Gov. Jared Polis joined lawmakers on the steps of the Colorado Capitol earlier this year to herald what they called the “fully funded era” for schools, pledging to eliminate a Great Recession-era maneuver that for years has diverted billions of education dollars to other budget priorities.

But despite Colorado now set to funnel more money into K-12 schools, Denver Public Schools officials say that won’t be enough to fully fund teacher raises for the 2024-25 academic year — prompting a contract dispute between the state’s largest school district and its teachers union.

On Monday, more than 100 educators and members of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association protested in front of DPS headquarters downtown. They carried signs that said “Keep your promises” and “Our students deserve teachers who can afford to live here.” Their chants could be heard inside the building, where the Board of Education was meeting to take public comment.

“Denver Public Schools is backtracking on the agreement we fought to secure,” union president Rob Gould said during the rally, adding, “We’re calling on Denver Public Schools to uphold our financial agreement.”

The union also filed a grievance with DPS over the matter in April and has a hearing set for Tuesday, Gould said in an interview.

“We love our teachers. They do an amazing job for our students,” DPS spokesman Bill Good said. “This is a contract dispute. This has nothing to do with our feelings to our teachers, who are amazing.”

The crux of the dispute is whether DPS will receive enough money from the elimination of what’s known as the budget stabilization factor — which withheld funds from schools — to trigger the maximum 8.34% increase in teacher pay detailed in the 2022 contract. That would include a 5.2% cost-of-living increase.

But DPS officials said the full raise won’t be triggered because the district will receive about $11 million from the “buy down” of the budget stabilization factor for the 2024-25 school year, which is less than the $16.9 million it will cost for the district to fully fund an increase in “steps and lane” compensation, which is pay based on teachers’ experience and education level.

As a result, DPS officials said teachers will get an overall raise of 5.2%, which includes an increase in “steps and lane” pay, but a smaller cost-of-living raise, at 2.06%. The district will also pay teachers a $1,000 bonus as is required in the 2022 contract if DPS doesn’t pay the full cost-of-living raise.

But Gould argued that the actual cost of the “steps and lane” salary cost is smaller than $16.9 million — and less than the $11 million needed to trigger the full raise — because each year the district receives what is called “turnover savings,” which include the savings the district gets when teachers, especially those with more experience and education, leave DPS.

For example, the “turnover savings” between the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years was $10.8 million and the “steps and lanes” salary costs were $16.3 million, Gould said. This means the actual expense was $5.5 million because the “turnover savings” offset the “steps and lanes” cost, he said.

DPS officials dispute that.

“That’s not what the contract says and that’s never been discussed in the contract. That was not part of the calculation when teachers got the full (raise) amount,” DPS Chief Financial Officer Chuck Carpenter said when asked about “turnover savings.”

The clash between DPS and its teacher union over the raise amount comes as school districts across metro Denver have sought to increase educators’ pay in recent years to combat persistent staffing shortages and rising home prices.

“Housing costs have gone up,” Gould said. “Food costs have gone up and we’re just trying to stay on top of it just like everybody else.”

Joshua Duran, a teacher at Skinner Middle School, said during the rally that property taxes on his home have increased as have other bills in recent years — leading him to work a second job.

“It’s not crazy to want to live in the communities you serve,” he said.

Mollie Siweck, a kindergarten teacher at Escalante-Biggs Academy, said she’s worried teachers will leave DPS if the district doesn’t pay the full raise detailed in the contract because other metro Denver districts have higher wages.

“This is not about educator greed,” said Dez Baldonado, a math and science teacher at West High School. “This is about quality of life. This is about equity.”

DPS teachers have on average seen their pay jump more than 26% as a result of the union’s 2022 contract, Carpenter said.

The district announced Friday that it has reached a tentative 3-year contract with the Denver School Leaders Association, which includes a 4.5% cost-of-living raise in the first year for principals and other school administrators.

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