Fellow PAT member and educator Vicki Silenzi is leading an OEA webinar on Instructional Strategies and Accommodations for Students with ASD. 

In this one-hour webinar, participants will review impacts of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). You will learn to recognize ableism and ableist language while maintaining a strengths-based approach to meeting student needs. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies and individual accommodations will be presented. Career educators will share their 20+ years of experience with a focus on viewpoints and preferences of students on the spectrum and their families. Closed captions provided and 1 PDU available for attending.

There will be two opportunities to take part in this webinar, Thursday, May 5th at 4:00 PM and Wednesday, May 11th at 4:00 PM. Find more details and register here.

We hope to see you there.

Like the PAT,  the union that represents custodians and nutrition service workers, SEIU 503, is entering contract negotiations with the District this year. They have been advocating at School Board meetings and in the community that the District demonstrates how much it values their work by paying them a living wage.

Even though PPS has more than 60 full-time custodian positions posted, they continue to go unfilled. The lack of custodial staff means that the custodial workers on the job cannot keep up with the demanding workload of keeping classrooms and bathrooms clean.

An SEIU survey found 72% of workers report they are too short-staffed to keep up with current needs, 48% say the problem is getting worse and nearly one in five say they are not likely to return to work at the District in the upcoming school year.  

The PAT stands in solidarity with SEIU’s demands on the District: 

• Pay competitive wages. Starting wages of $14.40 an hour for cafeteria staff and $16.70 for custodians will not attract or retain quality workers. 
• Hire enough staff so these essential workers can make our schools safe, healthy places for the children in our community. 

Show your solidarity and take action by signing SEIU’s petition We Need Safe and Healthy Schools! 

Please save the date: SEIU rally at Cleveland High School, June 7th @ 6:00pm. More info coming soon.

Come join us on Friday, May 20th at 3:45pm (or anytime after school) at Laurelhurst Park to help celebrate the (almost) end of the school year! It’s been over two years since we’ve been able to hold our annual Party in the Park, so we are excited to finally be able to gather together again! Food and drinks will be provided (alcoholic and non-alcoholic). Please feel free to bring your families, too!

RSVP here today

Save the Dates for the OEA Summer Conference in Bend, OR! Two distinct conference opportunities will be offered to fit your needs:  

Virtual Conference: Thursday, July 14  

In-Person Conference: Tues., July 19 - Thurs., July 21 Riverhouse Hotel on the Deschutes 3075 N Hwy 97, Bend, OR 97703 

Registration should open Friday, April 29! www.oregoned.org/summerconference 

See our flier here!

Dear PAT Members,

Are you in the early or middle stages of your career and have questions on investing for retirement?

Join us and Financial Advisor Ed Foster next Thursday, March 10th at 4:30 PM-6:00 PM, via Zoom, to get information to best strategize your plan for retirement. RSVP today! 

This seminar is geared for people in the early or mid stages of their career. Topics include:

• How does my pension work?
• How does the IAP account fit into that?
• How do I set up a 403b/TSA?
• How much do I need to save for retirement?
• How should I invest my retirement accounts?

See the flyer for more information.

RSVP today! Please remember that these webinars are a perk for being a PAT member. If you are not already a member, sign up here today.

Registration for the OEA-PAC Convention is still open. Register Now!

This year’s OEAC-PAC Convention will be held virtually, February 18th and 19th.  Educators from around the state will vote to determine which candidates OEA-PAC will support.

Candidates for the following offices will be seeking our endorsement at the convention:

• All six US Congressional Districts
• US Senator
• Oregon Governor
• Bureau of Labor and Industries Commissioner

Anyone who contributes to OEA-PAC is welcome to attend the convention; if you are not a current donor and wish to attend, make a contribution today at:Join the PAC !

Teaching Climate Disobedience: A Workshop Featuring the New Documentary, Necessity: Climate Justice & the Thin Green Line

• February 24, 2022, 4:30 PM – 6:00 PM (via Zoom)

This workshop is built around the new film, Necessity: Climate Justice & the Thin Green Line, which examines stories of climate resistance in the Pacific Northwest. Tribal leaders, Indigenous activists, and their non-Indigenous allies, resist oil trains and trucks and, in one key case, are arrested for a direct action at Zenith Energy in Portland. Those arrested — including long-time PPS teacher and activist, Jan Zuckerman — mobilize the “necessity defense” to argue their actions were justified to stop an immediate and grave danger. Workshop participants will engage with short excerpts of the film, writing activities, and structured conversations to think together about how we might bring the film — and the larger theme of climate disobedience — into our classrooms, curricula, and communities. Register here for a Zoom link. 

Workshop leaders: Tim Swinehart, Lincoln High School; and Ursula Wolfe-Rocca, Rethinking Schools and the Zinn Education Project. Sponsored by the PPS Climate Justice Committee and the Portland Association of Teachers.

PAT’s Social Justice and Community Outreach Committee invites BIPOC educators this Saturday, to Portland Playhouse's BIPOC Affinity Night production of Thurgood.

Please register here to secure your PAT-sponsored ticket for the in-person Affinity Night production Saturday, February 19th, 7:30pm.

Portland Playhouse is dedicating performances to patrons who identify as BIPOC to, “be in a space that centers the experience of a person from the Global Majority in our theatre which, like much of American theatre, has been mostly occupied by white people.” 

This is an in-person production. Please click here for a description of the show. Portland Playhouse is located at 602 NE Prescott Street.

(For any PPS educator: please register here for a shared PAT-sponsored Zoom viewing of “Thurgood”, date to be announced.)

OEA is holding two webinars this month to share information about the new reforms to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program. If you have been told you weren’t eligible for loan forgiveness in the past, it’s possible that your eligibility has changed under these reforms. Some topics to be covered are:

• What changes to the PSLF Program mean to you
• How to access the Student Debt Navigator tool to automatically connect all your loans to the repayment program in one place. This tool is FREE to members. Through the tool you can: 
  • Check your eligibility for PSLF
  • Get personalized repayment and forgiveness options
  • Sign and submit paperwork for loan forgiveness
  • Get one-on-one support from student loan experts

Tuesday, February 22nd at 4:30 PM OR Wednesday, February 23rd at 4:30 PM Register today!

Our Union siblings, the Portland city trade workers represented by DCTU, have voted to authorize their Bargaining Team to call a strike. They are asking for our support as fellow union members. Please come in your PAT Blue to show your support!

• DCTU Rally
• 5pm, Thursday, January 27th at Portland City Hall 
• Come with your signs and wearing your PAT Union attire
• RSVP and Share here

Let City Management & Council hear your voice for a fair contract now! And please consider giving even a small amount to their Go Fund Me account to show the city council that the city workers are supported by our community.

From the DCTU on what they are fighting for: 

The District Council of Trade Unions (DCTU) is a coalition of workers that bargains a contract together at the City of Portland, Oregon.

We are your families, neighbors, friends, and fellow community members. We work hard for Portland, ensuring that you have clean drinking water, habitable buildings, safe bridges and streets and many other essential services.

• Our needs are simple: a living wage, and the ability to live in the city that we serve. 
• Negotiations with City Management for our current contract have stalled. The process, which should have taken half a year, has been going on since 2020. It is now 2022. 
• The City has denied our repeated requests for wages that keep pace with inflation. 

Since negotiations have reached impasse, we have two choices as workers:

Either accept the City’s final offer of wages that pay for less this year than they did last year, or go on strike.

Thank you for your amazing Solidarity and Support, and keep spreading the word!

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