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Educators at Bruce Randolph seek waiver from union rules

Teachers: Some DPS policies are also obstacles

April M. Washington

Published December 6, 2007 at 12:30 a.m.

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A majority of teachers and administrators at Denver's Bruce Randolph School want a waiver from most union rules and some DPS policies, saying that both are obstacles to transforming their low-performing school into an exceptional one.

"We want to focus on putting all of our professional energies into educating children," said Kristin Waters, principal of Bruce Randolph, a middle school in northeast Denver. "I want to have the best teaching staff that is not burdened by the labor-management agreement."

The faculty and staff have asked the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and the board of Denver Public Schools to recognize Bruce Randolph as an "autonomous" school.

The proposal would give the school flexibility in hiring staff and faculty, allocating its budget, and designing incentives to reward teachers who go above and beyond, Waters and faculty members said.

Both the union and the DPS board must approve the school's plan. The board and union have granted minor waivers in the past to other schools, but none as comprehensive as what Bruce Randolph is seeking.

The school presented its request to the DCTA board Tuesday night.

It plans to pitch the plan to the school board later this month.

DCTA President Kim Ursetta said while the union is open to the idea, it's board has lingering questions about staffing and job protections.

The proposal calls for granting all teachers a one-year contract, which would be renewed annually based on job performance. About 19 teachers at the school are tenured with the district.

"Bruce Randolph has made tremendous progress in the last two years but all the gains were made within district policies and the current contract," Ursetta said.

DPS board president Theresa Pena called the proposal "innovative and courageous."

Pena said the proposal is in line with district's goal to decentralize decision-making and give schools more autonomy in managing their budgets, classrooms and staffing needs much like charter schools.

"Bruce Randolph has demonstrated great leadership in making decisions to boost student achievement," she said. "We now understand that this one- size-fits-all system doesn't work."

In the fall of 2005, DPS leaders radically altered the school, moving in a new principal, new teachers and new programs in an attempt to raise test scores and to ward off a state takeover.

The school serves about 680 students in grades 6 through 10. About 98 percent of its students qualify for free-and-reduced- lunch programs. The Colorado school accountability report released Wednesday shows the school's rating rising from unsatisfactory to low.

About 75 percent of the school's 46 teachers signed off on the plan, said Greg Ahrnsbrak, the school's union representative who helped craft the proposal.

"This isn't anti-union," he said.

"We're at critical point where we're not able to step up and take our school to the next level because of barriers. We're trying to see how we can do things differently."