Portland Public Schools teachers have spurned a last-ditch offer from the district and launched a strike that has shuttered all 81 schools.
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.
Union leaders say teachers need large raises to keep pace with inflation, class size limits to allow them to meet students’ academic and emotional needs in the wake of the pandemic and more planning time to adjust instruction to widely varying achievement levels.
Any contract would have to pass muster not only with a majority of the union’s roughly 3,500 teachers but also with the school board, whose members have said they are determined not to drive the district into a deep financial deficit.
The district has offered cost-of-living-adjustments that would boost teacher salaries by nearly 11% over the next three years, plus $3,000 bonuses for first-year teachers and special education teachers. That represents a modest gain from the district’s original offer of a 7.5% cost of living raise over three years, but it is still only about half of what the union is seeking. And on Tuesday, district officials offered an extra 40 minutes per week of planning time for elementary school educators, up from the current 320 in the current contract and the 400 minutes that they had previously put on the table.
Union negotiators did not offer a counterproposal on Tuesday, said Jonathan Garcia, chief of staff to Portland Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero.
The district’s latest offer will require programmatic cuts to the current budget, Renard Adams, the district’s director of research, accountability and assessment, said Tuesday during a press conference outside Markham Elementary School in Southwest Portland. What those cuts would entail isn’t clear yet, he said, but they could include a hiring freeze for central office employees and reductions in outside contracts and purchasing.
”We have already offered a cost of living increase that is more than our increase in revenue,” Adams said. “We know that the union’s bargaining team believes it is insufficient. But we cannot responsibly accept their proposed 23% increase. Both the class size limits and the union’s planning proposal will create mandatory staffing levels requiring us to hire over 500 new teachers when we have declining enrollment.”
Angela Bonilla, president of the Portland Association of Teachers, did not immediately respond to texts seeking comment. But a group of Markham teachers came to listen to Adams’ remarks on Tuesday. Afterwards, second grade teacher Grace Groom, who is a member of the district’s Community Budget Review Committee, said she believes there is more money available for the union’s priorities.
“Why is more money not going directly to schools to serve students?” she asked, noting that central office staffing has increased amid an enrollment decline.
District negotiators have said that many of those central office employees work in multiple schools, including campus safety team members, dyslexia support specialists and restorative justice coordinators.
Gov. Tina Kotek this week called for the two sides to remain at the bargaining table and continue to negotiate, instead of striking. The governor was in “active conversation” Tuesday with Guerrero, Garcia, his cheif of staff, said. Kotek also spoke with Bonilla and sent her legislative director, Bob Livingston, to help mediate between the two sides at the Tigard headquarters of the Oregon Education Association.
“She is pushing for an agreement that delivers a fair contract for educators, prioritizes dollars in the classroom, and keeps students in school,” said her spokesperson Elisabeth Shepard.
Picket lines and rallies will break out at most Portland Public Schools campuses starting early on Wednesday.
Other school districts around the state, including Salem, Hillsboro and Medford, are also close to an impasse with their own teachers unions. Key budget lawmakers were circumspect Tuesday about a bailout for Portland Public Schools and have noted that schools received a record $10.2 billion this biennium. Schools advocates, however, have said that was at least $100 million short of what schools statewide need to keep offering current programs.
The strike in Portland is being closely watched nationally. Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, flew in Tuesday and intends to join teachers on the picket line on Wednesday; her arrival was first reported by Willamette Week. Portland is the latest of in a group of progressive-learning, West Coast cities to undergo a teachers’ strike in recent years, joining Oakland, Seattle and Los Angeles, three cities in which teachers have won huge concessions in recent years.
Those concessions have come with some consequences.
For example, in Seattle, teachers won cost of living adjustments of 14% over three years and other priorities, but the district is now facing a $100 million budget gap and is readying plans to close a number of schools.
Like major urban school districts nationwide, Portland Public Schools is contending with enrollment declines driven by low birth rates and high housing prices. Its enrollment declines were exacerbated by prolonged pandemic closures which spurred some families to homeschool or send their children to private school.
— Julia Silverman; [email protected]
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
