AURORA | The Cherry Creek School District Board of Education unanimously voted not to renew the contract of a math teacher at Fox Ridge Middle School Thursday, May 5, despite an unprecedented call from parents and staff to keep the educator on the CCSD payroll.

At a special session held May 5, a group of more than a dozen Fox Ridge teachers, parents and students implored the CCSD board to retain Corey Phillips, a seventh-grade math teacher at the middle school, citing his importance to the Fox Ridge community.

“I just have never encountered a teacher that I was this excited about,” said Terri Lewis, the mother of a Fox Ridge student. “He encourages those kids, he connects with them, his teaching techniques connect with them. Our kids spend more time in that building than they do at home during the week, and he’s the kind of person that I want interacting with my kid. He’s a remarkable teacher.”

Sheryl Cunningham, president of the Cherry Creek Education Association, said that she had never seen a similar outpouring of support for a single teacher in her five years at the CCEA.

“This is an unprecedented showing of parent support, of student support and of colleague support for this one individual,” Cunningham said. “It sounds like they all believe he is a superb teacher.”

Phillips was one of about 90 staff members across CCSD up for non-renewal this spring, according to Tustin Amole, spokeswoman for CCSD. Releasing some non-probationary staff members is a ritual performed by school boards across the state at the end of every school year.

Citing state statute, Amole said that the district is not permitted to discuss the reasons behind dismissing a teacher.

“Whatever the reason, we understand that this is a difficult time for those teachers we will not retain,” Amole said in a recent statement. “These decisions are not made lightly.”

The local school board recessed into a closed-door executive session on Thursday morning for nearly an hour to discuss the non-renewal contracts. However, the board voted on the contracts in the presence of the public and approved all of the contracts that were up for non-renewal.

The school board also took an unexpected, separate vote specifically on Phillips’ contract after Phillips asked for his position to be considered separately from the general consent agenda in an email sent to district leaders Thursday morning, according to CCSD Superintendent Dr. Harry Bull.

Originally scheduled as a study session, CCSD changed the Thursday meeting to a special session, which allows for public comment — a study session does not. That decision came after multiple requests from Fox Ridge parents who wanted to voice their concerns, according to Amole.

Amole said that, in some cases, teachers whose contracts are not renewed are later re-hired at other schools in the district.

“Some of those teachers are re-hired at other schools to fill positions opened when teachers retire, resign or student enrollment increases,” she said.

Fox Ridge parents and teachers said that they may continue to fight the school board’s decision before the end of the school year with walk-outs and protests held at the school. Last month, Fox Ridge students and parents held a brief protest in front of the school on East Arapahoe Road in support of Phillips.

Teri Weiher, the mother of a Fox Ridge seventh-grader, said that the relationship between teachers and the Fox Ridge administration, which is led by Principal Marquetta Thomas, has been frayed by what she says are erratic hiring and non-renewal decisions. All non-renewals must be forwarded to the Board of Education by school principals.

At Fox Ridge, 41 percent of staffers disagreed with the statement, “there is an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect in the school,” according to the 2015 Colorado Tell Survey, which polls teachers across the state on myriad scales related to school performance and policy. Only 21 percent of all middle school teachers across Colorado disagreed with the aforementioned statement.

Also revealed in the Tell Survey, 72 percent of Fox Ridge personnel either strongly disagreed or generally disagreed with the statement: “teachers at the school feel comfortable raising issues and concerns that are important to them.” That’s more than double the rate of teachers who disagreed with the statement across all Colorado middle schools.

In coordination with several state and private agencies, the Tell Survey is administered by the New Teacher Center, a national, education-centric non-profit organization. About 51 percent of certified teachers across Colorado responded to the survey in 2015, according to the website TellColorado.org.

Phillips did not respond to request for comment on this story.