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Anybody who thought closing 20 schools was going to be an easy process, please raise your hand. (Also, who is chewing gum? Did you bring enough to share?) The blowback to Portland Public Schools consolidation is already nearing gale force, with the Portland Association of Teachers raising hell (“Closing Ranks,” WW, Sept. 9). The union fears closing schools means cutting jobs, and teachers are joining a chorus of parents who fear the shuttering of their neighborhood elementary. Here’s what our readers had to say:
smootex, via Reddit: “It’s going to be a long school year.
“I do wonder if at some point PAT leadership realizes that it’s actually not in their best interest for the district to be in poor financial shape? Or do they stick to their guns and insist there’s actually a secret pot of money and everything is fine.”
missfrizzleismymom, in reply: “I don’t think that they think there is a secret pot of money. I think that it is just the only stance they can take publicly now. My district went through some shrinking recently (closing multiple programs/schools) and while the public-facing comments were similar to PAT’s, internally, we all knew what was happening, and our union was largely working behind the scenes on ensuring enhanced retirement options, seniority protocol, and protecting as many members as possible. They can’t come out saying that they think the schools should close—not while they need it as a bargaining chip for the members who will be affected.”
smootex, in reply: “I suppose. There are levels to opposition, though. And I have the feeling they’re gearing up for a legitimate fight. The other odd part about their position is that on paper the union should want most of the layoffs to happen on the administrator side and on paper the administration side is the easiest path to downsizing, when you have schools closing. Easy enough to say some administrator can be eliminated because they no longer have a school to run, but the students are all still there, the teaching positions are harder to eliminate. The only problem is a bunch of them are ex-teachers and per union agreement rules they maintain their seniority which is not good for the younger teachers. So we’re going to get them pointing at administrators as being the devil, claiming the only reason they can’t pay teachers is because they pay the administration too much, while simultaneously, behind the scenes, they really don’t want serious downsizing on the administration side.”
Lydia Kiesling, via Bluesky: “Btw, it is not only the teachers union that is mad about PPS school closures. I was just at a school PTA meeting and other ‘stakeholders’ are also really upset.
“The way PPS has buried information about these informational opportunities is widely understood to be a way to disincentivize PPS family engagement and just push this all through as a fait accompli. And people are freaked out and pissed off.
“Sidenote: If I were the Democratic governor polling at 50% with my horrible right-wing challenger, I might find a way to intervene in the fiscal and managerial crisis of the main school district of the largest population center and Blue stronghold of my state and be hailed as a hero, but maybe that’s just me.”
Big Biscuit, via wweek.com: “Interestingly, Oregon City has closed elementary schools over the last 15 years due to declining enrollment, but I don’t recall any ‘bleeding violin’ articles from WW. It’s always sad, but we understand economic realities out here in the boonies, adjust and move on.”
BE A VOLUNTEER OR A VIGILANTE?
I must take exception to your “Secret Forest Service” story [WW, Sept. 9]. It portrays volunteers as being inefficient and quotes Jed, “I don’t want anyone reading this story thinking they can go out and just start taking care of these trails. Don’t do this.”
In the 1960s, as a Troop 100 Boy Scout in Northeast Portland, I participated in trail maintenance work parties in the Columbia Gorge. This was one of the activities we did to earn a community service merit badge.
Decades later, I volunteered for several years with the Forest Park Conservancy to do trail maintenance and English ivy removal. Portland Parks & Recreation also performs volunteer-based natural area maintenance.
For your readers who feel up to it, they are able to volunteer with the Forest Park Conservancy and Portland Parks & Recreation for urban park maintenance. It’s a great way to meet like-minded people, perform purposeful activity and discover new hiking trails.
For Columbia Gorge trail maintenance, one need not be an iconoclast with a chain saw. Trailkeepers of Oregon and Friends of the Columbia Gorge also provide tools and training to volunteers to help with the continual efforts needed to maintain trails in the area.
I’m happy to see that there are still Scouting organizations that provide volunteer work to trail maintenance. Getting outdoors and contributing to the care of our nature trails is a great activity for our youth to learn about and carry forward.
Richard Alford
Vancouver, Wash.
Letters to the editor must include the author’s street address and phone number for verification. Letters must be 250 or fewer words. Submit to:
P.O. Box 10770
Portland, OR 97296
Email: amesh@wweek.com
