Dougco Schools Sick-Out Next Front in Fight Over Superintendent Ouster Plan

Editor's note: During a Douglas County School Board meeting on the evening of February 4, Douglas County School District superintendent Corey Wise was fired in a 4-3 vote. Get more details in our post "Dougco Superintendent Corey Wise Fired by School Board's Conservative Majority." Continue for our previous coverage.

Schools across metro Denver were closed on February 2 in anticipation of a substantial snowstorm. Weather has nothing to do with the cancellation of classes today, February 3, in the Douglas County School District, however. Instead, students have been told to stay home because a thousand or more teachers have called in sick in protest of a reported plan to can or force the resignation of superintendent Corey Wise by the new conservative majority of the Douglas County School Board, apparently over his willingness to enforce COVID-19 mask protocols.

The district estimates that 64,000 students attend more than eighty schools in the Douglas County system.

Much of the combat in this growing civil war has taken place online, with Facebook pages supporting opposing points of view serving as gathering places. But at 1 p.m., a rally outside the school district's offices, at 620 Wilcox Street in Castle Rock, is expected to attract hundreds of teachers who've been caught in the middle of a battle that's politicized education throughout this affluent area.

The latest chain of events can be traced to a highly unusual Zoom meeting staged on Monday, January 31, by Elizabeth Hanson, Susan Meek and David Ray, the more progressive members of the board. In it, they said that colleagues Becky Myers, Mike Peterson, Christy Williams and Kaylee Winegar, elected by Douglas County voters this past November, had told Wise to resign by February 3 or be fired.

During the session, Ray suggested that "we've got a board that's off the rails" from both a policy and a legal standpoint. He and his fellow Zoom participants said they believe the decision to issue an ultimatum to Wise without discussing the matter with the full board violates Colorado open meeting laws.

Here's the full meeting, originally posted by Living in Parker.
Rumors of mass absences among teachers began circulating shortly after Hanson, Meek and Ray made their claims public, but when the storm closed schools on Wednesday, the sick-out action was delayed 24 hours. Meanwhile, Kids First DCSD, an organization that supports the conservative bloc, shared an "open letter of thanks and gratitude to the teachers who plan to work on Thursday, February 3rd;" the author is said to be an unnamed Dougco teacher. The text reads:

Thank you for putting students first. You see the damage done to these kids over the last 22 months and, when you adamantly declared that students were best served by being in the classroom, even if extreme protective measures were necessary, you showed up for them and made sure they had as much time in the classroom as possible. Including tomorrow.

Thank you for putting the social-emotional needs of your students first, as well. Teachers frequently lament that there is no time to integrate Social-Emotional Learning because of curricular demands or AP “rigor”. You said, if I feel like I have no time to teach all that I am asked to teach, then I shouldn’t look for ways to reduce that time. You declared, by simply going to work, that you were capable of taking time for them as humans, as well as students.

Thank you for choosing to come to work, to do the job you signed up to do. You chose to not take advantage of “sick” days for “political” reasons. This integrity models well for students, also. You declared a crucial fact of our constitutional system: if something illegal is happening, or Sunshine Laws are being violated, then proper legal channels exist to challenge these actions. What a gift and a relief it is for these students to learn from you that our legal system is designed to help and protect them.

Thank you for honoring the incredible right we have to vote in open and fair elections. Whether you liked the outcome of the board election in November or not, you recognize the validity of the election results and choose to support the board that was elected by the very same constituents who choose to send their children to our schools.

Thank you for actually doing what is in “the best interests of students” and seeing “the integrity of the rules and laws as our priority”. You are choosing students over politics, and you are modeling integrity in your commitment and your word. I am honored to teach alongside each and every one of you.

Douglas County Parents, which backs Hanson, Meek and Ray, fired back with a letter of its own said to have been penned by a DCSD high school student:

Hi my name is Jake. For those who don’t know me, my mom, Ms D, works at [deleted] Middle School. With everything that has happened in the last 48 hours with the BOE and School District this is the worst I have seen my mom in years. She has been teaching 28 years, this one being her 29th. She has brought up moving districts or states because she is not heard. She doesn’t matter. The school board that is in right now doesn’t see teachers as valuable or needed in anyway. In the boards eye teachers are expendable and replaceable. I don’t know how many people actually understand how much time goes into being a teacher. My mom is constantly trying to figure out lesson plans or grades. She cares so much about the kids and wants the best for the kids. Her goal is to make class enjoyable and not the bare minimum. There are times of the year that she stays in her office at home or stays after school for hours everyday because that’s what life as a teacher is. Start of school, before every break, new semester, and end of school. Her brain is on school and only school. I know she isn’t the only teacher who is like this. Most are because most teachers care about the kids. Teachers aren’t teachers for the pay check. They are teachers because they want to teach kids and be apart of the development of kids. My life wouldn’t be the same if it wasn’t for my teachers. 2 teachers have had such a big impact on my life and what i want to do with my life. I fell in love with ASL because of the teacher. I’m going to be an interpreter because of him. Because he is what made me love ASL. This new board thinks that teachers are babysitters and that kids development won’t change if we change the teacher. Teachers aren’t expendable they are needed and we need the good ones to stay. I don’t want to finish high school with teachers who don’t care and don’t put in the time because that would be miserable. On Thursday February 3rd, Teachers are going to be calling out sick out of protest and unless the board closes school for the day please go. If it’s for part of the day and then you leave during second or third please do it. As the son of a teacher, we need to show the Board of Education that teachers aren’t expendable.

With both a teacher sick-out and a student walkout looming, the Douglas County School District gave in to the inevitable. The following message was tweeted at 5:07 p.m. on Wednesday:

DCSD Community,

We have a large number of staff who have submitted absences for tomorrow, Thursday, February 3. As a result, we have reached the point where the number of absences has impacted our ability to provide a safe and supervised learning environment for students.

As a result, tomorrow will be a no student contact day.

This means:

— Preschool, elementary, middle school, and high school classes are cancelled.

— BASE programs are closed. — Classes at the Bridge Program, D.C. Oakes, Eagle Academy, Cloverleaf Enrichment School, eDCSD, and Plum Creek Academy are cancelled.

All activities, events, sports, and facility rentals will take place as scheduled. Should an activity, event, or sport be cancelled, the respective coach or director will notify families directly.

DCSD's buildings and schools will be open for a staff and teacher workday for those who have not submitted an absence. However, no students will report to school tomorrow.

If your child attends a DCSD charter school, we encourage you to check in with your school on their status.

Shortly thereafter, comments began pouring in, and many respondents offered salutes. "SO PROUD OF OUR TEACHERS!!!," one person exclaimed. But there was plenty of outrage as well; a critic wrote simply, "Fire them."

District officials won't have to look hard to find the teachers: Many of them are expected to be outside their headquarters this afternoon. The details are spelled out here: