expired at the end of June. The district offered a contract that would run through June 2021, but teachers rejected it, Bundgaard said. Raises aren’t feasible with the district’s current financial condition, she said.

“The district is not sitting on stockpiles of money, as suggested by SPEA,” she said in the news release.

Taya Mastrobuono, president of the South Park Education Association, said the district was misrepresenting its financial situation, that its reserve funds have increased substantially since 2008.

She also accused the district of not negotiating in good faith.

“The district likes to play the victim card, but they are extremely financially sound,” she said in a news release. “Many of our educators cannot afford to live in the community where they teach, while the district hordes taxpayer money and they don’t have the guts to explain why to taxpayers.”

No bargaining dates have been set, Valdez said, but union representatives plan to attend a school board meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss the district’s finances.

“The district likes to play the victim card, but they are extremely financially sound.”

Taya Mastrobuono, president of the South Park Education Association