4 Northglenn-Thornton • Westminster Window
February 16, 2017F
Westminster schools appeal state education rating
Westminster and firefighters’ union working well BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
Leadership of Westminster’s newly-recognized labor union said they are working well with the city and eager to do more. “The city has been approaching this with full transparency and they have been very upfront about every step and they’ve involved us all along the way,” said Ron Taylor, president of Westminster Professional Firefighters 2889. “So, it’s been a great collaboration.” Taylor said the goal now is to get an ordinance through the City Council allowing the city to negotiate with the union. “We don’t have a contract yet, and we haven’t even been able to discuss when that will happen,” Taylor said. “This ordinance is the first step. This is all new for the city, just like it’s new for us.” City councilors heard a report on the process at their Feb. 13 meeting, City Manager Don Tripp said in an emailed statement. “We’ve begun the process to draft an ordinance enabling collective bargaining between the city and Westminster firefighters,” Tripp wrote. “We’ve recently shared with City Council a time-
line with key milestones that will allow us to meet the July 1, 2017, deadline approved in the ballot measure.” Taylor said it’s just part of the process. “We’re trying to get word back from (the council) quickly so if they don’t like a part of this we can get changes made,” Taylor said. Voters approved Measure 2A at the polls last fall 30,675 votes to 22,716. It allows the firefighters to bargain collectively with the city on matters regarding wages, benefits, personal safety and disputes. “Due to what the voters passed, there needs to be an ordinance in place by July 1 for us to bargain collectively with the city,” Taylor said. “We have had one meeting with the city manager and the (fire) chief and it seems to be going along pretty well.” Taylor said safety concerns were paramount among union members. “We want to make sure we have a voice at the table,” Taylor said. “We know that our priorities and the chief ’s priorities may not always align, so we want to be sure our point of view gets considered. We truly just want to be able to have an adult conversation.”
BY STAFF REPORT
Westminster Public Schools have made enough improvement to escape state sanctions, officials argue in a Feb. 7 filing. School officials filed a statement Feb. 7 to the Colorado State Board of Education arguing that the state should give the district a higher “Improvement” rating that recognizes how much progress the district has made. “I think anyone who reads the position statement will agree that we have made tremendous progress and our students are better because of it,” said Superintendent Pam Swanson. “We have always believed in accountability and if you look at the report objectively you will see the (district’s current rating) does not reflect our success or acknowledge the challenges we have overcome.” Filing the statement is the first step the district must take to appeal the department of education’s current rating of Westminster schools. Westminster Public Schools is one of five districts in Colorado that could face state sanctions after receiving five annual low performance ratings from the Colorado Department of Education. In December, the department of education ruled that Westminster schools had improved over the past several years but not enough to give them a better rating.
According to the state, Westminster Schools did improve overall between 2010 and 2014. Several schools declined in 2016, however. Westminster school officials disagreed in the Feb. 7 statement, noting that the 13 schools put on a five-year deadline to improve have improved and met that deadline. School officials also noted that the city’s student population is largely low income and that almost one in every two students is classified as an English Language Learner. Officials said the district is converting to a different grading system based on student competency and said that system is showing improvement. Finally, district officials argued that the state system has been inconsistent and discriminatory and that the state’s testing data is unreliable. “The District deserves a real opportunity to implement this model under consistent expectations and in harmony with current state standards and assessments,” the statement reads. “Its performance ought to be judged on its own merits and considering its unique challenges, by all statutory criteria, and not just on unreliable data or in relation to other districts that lack comparable numbers of minority, poor, mobile, and non-native English speaking students.”
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