In the weeks leading up to November 5, it was not hard to spot school board election messages in car paint, pretty much anywhere in Douglas County. In a narrow race, the conservative candidates coming out on top, Douglas County schools are expecting big changes.

Jim Geddes, Julie Reynolds, Doug Benevento, and Meghann Silverthorn came out on top over their less-conservative challengers, Barbara Chase, Julie A. Keim, Bill Hodges, and Ronda Scholting.

The new school board members say they support the actions of the previous school board, which severed ties with the teacher’s union and began performance and market-based pay.

The New School Board: Not Popular Among All Teachers

Teachers across the county have been stirred by the election in different ways. Many different points of view have arisen about the school board and the teacher’s union.

Some of the main concerns with the school board’s changes include the decision to end ties with the teachers’ union, the introduction of pay-for-performance and market-based pay, the voucher program, and budget-cuts, and the end of professional development through the union.

Russell Loucks teaches iLab, a new experimental project-based class at Mountain Ridge Middle School. Loucks believes the union is pushing for change, whether or not the differences will be positive.

“Well, the perception of the current school board that was just elected is that they are non-friendly to teachers or anti-public education, but I believe that their true intent is, is for change,” Loucks said.

Professional development for teachers was provided with the union, so is no longer available in Douglas County.

John McKinney, a science teacher at Mountain Ridge Middle School in Douglas County is bothered by the fact that professional development also ended with the union. Professional development was provided by the teachers’  union in Douglas County, so is no longer available.

“Actually, the only reason I supported the union is because they provided all of our professional development, and when the district fired the union, they also fired all teacher growth,” McKinney said.

McKinney used to be a professional development instructor; he won the overall Douglas County Apple Award for the 2011-2012 school year.

Pay-for-Performance, a program initiated in 2012, aims to evaluate teachers based on how they perform in the classroom, and compensate them as such.

Douglas County also recently introduced market-based pay, the idea that certain subjects and grade levels should be on different pay scales based on market value. For example, a high school calculus teacher would make more than an elementary school teacher.

Loucks, along with many other teachers, believes that the market-based pay system is inappropriate. “The market-based pay is something that I am vehemently against. I don’t think it’s conducive for collaboration; I don’t think it’s conducive for professionalism,” Loucks said.

Under this new system, teachers in certain grade levels and subjects will be paid less than their counterparts in subjects that are “in higher demand”.

According to the superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Fagen’s website, certain job descriptions are harder to employ.

“When we advertise for calculus teachers, we often get only a handful of quality applicants. On the other hand, when we advertise for physical education teachers, we receive hundreds of quality applicants. Even though this has been the case for quite some time, we used to pay them roughly the same to come to our district. When this didn’t work, districts (including ours) employed an ambiguous category (“hard to fill”) as an option to pay more,” Fagen said.

Performance pay, on the other hand, seems to be gaining more support.

Loucks believes the program has potential and needs to be done, but questions how it will be measured.

“In theory, I think the pay-for-performance needs to happen, I think it’s appropriate, I think it’s the direction, but I don’t know how they’re going to measure that accurately,” Loucks said.

On the same night as the election, the votes for Amendment 66 were counted. According to an article by the Denver Post, the bill would raise one billion dollars for education in Colorado.

McKinney says that the constant budget cuts are especially hurting Douglas County’s high schools.

“Because the board wants to cut costs; their primary concern is lowering taxes. It has nothing to do with education. At the high school level, they have cut a whole period off. The hurt to kids is unbelievable. Children trying to get into high-powered schools are really going to struggle, because of the schedule they set up in Douglas County public schools,” McKinney said.

Amendment 66 was quickly shot down by voters in Colorado, a 66 to 34 percent denial.

McKinney, along with many other teachers, believes that these constant cuts of budget, along with many other decisions of the school board will continue to hurt our schools.

With the situation in Douglas County, McKinney has revealed that he is now quitting in three years instead of six, due to his lack of satisfaction with the actions of the district.

“In my opinion, the school district will hit a disaster in about two years, and I’m not sure what they will do. Right now, we’re spiraling downward. Test scores are down. Class sizes are up. Teacher satisfaction is down. Everything is going in the wrong way,” McKinney said.

Douglas County parents speak out

Parents, Candi McCarthy and Mel Davis are very unhappy with the changes in the Douglas County School District.

Candi McCarthy lives in Douglas County  and is a mother of two students. Davis lives in Douglas County; all her kids have graduated from college, but they attended a Douglas County high school.

“I wanted the four people coming in to win and the four people there not to stay. So I think the school district needs to change and I don’t support the same things they support like the voucher system,”  McCarthy said.

Before the election, teachers weren’t getting any raises, but according to the Denver Post in 2009, at least 69 percent of students scored proficient in math, 81 percent proficient in reading, and 68 percent proficient in writing. Since the election, those grades have remained stagnant.

“Douglas County is losing the edge in the public education right now,” said Davis.

The main reason why the teachers are leaving and not getting raises is because of the new market-based pay system.

“It’s market-based versus merit-based so it’s not based on merits. That’s the big reason why the teachers are leaving  is the new pay system. The way they’re measured is not completely fair. It’s not based on how well they’re doing their job,” McCarthy said.

The debate on the voucher system has continued into this school year.

“They give kids vouchers to be able to go to private schools or religious schools and I don’t think that the state should be funding that; it’s a choice to go to a private school. It shouldn’t be funded from our school district and shouldn’t be taking money out of our public schools and into private schools,” McCarthy said.

“It’s so sad that we can’t get money for our schools and we can’t get the tax changes to get additional funding for our schools but that’s been since my kids started school and thats been 6-7 years,” McCarthy said.

Parents know teachers personally and know that they have been affected by this pattern of recent events. And they know the teachers remain focused on the students.

“The teachers at the school, the principal, and the students are supportive.  The teachers try very hard not to complain to the parents. The teachers and the parents are focused on the kids, and that’s the problem with the school district, it’s not about the kids. Its about politics,” McCarthy said.

Mr. Mark Onstott: From public education to Regis Jesuit

With the recent Douglas County school board election over, there are many mixed feelings about the results. Mark Onstott, former Cherry Creek public school teacher, agrees the situation in Douglas County is not a positive one.

 “There is an unsettled political climate there right now. What’s happening there is not best for the kids. So for teachers, teaching is probably not number one on their list right now,” Onstott said. “The district needs outside mediation. They need someone to come in and help work towards a win-win situation.”

The current school board has changed the method of payment to a market-based system. With the market-based system, educators are paid related to supply and demand. The debate is that all teachers should be paid the same amount, because it isn’t fair to say one teacher is doing better than the other, based on what grade they teach and or what subject.

“With the current systems based on seniority, that doesn’t always work. How do you decide a first grade math teacher is doing better than a 12th grade English teacher? What’s your criteria?  So the stumbling blocks are who makes the decisions, how do they make them and what criteria are they using,” Onstott said.

It’s unclear which system is best for the overall public. “Either system has to have buy-in from both parties. And they need clear guidelines,” Onstott said.

The current school board seems to oppose the idea of the teachers union. They support the actions of the previous union, which include the end of ties with the teachers’ union, as well as the end of collections of union dues in taxes.

“I think the union is doing the best they can under the circumstances they’re under. They don’t have the resources or manpower these outside groups do. Very few unions can compete with these outside groups. I do believe the union has the kids best interest at heart though,” Onstott said.

According to an article in the Denver Post “The race basically came down to Republicans versus the teachers union, and the Republicans were winning. The race is being watched nationally and funded by national players as well.”

Things were different when Onstott was teaching in Cherry Creek School District. “At that time, this concept of money coming in from other states didn’t exist where I was. But now these groups come in with an agenda of what they want to happen and make it happen. So they need the money to do that,” Onstott said.

“My hope is that the school board, teachers and parents all get on the same page so that they’re working towards the best interest of the children. If you’re not working for that, you shouldn’t be in education,” Onstott said.