I hope you had a chance to read yesterday's message from PAT Bargaining Team Chair Steve Lancaster. As Steve discussed, your PAT Bargaining team has blocked off five days over the next week in the hopes of reaching a settlement with the District. In addition to meeting all day Thursday and Friday, we’re prepared to meet every day over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend.

One thing you can do to help is change your personal social media profile to the graphic including this message “Support Portland Teachers, Settle Now!” We’re hoping educators across the District will change their profile picture for the full five days we’re slated to bargain with the District, January 11th-15th.

While we hope for the best in next week’s mediation, we’re preparing for the worst, including escalating towards a job action.