School's Mixed As Teachers Walk Out, Talks Resume Tuesday

DENVER, CO – As the Denver teachers strike entered its first day, some schools were "calm and quiet" while others, like East High School had student walkouts, said Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susan Cordova at a press conference.

Videos surfaced of students at East high School dancing and singing in the hallways before a walkout. But at other schools, such as Skinner Middle School, classes appeared to be taking place.

About 2,630 of a total of 4,725 Denver teachers did not report to work today at the district's 160 schools the district said. In the district's high-poverty schools, though, only about 44 percent of teachers did not show up.

Although the district had no hard figures about the number of students who showed up, Chalkbeat reported that bus ridership was down by half today with only 3,300 students riding the bus. The district served 19,639 breakfasts today, a district spokesperson said. There are usually about 31,600 breakfasts served district wide.

Cordova said the district had invited the teacher's union back to the table Tuesday morning at 10 a.m. the superintendent said the district would decide on a per-school basis whether schools would be open tomorrow.

"It's a problem for our kids not to have their teachers in class," Cordova said. She said the district still has on the table the offers they've made to the Denver Classroom Teachers Association including a ten percent raise for teachers and an additional $20 million of incentives for teachers who have undergone professional development or advanced education. The district is also reevaluating the ProComp merit pay system, which the union says is broken and unfair. But Cordova said the district did not want to give up $33 million in taxpayer money for the merit pay system, so negotiators need to find new ways to agree.

"We're way past the middle in terms of what we've offered at this point," Cordova said. "We will talk as long as it takes to set up a deal."

Image via Melanie Asmar, Chalkbeat Colorado

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