About a dozen Aurora Public Schools staff members rallied to ask for a union election at the Aurora Public School Board of Education meeting Tuesday night, speaking to board members about low salaries, turnover concerns and alleged harassment. 

Classified staff members — non-teaching employees — include custodians, bus drivers, paraprofessionals and cafeteria workers. 

At Tuesday night’s board meeting, several such staffers from various schools throughout the district spoke to the board passionately about the need for a classified staff member union. 

Currently, the Aurora Education Association represents more than 1,500 teachers in the school districts, serving as a “vehicle for effective communication with education policy makers of the district,” according to the association’s website. 

They advocate for professional salaries, benefits and work environment improvement. More than 70% of APS teachers are members of the association, according to the website.

However, there is not currently a union for classified employees, many of whom expressed concerns Tuesday about being underpaid, undervalued and harassed with no means of representation to make change.

According to APS classified salary schedule, the hourly pay for classified staff members ranges from $16.19 to $55.77. Licensed staff salaries range from $60,593 to $125,245.

The group submitted a petition to the board Monday night asking for an election to create such a union, saying it is necessary for the wellbeing of the staff and the goal of making APS a “destination district.”

Nate Matson Dion, a fifth grade math teacher at Loredo Elementary School, said the Aurora Education Association for teachers is the reason teachers want to come to Aurora Public Schools, adding that a union for classified workers would make the district even more desirable as a workplace.

“If you truly believe in the idea of Destination APS, then you believe in the right of our classified colleagues to collectively bargain for their rights as workers for an inclusive community, for their safety, for their right to be considered quality and essential talent who deserve to be adequately compensated for the work they do for all of us,” Dion said, referring to the school district’s strategic plan.

Maria Cimental has been a cook at Rangeview High School for three years and has two children in the APS system. 

Cimental’s salary is $1,300 a month, she said, a salary that makes it “very hard” to work for the district because she struggles to make ends meet at home.

“The district says workers like me are important and essential but if that were true why don’t they provide us with dignified salaries?” she said to board members Tuesday, pointing to the need for a union to help staffers like her advocate for livable wages.

Kevin Vick, the president of of the Colorado Education Association, said the board has had a “long and successful” partnership with the Aurora Education Association, and that the district also needs a union for its classified staff.

Having a union will make staff more likely to stay in Aurora Public Schools, he said, and “we all need that.”

Corey Tonjes said he and many of his colleagues have felt “targeted, silenced and dismissed” when they raise concerns at work. Tonjes was harassed Tuesday because he sat in the break room of the transportation department handing out fliers for the rally at the board meeting that night, he said. 

An APS spokesperson said they have no knowledge of threats or intimidation made by APS administrators or managers toward staff about the creation of a classified union.

Since the proposal is pending, the school district declined to comment on the petition, the spokesperson said. 

Board Director Vicki Reinhard said the conversation is “not new.”

“I think it’s time for us to actively listen when our parents, our community and our staff are bringing us these issues,” Reinhard said. “Every one of them said, these are issues that impact Aurora Public Schools, not just a group, not just an office, not just a site.”

Board Director Debra Gerkin said they should discuss it at a future meeting when it’s on the agenda, and other board members agreed they will put it on a future meeting agenda, but did not clarify when that will be.