Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.To Christen Reyes, working in the tiny Sheridan School District for many of the past 21 years felt like a partnership between teachers, administrators, and the community. But an important part of that partnership has broken down, Reyes and other Sheridan teachers said, and it’s hurting the district’s more than 900 students, most of whom are Hispanic and come from low-income families. On Wednesday, Sheridan teachers went on strike to protest what they say is the district’s refusal to reinstate the teachers union contract.“We’ve had disagreements, but we’ve always come to the table for the well-being of all,” said Reyes, who teaches high school English and Spanish.“And then it became them versus us,” said Esther Rocha-Garcia, who teaches math at Sheridan High School and was standing with Reyes outside district headquarters.“There’s no partnership because we don’t exist,” Reyes added.Teachers in Sheridan, located south of Denver, have been working without a contract all school year. The Sheridan Educators Association’s previous agreement with the district expired in July after the two sides couldn’t agree on pay raises. Union President Kate Biester said that when they returned to the negotiating table in August, the district refused to budge.“How I feel is that we were playing a game,” Biester said, “and they changed the rules of the game entirely and told us that we were no longer a part of it.”In a statement Wednesday, the Sheridan School District said it is “eager and willing to return to the bargaining table to collaborate with our educators to find common ground.” The district canceled classes at all five of its schools on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. In a letter to families Tuesday, Superintendent Gionni Thompson wrote that the district would not have enough staff to “to safely maintain normal school operations.”“We understand that this disruption creates challenges for our students, families, and community, and we appreciate your patience and flexibility,” Thompson wrote. Thompson, who was hired to lead the Sheridan district two years ago, added that the district is “committed to working in good faith with SEA to reach an agreement that supports our students, values our educators, and is fiscally responsible to our community.”Like many districts in the Denver metro area, Sheridan’s enrollment is declining. Ten years ago, the district had more than 1,500 students. This year, it’s down to 924, according to the Colorado Department of Education. Schools in Colorado are funded based on student counts, and the 40% decline means Sheridan is receiving less per-pupil funding from the state.Union leaders with the Sheridan Educators Association said they're planning to strike until the district responds to their demands.Less funding often leads to lower teacher salaries. Last school year, the average Sheridan teacher salary was $71,797, according to the state education department. That was lower than all of the surrounding districts, including Englewood ($72,803), Denver ($76,901), Jeffco ($80,659), Littleton ($85,405) and Cherry Creek ($94,443).But Biester stressed the Sheridan union’s strike isn’t primarily about pay. “It’s just about having our collective bargaining rights back again,” she said.Those rights are important if the district wants to attract and retain teachers, Biester and others said. Sheridan has a high teacher turnover rate: More than 43% of teachers left between the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, according to state statistics. By comparison, the teacher turnover rates in all of the surrounding districts were below 20%.Kelly Landgraf left Sheridan last year after 10 years of teaching social studies and language arts in the district. She took the day off Wednesday from her new job in the neighboring Cherry Creek district to stand on the picket line with her former colleagues.“The teachers are just turning over, which is terrible for kids,” Landgraf said. “This is such a small community and it’s such a close-knit community that it shouldn’t be this hard.”Teachers in the Sheridan School District have been working without a contract all school year.Holding a sign on the sidewalk facing busy Federal Boulevard, Nathan Miller said he was inspired to strike after the Sheridan school board passed a policy in January that union leaders say could make it harder for employees like Miller, who does IT support for the district, to join the teachers union or form their own. Cars driving by emitted a near-constant stream of honks in support of the strike. Children hung out of truck windows and waved. The teachers waved back and shook their signs. Sometimes they banged on upside-down buckets and chanted, “What do we want? A contract! When do we want it? Now!”To end the strike, the union has demanded that the district rescind the January policy. It has also demanded that the district reinstate the expired contract and allow non-licensed staff, including school bus drivers and paraprofessionals, to join the union.Christy DiLuca, a speech language pathologist at Alice Terry Elementary School, said working without a contract has affected not just her paycheck, but her emotional health.DiLuca has worked for at least seven school districts in six states during her long career, and she said she’s never felt as unappreciated by a district as she does now.“It’s so disheartening,” DiLuca said. “There’s days when we were all just scared to death and wanting to cry and go, ‘What do we do about this?’ But we have to stand together and fight. “We’re willing to go as long as we need to.”Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.
