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Teachers at Portland Public Schools voted overwhelmingly Thursday night to authorize a strike that could begin Nov. 1 if the district and union can’t agree on a contract in the 11th hour. Ninety-nine percent of teachers who participated in the tally voted to authorize a strike.
The late-night vote is a culmination of weeks of stubborn back-and-forth between the school district and the Portland Association of Teachers, the union that represents the district’s educators.
Among the union’s demands are a 21.5% cost-of-living increase over a three-year period, more time set aside for lesson planning, and smaller class sizes.
In a Sept. 9 email to families in the district, Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero warned that a strike would have dire consequences for kids.
“We also want to be transparent and provide you with ample time to plan for a possible school closure because we know how difficult a disruption would be on students and families,” Guerrero wrote. “If we cannot reach an agreement over the coming weeks, it could result in a strike later this fall, leading to school closures as early as the fourth week of October.”
Six days later, the union declared an impasse in contract negotiations.
The district says meeting all of the union’s demands would cost $200 million, resulting in mass layoffs or truncating the school year by several weeks.