An arbitrator has sided with Denver Public Schools in a months-long contract dispute with the district’s teachers union over how big of a raise educators should have received for the 2024-25 academic year.
Both DPS and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association said they received the arbitrator’s decision on Wednesday that found the district did not violate the union’s bargaining agreement by giving educators a 5.2% pay increase when they expected or at least hoped for an 8.34% raise.
“This is not a surprise to us and it is unfortunate that both the district and DCTA had waste(d) resources to reaffirm what we negotiated,” Superintendent Alex Marrero told the school board in an email Wednesday announcing the decision.
The contract dispute began last year after DPS leaders said they wouldn’t fully fund the 8.34% raise for teachers and escalated after the district unexpectedly gave 2% bonuses to more than 700 veteran educators in August – leading DCTA President Rob Gould to accuse DPS of “union busting.”
“The ruling on our 5.2% (cost-of-living raise) was made on a technicality in contract language — not on whether DPS could afford to pay its educators, despite their many excuses,” Gould said in a statement. “This fight has always been about the district’s refusal to invest in its educators and ensure they can afford to live in the communities they serve.”
DPS leaders said they needed to receive $16.9 million from the state’s reduction of the budget stabilization factor – which withheld school funding for years – for the full raise to kick in, but instead the district received $11.4 million so teachers got a smaller raise.
DPS and the union are set to begin negotiations on a new contract on Feb. 24.
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