PORTLAND, Ore. — Nearly four full weeks into a teachers strike that has shuttered Portland Public Schools, the district and the Portland Association of Teachers resume negotiations on Friday.
Marathon bargaining sessions were held in the final days before Thanksgiving and didn't result in striking a deal.
In a Facebook post Wednesday evening, PPS board of education chair Gary Hollands stated that despite concurring on 17 points in the contract on Sunday, PPS and PAT could not come to an agreement on class sizes, specifically "whether parents should have a role in classroom placement decisions about a student who is not their child."
He added that further updates will be provided Friday, after Thanksgiving.
Late Wednesday morning in a Facebook post, Hollands said the two sides had been in talks through a mediator for the previous 24 hours, and had been asked not to publicly mention the specifics of the negotiations "while we are trying to get to a settlement."
The post from Hollands said an update would come at 6 p.m. Wednesday, but in an email sent to media outlets shortly after 6 p.m., PPS communications director Will Howell said the district had hoped to be able to share a statement, but "we are not at a point where we can do that."
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek weighed in forcefully on Tuesday, saying the district and union "need to get this done tonight." She said her office had stepped up its involvement in the process in recent days, with the goal of getting kids back in the classroom on Monday, November 27. As of Wednesday, students have missed 11 days of class.
Last week, the district said that Nov. 27 would be the soonest students could return to the classrooms as they were already scheduled to have the entire week of Thanksgiving off.
"It would truly be a Thanksgiving, right?" said PAT member Mike Carlip, a behavioral analyst for PPS. "It would just be amazing, and I would be so happy that we are done — back to school Monday, and we get to see our students again, get back to helping the kiddos, get back to our schools in our building, doing what we love doing. We all got into the field because we love helping students, and that’s what we want to do. It’s a true calling for us."
Related: Portland school year may stretch into summer to make up for lost days due to teachers strike
Hollands took to Facebook to personally explain his positioning regarding whether parents should have a role on classroom placement decisions for students who aren't their child.
He stated, "I don't have an issue if the committee was school based. I have an issue when parents are making decisions about individual students. I worry about biases that can come into the equation.," he said.
"This is a systemic issue, I feel that parents should be used to solve the problem district wide as opposed to individual classrooms. It would be hard to keep privacy for our kiddos. Also, I now worry that a parent whose decision do not go their way will use the same tactics that we are now experiencing from the community. Intimidation, harassment, vandalism, robo calls. I would hate it if our principles or teachers have to endure this type of treatment," said Hollands.
Nearing a deal
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.
Bargaining between PPS and the teachers union made significant progress within the last week after a slow start early in the month, although on Monday the Portland Association of Teachers accused the school board of roundly rejecting a recommended settlement. PPS countered that this was only a "conceptual proposal" and not a tentative deal.
While the proposal had many things the two sides agreed on, a district spokesperson said some fundamental issues remain that still need to be worked out. In a new settlement proposal offered by PPS to the union Monday afternoon, the district highlighted class size, student discipline and safety, and educator compensation as three major points they'd yet to reach a tentative deal upon.
While the union late last week backed down on its insistence for class size caps, the district said that a proposal this week would have instead instituted class size committees, giving parents the opportunity to weigh in on whether to admit a new student to a class already at the threshold for classroom size.
In its counter-proposal Monday afternoon, the district did not reject the idea of class size committees 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," Board of Education Director Julia Brim-Edwards said earlier on Monday. "We really feel that's a responsibility of the principal. The committee would be the principal, another administrator and two teachers. We feel that's the right level of decision-making."
The proposal suggests that PPS wanted to withdraw most commitments to reducing class sizes in exchange for meeting teachers' demands for more planning time and increasing levels of some staff.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Hollands appeared to indicate that the class size committees were the last major sticking point, writing that "If PAT agrees to school based committee then the deal is done."
This is a developing story and will be updated with more details as they emerge.