A short-term contract agreement between the Jefferson County school district and its teachers was met with mixed reviews last week, and it’s receiving plenty of attention amid a campaign to recall the school board majority.

The board voted 5-0 to accept a 10-month deal with the Jefferson County Education Association on Thursday, a day after teachers union members voted for ratification.

But those skeptical about the agreement say a short-term deal is leaving teachers uneasy about their future. When the contract is up next year, those same skeptics worry the board’s conservative majority will seek to further limit collective bargaining, should they successfully stave off the recall effort.

“I really believe with my heart and soul if we don’t get a different board majority, the destruction to Jefferson County schools will be catastrophic for students,” said Paula Reed, a longtime English teacher at Columbine High School.

Board President Ken Witt, Vice President Julie Williams and Secretary John Newkirk could face recall elections as early as Nov. 3. Tens of thousands of recall petition signatures have been validated by the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office, which is awaiting a challenge period to expire before setting an election date.

The three have been at the center of several controversies since they won election to the five-member board in 2013. Most notably, the board made national headlines last year for a since-discarded effort to make changes to Advanced Placement history curriculum by emphasizing a positive, patriotic view of American history.

The contract with teachers is the culmination of five months of negotiations that will result in caps on classroom sizes and a promise that schools with 400 or more students will have full-time teacher-librarians. The agreement also spells out compromises over how teachers are paid.

Although teachers, including Reed, voted for the contract, they say they would have preferred a longer-term agreement. Reed said she’s never been involved in contract negotiations that didn’t lead to a multi-year deal.

“They said, ‘You can have this for 10 months or not at all,’” Reed said of the district’s stance.

Reed believes that if the three recall targets keep their seats, teachers will receive even fewer concessions when the contract is up again in June. Reed is convinced that the board will move toward a Douglas County School District model. The board there has stripped the teachers union of much of its power.

The Jeffco school board has already put in place a pay-for performance model based on evaluations, which is also the case in Douglas County.

JCEA President John Ford, who teaches social studies in the district, said the short-term contract creates an unstable environment for teachers.

“A short term agreement means that students will be losing more high quality, experienced educators to other districts,” Ford said in a JCEA press release. “It means the district will be spending tens of thousands of dollars repeating this process in just a few months. Those are dollars that are better spent in the classroom.”

Candidates take aim

The board majority holds a different opinion on the contract.

“We owe it to our students to carefully consider this year where the spirit of this agreement is being met and where we may have need for revision, so I have consistently expressed my support for a one school year contract term to ensure we fully consider whether we are meeting those goals,” Witt said in an emailed statement.

“They say a good agreement is one which neither party finds ideal, but both parties find themselves willing to sign. This is such an agreement.”

Witt also took a shot at union involvement.

“Gone are the provisions such as coin-flips and union dues management that run counter to a focus on our students’ academic success,” he said.

Williams said in an emailed statement that the agreement “is in the best interest of our students and teachers.”

“With this being the first time in approximately 40 years the contract has been totally rewritten it makes sense to have the opportunity to revisit it at the end of the school year for any needed tweaks and improvements,” she said.

Meanwhile, candidates seeking to replace the board majority took aim at their potential recall rivals.

Brad Rupert, an Arvada attorney looking to unseat Williams, said teachers deserve better pay after they agreed to take salary cuts during lean budget years. Regarding the short-term contract, Rupert said teachers and students “are not well served by creating an atmosphere of insecurity.”

“Teachers, like anyone else, want to have a sense of job security,” Rupert said. “They worry about not having a job in a few months rather than focusing on teaching our children.”

Ron Mitchell, a retired Jeffco administrator seeking to replace Witt on the school board, said teachers are not happy with the 10-month contract, but the recall effort provides them with hope that a new board will be in place by the time negotiations begin next year.

“They know there is an election coming up in November that could impact the outcome of the new contract,” he said.

— Twitter: @VicVela1