Eight students sit down with D60 superintendent, ask for higher teacher pay

For the second day in a row, hundreds of D60 teachers were on strike.

They started on busy intersections across Pueblo and later moved to the administration building. Inside, eight students sat down with Superintendent Charlotte Macaluso.

Early Tuesday morning, student body presidents and school representatives started calling and texting each other and formally requested to speak with Macaluso.

Dozens of students went into the building with them, but only those eight were able to stay inside for the hour-long meeting.

Samuel Moore, senior at Central High school said, “they did a lot of talking about the future and how they need to do this in 2018-2019 but I think everything needs to happen now.”

The eight students all said they shared the same thing, “we told them they needed to make a sacrifice and they need to supply our teachers with the 2% cost of living adjustment that they deserve,” said Max Markson-Usondiprince, senior at Central High.

While many of them expressed their opinions and asked questions, some students said they came out with a better understanding of the district’s side. Madalyn Bigley, a student at Centennial High School said, “Macaluso even said that teaching is one of the most important jobs in the world, so it’s not like our administration is like ignorant to what’s going on, they know what needs to change and they’re really trying to find a solution.”

Emotions among teachers are still high, Joanne Riccillo-Griego, a literature teacher from Central High School said, “look we’re out here until we get the third party arbitrator found the district has the ability to pay which is a 2% COLA and the additional money for our insurance.”

There was no deal made between the district and union, but there is hope that communication between the two is opening back up. President of the Pueblo Education Association, Suzanne Ethredge said, “I’m going to request that we go back to the table hopefully tomorrow and so that we can at least re-open the discussion.”

Communication director for D60 Dalton Sprouse said today, “we are doing everything that we can to find that common ground. Hopefully, we can get there sometime soon. I think for all of us in this entire community, the quicker the resolution, the better it is going to be for everyone involved.”

The union told us today they have requested a formal meeting on behalf of their bargaining team with the district for tomorrow morning.

Picketing is expected to begin at 7:15 a.m. at the D60 administration building.