SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
portland oregon
Portland Teachers Win Tentative Deal After Historic 3-Week Strike
"Educators walked picket lines alongside families, students, and allies—and because of that, our schools are getting the added investment they need," said the president of the Portland Association of Teachers.
Nov 27, 2023
Teachers in Portland, Oregon and their supporters celebrated Monday after the local teachers union reached a tentative deal with the school district following a strike that lasted more than three weeks—paving the way for a finalized contract that the union said would provide "historic" investments in mental healthcare for students, reduce class sizes, and ensure teachers earn a fair wage.
Students returned to school on Monday for the first time since October 31, when the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) began its first strike ever following contract negotiations that had gone on for months with Portland Public Schools (PPS) without reaching an agreement.
The previous contract for about 3,700 members of the union had expired in June.
The tentative deal includes a cost-of-living raise that will reach 13.8% over three years, starting with a 6.25% raise this year. The PAT had originally called for a 20% cost-of-living adjustment, while the district offered less than 11%.
Teachers earn $50,000 per year as a starting salary in Portland, where the cost of living is 24% higher than the national average and housing costs 62% more than the average in the rest of the country, according to compensation research firm PayScale. The union said teacher pay had not been keeping up with inflation.
The tentative contract, which union members still need to ratify and the school board will need to approve at a Tuesday meeting, would represent "a watershed moment for Portland students, families, and educators," PAT president Angela Bonilla toldOregon Public Broadcasting.
"Educators walked picket lines alongside families, students, and allies—and because of that, our schools are getting the added investment they need," said Bonilla.
Teachers won non-pay-related concessions from the district including an increase to teacher planning time by 90 minutes each week for elementary and middle schools, additional classroom time for those grades, and a commitment from the district that it will triple the number of staffers who support students' mental and emotional health needs.
A sticking point in the negotiations that persisted over the weekend before the deal was reached was the question of assembling committees of parents and teachers who would tackle the problem of overcrowded classrooms.
PAT said the two sides had reached a deal including "shared decision-making committees involving educators and parents," but did not release specific details about the proposed committees.
"We know that the best solutions to problems that we have in our schools come from the folks who actually attend them, who work at them and who send their students to those places," Bonilla said at a press conference Sunday evening.
The tentative deal was announced days after Portland teachers and supporters escalated the fight by marching across the Burnside Bridge and halting traffic for about 15 minutes around 9:00 am last Tuesday.
PAT garnered support from celebrities including stars of the public education-themed sitcom Abbott Elementary, despite labor opponents' attempts to "villainize" the teachers, as one author and PPS parent, Madeline Lane-McKinley, said.
Despite claims that teachers were "depriving" students of classroom time, said Lane-McKinley, "my kid and so many others are showing up to support their teachers at the picket lines, getting a political education they will never forget."
Julia Silverman, an education reporter for The Oregonian, added that the nearly month-long strike "focused attention on whether it is time, after three decades, to fundamentally reconsider how the state of Oregon funds education."
PPS said during negotiations that state education funding limits the district's budget, and on Sunday said it will have to find $100 million in its budget to fund the contract. The school board said it would encourage voters to support the renewal of a property tax levy to help fund the deal.
Statewide attention on Oregon's school funding structure "absolutely wouldn't have happened without this strike," said one supporter. "Collective action sets the electoral agenda, not the other way around. Intense gratitude to Portland teachers."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Thousands of Teachers Strike in Oregon's Largest School District
"We are sending a powerful message to PPS, to the city of Portland, to the state, that Portland communities won't settle for less than great public schools for all," said one strike leader.
Nov 02, 2023
Demanding adequate investments in students, schools, and educators, 4,500 members of the Portland Association of Teachers went on strike Wednesday following months of failed negotiations with Oregon's largest school district.
"We are making history in Portland today," Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) president Angela Bonilla said at a Wednesday afternoon rally outside Roosevelt High School in North Portland's St. Johns neighborhood.
"We are sending a powerful message to PPS, to the city of Portland, to the state, that Portland communities won't settle for less than great public schools for all," said Bonilla, referring to the Portland Public Schools district.
The strike, which came after PAT rejected an eleventh-hour offer from PPS, resulted in the closure of all 81 of the district's public schools, sending some parents scrambling to find daycare—and in some cases, food—for their children, many of whom rely upon the district's breakfast and lunch services.
Oregon Food Bank president Susannah Morgan told KGW that "even when Portland Public Schools is closed, food is still available."
PAT wants PPS to hire more counselors, provide more planning time for teachers, increase support for special education students, reduce class sizes, and boost salaries and cost-of-living adjustments.
Bonilla noted teachers working as many as 20 unpaid hours a week to keep up with workloads, schools unable to sufficiently serve students' mental health needs, and the district's crowded classrooms—which sometimes don't have enough desks—as causes for the strike.
According toThe Oregonian:
The strike, the first in district history, comes after a 10-month stalemate during which district and union leaders were unable to agree on even basic budget realities. How long the strike might last is unknown, though sources have pegged the likely duration as three days to two weeks. Teachers will lose their health insurance for December if they do not return to work by mid-November.
There is a yawning gap of at least $200 million between what teachers are seeking and what the district says it can afford without having to make deep and painful cuts in the years ahead, whether through layoffs, fewer instructional days, closed schools, or a combination of the three. The two sides will not meet again to negotiate until Friday, which means schools will close Thursday too. Friday was already a day off for students and had been scheduled as a teacher professional development day.
"Our kids don't deserve the bare minimum; they deserve everything," Bonilla said during an October 28 teachers' march across the Burnside Bridge. "And we will not stop fighting until we can give them the schools that they deserve."
The median salary for Portland teachers is $87,000, slightly above the area's median income. PPS offered educators a 4.5% raise for the first year of a prospective contract, with 3% increases in each subsequent year. Union members want an 8.5% raise in the first year and 5-6% annual increases.
PPS—and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat endorsed by PAT—say the district can't afford the union's demands, citing, among other constraints, a state law limiting its power to increase school taxes.
Brittany Doris, a fifth grade teacher at Capitol Hill Elementary School in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that she has 34 students—and rats—in her classroom. Although Doris has a master's degree, she recently moved in with a roommate because she can't afford to rent on her own in the neighborhood.
"We have students with disabilities who aren't getting served because our team is so overworked," she explained. "We have too few adults for too many kids with some really big needs."
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, flew in from Philadelphia to stand in solidarity with the striking Portland teachers, telling the crowd at Roosevelt High School Wednesday that she knows what PAT educators are fighting for, "because that's what all teachers are fighting for all across the country."
"No one goes into teaching to make a lot of money, but we do expect that we will be able to take care of our families," Pringle said.
A survey of 1,000 registered Oregon voters conducted by the New York-based Democratic pollster GBAO Strategies in mid-September
found that an overwhelming majority of respondents support teachers striking for more high-quality educators, smaller class sizes, and more student support services.
The strike has also drawn the support of elected officials, from the local to the federal level.
"Over the last three years, our educators have strived to maintain a quality, equitable education program for our children through the enormous difficulties of the Covid-19 pandemic," Oregon's two U.S. senators, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden—both Democrats—said in a joint statement. "They have been underpaid and overstressed, and we strongly affirm our support for Portland's educators exercising their right to strike for an equitable collective bargaining agreement."
"At the same time, we urge leadership from both the Portland Association of Teachers and Portland Public Schools to continue working in good faith toward an agreement that addresses a number of key issues, including class size, salaries and benefits, safety in the classroom, stronger equity programs, and expanded services for early learning and special education," the senators added.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular