Hello PAT Educators,

Yesterday our bargaining team met with PPS leaders to continue our discussion of the safety and behavior issues affecting so many of our buildings (watch the full session on the PAT youtube channel).

Many thanks to special education teachers Ginger Huizar (formally from George Middle School & now at Atkinson Elementary School) and Nate Farrell (from Marysville Elementary School) for sharing their firsthand experiences of what’s actually happening in special education classrooms across PPS. They detailed how special education staffing shortages and lack of supports are now impacting entire buildings, and what frontline educators need to truly serve our students. 

Our bargaining team finished presenting the changes we want to see in our contract related to safety and discipline (see PAT’s full Article 9 proposal), including setting environmental standards for all our buildings. 

No one should have to sidestep rat droppings on the way to a student’s desk or teach in a room without electricity or where the temperature is below 60 degrees or above 90 degrees. 

But meeting even these basic standards is proving to be a challenge for PPS, as we’ve seen firsthand in many of our buildings this week.

Unfortunately, the District has a very different plan for how to address these issues, which boils down to putting even more of the responsibility on classroom educators (see the District’s full proposal for Article 9).

Stay tuned for more details on our next bargaining session in two weeks, and thanks to the many buildings that are posting their “PAT Blue” pictures online. We’re all in this together.

In Solidarity,

Your PAT Bargaining Team

Steve Lancaster, Chair
Francisca Alvarez
Samara Bockelman
Julia Fogg
Thea Keith
Charity Powell
http://www.pdxteachers.org/

Hello Educator,

Today educators met with District leaders to address two pressing issues—what to do about the sharp rise in safety and behavior issues across PPS and how to best meet the needs of our special education students, who now account for close to 1 out of every 5 students enrolled in PPS.

Unfortunately, after today’s discussion it appears that PPS administrators are more concerned with managing their image than doing what’s best for our students. For example, one administrator expressed concern about the stigma associated with having an intervention space to support students who are struggling, failing to recognize that those students are already receiving interventions in public spaces outside the classroom–in the hallways, in the special education classrooms, at the secretary’s desk, or in administrative offices.

We cannot stand by and let District leaders gaslight our colleagues or the families we serve. The District’s current practices and their bargaining proposal will make schools less safe and widen educational inequalities within PPS. Cynically accusing educators of perpetuating systemic racism will not change that fact.

As educators, we believe that every student deserves a classroom environment where they can learn and thrive, particularly our special education students who face such unique and varied challenges.  We will steadfastly oppose any effort by PPS to warehouse our students with a cookie-cutter approach to special education placements. 

When student behavior disrupts the learning environment, appropriate, trauma-informed responses are necessary. And we believe our current contract already contains the tools to address these problems, if the District would simply follow our existing agreement. We want to build on this framework by implementing a consistent, fully resourced District-wide approach to student support grounded in restorative justice practices. 

Despite today’s response from the District, we will continue to fight for a system that provides  the fully resourced and equitably implemented trauma-informed supports necessary to help students remain in school and learning, and to minimize the classroom disruptions that are mushrooming across PPS. 

As PAT Bargaining Team Chair Steve Lancaster said in bargaining, “It’s important to recognize the gap between what a classroom educator can be expected to do and what kids need– students need lower class sizes, intervention coaches, and many other resources; contract language changes alone cannot fix all needs of students.”

Students, families, and frontline educators are in the best position to determine the classroom environment that will help our special education students thrive, and we will continue to push the District to create these individualized learning environments.

Not only is it our legal obligation, it’s the only way to create true educational equity in PPS.

Thank you to all the members who showed up to support out bargaining team today, and Julia Fogg and Dr. Vincent Chirimwami for being our expert guests.

Read our proposal HERE. Watch the video of bargaining here: Part 1 and Part 2. See our presentation HERE.

Take care,
PAT Bargaining Team
Steve Lancaster (Chair), Francisca Alvarez, Samara Bockelman, Thea Keith & Charity Powell

Portland Association of Teachers
http://www.pdxteachers.org/

Dear Educator:

After agreeing to negotiate over the Safety and Student Discipline article (Article 9) in the PAT-PPS contract, the District recently informed PAT that they are unilaterally implementing a new "Disciplinary Matrix." 

As you know first hand, safety is already a major challenge in our buildings, and the District’s changes would make matters much worse. 

Because the Discipline Matrix is part of the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, which the District cannot legally alter without bargaining with our union, your PAT Bargaining Team met with District leaders today to hear why they believe these changes are necessary and what problems they will solve. 

While we share the District’s broad goals of ending disproportionate discipline for Black, Native American, and Latinx/e students, as well as ensuring every student has appropriate support, PPS has repeatedly failed to implement its existing programs or deliver long-promised resources. In fact, the district proposed removing our contract language ensuring a “Full Continuum of Special Education Services” in a year when our Special Educators are already struggling to keep students safe and provide appropriate services for each student. 

Today’s presentation (which you can watch on the PAT youtube channel) did little to inspire confidence that things might be different this time. Once again, PPS leaders seem focused on the wrong end of the problem, trying to wish away the fact that many of our buildings are experiencing serious safety issues like students punching their peers or throwing chairs at school staff. 

Educators know we will never be able to prevent such behavior by focusing solely on the consequences proscribed in the student handbook. What we need are real personnel and supports in place on the front-end, so we can head off disruptive behaviors, and ensure all our students enjoy a classroom environment that makes learning possible.

And over the past five years we’ve pushed to incorporate these kinds of supports and systems into our contract–everything from training for staff around anti-racism, implicit bias, and culturally responsive practices to fully fleshed-out Multi-Tiered Systems of Support that are consistently implemented across the District  and don’t put everything on the teacher’s back. 

Unfortunately, the District has dropped the ball time and time again implementing these programs, and their current proposal doesn’t even provide for training or any identified supports for students or educators, despite Superintendent Guerrero’s claims. 

We will continue to stand up for what our students need, and to ensure programs like restorative justice are implemented the way they were designed. But until the District is willing to make a long-term commitment, with real resources and follow-through, our students and our school safety will continue to suffer. 

We will continue to update members as we bargain over safety and student discipline. But fortunately, we will start bargaining changes in our full contract this school year, which gives every educator across PPS a chance to make their voice heard and set PPS on a better course.

In Solidarity,
PAT Bargaining Team
Steve Lancaster, Chair
Francisca Alvarez
Samara Bockelman
Thea Keith
Charity Powell

Dear Educator,

In August, we demanded to bargain with the District over the workload impacts of the pandemic. The District finally sat down to formally begin this critical discussion in November. By then it was clear that our untenable workload– exacerbated by the pandemic conditions– was creating a staffing crisis that threatens our ability to safely run our schools.

We clearly stated our goal of offering educators meaningful workload relief, and creating better systems of support for students before the winter break, so that our community could have time to adjust to any changes, and so that students and educators could come back in January with some confidence that things will get better. 

After 5 sessions of bargaining, it became abundantly clear that the District wasn’t willing to offer any significant workload relief for educators, or any meaningful improvements in student safety or student academic/emotional support. Therefore, today, we informed the District we are withdrawing from these talks.

You can watch the latest sessions here: December 16th Parts 1, 2, and 3; December 17th Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4.

The Crisis We are Facing

With over 1,400 PAT educators responding to our survey that they are considering leaving the profession, and the District’s own data highlighting the multiple crises facing our school communities, your PAT Bargaining Team pushed District leaders for immediate action.

We are dangerously understaffed, safety is a constant concern in our buildings, and many students urgently need targeted support.  These problems will continue to get much worse if the District does not change course. In order to preserve this school year, and have hope that next year can be better, we need to readjust by making this year manageable for educators and responsive to student needs.  

Our Solutions: The Time to Get it Right

In response to this crisis, PAT proposed a series of adjustments designed to give educators the time they need to meaningfully support students and create a positive and safe school environment. All of our proposals came from what educators said they need to better meet students this school year: 

• Time for educators to adapt instruction to meet student needs and to give feedback to students and families
• Time for educators to collaborate with SpEd, ELL, Social Workers and content teams
• Time for school staff to work together on school climate for student safety and learning
• Temporary removal of job duties that do not immediately have an impact on student learning
• A requirement that PPS BESC staff who are not PAT members pitch in to help when there are para-educator vacancies and absences 

The District indicated that they shared the goal of addressing the crisis we are facing. However, they rejected almost all of PAT’s proposals, including common sense changes that do not impact student instructional time:

• They refused to give professional educators any autonomy in how we use our “Professional Learning Community” meetings (PLC’s), insisting that all PLC collaboration time must be fully administrator-directed. 
• They refused to lift the cap on compensating Special Educators for IEP writing, while also refusing to agree that Special Educators can not be expected to do legally-required work outside the contract day if the District refuses to pay for it.  This is a failure to offer support for Special Education students.
• They refused to begin the New Year with a day to work on school climate. While the District agrees student safety and learning depend on schools having a building-wide School Climate Plan, they refused to use the natural opportunity of winter break to allow schools a meaningful opportunity to reset. Ironically, the District rejected our proposal (which we presented in November) by asserting that administrators need a month in January to prepare for one day of school climate work.
• In the last minutes of discussion, they revealed that their “offer” to add a planning day in March was in fact just a proposal to shift a planning day we already have in June, while still expecting educators to complete all the end-of-year tasks and duties which that day is for. 

After analyzing the practical implementation of the District’s proposals, it is clear that the totality of what they are proposing fails to provide genuine or adequate support for educators and students.  

The only conclusion we can draw from this is that the District is banking on educators to shoulder the burden and legal liability of a dangerously understaffed system.  The District is expecting parents and students to accept a system where student safety is in question, and any meaningful support for struggling students depends on educators working on their own time, outside of the system that PPS has created. 

The District says it understands the needs of students and educators and that it is trying to balance the needs of both.  But those needs are not in opposition: to meet students’ needs, PPS must listen to what professional educators know is necessary to meet those needs. And it should be obvious that pushing educators past their breaking point invariably hurts students.  

Next Steps

The District has always had the power to work with the PAT to make changes it believes are necessary to address the crisis we are in.  We call on the District to do so now.  Any proposal put forth by the District that, in fact, benefits students and educators can be assured the fast-track vetting by PAT necessary for rapid implementation.

In the meantime, given the ongoing staffing crisis, we can only recommend that educators set personal boundaries which allow them to persevere until conditions improve.  Remember, you cannot pour from an empty cup - we are not serving our students, our communities, or ourselves by careening to our own breaking points.  We must all set realistic expectations of ourselves, and support our colleagues in doing the same. It is ok to say, “this is all I can do” and let that be enough.

In the coming month, it is essential that our union shifts focus to fully implementing our COVID-19 safety agreements and making sure we do everything we can to keep school staff and students as safe as possible during this wave of the pandemic.  

Your PAT Bargaining Team is now focusing on negotiations for a successor agreement to our current contract, which expires at the end of this school year.  We will seek major improvements to the teaching and learning conditions in our schools, and will propose language to address vital issues such as class size, planning time, school safety, and fair compensation that keeps up with inflation.  We believe that we can and will achieve these goals as long as we are fully united in fighting for them. More communications about the timeline and process for successor bargaining will be forthcoming. 

In a moment when so many of our colleagues are feeling despair, we fervently believe that the collective actions of thousands of passionate professional educators can reignite hope and bring lasting improvements to our schools in 2022 and beyond. We will continue to fight for our vision, in which becoming an educator is not only a calling, but a career that attracts highly-skilled and diverse professionals, and supports beloved educators to remain in these positions throughout their professional lives. Our students deserve no less. 

In Solidarity,

Your PAT Bargaining Team

Steve Lancaster, Angela Bonilla, Emy Markewitz, Charity Powell, Francisca Alvarez, Thea Keith

PAT Colleagues:

Your PAT Bargaining Team met again today with the District from 1:00 until about 5:30 PM. You can review our updated proposal and the recordings of the session here Part I and Part II.   

We want to thank the entire PAT membership for responding to the survey we sent to all of you last week. Your quick and thoughtful responses gave the team real guidance. In addition, your PAT team really felt the support from the collective actions that members have held in so many buildings. Thank you for taking action to fight for the needs of our students.

Today, PPS finally presented a formal proposal for professional educator and student relief. You can watch this in Part I.

For elementary schools, the District offered a kind of “A or B” proposal. Proposal A was dependent on TOSAs, Mentor teachers, COSAs, and QMHP’s covering classes for a few hours, once a month, for grade level teams at all elementary schools. To your PAT team, any proposal that overworks some members to give minimal relief to others is not acceptable. Proposal B was to have an early release, one day a month for three months, to create time for PLCs and planning.

Similarly, for middle and high school, the District proposed an altered schedule, one day a month for three months, to create a few hours of teacher planning time. 

PPS doesn’t seem to understand that the gravity of its own data requires a set of significant interventions. Students and professional educators are truly struggling under the stress of this year, yet PPS feels that 44 additional planning minutes per month for high school educators, 36 additional planning minutes per month at middle schools and 50 minutes a month at elementary schools and K-8’s (for just three months) will somehow make things OK. The anemic response from PPS in the face of such critical problems is irresponsible and does nothing to help ensure stability in our schools or a quality education for our students. 

In Part II of today’s bargain, your PAT team presented a more in-depth look at our proposals for a weekly Flex/Tutorial day at our high schools, and a weekly early-release at our elementary and middle schools, describing what they could look like for students and educators. We illustrated how, under our Flex/Tutorial day proposal, high school students who need extra support could get a full-day of in-person time with teachers, counselors, and other school staff, while educators could have a half-day to plan, collaborate, and communicate with parents. 

At one point, Mr. Garcia challenged PAT on whether there is any connection between professional educator planning time and student success. To anyone who has ever worked in a classroom with students, this was a troubling moment of huge disconnect - we believe our students deserve an education that is both thoughtful and deliberate, not one that was pieced together with little to no time for an educator to account for the unique student needs in their classroom. It was particularly notable because PPS has acknowledged the need for additional time to meet student needs. Our proposals are designed to support students that are falling further behind with each day and who are experiencing unaddressed emotional and behavioral dysregulation. The District's proposals simply do not meet the critical needs of our most vulnerable students. We encourage you to watch the session. 

One element that was positive is that PPS seems to actually want to discuss the issues you are all facing. We meet with the District again on December 16th and 17th and we hope to have a resolution on those two days. 

As always, it is because of your support that we are able to collectively achieve improvements for educators and students. Thank you again for all you do for your colleagues and for Portland families and students. 

In Solidarity,

Your PAT Bargaining Team

Steve Lancaster, Angela Bonilla, Emy Markewitz, Charity Powell, Francisca Alvarez, Thea Keith

Fellow PAT Colleagues:

Yesterday was another day of bargaining with PPS regarding our proposals for COVID-19 Workload Relief. Your PAT Bargaining team met with PPS from 1 o’clock until about 5:30 PM.  We are sorry to report that this was a difficult day for our team and the educators we represent. You can watch the sessions here: part one, part two, and part three.   

The negotiations session began with PPS showing up without a proposal or counter proposal to present. (PPS did present a slide deck that it had worked on for related purposes, but we did not get the PPS counter proposal until almost 3 PM.)

We were in agreement with PPS that our schools are in crisis. The PPS Team presented data that showed an alarming increase this year in fights at school, instances of drug and alcohol, weapons on campus, Title IX reports, and a 250% increase in the number of suicide screenings for the first quarter of this year compared the first quarter of the 2019-20 school year. Even though they calmly reported such terrible data, they then made a proposal that no reasonable person would expect to have a meaningful impact on reducing these grave problems.

Portland students, families, and educators deserve much better. If PPS knows that the problems are so severe and so profound, they must listen to educators’ efforts to address the issues and make things better. A few minor adjustments to an already overburdened system will not meet the extreme needs of students and educators at this moment.  

Although PPS couldn’t find the time to prepare a counter proposal before our meeting, we found out that Dr. Bird and Mr. Garcia did have time to produce media hit-pieces falsely representing the PAT proposal. Your team discovered that although PPS knew that the PAT was not demanding 20 days of no-student contact, they continued to represent our position that way. When we called them on their inaccurate and disrespectful statements and bargaining tactic, they actually smirked and turned away.

It is our hope that the PPS team stops their disinformation campaign, and actually begins to bargain for a meaningful solution to the crisis we are facing.

To the contrary of Dr. Bird’s misrepresentation, the PAT Team has repeatedly explained that the “office hour/flex day” proposal for High Schools does not call for a non-student-instruction day.  Rather, as PAT stated multiple times, the purpose of the day is to provide students additional tutorial time, including small-group and/or one-on-one support. Under our proposal, students would have access to their teachers the entire day, with some educators available in the morning, and the others in the afternoon. Students who need it would get MORE individualized support, and educators would gain much-needed time to assess, plan, and collaborate, so that they can better meet students' needs EVERY day. We strongly encourage you to view your Bargaining Team’s response to the District’s mischaracterization of our proposal starting at the 11 minute mark of session two.

