SHERIDAN, Colo. — Teachers at Sheridan School District have now gone more than half a school year without a union.
It's a story Denver7 has been following since December when both the district and the president of the Sheridan Educators Association (SEA) claimed the other side wouldn't cooperate.
Education
Sheridan School District faces tension as teachers push for union re-recognition
Now, we're told the district has made changes to the salary schedule, staff and the student calendar without any input from staff.
"I would say that it's really just reflective of a lack of interest in working with staff members, and it feels like disrespect to us," SEA President Kate Biester said. "It doesn't feel like the sort of professional consideration that we should be receiving as professional educators."
Denver7 took those concerns to Gionni Thompson, the district's superintendent.
He said there are a lot of rumors to dispel about how we got to this point.
"We want to work together. Let's put it that way," Thompson said.
Calendar changes are happening, Thompson said, and the board is set to approve them on Tuesday. However, how they came about is where Thompson said stories are getting jumbled.
He pushed back on claims staff haven't had a say in changes made to next year's calendar.
In fact, he said ideas were ran past the District Accountability Committee. That includes parents, administration and any principals and staff members that want to contribute.
Before that, the SEA filed a labor dispute with the labor board.
"So their attorney then filed that, so then our attorney makes the response, and so now it's in the attorney's hands, and so we'll just wait to see what comes up from that," Thompson said. "That's a portion of the process I can't discuss, but as soon as I get some information from the attorneys and we're we can share, then I'd be happy to."
Thompson also added the district did adjust the salary schedule in an effort to have a more competitive starting salary for teachers.
He admits, they couldn't make that change before under the contract agreement because both sides weren't on the same page.
"They had talked about having sort of a committee where they would get people's input on things, and that has been delayed and continued to be moved," Biester said.
Thompson invited staff to sign up fro the compensation and benefits advisory committee. He said the committee will meet in the spring to review and talk about topics that usually come with the bargaining process, like pay and benefits.
As of Monday night, Denver7 was told only four people had signed up, and the process was a bit delayed as the district works to replace a former chief financial officer.
