Tentative deal.
Teachers can vote on the agreement starting Tuesday and going through Sunday.
Online voting by educators to ratify the strike-ending agreement reached between Denver Public Schools and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association begins Tuesday and stretches through Sunday.
An informational meeting to hear details about the tentative compensation agreement is scheduled for 5 p.m. Tuesday at Riverside Baptist Church, 2401 Alcott St. The online voting, which is being conducted by a third party, also will begin at that time, with results being announced by the union on Monday.
A simple majority is needed to ratify the agreement, which was reached before dawn on Thursday after an all-night bargaining session in the downtown Denver library.
If the majority of teachers vote against the deal, representatives of the teachers union said they will return to the bargaining table.
The agreement came down on what would have been the fourth day of Denver’s first teachers strike in 25 years, but the union told its members they were welcome to return to work Thursday.
One issue that remained up in the air at the time was whether teachers will receive back pay for the days they were out during the strike — but DPS has since answered that question.
“Superintendent (Susana) Cordova understands that when teachers make the choice to strike, they are doing so to make a statement and bring attention to the importance of the issue at hand,” DPS spokeswoman Anna Alejo said in a statement. “Foregoing pay during the time that a teacher is not working is a challenging decision that no one makes lightly and consequently, brings with it an impact that is intended to push for change.”
“DPS did not feel that it would be fair or appropriate to provide back pay to striking teachers when many others — including more than 40 percent of classroom teachers — chose to remain at work this week.”
DPS said it is working with the teachers union to offer all educators a make-up professional development day, which was canceled leading up to the strike.
In a Facebook post, Denver Classroom Teachers Association officials wrote that the union was “very disappointed” in Cordova’s decision not to provide additional back pay for those who went on strike.