Wear your blue! Represent PAT at the Rose Festival

Rose Festival CityFair is FREE on Fridays.

Don’t miss the fun at Tom McCall Waterfront Park every Friday during Rose Festival. Present the coupon below at the Rose Festival’s CityFair box office at entry gates to receive FREE admission for up to 4 guests!

Build solidarity and community with your fellow educators. Calendar coming soon!

Get in free and wear your PAT blues at Rose Festival	Join us on May 30th: Teacher Recognition and Award Event	Teach Truth Day of Action -June 10th

The PAT Instructional Practices and Professional Development (IPD) committee is inviting educators at all grade levels to a listening session about concerns with the new ELA adoptions. The listening session will be on Monday, May 15th at the PAT office from 4:30-6:30PM. Attendees are encouraged to bring books, artifacts, and specific examples from their curriculum. If you cannot attend, you can still leave comments regarding the adoptions in the RSVP form.

Please RSVP by May 12th so we can order enough food for everybody.

Rally for Strong Public Schools!

Dr. Prophet Education Center
Thursday, 4:30PM-6:30PM
Wear Blue! 
Families welcome!
RSVP Here!

Dear Educator,

Late Monday afternoon, PPS management canceled bargaining scheduled for this Thursday. On the agenda: educator compensation. 

This meeting would have been our 8th bargaining session since January, when we first shared our bargaining platform and proposals. By this point in negotiations, we expected to be discussing issues that matter most to educators and coming closer to resolution. Instead, PPS management has come to the bargaining table with little to say about the issues we’ve raised. On the issue of compensation, they’ve suggested that 2.5% cost of living adjustments would be all that it takes to ensure that jobs in PPS are competitive and attractive. 

Hundreds of educators had already RSVP’d yes to attend bargaining this Thursday to show PPS management our unity behind our bargaining team and vision. It is shameful that instead of meeting with educators, they canceled without rescheduling.

PPS Management’s actions mean much more than their words. By canceling bargaining for this Thursday and refusing to discuss the issues most important to educators, they are choosing to run away from us, hoping we’ll give up and give in to their vision.

Here’s what we have to ask ourselves:

• Are we willing to settle for 2.5% cost of living adjustments?
• Are we willing to settle for no change in class size or caseloads?
• Are we willing to settle for the status quo?

If your answer is NO to any of these questions, then we hope you’ll join us for a rally outside of Dr. Prophet Education Center (501 N. Dixon). Let’s make sure PPS Management knows we’re United for Strong Public Schools and refuse to be silenced!

Rally for Strong Public Schools!
Dr. Prophet Education Center
Thursday, 4:30PM-6:30PM
Wear Blue! 
Families welcome!
RSVP Here!

Mark your calendars!
PAT Week of Action, April 24th-28th

Dear educator,

Our union has been in contract negotiations for safe, sustainable and equitable schools since January. Our union put together a bargaining platform, based on surveys from educators, that lays out a path ensuring high quality and strong public schools now and for years to come. 

Despite our proposals and compelling testimony, PPS managers seem to believe that the status quo is working and should be maintained for years to come. It is time we take action to show PPS management that maintaining the status quo is not how we create great public schools. 

How much longer are we willing to wait for safe, sustainable and equitable schools?

Click here to sign up and commit to the actions YOU plan to take during this important week of action.

What patterns do you notice? One clear pattern is that PPS believes the status quo is what best serves our students and schools. It is time we reject this argument. Why? This flies in the face of what we experience each and every day in our schools. 

This is why we’re taking action during the week of April 24th-28th, to show PPS management that maintaining the status quo is not how we create great public schools. We do this by responding to the needs of our students and families and create the safe, sustainable and equitable schools our community deserves.

Click here to sign up and commit to the actions YOU plan to take during this important week of action.

More details coming soon from your head building representative or internal organizer. Make sure someone from your worksite attends our Wednesday, April 19th Representative Assembly to learn more. If you have questions, please write to our Internal Organizing Leads Erika Schneider ([email protected]) or Matt Reed ([email protected]).

Take care and enjoy your weekend!

In Solidarity,
Portland Association of Teachers
http://www.pdxteachers.org/

Saturday, April 29, 8am to noon

Meet up at the Japanese American Museum of Oregon (411 NW Flanders St) and help clean up Portland’s historical Japantown and Chinatown neighborhood. SOLVE will provide trash grabbers, trash bags, work gloves and high-vis vests. Registration and more information.

SJCO meets monthly with our PPS partner union leadership to build relationships and learn how we can support mutual goals. We compare bargaining notes and action strategies. When we organize together, we win together! We are collaborating to host a PPS School Board Candidate Forum on April 30th, at 2:30 at the PAT office. Check with your building rep for more information!

Arab American History Month (April)

Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi American History Month (May)

https://www.pdxteachers.org/sjco_heritage_history_months

Do YOU or your team have resources to share with us? Please email [email protected] and [email protected]. Thank you!

This promises to be a meaningful time of food, listening, and learning about where PAT has been with racial equity and where we are going. Nichole Watson is an Oregon native, PPS graduate and a former PPS educator. In 2018-2019, Nichole was on full-time release to focus on racial equity in PAT and PPS. She created a more than 200-page report which included personal essays from parents, educators, and union reps from PPS and throughout the state, which was not released by PAT at the time. Nichole is currently the principal of Prescott Elementary School in Parkrose. We will also have an opportunity to hear from our own PAT leaders, as we are currently in bargaining to improve racial equity in our district. Please RSVP by  Mon April 24th, so we can order enough food. 

Thursday, April 27 at 7:00 p.m., Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Literary Arts cordially invites you to Verselandia! They’d love to see as many students and educators as possible there! Use this request form to order as many free tickets as you would like for your student group!