Anger about change in D-2

Members of a Harrison School District 2 employees organization plan to protest a proposed policy change that would allow them to be fired without notice or cause.

The current policy says employees can be fired only for cause, said Donna Shipley, president of the Harrison Education Support Personnel Association, which represents bus drivers, secretaries, teachers aides, nurses, food service workers and paraprofessionals.

School board members and Superintendent Mike Miles met with about 70 employees Tuesday for a meeting that had been requested by HESPA. The policy will be discussed further at today's 6 p.m. board meeting, but no decisions are expected, board members said.

"This policy change is scary as can be," Karen Howard, HESPA vice president, told district official sat Tuesday's meeting.

The change is being proposed because the district wants to align its policies with those of the Colorado State Department of Labor, district officials said. Under state law, Colorado is a "right to work" state, meaning employees work at the pleasure of their employers, who can fire them anytime with or without cause and without prior notification.

Unlike the Harrison policy, most school districts' policies strictly mirror the state law and also Colorado School Boards Association guidelines. For example, Colorado Springs School District 11's handbook says education support professionals are "at will" employees and can be terminated by the district at any time with or without advance notice, and with or without cause. There is no list of fireable offenses, said D-11 spokeswoman Elaine Naleski.

In the same vein, the Harrison school board is considering deleting D-2's laundry list of reasons that an employee may be fired, such as unsatisfactory performance or insubordination.

Several HESPA members said that that would leave wide open the reasons a person could be fired, and that they're concerned they could be at the mercy of bosses who might hold grudges or not like them, or who wouldn't give them opportunity to improve.

"We could be fired for wearing green socks," one employee told the board.

But Miles said there's oversight of supervisors that would prevent such problems. "We will continue to value employees and nothing with regard to the ‘at will' status is going to change as a result of any changes to the ESP policies," he said.