These 16 school districts haven’t updated their teacher contracts to comply with evaluation law, report finds

Some of Colorado’s largest school districts have not updated contract language governing layoffs to factor in teacher performance as required by state law, according to a new report.

Such layoffs are exceedingly rare — and representatives from two districts named in the Independence Institute report said they would follow the law if the situation arose.

The report, released Monday by the Denver-based libertarian think tank, found 16 school districts including Denver and St. Vrain have provisions in their teacher contracts that violate the state’s educator effectiveness laws.  

Passed with bipartisan support in 2010, Colorado’s educator effectiveness law changed the way schools were supposed to evaluate teachers, and lay them off if necessary.

That provision of the law went into effect in 2012 and requires schools to include a teacher’s performance as a factor in deciding whom to lay off if teaching positions must be cut.

The report says that 16 school districts — slightly less than half of all the Colorado school districts that negotiate with teachers unions — are not considering performance when they need to reduce the overall number of teachers.

A true “reduction in force,” when a district must make layoffs, is a rare event, said Ross Izard, the author of the report.

Michelle Berge, deputy general counsel for Denver Public Schools, said the district’s policy has long expired and is not enforceable.

“DPS had the option to renegotiate new provisions regarding (layoffs) in order to align with SB191 requirements,” Berge wrote in an email. “We elected not to do so because we have been projecting student enrollment growth for so many years that we knew we would not have the conditions for a reduction in force.”

Officials from DPS were unable to identify the last time the district had to use across-the-board layoffs. The district has cut teaching jobs at individual schools.

The St. Vrain School District last laid off teachers about nine years ago, said Ella Padilla, assistant superintendent of human resources.

Like Denver, the district has not prioritized updating that section of its teachers contract due to resources, she said. She added, “state law trumps the district’s agreement.”

Padilla said she believes the district is in compliance with all other provisions of the state’s effectiveness law.

Izard said just because a school district hasn’t hasn’t had to lay off teachers in recent memory doesn’t mean it can’t happen.

“The economy is volatile,” he said, noting a sluggish economic forecast for the state.

One school district named in the report said it has updated its policies. In 2014, The Cherry Creek School District wrote a new “displacement” policy that outlines how teacher positions are eliminated.

It “does address using evaluations to determine how teachers would be dismissed in the event the board of education took formal action to eliminate positions,” said Tustin Amole, the district’s spokeswoman. “And it would require board action to eliminate positions to start the layoff process which is outlined in the policy.”

Here are the 16 districts the report says has out for out of date policies:

  • Boulder Valley School District
  • Brighton 27J
  • Centennial R-1
  • Center 26 JT
  • Cherry Creek School District
  • Denver Public Schools
  • Gunnison Watershed RE-1J
  • Lake County R-1
  • Mapleton Public Schools
  • Pueblo County 70
  • Salida R-32J
  • St. Vrain Valley School District
  • Summit RE-1
  • Telluride R-1
  • Trinidad 1
  • Westminster Public Schools

Update: This post has been updated to reflect new information from the Cherry Creek School District. An earlier version said the district has not updated its policy, but it has. This post has also been updated to better reflect when a reduction in force can occur.