Ponderosa High Students Protest Teachers Leaving

PARKER, Colo. (CBS4) - Dozens of students walked out of class at Ponderosa High School on Wednesday because they are upset about losing what they claim to be a large number of teachers.

A few dozen students and other demonstrators gathered on the soccer field at the high school in Parker on Wednesday. The group started gathering about 7:30 a.m. and continued to grow throughout the day.

"It affects us because we have bonds with those teachers," said student Ashley Laske.

The students say too many teachers are leaving the Douglas County School District. They claim 30 teachers have left in the past three years because the district is making overbearing decisions that force teachers to leave or move to other districts.

Some are upset with the district's teacher evaluation system and pay for performance program. Now the demonstrators want answers from the superintendent.

"That's why our good teachers are leaving because they're not going to stick with cheap pay that Fagen and Douglas County School District is willing to pay them when Cherry Creek is like, 'Here, we're actually going to pay you guys what you deserve,'" said one Ponderosa High student.

"Most of all of our teachers are going over to Cherry Creek because of the way they treat their teachers," said another Ponderosa student.

"When you have so many staff members as we do in this district it's difficult to work in this aggregate. So that's why we work really hard on working with principals to work with the personal circumstances of each one. You know, sometimes people are retiring or moving. We can't fix that, we can't change that, but when we can keep a great teacher with students we make an effort, within balance," said Douglas County School Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen.

Fagen told CBS4 she is planning to meet with students to discuss their concerns on Thursday.

"There's no question that over the past few years we've embarked on changes in education. Some people have not agreed with those and we understand that really intelligent people can disagree," said Fagen.

Statement From DCSD Board of Education Director David Ray

I am very proud of our Ponderosa students for bringing attention to this concern that has certainly been on the minds of many people for the last few years. One of my main reasons for running for the school board was to help restore trust into our District climate.

I share in the students' frustration of having teachers whom they love and trust leaving the district because the culture and initiatives are taking away from time that should be focused on student learning. As a former principal in the district, there have been many teachers who I vested a great deal of time selecting and hiring. To see them seek employment in other districts because they can no longer tolerate the negative conditions that have been imposed on them, has been very discouraging.

Our students did a great job today articulating how their learning is being negatively impacted by this unfortunate trend. Anyone who listens to them will hear loud and clear that there is an urgent need to change our course when it comes to how teachers are being treated.