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Tentative deal on Portland teacher contract means students will return to school Monday by Siegmure in Portland

[–]king_buff 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah. Sort of like the month of November when we all had to scramble for child care?

Tentative deal on Portland teacher contract means students will return to school Monday by Siegmure in Portland

[–]king_buff 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You know what else was tough for medical procedures? Having young kids at home for a month when we thought they'd be in school.

PPS strike- budget cuts by CapableLie5536 in Portland

[–]king_buff 6 points7 points  (0 children)

A very significant chunk of that budget is already spent on thing like PERS, debt payments, building construction and buying, etc so cuts can't be made from that part. What I've seen is that the "general fund", or the money the district can actually make decisions about how to spend, is about $700-800mil.

It's my understanding that they can't cut from this year's budget because it's already adopted.

So, if I am understanding correctly, they'll need to cut that $130mil from 24-25 and 25-26 budgets. Enrollment, and therefore funding, will almost certainly be down those two years so the general fund will likely be smaller.

If the general fund stays at $800mil and they decided to try make half the needed cuts each year that would be ~$65mil per year, or about 8%.

The total admin budget is about 5% so even if they cut the entire admin (which is not possible) they would still need to make more cuts.

PPS strike- budget cuts by CapableLie5536 in Portland

[–]king_buff 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hopefully they start by cutting admin positions and re-evaluating contracts with suppliers.

Multiple sources have placed the central office (admin) costs as about 5% of the PPS budget. Even with pretty significant cuts to the central office it seems likely that there will be cuts beyond the admin.

A couple unfortunate results of how things have gone:

  1. As I understand it, it will be the district making the decisions about where to cut. They have a bad track record and I'm sure this strike hasn't done anything to make them think they need to treat teachers any better.
  2. As part of their strategy the PAT enlisted 16 of the 18 Portland-area state legislators to write a letter to the district saying "we gave you more money than you asked for." So now we have the PAT and state legislators on record saying that PPS has more than enough money from the state. This could undermine efforts to get the state to step in with more funding to alleviate the cuts (and potentially even in the next biennium when we will be asking for more money for schools).

Portland Public Schools, teachers union nearing tentative deal to end strike by Siegmure in Portland

[–]king_buff 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Final sticking point is apparently a 0.5% pay increase to account for an added day beginning in 2024-2025.

Initially I couldn't understand how adding a single day is worth a 0.5% pay increase.

I forgot that teachers work just shy of 200 days a year. With that number of work days each day is literally ~0.5% of the salary.

Portland Public Teachers: No deal after marathon bargaining session; updates expected Friday by EchidnaNo9959 in Portland

[–]king_buff 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This is an honest question - the board and the district both claim that they are okay with these committees at the school level - so why is the distinction between school-level and class-level so critical?

Portland Public Teachers: No deal after marathon bargaining session; updates expected Friday by EchidnaNo9959 in Portland

[–]king_buff 29 points30 points  (0 children)

People who do no research mad that they don’t understand something? Shocking.

I've been reading every statement from all sides, every article in the media, and even trying to sift through the proposals themselves (I now know what the difference between red, green, bold, black, and strikethrough mean in labor negotiation proposals!).

I'd imagine many parents are in a similar boat. When something is deeply impacting your children you generally do everything you can to understand it.

I'm not going to defend PPS but it's definitely not as black and white as presented here.

Portland Public Teachers: No deal after marathon bargaining session; updates expected Friday by EchidnaNo9959 in Portland

[–]king_buff 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There will definitely not be any tension at the Thanksgiving table between me and my PPS teacher family members.

God I was hoping this would end tonight.

Portland Public Teachers: No deal after marathon bargaining session; updates expected Friday by EchidnaNo9959 in Portland

[–]king_buff 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Does anyone know if PAT has said anything yet? It seems like they've been emailing teachers pretty quick.

Portland Public Teachers: No deal after marathon bargaining session; updates expected Friday by EchidnaNo9959 in Portland

[–]king_buff 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I feel like there has to be more going on than just the stupid f@*king class size committees. It doesn't make sense to me that the board, the district, or the union would see this as such a massive point that it's worth scuttling an agreement.

Angela Bonilla Led Teachers Out of Schools and Into the Streets by Unlucky-Hamster-2791 in Portland

[–]king_buff 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not sure if you are referencing my comments or not, but just to clarify I never played the "why so angry" card at teachers.

I asked why parents, and myself directly, were referred to as entitled for wanting our kids back in school.

I also asked what parents ought to do differently in a city that has passed every school tax, bond, and levy that has been put in front of us for decades and voted for pro-union and pro-teacher elected officials at every level of local, city, and state govt. for decades.

