Years of building tension between Colorado Springs School District 11’s leadership and its teachers’ union may reach its climax this week through a one-day strike set to take place throughout the district and its schools.

On Oct. 8, teachers, families and community supporters will gather outside of D-11 schools in the morning before speaking with local communities about ongoing concerns and priorities of the Colorado Springs Education Association (CSEA) and their preferred candidates for the upcoming school board election. The day will culminate with a gathering at Acacia Park in downtown Colorado Springs in the afternoon.

The day will mark the first time the union has organized a strike since 1975, which lasted 16 days.

The act of defiance will come following D-11’s board of education carrying through with multiple actions that the CSEA has opposed.

While the board believed these decisions were in the best interest of its teachers, staff, students and overall district, union members have repeatedly argued that they work against its body of veteran educators.

“We know that our students deserve the best education possible and, without teachers having rights and a voice in their professions, that students and teachers are harmed,” CSEA President Kevin Coughlin said.

D-11 Superintendent Michael Gaal, who was appointed by the board in 2022, admitted that what once started as a professional relationship with the union became more of a “contractual relationship” and ultimately “hostile and confrontational” over discussions on strategies and initiatives for the future of the district.  

Parth Melpakam, who’s been on the district’s board of education since 2019, added that every initiative presented by them to the union has been met with resistance, beginning with a proposal to increase the elementary school days by 30 minutes during his first year as board president.

The reason for these changes, in this case, was to increase contact time between students and teachers, as suggested by teacher feedback.

“We moved heaven and earth to get them (the union) to agree…The board said they are not going to budge on that issue and finally, they gave in,” Melpakam said. “But that’s kind of the experience that I’ve had with so many other issues that have come to the table.”

This clash would be followed by “consistent issues” over the preceding negotiation cycles that included addressing staff vacancies and the district’s financial contributions to the union president’s salary.

To improve the academic achievement in historically struggling schools like Mitchell High, Galileo Middle and Adams Elementary, the board eventually approved incentivized positions and salaries to attract the most effective teachers, along with professional development time on the weekends. This was also eventually agreed upon but later categorized by the union as “teachers working ten extra hours,” according to Melpakam.

“From our side, it was just extra pay to incentivize teachers to go to these schools, but was defined in the agreement as extra days for that extra pay,” he said.

The loss of collective bargaining

Following years of one impasse after another, the breaking point between the two parties came last year when the board decided to let their master agreement with CSEA expire at the end of the 2024-25 school year.

The agreement, which had been in place since 1968, acted as an annual collective bargaining agreement between both bodies that developed, which Coughlin said ensured everything from desks in the classrooms to insurance benefits over this span of time.

Up until its expiration, the master agreement was the only instance of collective bargaining between a public school district and its teachers’ union in the Pikes Peak region. Gaal and other board members have argued that the lack of such an agreement gives their teachers a “better foundation” for employability going forward.  

“You don’t see (Academy) District 20, who does not have collective bargaining conversations, on the front of the paper about their teachers not wanting to come to school,” Gaal said. “And I’d match our pay scale against District 20’s any day.”

D-11 approved a 20% increase in starting teacher salary from 2022 to 2025. For the current school year, licensed teachers received a 4% recurring raise and a 6% one-time bonus. Gaal and the district board have also touted their recent investments in professional development and support along with their health package.

Melpakam added that the union, which is not elected by taxpayers, was not held accountable for district decisions like board members and the superintendent are when they had collective bargaining.

The master agreement was replaced with a revised and unified employee handbook encompassing working conditions for all D-11 employees, including its school executives and support staff and omitted any language pertaining to the union.

Coughlin, who served on the employment engagement group throughout its development, said the revised handbook removed the opportunity to provide input or suggestions and that they were mostly there to “grammar check.”

“It was all editing. It was all created for us. They told us that nothing would be less than what’s in the agreement, but there’s a lot less than what’s in the agreement,” he said.

Specifically, he said plan time for teachers was loosely defined, special service providers lost their rights regarding probationary status and changes have been made to teachers’ sick leave.

The upcoming strike

In the weeks and months leading up to and following the strike, the union has orchestrated multiple demonstrations voicing their frustration outside of board of education meetings and outside of district schools ahead of instruction time.

CSEA members chanting ahead of D-11's board meeting. @csgazette pic.twitter.com/UfZZQ4dDYZ

— Eric Young (@EricAlexYoung) December 5, 2024

In May, the CSEA voted to conduct a one-day “unfair labor practice strike” as a response to the board of education severing the master agreement and their “continued efforts to undermine public education and silence educators’ voices in the district,” according to an announcement by the union.

These continued efforts mentioned include recent actions by the district to continue to expand its charter school portfolio, invest in a new innovation school rather than reinvest in its existing schools and curriculum getting altered or removed without teacher input.

Coughlin added that teachers who have left over the past year over the lost agreement were in the hundreds. While the district confirmed that about 250 teachers had left over the past year, they added that this has been consistent with recent years and that 350 teachers hired this year had the highest percentage of experienced teachers coming from neighboring districts.

Both parties said that union membership has steadily declined over recent years.

