A sea of red-shirt clad union members flooded in and out of Colorado Springs School District 11’s administration building for its regular Board of Education meeting Wednesday night.

About 300 members of the Colorado Springs Education Association, accompanied by parents, fellow union representatives and community members, attended the meeting to express concerns over the future of their collective bargaining agreement.

Surrounding parking lots were full as teachers chanted, passing cars honked their horns and the overflow of attendees were redirected to D-11’s neighboring administration building to watch a broadcast of the board meeting.

Current Tesla Educational Opportunity School teacher Reed Carlson was among those standing outside the administration building and said he came to D-11 in 2010 following the dissolution of Harrison D-2’s teachers’ union.

“And I don’t want that to happen here, too,” he said.

The agreement, which has been in place since 1968, added a clause over the past year that stated the contract would be renewed unless the Board of Education or the teachers’ union gives a notice against doing so.

Although the current master agreement ends June 30, both parties have until the third Wednesday in January to provide their notice.

CSEA members became concerned that this would open the door to them potentially losing their ability to bargain and possibly the entire agreement.

“Then board policies take precedence,” said Pueblo County Education Association President Allison Balas, who was in attendance in solidarity with CSEA.

CSEA President Kevin Coughlin said that this “evergreen clause” was put into the latest agreement as a compromise to ensure other benefits to teachers like wage increases and additional resources and bonuses were guaranteed.

“This is new ground for us,” he said. “We haven’t had a one-year contract. Usually, we had bargained for a multiyear contract, so this is a beginning to this process.”

In the months since the latest agreement, the union has begun communicating with teachers, local PTAs and other community members to share their concerns and desire to continue the master agreement. They are currently gathering signatures for a petition that outlines their 11-point plan to improve education in the district.

Specific items include smaller class sizes, increased special education services and educators, teachers are provided sufficient planning time for their classes, health care access and the continuation of the master agreement.

Other concerns expressed by D-11 teachers included a lack of communication from the board regarding their intentions for the agreement since the clause was added. Coughlin noted the executive sessions during both the board’s regular meetings or special meetings in recent months to seek legal advice for the “Colorado Springs Education Association, Educational Support Professionals, and Executive Professional employee group handbooks and contracts.”

Gazette news partner KOAA previously reported that the board had not discussed the master plan specifically as of October, but they would let concerned parties know if they would consider submitting a notice.

D-11 board President Parth Melpakam did not respond to The Gazette’s request for comment Wednesday.

The meeting also was attended by many in favor of losing the master agreement, who often wore blue shirts in solidarity with each other and in opposition to CSEA’s red attire. Among the reasons they felt the agreement should end included a perceived partisan slant of union views.

Former Mitchell High School teacher James Sayler said he is in favor of education reform and told the board to let the master agreement expire, calling CSEA “a non-elected private corporation.” He said that their bargaining over the years resulted in decisions that took precedence over elected board members and, by extension, the will of local voters.

“This violates a foundational principle of American public government which says that a private interest should not have authority over public government,” he said.

The master agreement has been in place since 1968 and marks the only case of collective bargaining in public education in El Paso County. The nearest school district with a union and master agreement is Cañon City RE-1.

For the 2023-24 school year, D-11 ranked second in the region behind only Fountain Fort-Carson School District 8 in starting teacher salaries at $50,000. For the current year, this figure increased to $50,500.

If the board does give notice to dissolve the agreement, Coughlin said that “nothing’s off the table” as far as measures to continue the agreement and did not rule out a teachers’ strike.

“Is that out of the question? I wouldn’t say so,” he said “But is that guaranteed? I wouldn’t say that, either.”

He added that everything in the current agreement is the result of teacher concerns ranging from desks for teachers in their classrooms to leave days to insurance costs, and that teachers often choose to work in D-11 because of the workplace rights and regulations in place.

The last time such a strike occurred in Colorado was in 2018, when Pueblo School District 60 teachers struck for higher salaries. Members of CSEA joined 10,000 teachers at the state Capitol to advocate for higher public education funding that year. The union had previously gone on strike in 1974; it lasted for 14 days.

A meeting is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Thursday, in which the union and board will exchange two issues so that bargaining issues are known ahead of the process starting in the new year. The scheduling will then get set Dec. 15.

“There are a lot of things that are unknown right now, but our interest is to focus on what’s best for kids, and we believe that the workplace rights and the working conditions in our master agreement give recognition to the professionalism that teachers deserve and the voice that kids need for the best success in the district,” Coughlin said.