Denver teachers, officials talk about strike

All district schools remained open, staffed by subs, others

DENVER — Denver teachers and district leaders were trying to end a strike over pay Tuesday with the help of a federal negotiator.

The teachers are following the lead of educators across the country by donning red amid strikes and protests for better pay and working conditions.

All schools remained open and staffed by administrators, substitutes and teachers not participating in the strike. At the start of the talks, superintendent Susana Cordova acknowledged that students were not getting the kind of instruction they normally would and said she was committed to reaching a deal to end the strike.

Lead union negotiator Rob Gould interrupted to tell her, “You can’t do the job without us.”

The negotiations began with discussions over changing Denver’s pay system to more closely resemble other districts that allow teachers to advance in pay based on experience, education and training. Both sides met publicly and in private to discuss proposals.

Preliminary reports from the school district indicate 58 percent of teachers did not report to work on Tuesday, slightly more than on the first day of the strike Monday.

The walkout came about a year after West Virginia teachers launched the national “Red4Ed” movement with a nine-day strike in which they won 5 percent pay raises. Most recently, Los Angeles teachers held a six-day strike last month.

There are 71,000 students in district-run schools. Another 21,000 are enrolled in charter schools unaffected by the strike.

Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, told a crowd of picketing teachers outside the state Capitol on Monday that theirs was the latest in a national movement to provide just compensation to educators.