Bargaining has resumed this week as teachers in Oregon’s largest school district prepare for what could become a first-ever strike in Portland Public Schools this Wednesday.
The Portland Association of Teachers represents nearly 4,500 teachers and coaches in these negotiations. The union’s last collective bargaining agreement expired in June.
After months of negotiations, the bargaining teams have their final scheduled sessions with a state mediator this week — Monday and Tuesday — before teachers plan to go on strike, starting Wednesday. In the event of a strike, PAT leaders said educators will picket outside their schools or worksites each morning, in addition to holding afternoon rallies.
The Portland Public Schools bargaining team holds a planning meeting in the negotiation room at the district office in Portland, Ore., Oct. 20, 2023. After months of bargaining, the Portland Association of Teachers has given official notice that it will go on strike beginning Wednesday, Nov. 1, in what would be the first-ever teachers strike in the district.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Families, district staff and workers throughout the city have been preparing contingency plans. A strike would mean closing all PPS schools.
The two sides could reach an agreement before Wednesday and prevent a strike, but there have been several sticking points in negotiations. Both PAT and PPS officials continue to voice frustrations that the other side isn’t bargaining in good faith or that they aren’t willing to meet the needs of the other.
Ongoing bargaining issues
Among other points, Portland teachers are calling for more school-based mental health services for students, less standardized testing, expanded restorative justice policies and practices, and safer, healthier building conditions.
PAT’s priority list at the start of mediation included more than 10 items, which the district has critiqued for being too long and therefore not truly showing what their top concerns are. The district also says it’s not that they’re unwilling to meet the union’s demands, but they are unable. The union has pushed back, citing budget data they believe demonstrates the district has the money.
District bargaining officials said even the district’s offer will require at least $45 million in structural budget cuts over the next three years. They estimated PAT’s proposal would require $277 million in cuts in that same time frame.
Compensation is only one of the issues still unresolved, but it illustrates one of the largest gaps. The union wants an increase in cost-of-living adjustments, and the district is willing to give one. However, the two proposals are far apart.
The district has offered a nearly 11% increase over the next three years — the union is calling for about twice that. The district has also offered a $3,000 stipend per year for special education educators, including school psychologists, speech-language pathologists and qualified mental health professionals. The union wants special education classrooms to be fully staffed and caseload caps enforced.
One proposal from the union considered in mediation last week outlines a slightly smaller compensation increase of about 18.5% over the three years, but only if the district agrees to other terms. Union officials said these numbers remain part of a fluid discussion.
After striking, teachers in Washington’s Camas School District in September reached a final agreement that included a 13% increase in compensation over the next two years. Evergreen Public Schools teachers got at least a 17% increase over the next three years.
Other Oregon districts have hit similar targets. But Portland district officials said those aren’t apples-to-apples comparisons, because Washington structures funding differently, and smaller Oregon districts typically pay lower wages.
“We are not a private company — we have fixed revenue, and a strike will not change that,” Renard Adams, a member of the PPS bargaining team, said in a statement Friday. “We need our PAT partners to compromise and help us find that solution within our shared fiscal realities.”
Still, from the union’s perspective, the district’s proposed pay increases so far have not been enough to keep up with rising city costs.
PPS isn't unwilling to meet PAT's demand, we are unable to do so based on insufficient state funding. Our current comp offer of 4.5% requires immediate budget cuts this year and beyond to services. 90% of $ goes to schools; 80% pays for people. Every $ we give means less for Ss. pic.twitter.com/hK66Ue6XnL
— Renard Adams, Ed.D. (he/him) (@DocAdams1020) October 26, 2023
The union also wants more planning time than the district has offered, and they want a firmer limit on class sizes.
Instead of paying a teacher more if they have more students than allowed under a “soft cap,” which the district already does, the union wants the contract to require the district to open another classroom at the school or move them into a smaller class. If there isn’t an available alternative, the students would have to go to another school.
The district already has an “equity-based formula” that works to place more staff in the schools with the most need.
District officials recently said on their bargaining website that “both sides agree optimal class sizes benefit student learning.” The district said PPS has some of the lowest class sizes in the state and is one of only a few districts that pay overages. The union wants to maintain the formula in addition to the new, “hard cap.”
If a school can’t place a student in a specific class, or if they have to move to a school outside the student’s neighborhood, district officials said it could mean the student misses out on electives or courses required for graduation.
There’s also a housing component to the negotiations that has caused some confusion.
The union requested a housing stipend of $300 for educators and the creation of a group to discuss affordable housing for new educators.
They have not proposed student housing requirements. They have proposed the district “create a task force in collaboration with PAT, any relevant government offices and nonprofits that will explore possible coalitions and funding opportunities to support affordable housing development in our school (areas).”
PAT President Angela Bonilla confirmed the union is not asking the district to build affordable housing – a rumor that has circulated. Instead, she said, they want the district to be “active drivers and advocates for affordable housing for our students.”
Read PAT’s bargaining briefs here and PPS’ updates here.