The Future of Alternative Schools in JeffCo

Dear JeffCo School Board Members,

We are writing to formally request that the MOU regarding Alternative Education be returned to the table during the next negotiation session on May 8, 2025 with language requiring the proposed committee to make recommendations regarding the future of AECs to be brought forward to the bargaining teams. Students at AECs will be best served when AEC educators play a key role in drafting the vision for the future landscape of AECs in JeffCo, rather than educators’ voices simply being listened to after the new vision has already been designed.

This MOU outlines a clear and reasonable timeline for planning, ensures meaningful decision-making power for key stakeholders—including elected educators, ESPs, and site administrators—and protects the ability of those who have dedicated their careers to alternative education to continue serving those roles.

We want to ground this conversation in what truly matters: our students. We are fighting because we believe deeply in the life-changing work we do. It is no surprise to us that the AEC Landscape, as currently envisioned, will fail to serve the district’s most impacted students—because those who serve them were not meaningfully included in its design.

We are not resistant to change. In fact, we welcome it—when it is collaborative, equitable, and rooted in the lived realities of our students. What we are asking is simple: that those who know our students best be treated as essential participants in shaping their future.

What we heard when this plan was first brought to us in February was not ambiguous. Across schools, educators understood we were being presented with a nearly finalized plan that would soon be made public—a plan with significant implications for our programs that entirely lacked our input. If the message we received was a misunderstanding, it was a misunderstanding simultaneously held by every AEC principal. That alone should raise serious concerns about the quality, consistency, and credibility of district communication. Since then, the messaging has continued to shift, with no documentation offered to clarify what was originally communicated and why that message has changed.

When we have asked how these changes were determined, we are told they were “data-driven.” However, the very limited data that has been made available does not support the proposed changes. In short, nothing about this rollout has inspired confidence in district leadership.

To be clear: our trust has been fundamentally broken. Words alone can not repair this rift. We need a clear and binding commitment to prioritizing the voices of AEC educators in shaping the future of AECs in JeffCo. Without this, we cannot rebuild.

To date, the district’s responses—a so-called “listening tour” with prescribed questions and the formation of a committee with no real decision-making power—have been perceived by us as performative and placatory, not as meaningful steps toward repair.

We have proposed a way forward that is equitable, pragmatic, and informed by those closest to the work. If the district values data, trusts its educators, and genuinely wants to improve outcomes for our most vulnerable students, there should be no resistance to a truly collaborative process.  

The sooner we reach a tentative agreement, the sooner we can move forward with a plan that centers on students and respects educators. We want to build a relationship of trust and shared vision with our district.  However, until we are granted both a voice and a vote, we will continue to fight for the education that our students deserve.

Sincerely,

JeffCo educators