The PAT team also proposed that Middle Schools and Elementary Schools have a late start or early release one day a week (a standard practice in many school districts) for educator planning time, so that we can adapt our instruction and practices to meet the needs of our students this year. Educators and building administrators at our Middle and Elementary Schools desperately need time to work on systems in their schools to ensure students have a safe, healthy, and trauma-informed learning environment.

It is your PAT Bargaining Team’s sincere hope that PPS will come to the table on December 6th with a change in attitude and a proposal that demonstrates the courage to take bold action in a time of crisis. Like so many of you, we fear that continued neglect by PPS will lead to tragic consequences for PPS students. 

As always, we thank you for your continued support. Please look for the PAT Action Assessment Survey, coming out later today. We will review and take to heart your priorities, and will always represent the voice of our amazing educators. 

In Solidarity,

Your PAT Bargaining Team

Steve Lancaster, Angela Bonilla, Emy Markewitz, Charity Powell, Francisca Alvarez, Thea Keith

Dear Educator, 

Today your PAT Bargaining Team met with representatives from PPS to start the bargaining for workload relief in the COVID-19 pandemic.  You can review the complete PAT proposal here, and watch the recorded session here: Part I, Part II, Part III.   

Our proposal contains two key concepts that we absolutely know the District can accomplish, to the benefit of students and educators as all of us return from Winter Break.

First, we are looking to have all “non-essential” activities stop. That means fewer committee meetings, fewer staff meetings, suspending/postponing many educator-evaluations, and removing busy-work from PLC meetings.  

Secondly, we are looking to restructure elements of the work week so that professional educators can focus on meeting student and family needs: at the  Elementary and Middle School levels, we proposed a weekly early-release; for High Schools, we proposed converting 8-period “skinny days” to become days for Flex-time/office hours and asynchronous learning.  We also proposed converting a few days to professional development days focused on school climate, and additional planning days so that professional educators can adapt curriculum to meet the needs of students.  

By making these adjustments,  we believe we can provide our students with a better experience, create real relief for educators so the staffing crisis stops getting worse, and provide a stable and sustainable plan for the rest of the school year. 

PPS spent much of the day in caucus working on how to respond to the PAT proposal, and your team expects a full counter-proposal from PPS tomorrow.  We bargain again tomorrow from 1 - 6 PM, and we will live-stream the session and post them here.

In Solidarity

Your PAT Bargaining Team,

Steve Lancaster, Angela Bonilla, Emy Markewitz, Charity Powell, Francisca Alvarez, Thea Keith

Portland Association of Teachers
http://www.pdxteachers.org/

Dear Professional Educator,

On November 29th and 30th, your PAT Bargaining Team will meet with representatives from PPS to bargain for immediate and much needed workload relief that centers student safety and social-emotional needs, and that directs the District resources where they are needed the most, into the classroom and for wrap-around supports.

For a year and a half, the ongoing pandemic has disrupted our school system and our entire community. This year, students at every grade level need so much more from our public schools, both academically and in terms of social-emotional support.  Additionally, we are seeing more students impacted by trauma and in need of intensive support than ever before.

Rather than having more resources and supports to meet these increased needs, this year our schools have LESS. We are facing an historic staffing shortage, and hundreds of crucial positions in our schools remain unfilled. Educators are stretched beyond capacity trying to fill the gaps. For example, our counselors, social workers, and academic support teachers are frequently being assigned to cover classes, rather than providing specific supports for students that are so urgently needed.

Educators are working every day to connect with students from behind masks, to teach over the noise of air purifiers, to establish classroom climate that meets all students’ social and emotional learning needs, to adapt to the absence of students and colleagues who are out due to COVID, all while working to keep up with curricular goals.  

Clearly these are NOT normal circumstances and help is urgently needed in our schools for both students and educators. The path we are on is not working, and if we don’t make changes, we risk unplanned and extended school shutdowns due to staffing shortages and safety concerns. 

As we head into bargaining with the District, it’s important to focus on what students and educators need most in this moment. These needs are driving our bargaining priorities, which include the following:

Students deserve classroom instruction that meets their current needs

• Time for educators to adapt curriculum and instruction to meet post-CDL student needs
• Time for educators to give feedback to students and families.
• Time for educators to collaborate with SpEd, ELL, Social Workers and content teams
• Time for students to get individual support from their teachers. 

