Since there have been so many attention-grabbing issues taking place at the national level lately, most of the articles I have written have been focused on federal politics.  Although a lot of those articles have been focused on the states of Missouri and New York with an occasional mention of Ohio, it is because those states have held the attention of the national media for what, comparatively speaking, is a long period of time.

But there is something that has long simmered and continues to simmer just beneath the surface of the everyday news in Denver, Colorado and its surrounding communities; Senate Bill 191.  The battle over this bill between Denver Teachers and Denver Public Schools (DPS) continues.  It resurfaced early this month when the Colorado Education Association (CEA) and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) followed through on their vow to appeal Denver District Court Judge Michael Martinez’s dismissal of their lawsuit over the bill.

According to a westword.com blog by Melanie Asmar on June 9, 2014, Judge Martinez “found that since the law makes no mention of ‘tenure,’ longtime teachers are not ‘entitled’ to a position.”  It was as a result of this finding that the CEA vowed to appeal the decision and they did.  The appeal was filed with the Colorado Court of Appeals on December 12, 2014.

Based on what I read in the ‘Opening Brief for the Plaintiffs – Appellants’ section of this lawsuit by the CEA and DCTA, I can totally understand why they would file this appeal.  I can understand because I know a former DPS teacher who perfectly fits the profile of one of those who was impacted by the abuse of Senate Bill 191.  Although she had a stellar record, was recognized by local and national organizations and received a number of prestigious awards, she passed through the process that resulted from Senate Bill 191.

When she searched for a mutual consent position, not only was she unable to find one, she only received one interview.  Why was this?  When she appealed to DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg and ultimately each DPS school board member to look into the situation, they were slow to respond.  When Superintendent Boasberg finally responded, it was via a surrogate who was reported in the subject teacher’s appeal to him to already be a part of the problem.  No school board member ever responded.

The odd part of the whole situation is that although she is retired and has been receiving retirement checks for nine months already, for some unknown reason – regardless of having contacted them numerous times and telling them she is retired, they insist on keeping her on their ‘inactive’ roll.  That is quite strange because if she was such a bad and unqualified teacher, it seems that they would be eager to wish her good riddance.

This article is not meant to suggest that SB 191 is a terrible bill but to simply suggest that if it is going to be used the way it was used against this teacher and the way that the plaintiffs in the SB 191 lawsuit are suggesting it is being used, then it needs to be revisited, clarified – and if required, amended.

I wrote an article in the Denver Post dated January 14, 2013 that stated that I am not necessarily opposed to SB 191.  Instead the article, entitled ‘Quality teaching in DPS vs. tenure rights, reflected the fact that although this law might be a good one that is needed, if the spirit and intent is allowed to be violated then it renders it unfair and unjust.

Bottom line?  I hope the CEA and DCTA win their appeal and that SB 191 will finally be looked into under transparent and objective circumstances that are not influenced or shaded by politics.  The mutual consent portion of this bill does not yet command the headlines that the Ferguson, New York and Cleveland situations do.  Hopefully if it does reach that level it will be due to positive reasons and because justice prevailed.  Despite the fact that this issue does not command national headlines it does require close monitoring and scrutiny because of its potential to have a major impact on all educators affected by SB 191 and other bills like it.

Eulus Dennis