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Detente in Denver

Bruce Randolph School proposes work rules for the 21st century

The Rocky

Published December 6, 2007 at 12:05 a.m.

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Few noticed at the time, but the earth moved Tuesday night in Denver and the aftershocks might be felt for a long time to come.

Appearing before the board of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, the principal and other representatives of Bruce Randolph School asked for something that's apparently never before been formally sought in Denver Public Schools: freedom. Freedom to better educate students by releasing the staff and teachers at Bruce Randolph from many - but not all - of the provisions of the union contract, and allowing them to work under their own autonomous agreement.

Teachers' union approval of the request - along with an eventual OK by the DPS board - would give the northeast Denver institution a chance to prove whether a school can be helped in its core responsibilities by relaxing restrictions that tend to be a drag on the sort of team effort that has already boosted the school from an "unsatisfactory" ranking in the state assessments to a not-so-dire "poor."

Indeed, in its darkest hour the school was the worst among all of the state's failing middle schools, Principal Kristin Waters told us. As recently as July 2006, the school was slated for mandatory re-organization into a charter school under state law because of its atrocious academic achievement - and was spared only because of its new commitment. By then, Waters had been brought in to reorganize the school, hire new staff and refocus its academic program.

Ironically, the lone dissenting voice on the state board in '06 complained that the school makeover didn't go far enough because it failed to dispense with union work rules. Now Bruce Randolph's own teachers are proposing to do just that.

Or at least a large majority are - including the school's union representative.

They're not trying to leave the union. Teachers would still pay dues and benefit from the negotiated pay schedules and a variety of other provisions. But a number of union provisions and district policies that limit the flexibility of the principal and staff - to the detriment of kids - would be waived under this groundbreaking concept.

Take hiring. Denver principals have to jump through a series of hoops when filling a critical teaching slot. They can't just cast a wide net and directly hire the best person they locate for the job, as a good private school would. Bruce Randolph seeks that same freedom.

Meanwhile, as Waters also explained, a centralized budget system prevents her from rewarding teachers who exhibit initiative or even exemplary attendance in the classroom, and restricts teachers - theoretically, at least - to a 40-hour workweek.

The Bruce Randolph strategic plan is a highly ambitious document that refuses to concede that educational achievement must be hobbled by the disadvantaged background of so many of the school's 705 students. (The school is nearly 98 percent minority, with an almost equal percentage qualifying for free or reduced lunch.) Its stated goal: that "all students who have entered or will enter as sixth-graders will graduate from high school in seven years and be ready to enter college or other post-secondary institutions and/or move seamlessly into the workplace."

To achieve such goals, the school's staff believe they must be liberated from all unnecessary impediments to effective hiring, teaching and program design - as well as be free to create new incentives for teachers willing to go the extra mile.

The question is, will the teachers' union and the district agree? Are they ready to concede that the time has come to trust the judgment of serious adults determined to give their all for the future of the kids in their school and who no longer believe that they require the confining "protections" more appropriate to a 19th century labor model?

If the answer is no, those who quash the dreams of Bruce Randolph are going to have a great deal of explaining to do - not only to residents of Denver, but to everyone in Colorado who appreciates the stakes in urban school reform.