DENVER – The Denver Classroom Teachers Association members have voted to ratify the agreement with Denver Public Schools reached Feb. 14 to end a three-day strike, with more than 97 percent of union members voting to approve the agreement.
“This agreement secures fair, predictable base pay for Denver educators and will go a long way to eliminating pay fluctuations that have made it difficult for educators to plan a teaching career and a life in Denver,” DCTA President Henry Roman said in a statement Monday. “With competitive pay in place, the district has taken an important first step in reversing the worst teacher retention rate in the metro area and providing much-needed stability for student learning.”
More than 97 percent of teachers in the union supported ratification, which is the penultimate step to the negotiations between the union and the district that have been ongoing for more than a year.
The DPS board will still have to vote to ratify the agreement before it can take effect.
The agreement will invest an additional $23 million in teacher pay, which includes an average 11.5-percent base salary increase and the implementation of a 20-step salary schedule.
The teachers will also receive cost-of-living increases in the second and third years of the agreement, and the district agreed to stop paying senior administrators five-figure bonuses.
You can read the full agreement here.
The DPS board is expected to ratify the agreement, as Superintendent Susana Cordova said after the deal was reached that she was “very pleased” to have reached a deal and said the district had reached “very solid common ground” with the union.
“I’m even more heartened and encouraged by the spirit of collaboration that surrounded the table as we finished our work,” Cordova said at the time. “I am committed to continuing this collaboration as we move forward together.”
