Oregon’s largest school district, Portland Public Schools, faces even further disruptions to learning as negotiations for a new contract between the district and the Portland Association of Teachers continue.
The strike began last Wednesday, Nov. 1, and marked the first-ever strike in the district’s history. Teachers took up their signs that read “Our children can’t wait!” and “On strike for safe schools,” among others.
After months of planning, negotiating, and fighting for the contract we and Portland students deserve, it is time for us to take the next step.
We are on strike until district leaders make real investments in Portland students and schools. #GreatPublicSchoolsForAll pic.twitter.com/EcksXUxnqW
— pdxteachers (@pdxteachers) November 1, 2023
“We are seizing this opportunity to build the learning environments all of our families need, to create safe and modern classrooms that provide the one-to-one attention our students deserve, and to respect educators with competitive wages and benefits,” the union’s website reads.
More specifically, the union is asking for:
- Wrap-around services for students.
- Safer schools that are well-kept and fully staffed.
- Better resources for educators, such as time for planning and preparation, professional development that addresses important topics like racial inequity and implicit bias, and better compensation and benefits.
So far, the union has picketed at all locations where unit members work every day from 7:45 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., in addition to hosting rallies each day from noon to 2 p.m., according to their website.
“The Portland Association of Teachers bargaining team has negotiated for months in an attempt to reach an agreement, but PPS continues to ignore the voices within our community and invest in our schools in a way that will improve outcomes for our students and make important changes in the lives of our educators,” the union wrote.
Response from leaders
Several district voices have emerged in an attempt to bring the strike to an end, including 16 Portland legislators who prompted PPS to slash “superfluous administration spending” in a letter last week, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting.
“Over the last week, people have called on our district to make budget cuts,” Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero said at a press conference on Monday. “That’s been our reality since we began bargaining in January.”
“Our current proposal will require PPS to make $51 million in cuts over the next three years. It will require the one-time reserves being used, bringing us down to our minimum. Already, we have begun to contemplate what those reductions might look like, beginning with the central office administration taking a hard look at where it needs to make reductions.”
However, conflicts surrounding class sizes and teacher pay continue to bar negotiations. The union has proposed a nearly 20% salary increase over the next three years. But the district has offered just about half that.
This year, the Legislature approved a record $10.2 billion budget for K12 schools, the Associated Press reports. Yet, the district said the funds aren’t enough sufficient to meet the union’s demand for increased compensation.
“It feels a little disingenuous to have them come back and say, ‘Actually we can’t do it because you didn’t give us enough money,'” State Sen. Elizabeth Steiner told the AP, referring to the district. “We did everything that schools asked us for and then some.”
