Portland Public Schools: Update On Negotiations With The Portland Teachers Union

Portland OR

18 December, 2021

1:17 AM

Description

Press release from Portland Public Schools: December 17, 2021 Dear PPS families, We just wrapped up two back-to-back days of bargaining with the Portland Association of Teachers. Although we made significant progress in our conversations to provide a robust educational experience in a challenging year for our students, we have not reached a tentative agreement with the union. Throughout the last four months, we've heard from educators, from students, and from families. We've all experienced levels of trauma, loss and the complexity of human emotion. As educators, we've also experienced feelings of being overwhelmed dealing with the challenges in front of us. The economic and health uncertainty brought forth by this pandemic have also had a negative impact on recruiting and hiring school staff and created a diminished capacity to both operate our schools and to serve students. But in the midst of these challenges, we know our students, their families and our educators are benefiting from the experience of being back on school campuses. We know our students are reconnecting with peers, meeting new friends and reengaging in school life.  All school year we've heard stories about the incredible ways our teachers have created joyful learning experiences for their classrooms. And we know that families count on our schools and educators to support the whole child. Our schools are the hubs of our communities that often create access to support services for families.  As a learning organization, PPS also recognizes that school staff benefit from planning and collaborative time to prepare for serving students' individual needs, especially at a time when many of our students need greater levels of support.  The goal of the District's proposals are intended to balance the need for students to be in schools, in-person, while providing our educators time to plan and collaborate with each other in a year with staffing shortages and continuing COVID demands.  PAT continues to propose more reduction to in person learning experiences for our students–and other ideas–that we do not believe create the right balance for student preparation and student needs.  Here is what PPS offered the union: Three (3) full day professional development and planning days with an added student day in June. We've offered to extend the school year by a day, ensuring our students have as many in-school experiences as possible. Alternate school schedule: All elementary, middle school and K-8 schools would have weekly one-hour early release days extending educators' planning time. At the high school level, we offered to adjust the schedule to allow students to participate in biweekly "flex" time, giving students an opportunity for extra support from their teachers and counselors, extend their classroom learning, and/or participate in school enrichment activities during the school day.  We know that time is a precious commodity. As a school district, we've attempted to reach a balance of two important truths: students need and want in-school experiences AND educators need time to plan. Unfortunately, we did not reach consensus on how to reach that balance with the union tonight. So what's next? We offered to meet with the union on Monday, December 20 to continue discussions but do not yet have time scheduled.  Our community recognizes the tension of the tradeoffs involved in these discussions between the union and the school district. We are hopeful that we can come to a shared understanding with the union that balances the need for teachers to prepare with students being in school.  We are grateful for our educators, support staff and school principals as we've continued to navigate the evolving challenges in schools.  Portland Public Schools This press release was produced by Portland Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author's own.