Bargaining teams from Oregon’s largest school district remain at odds following their sixth and final scheduled mediation session Tuesday night. Meanwhile, the teachers’ union is collecting votes for a strike authorization.
Several issues remain unresolved for the district’s lapsed contract, including compensation, planning time, class size limits and student discipline measures. Portland Public Schools officials said there’s a more than $224 million gap between their proposal and what the Portland Association of Teachers is asking for.
Compared to its previous proposals, PPS has offered a slightly higher cost of living increase and more planning time for elementary school teachers in their latest proposal, released to the public Wednesday. They’re offering a 4.5% pay bump in the first year — up from 4% — or about 10.9% over the three-year contract.
“We want our educators to be paid more. We know we cannot possibly match the value that they bring to our students every day,” said Renard Adams, chief of the district’s research, assessment and accountability department and a member of the PPS bargaining team.
Students in Elise Weigandt's fourth grade classroom wait for the first day of school to being on Aug. 29, 2023, at Sitton Elementary School in Portland.
Caden Perry / OPB
“And at the same time, our last proposal — not even the proposal we made yesterday — would have made our educators among the highest paid in the state,” Adams continued on a call Wednesday with news reporters.
“It would have raised our average teacher salary to over $87,000. It would have ensured by the end of the proposal that 62% of our educators earn more than $90,000 and 40% of them earn over $100,000,” he said. “And we just increased that offer just yesterday.”
The district is also offering 400 minutes per week of planning time — up from their previous offer of 360.
The Portland Association of Teachers is asking for a 21.5% increase over the three-year contract. They also want a minimum of 420 minutes, or seven hours, of planning time per week.
“If PPS management wants to avoid a strike, they need to come to the table with more funds and resources for our students and our schools,” PAT spokesperson Sam Winslow said in a statement.
When asked if the district is able to meet the union’s requests, Adams said anything is feasible — at a cost.
“The question would be — are we willing to live with the trade-offs of reduced services to students?” he said. “Are we willing to live with the trade-off of potentially higher class sizes and insufficient services at a time when we know our students need us more than ever?”
It’s not clear yet what those trade-offs would actually look like in local schools. Adams said PPS currently has the lowest class sizes among the largest districts in the state. As of Wednesday, he said three out of four of all PPS elementary classrooms have 25 students or fewer.
However, Winslow said the district has the money in its budget. PAT leaders have pointed to ODE data showing Portland spends less than similar-sized districts in the state on direct classroom investments. One of the union’s priorities is around ensuring school settings are safe and healthy too, such as maintaining classroom temperatures between 60-90 degrees and keeping buildings “free of mice and mold.”
These are the “critical issues” facing the teachers and kids they want to be talking about, Winslow said.
A lack of trust at the bargaining table
There’s been some public back and forth between the two sides about Tuesday’s final mediation session, further illustrating a lack of trust between the district and the union.
District officials said they were promised a proposal from the union by late morning, but they didn’t receive it until after 3:30 p.m. They then met with the mediator to discuss until 4:45 p.m. They prepared a counteroffer and delivered it to the mediator at 7 p.m.
They claim PAT leaders left before hearing the district’s counterproposal.
“The district bargaining team had planned to stay into the night so the teams could continue to bargain,” PPS officials wrote in a public update. “We shared an offer with the mediator that raised compensation, added more planning time, and sought compromise on student discipline.
“We remain at the bargaining table,” they wrote. “We will stay into the night. We will work weekends. We will do what it takes to reach a negotiated settlement and keep schools open. We hope PAT shares our urgency.”
Winslow did not know the specifics of when the district received PAT’s materials but said the timing debate is a distraction from the bigger issues at hand. PAT leaders said they first heard about the district’s counterproposal Wednesday — online and from the press — and PAT leadership has requested more mediation sessions.
“When the district is ready to talk seriously about smaller class sizes, wage increases that keep up with the cost of living so teachers can stay and work in the district, increased mental health and special education staff to support our students,” Winslow said, “we will bargain into the night.”
What comes next
The union’s more than 4,000 educators are voting this week on whether they think a strike is necessary. Voting began Monday and is scheduled to end Thursday, though it could end before then if 100% of PAT membership has voted.
Winslow was not able to share preliminary tally data. As of Wednesday, the plan is to count the votes Thursday and announce the results Friday morning.
A strike authorization vote does not mean a strike is definite, just that members are in support of one if PAT leaders call for it. It also provides a rough timeline for when educators could strike if a deal is not reached.
If a majority of members agree to authorize a strike, and leaders call for one, the union still has to provide a 10-day notice to the district before it can carry out a strike. That means a strike could begin and affect classes as soon as Monday, Oct. 30.
PPS officials said they will announce contingency plans to families tonight during the district’s Virtual Family Night.
A strike would not only cancel classes but would likely affect athletics, child care, performing arts and other extracurricular activities, as well as assistance with students’ college applications, according to a September announcement on the PPS website.
“If schools close, limited essential supports (e.g. meals) will still be available to students,” Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero said last month.
Additional mediation sessions may be scheduled. However, PPS officials said this week that the state mediator is waiting for the results of the strike vote before moving forward.