DENVER — Colorado's largest school district is moving forward with plans to close schools. On Thursday, the Denver Public Schools board unanimously voted to close seven schools and restructure three others.
Rob Gould, special education teacher with DPS and president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, said these closures are expected to impact around 200 teachers.
"Our educators are going to be affected," Gould said. "There's also additional individuals like our custodians, office professionals, lunch workers and all of those educators as well."
Teachers in Colorado are split into two categories: probationary and non-probationary. Everyone starts out as probationary. They become non-probationary when they've been marked "effective" in three consecutive years of evaluations.
According to DPS, non-probationary teachers are guaranteed a one-year job assignment in the district. They'll still have to apply like everybody else. Gould estimates that's around 30% to 40% of the 200 educators impacted.
Teachers who are probationary aren't guaranteed anything. They can reapply to try to land another job within DPS.
"But also, when you look at the, all of the custodians and the additional educational support personnel, they don't necessarily have any guaranteed placement either. So they're all at the point where they're looking for a position as well," Gould said.
During Thursday night's board meeting, the board called on the district to try to keep those workers employed. Soon after voting to close schools, board President Carrie Olson said the board is committed to pushing the superintendent on that.
"Our commitment to not just teachers but our special service providers, our paraprofessionals, community liaisons, everyone who makes the school go round, our principals," Olson said. "I think he's heard loud and clear from the board that we're really worried about our employees."
"And we said, you have to take care of our people," Olson said.
Gould said keeping staff on can save the district money, it can help ease the transition for students moving schools, and he believes it makes sense for a district with such large hiring needs.
"Every year, the district has 500-700 positions that they're trying to fill at the beginning of the year. This is 200. We could knock that number down right here and now," Gould said.
These next few months will be tough throughout the district. Gould said they're focused on finding ways to minimize the damage these closures will have on kids.
"There will be impact, but we can at least try to do what we can to support these students as they go through this transition, and these families. Then we will have done good by not just our students but our educators as well," Gould said.