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Teacher's Strike: Gov. Jared Polis To Meet With Denver Public Schools, Teachers' Union

DENVER (CBS4)- Gov. Jared Polis will meet with Denver Public Schools and the teachers' union to see if he can prevent teachers from striking next week. Following two days of voting, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association announced that 93 percent of its members approved a strike after negotiations failed.

Schools remained open Wednesday, but the strike could happen as soon as Monday, according to DPS Superintendent Susana Cordova. If further negotiations fail, Polis could also intervene. That's something Cordova told CBS4 on Wednesday morning she supports.

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(credit: CBS)

LINKS: Denver Classroom Teachers Association | Denver Public Schools Negotiation Updates

"Absolutely. We think it's going to be very important that we have support to help us continue negotiating. It's so important to our city, to our children. And certainly to our teachers. It's in everybody's best interest to get to an agreement," she said.

The union had been negotiating with the district for 14 months to overhaul the compensation system, which the union says is directly linked to the city's teacher turnover rate. Turnover, the union said, is high and increasing. According to the union, 31 percent of Denver teachers have been working at their school for three years or less.

The state labor department could also intervene and put the strike on hold for up to 180 days.

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