Students deserve all available PPS resources directly addressing their needs 

• Temporarily remove job duties that do not immediately have an impact on student learning.
• Pivoting central office support to filling in for para-educator vacancies and absences when possible

Students deserve schools that are safe, secure, and that focus on the whole child.

• Dedicated time within the school day/week to meet the individual social-emotional and academic needs of students.
• Time for school staff to work together on school climate, to create an environment that is safe and supportive of student learning

The bottom line is educators need time to address our students’ needs, and we will be bringing a range of common sense proposals to the District next week that reflect these priorities.

We are hopeful that by making these changes-- to be implemented immediately after winter break--  we can provide our students with a better experience, create real relief for educators so the staffing crisis stops getting worse, and provide a stable and sustainable plan for the rest of the school year.

NEXT STEPS

Normally, we would have a slower build-up to bargaining.  But with the intense pressure so many of you are experiencing, and with so many educators feeling such despair, we’re worried that mid-year resignations will continue to climb if we do not get right to the bargaining table. 

You will be able to view the sessions via recorded YouTube posts.  Your building organizers will be coming to you so that you can review the bargaining platform that was developed from the workload survey and listening session input.   

Our goal is to reach a quick settlement that can be fully in place for the first day after winter break.  Educators need resources and time to provide a safe, caring, and supportive school community. The time to do it right is long past due.

As always, we ask for your support so that we can bring everyone a sense of hope for the second half of the school year.

Dear Educator,

We have been looking forward all summer to serving our students safely in-person this fall. Since the school year ended in June, the landscape around Covid-19 has shifted dramatically, and the downward slope of case-counts that we saw in June and early July, has reversed.

The Delta variant continues to challenge our understanding of the virus. What we know for sure is that every safety measure we can put in place this fall, will help prevent disruptions all year, from quarantine, sickness, and prolonged absences.

Your PAT staff and officers have been working hard to assess the evolving situation, including Covid metrics, the updated guidances from the Oregon Department of Education and the Center for Disease Control, and recommendations from the American Association of Pediatrics. 

The CDC, the AAP and the ODE have all recommended layered safety measures. In addition to vaccinating everyone who is eligible, these recommendations include:

•     Wearing a mask indoors
•     Frequent hand washing
•     Ensuring physical distancing between students.
•     Adequate ventilation in every classroom.
•     A program for regular testing and COVID screening.

Many of these provisions overlap with our Safety MOU from the spring. That MOU had an “anticipated duration” of the 2020-21 school year, but things have not gone as anticipated, and COVID remains a significant threat to public health.

Today we notified PPS that if we do not update our standing agreement, our Spring 2021 Safety MOU will remain in effect, as our working conditions are still significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.   

Our objective is to have clear safety agreements in place before students begin the school year. We are hopeful that building off the work that went into our spring MOU, and the guidance from the CDC and ODE, this can be done very quickly. The district has already indicated verbally their intention to implement all the recommendations of the ODE. 

We are creating a survey to assess your priorities in updating the agreement; we expect to get it to you by late next week. 

In the meantime, we hope you are able to take time to relax for the last weeks of a much-deserved summer break.

In Solidarity,

Elizabeth Thiel, President

Portland Association of Teachers

Dear Educator,

In June, PAT members voted overwhelmingly to ratify a two-year successor to our Collective Bargaining Agreement. On June 29^th, the PPS School Board voted unanimously to ratify it, as well.

Part of the agreement was a 3% Cost-of-Living Allowance for 2020-21, with retroactive pay to July 1st, 2020. While PPS had hoped to get retro-checks out with the July paycheck, they now plan send retro-payments as a separate check the end of August.  

All PAT educators will also receive a 3% COLA for the 2021-22 school year. You will see this increase reflected starting with your September paycheck. 

In addition to keeping up with rising cost of living, we also won important new provisions which aim to better attract, retain, and support educators of color. These provisions were developed and prioritized by PAT members of color, and include: a new stipend for bilingual and DLI educators; extended responsibility pay for educators who lead student affinity groups; the creation of a program of peer support for new educators of color; and new professional development for all members on anti-racism, implicit bias, and culturally responsive practices.

You can see the new CBA, including these new provisions and our new salary schedules, on our website.

Portland Association of Teachers
http://www.pdxteachers.org/