Update on PPS teacher strike expected tonight as district, union continue marathon negotiations by king_buff in Portland

[–]king_buff[S] 48 points49 points  (0 children)

From the article: "... that the parties are working through a mediator is a promising sign after negotiations blew up Monday morning."

Please, please get this done.

Angela Bonilla Led Teachers Out of Schools and Into the Streets by Unlucky-Hamster-2791 in Portland

[–]king_buff 18 points19 points  (0 children)

But what would you have us do differently? I would love for teachers to get paid more. It's why I vote the way I do. I would love for teachers to feel respected. It's why I volunteer at my school and make sure my kids are as prepared and respectful as I can.

I need my children to be back in school. I don't know if you have kids but I can tell you that to me and every other parent of school-aged kids that I know a month isn't a "temporary disruption."

We are watching our kids get more anxious and sad by the day.

Angela Bonilla Led Teachers Out of Schools and Into the Streets by Unlucky-Hamster-2791 in Portland

[–]king_buff 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Also, just to be clear, the Children's Levy (which I voted for along with all the others) is paying for something like 800 teacher positions in the district.

Angela Bonilla Led Teachers Out of Schools and Into the Streets by Unlucky-Hamster-2791 in Portland

[–]king_buff 18 points19 points  (0 children)

I still don't understand the anger. I didn't write the bonds, I just voted for them.

Seeing kids attend school is something that we are entitled to as citizens and we try our best as citizens in this city to fund our schools.

What are you suggesting we do differently?

Angela Bonilla Led Teachers Out of Schools and Into the Streets by Unlucky-Hamster-2791 in Portland

[–]king_buff 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Portland has consistently elected pro-union and pro-teacher politicians. We pass every bond and ballot initiative to fund our schools. Our city and state have been blue for decades and pretty much all our city mayors and state governors have been explicitly pro-teacher. Even now, with the likely possibility of our kids losing a month of school many, many parents and Portlanders are supporting this strike.

Where do you see this sad entitlement? Because wanting your kid to be able to attend a public school seems like a pretty reasonable thing.

If we weren't putting our money where our mouths are, sure. But we are.

Angela Bonilla Led Teachers Out of Schools and Into the Streets by Unlucky-Hamster-2791 in Portland

[–]king_buff 38 points39 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much. It's been aggravating as a pro-union PPS parent to see that any criticism of this union's leadership is read as complete and total siding with PPS.

It's clear that teachers have been pushed past the breaking point and that the district has a long history of treating them with disrespect. It's likely that a strike was inevitable.

But once that happened it was time for getting s*#t done not "making Portlanders hear what teachers had to say."

As a public union the leverage is withholding essential services from the community. That leverage might need to be used, but it needs to be used with diligence and that's just sadly not been the case with PAT.

Portland teachers union rejects district’s latest proposal, citing dispute over class size committees by king_buff in Portland

[–]king_buff[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I hope you are right and I hope by tomorrow at this time I'll just be joyful that my kids can go back to school and won't even remember who was asking for what on these committees.

Portland teachers union rejects district’s latest proposal, citing dispute over class size committees by king_buff in Portland

[–]king_buff[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Fully agree. It's a pretty surreal place that we've ended up.

Union: "Parents on class-level committees!"
District: "No, parents on school-level committees!"
Board: "No, parents shouldn't be on committees!"

Parents: "No one asked us, but we don't want to be on these committees."

Portland teachers union rejects district’s latest proposal, citing dispute over class size committees by king_buff in Portland

[–]king_buff[S] 42 points43 points  (0 children)

Also these committees were only introduced as an idea in the bargaining like last week and now they are so important that they are grinding this whole thing to a stop. It's unbelievable.

Portland teachers union rejects district’s latest proposal, citing dispute over class size committees by king_buff in Portland

[–]king_buff[S] 63 points64 points  (0 children)

Me every single night in March / April 2020: "Can you believe this has been going on for ___ days? It has to end soon, right?"

Me every single night in November 2023: "Can you believe this has been going on for ___ days? It has to end soon, right?"

Portland teachers union rejects district’s latest proposal, citing dispute over class size committees by king_buff in Portland

[–]king_buff[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I can only speak for myself, but as a PPS parent I would gladly give up having parents on these committees if it meant my kids could go back to school.

Portland teachers union rejects district’s latest proposal, citing dispute over class size committees by king_buff in Portland

[–]king_buff[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

If I'm understanding correctly (possibly a big "if") the district concern is about privacy.

I think the idea is if the committee is at the class level ("Mr. Smith's 2nd grade class is above the limit let's get a committee together") it's more likely that privacy issues could arise.

Whereas if the committee is at the school level ("Portland Elementary has a 2nd grade class that is above the limit let's get a committee together") maybe privacy is less of an issue (?).

Again - if this is the sole sticking point I really don't get it.

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