PORTLAND, Ore. — In a statement sent to media Friday morning, the Portland teachers union said the district has insisted that "additional issues" other than the parent-involved class-size committee be reopened for discussion before an agreement can be reached to end the strike.
As of Friday evening, no deal has been reached, but more updates will be provided Saturday.
"PAT and the district also still have to work out a plan for making up the lost instructional time, but we intend to return students to class before that is fully resolved, if needed," said PPS Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero through an emailed statement.
On Tuesday, PPS Board of Education Chair Gary Hollands appeared to indicate that the only issue standing in the way of a deal was the question of parent involvement in class-size committees. "If PAT agrees to school-based committee, then the deal is done," Hollands wrote in a Facebook post.
But on Friday afternoon, Will Howell with PPS told KGW that other unresolved issues remain, including:
- Workload: Howell said the main issue is with class-size committees and overage payment. PPS said PAT wants a lower threshold for certain specialist positions. The district said it can't lower it any further.
- Student safety and discipline: Howell said the district feels the two sides are close to a tentative agreement on this issue.
- Compensation: Howell said the district can't negotiate further on this until a tentative agreement is reached on workload.
When it comes to class-size committees, the district has said it doesn't reject the idea of them altogether but said that parents should not be involved — reserving that for teachers and administrators. "We're not comfortable with parents making (educational) decisions for other people's children," Portland Public Schools (PPS) Board of Education Director Julia Brim-Edwards said earlier this week.
On Wednesday morning, Hollands said the two sides had been asked not to publicly mention the specifics of the negotiations while they were trying to reach a settlement. But Wednesday night, Portland Public Schools released a statement that Hollands posted to his Facebook page saying there were critical issues still to be resolved. The post also claimed that the district had received an incomplete proposal from PAT on Wednesday night that "did not respond to either of our proposals on class size committees."
Hollands said the district would provide additional updates Friday, with negotiations resuming again after Thanksgiving Day.
Educators from across the district's 81 schools began their strike on Nov. 1, citing a laundry list of demands that went unresolved in contract negotiations beginning early this year — chief among them teacher salaries, class sizes and planning time.
Here's the full text of the statement PAT sent out Friday morning:
"At the district’s suggestion we agreed to a news blackout in order to focus on resolving issues with PPS so Portland students can get back to school. Unfortunately, the district chose to backtrack on their commitment to a news blackout- just as they backtracked on the agreement we reached Monday morning. There are now additional issues other than the class size committee that PPS has insisted on reopening that need to be addressed in order to settle a fair contract. PAT's team is focused on finalizing a settlement."
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