Garcia spoke with two teachers, who also happen to be union members, who said they are leaving the district because they are fed up with the central administration. In particular, they are mad that teachers didn't have more involvement in the development of the new evaluation system. Read more from The Colorado Observer here.
School Board President, John Carson, said that the district did indeed involve teachers in the process and asked for input. Additionally, DCSD ran a pilot program before they implemented it district-wide. But apparently that wasn't enough for these teachers, saying that the new evaluations were imposed on them.
The amount of teachers leaving the district is no different than in years past, nor is the number different than other large districts in the state. But that hasn’t stopped 9News from reporting on this twice in the last month.
What’s really going on here is that union members are upset that DCSD stopped paying union salaries and dues this year, ending its relationship with the union and saving the district hundreds of thousands of dollars. That money will be put back into the classroom and towards a new compensation package for teachers.
The union has lost its stranglehold on DCSD and they are not happy about it. It seems they’ve decided to gain back their power by spreading misinformation disguised as actual news stories and 9News took the bait.
DCSD has been a pioneer in education reform, which has put a target on its back for the union. It is obvious now that the union will stop at nothing to try to reverse the positive reforms the district has put in place in order to serve its own agenda.