The Open Forum About that teachers’ strike

I love my highest priority bonus, but I am striking.

I am in my sixth year in Denver Public Schools, and have only worked in schools that earn that incentive. Anecdotally, I have seen that it does not help retain teachers.

There has been massive turnover almost every year. The incentive is a Band-Aid that does not address the systemic issues at play in harder to staff schools like administrative turnover, innovation status, more programming to support small schools (newcomer classes, athletics, etc.) and teachers needing more resources and support for trauma-informed practices.

I am done with financial Band-Aids. It is time for all DPS teachers to earn a living wage.

Teaching is a hard, thankless job and I’m all for paying teachers more. However, when the union begins to complain about charter schools, they’ve lost me.

The third-grade teacher at our local elementary school was dreadful and my daughter hated going to school.

Knowing the fourth and fifth grade teachers were just as bad, I used the choice system to put her in another school. My daughter thrived in the new school and five years later the subpar teachers are still there.

There’s a reason most charter schools have a lottery system — it’s obviously a choice parents want. Again, I’m all for paying teachers more, but let’s not pretend the teachers’ union is looking out for what’s best for the kids.

As a retired teacher, principal and twice chief technology officer for Denver Public Schools, I have to say that I am surprised it took this long for the teachers to revolt.

The only way ProComp could have worked is if it was truly data driven. Whatever supporters will tell you about ProComp, it was destined to cause unhappiness because it was never capable of being actually fair. It was also used to discourage reasonable salary increases and now the teachers have revolted.

ProComp has been used — with the tacit approval of the board of education and enforced by the previous superintendents — as a whipping tool on the staff.

While I have never met the new superintendent, my friends, who have, tell me she is a very fine person and as an elementary school principal was loved and respected by most everyone. Her central admin experience appears to have been influenced by the business backgrounds of her two predecessors who, compared to their predecessors, did not do any better overall.

My best wishes to the teachers, parents, children and their new superintendent. Send letters of 250 words or fewer to openforum@denverpost.com or 5990 Washington St., Denver, CO, 80216. Please include full name, city and phone number. Contact information is for our purposes only; we will not share it with anyone else. You can reach us by telephone at 303-954-1201.