Photo credit: Ken Lund, Creative Commons, Flickr
Denver Public Schools is preparing for a teacher strike Monday, even as district administrators and union teachers plan to return to the bargaining table Friday to see if they can find a last-minute deal.
What does that preparation look like? The district is hiring more substitutes and deploying central office staff. Here’s a breakdown, by the numbers, of who might be striking, who will be working, how many kids will be affected, and what it will cost. All numbers come from the school district.
5,353
The number of teachers and “specialized service providers,” a category that includes nurses, counselors, and others, who are covered by the pay agreement being negotiated by the district and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. They are the ones who would strike — though it’s not mandatory they walk off the job. Teachers can choose whether or not to strike.
1,400
The number of employees who work at the district’s central office who will be deployed to schools during a strike to work as substitute teachers, supervisors, and in other roles.
1,200
The number of substitute teachers the district had in its substitute pool before the union voted to strike. These substitute teachers could be called up to serve in classrooms in the event of a strike.
300
The number of additional substitute teachers the district has hired since the strike vote.
$200 to $250
The daily amount of money the district has said it will pay substitute teachers during a strike.
147
The number of district-run schools that would be affected by a strike. (Charter school teachers are not part of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association. Charter schools would operate normally.).
71,000
The number of students in grades K-12 who attend district-run schools.
21,000
The number of Denver students who attend charter schools.
4,714
The number of students in district-run preschool classes. The district has said it will cancel preschool classes during a strike because stricter state regulations make it more difficult to find substitute teachers for 3- and 4-year-olds.
$2 million
The amount of money the district normally spends per day to pay all of its teachers and specialized service providers. Teachers and others who go out on strike will not be paid.
$400,000
The estimated cost per day of a strike. The $400,000 includes the money to pay substitute teachers, the cost of materials and lesson plans for those substitutes to teach, and the loss of preschool tuition revenue. The families of preschool students who pay tuition won’t be charged for the missed days.
Originally posted on Chalkbeat by Melanie Asmar on February 8, 2019. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
The one additional question I’ve looked for: if Denver Schools accepted the DCTA pay proposal, what changes in the overall budget? What would be sacrificed to come up with what DCTA says is an additional $8 million?