Regarding the timing of this latest action, Coughlin said that the date of the strike and limiting it to a single day were decided to have less impact on students’ education, parents’ work schedules and teachers’ livelihoods.

Critics of the strike have argued that the disruption of even a single school day would be counterintuitive and even contradictory to their message about supporting students.

“We’re teaching families on Oct. 8 that they don’t need to be educated,” Gaal said of the strikers. “It is the greatest ‘cut your nose off in spite of yourself’ action I’ve ever seen. ‘I’m worried about my job, you don’t give me a master agreement because I need protections and I’m not going to be there for kids.’”

In an opinion editorial published in the Gazette, D-11 board director Thomas Carey called the timing of the strike “a political maneuver…at the expense of students and families” since the ballots for the Nov. 4^th election are scheduled to ship out two days later and the union has endorsed three candidates vying for the three open seats.

In July, CSEA and the Colorado Education Association (CEA) announced their endorsements for candidates Charles Johnson, Lann Baca Bartlett and Michael Carsten for the D-11 school board seats.

According to campaign contribution reports, the CSEA, CEA, Pikes Peak Education Association, Coughlin individually and contributors listed as “Public Educators Advocating for Kids” and “Public Education Committee” have contributed over $32,000 towards the three candidates’ campaigns. The address for “Public Educators Advocating for Kids” is the same as the CSEA office, while the address for “Public Education Committee” is the same as the CEA’s office.

When asked about the political implications of the strike’s timing, Coughlin reiterated that their intention with the fall strike has always been to improve student outcomes in the district and restore the master agreement.

“Sure. Why not? It makes sense,” he said about holding the strike on the eve of the ballots shipping out.

Coughlin added that the recent board members have engaged in more political actions than previous boards since he’s taught in the district. In addition to targeting the union, he said their decisions to remove portions of a school health book regarding sexuality and implementing policies targeting transgender students stemmed from political stances rather than academic outcomes.

Three candidates also vying for these seats, Bruce Cole, Michelle Ruehl and Jeremiah Johnson, have been publicly endorsed by 5th District U.S. Rep. Jeff Crank. During a recent candidate forum, some of these candidates said they would be assisting the district as substitute teachers on the day of the strike.

Even with these possible political implications in mind, Gaal said the strike will still be for naught.

“This is the biggest nothingburger that I’ve ever dealt with and it’s taken up way too much time,” he said.

“On Oct. 9, there will be no master agreement. On Oct. 10, there is no master agreement. Regardless of the outcomes of this board election, if someone were to say these seats are politicized, there is still a majority that is for the strategies for this district.”

When asked about how this might impact families who may struggle to take time off or find child care to keep their children home for the day, Coughlin responded that some of the members from other unions joining them plan to cover the costs for some individuals’ child care and that some of the parents opting to stay home that day will use that time to join CSEA in their efforts.

While educational support professionals, defined by the National Education Association as “school support staff” that includes custodians, food service workers, paraprofessionals and transportation employees, are encouraged to join the teachers in solidarity, they will risk termination if found doing so.

In an email sent to D-11 employees on Sept. 15 2025, district administration outlined what would and wouldn’t be allowed on the day of the strike, which included union teachers receiving leave without pay and non-union members participating facing discipline that could include termination.

The email also stated that “it is important to avoid giving the appearance of sympathy and support to striking teachers” by providing them with food and access to school facilities.

Coughlin said that this messaging from the district has stoked an amount of fear in some who were considering joining the picket line and are now having second thoughts.

Gaal confirmed these parameters and stated that “fear-based messaging” had been used by the union in recent weeks.

“If you are not a certified teacher that is represented by CSEA, you do not have the right to strike. That is a dereliction of duty and you will be reprimanded for not coming to work that day,” he said. “That is my obligation to be able to provide a safe learning environment for students to support the community of Colorado Springs.

“People can interpret that however they want. That’s no different than on Oct. 7. That’s no different than on Oct. 9.”

In the weeks leading up to the strike, smaller demonstrations have also emerged throughout the district. D-11 confirmed that some of parents were escorted off Martinez Elementary School property after displaying support for the union.

While CSEA has called the incident another example of intimidation or suppression of union support, D-11 spokesperson Jessica Wise explained that protests aren’t allowed on school grounds, that the interaction was “peaceful,” and that “there was no forcible removal” in this instance.

As for the amount of disruption anticipated for Wednesday, D-11 has braced itself for the sizeable shortage. According to leadership, about 1,500 teachers are currently employed by the district, with Coughlin saying that “a third, at least,” are currently union members.

Ready for this number of absences, the district has implemented its approach for similar scenarios, like a teacher rally at the state capitol earlier this year, including many D-11 teachers. In addition to tapping into its pool of substitute teachers, the district is also increasing pay on the day of the strike to $300.

Additionally, central office staff and current board members will be on hand to assist in school operations as needed. Melpakam told the Gazette that current sitting board members will also be willing to serve in this capacity.

Parents will receive updates directly from their local school leaders leading up to the strike.

“We have the sub-pool ready to go, we have the central office staff ready to deploy and we are open and ready for business on Oct. 8,” Gaal said.