DENVER — Watching Denver Public Schools and the teachers union fail to reach an agreement left Alisha Sailors feeling like she just lost control of her family's future.
"Yes, absolutely helpless and there's nothing you can really do on your end and your hands are pretty much tied," Sailors said. "You have to wait it out and see how things go."
While teachers spent the day Saturday voting on whether to strike, Sailors wonders if a strike would impact the education of her three kids.
"I feel like they would fall further behind and we would have to figure out some way of schooling them at home till the strike was over," Sailors said.
DPS Superintendent Susana Cordova promised that the district is prepared for a strike.
"School is going to stay open. I want to be really clear," Cordova said. "We will have substitute teachers. All the central office staff who are licensed will be deployed to our schools."
Cordova will try to replace more than 5,300 teachers if they choose to walk out.
Sailors wonders if that's possible and if it will compromise the safety of her children.
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"I feel like there wouldn't be enough teachers to watch over the kids and who knows at that point what can really happen," Sailors said.
Teachers are still in the voting period. On Tuesday, the voting window continues for teachers who could not make it on Saturday over the holiday weekend. The vote will be tallied and ratified on Tuesday night at the earliest.
If the teachers vote to strike, the question will be if the Governor or the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment will step in or will teachers start walking the picket lines on Jan. 28?
Sailors said she feels like her family and all the others across DPS are caught in the crossfire of a long-standing labor dispute, which may possibly cause her duress and unexpected daycare costs.
"I just hope the schools can at least stay open and that there can be some kind of resolution," Sailors said.
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