(DailyDig.com) – After a nearly month-long strike that closed dozens of schools, the union serving Portland, Oregon school teachers, struck a preliminary agreement with the public school system on November 26.
More than four thousand teachers went on strike, impacting forty-five thousand pupils in eighty-one schools in the biggest school system in Oregon and one of the biggest in the Pacific Northwest.
Teachers were on strike since November 1 in response to concerns about pay, class size, student behavior, and lack of time for preparation. Additionally, the school board must accept it; nonetheless, the union consented that classes may continue while these votes proceed. Before the district’s weeklong Thanksgiving break, pupils in Portland Public Schools were absent for eleven days.
A preliminary agreement on a contract has been reached between the Public Schools District of Portland and the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) after months of discussions, according to the district.
According to the PAT, they achieved significant successes on the most essential problems for their schools, teachers, and children when they worked with Portland communities and families.
In the initial year of their contract, there will be a 6.25 percent pay hike, then a 4.5 percent increase, and finally a 3 percent spike in the following years, according to the union, for a total cost-of-living boost of 13.75 percent. The district responded to PAT’s demand for a 23% cost-of-living raise during the following three years with a 10.9 percent boost, and PAT then went on strike on November 1.
The school system has said that in order for the school board to adopt the whole contract, which is anticipated to happen at the meeting on November 28, the union members must ratify the conditions.
After over three weeks off, students were to go back to classes on November 27. However, schools will open two hours later than usual. To compensate for the days off during the strike, students will add extra days in the coming year and lose one week of winter vacation.
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