Waivers Granted to Bruce Randolph School

The DCTA Board of Directors has given careful consideration to the request of Bruce Randolph School (BRS) for a contract waiver. We appreciate the work of all teachers at Bruce Randolph and their loyalty to DCTA. This is a serious decision because it is by far the most extensive request ever received and not only affects BRS and its staff, but it affects 150 work sites and 4250 fellow teachers across the District.

It was helpful that BR provided the article by article clarification requested but not discussing how these provisions are impediments to student achievement made our task more difficult. Nonetheless, the Board of Directors decided that DCTA will support BRS in exploring the concept of an autonomous neighborhood school functioning within a public school system.

The school’s proposed Professional Autonomy Agreement establishes the framework for this effort even without the waivers requested. While BR is exploring this concept, no other school autonomy proposals will be entertained by DCTA.

We believe that all of Denver’s students deserve a great public school. In good conscience we cannot grant the extensive waiver requested that would favor Bruce Randolph teachers and students at the expense of other teachers and students in the district. DCTA will grant a limited variance to contract language. The first variance will allow the school, through their own version of the School Leadership Team (SLT), to add more teaching and learning time to the school schedule while recognizing monetarily the added service from its instructional staff. The caveat here is that teachers know, in advance of the DPS staffing cycle, what the time requirements are going to be for the subsequent year. The second variance will allow the school to experiment with a different staffing scenario, recognizing that all schools are interested in having teachers assigned to them who are a good fit for the school.

Hereafter situations may raise the prospect of further needed changes to the Master Agreement and/or Board Policy in the interest of improving student achievement. In such cases the District, principal, and the Association will meet to discuss the implications of such requests.

The Bruce Randolph Leadership Team shall report on progress made on a quarterly basis to the DCTA and DPS Boards of Directors. While it is understood that the pilot is not intended to adversely impact other DPS schools it is important that as positive results occur they will be offered to other schools as soon as practicable.

While the pilot is functioning, the District and Association shall develop criteria for evaluating other proposals requesting a different style of school level decision- making and a method for holding these schools accountable. At a minimum a proposal must address the many facets involved in improving school performance: leadership, the school improvement plan, community resources, parent involvement and the potential impact on other DPS schools.

In order to examine the funding component of such proposals, the District and Association shall appoint a task force representing all school stakeholders to examine student based budgeting. Recommendations and/or findings shall be presented to the DPS and DCTA Boards by November 1, 2008.

In addition the District and the Association will negotiate provisions for all teachers relating to the issues raised by BRS’s PAA proposal including but not limited to the following common interests:

• Teacher mobility
• Short leaves of absence
• Teaching load for secondary schools
• Additional compensation for educational excursions
• Attendance bonuses
• Peer assistance and review
• Effective use of teacher time
• School reform and restructuring

Additional Documents

Details of Bruce Randolph School Granted Waivers
Components of the DCTA Approved Waivers