2018-02-08 PPS School Board Special Meeting
| District | Portland Public Schools |
|---|---|
| Date | 2018-02-08 |
| Time | missing |
| Venue | missing |
| Meeting Type | special |
| Directors Present | missing |
Documents / Media
Notices/Agendas
02-08-18 Special Meeting Notice (ba5ecff16370ee35).pdf Public Notice
Materials
PAT Contract-FINAL 013018 5pm (825ea16e880823a9).pdf Portland Association of Teachers Proposed Contract
PAT contract RESOLUTION No 5569 (8405541c1d358218).pdf Resolution 5569
Minutes
Transcripts
Event 1: Special Meeting of the Board of Education - February 8, 2018
00h 00m 00s
the special meeting of the Board of
Education for February 8 2018 is called
to order everyone welcomed everyone
present and to our TV viewers this
meeting is being televised live and will
be replayed throughout the next two
weeks
please check the board website for
replay times this meeting is also being
streamed live on our PBS TV Services
website this evening the board will be
voting on the ratification of the 2016
2019 Portland Association of teachers
PBS contract when the new school board
is installed last summer one of our
priorities was to reach an agreement
with our teachers we knew this was
important if we wanted to unlock a new
relationship with teachers in our
district and this was going to be
essential if we were going to work
together to better support and prepare
our students for college career and life
as was noted earlier this week the
Portland Association of teachers
ratified this contract on Monday and
tonight the Board of Education will
consider and vote on ratification the
resolution we are considering has been
posted publicly in addition the contract
has also been posted publicly for the
last three days in my engagement with
the district over the last two decades
final contract language is usually
available weeks after the ratification
vote both the p80 and PBS leads spent
many hours drafting language throughout
the process with and I applaud both
Laird and Marti for that work to have it
ready for us for the ratification by P
80 and then for us to be able to share
the language with the broader community
so it's been available and posted so the
community and media can review since
Monday as I said that hasn't normally
been the past practice so community
members and media's had have an
opportunity to review the contract and
ask questions about the impacts there
have been those that requested for us to
delay today's vote but we've been the
table for more than 20 months and the
strong sentiment from this school
community was that PPS should not move
to unilaterally implement its contract
terms and there was no desire for a
strike either a clear message that we
received I think not just me but other
board members and staff was that for
parents and teachers which was work it
out find common ground and I think we've
we've done that and from my perspective
we've reached a point in mediation with
PA T that this was the agreement that
would lead to a settlement and that both
sides make compromises to get here I say
that as someone who only joined the
discussions recently since being elected
the board but the last four months have
included comprehensive and deep
discussions on issues of importance to
both teachers and the school district so
delay is not going to change the
agreement but tonight we will have a
full discussion surface questions about
the agreement and then have a vote as I
said earlier this bargaining began about
20 months ago before directors Moore and
Bailey and I were on the board and
before superintendent Carreiro
was hired as superintendent the PPS
bargaining team that that started almost
completely switched out from the start
to the end
it started with interest based
bargaining shifted to mediation and
ended with a collaborative and
professional process to get to an
agreement where both sides gave
something to reach an agreement because
reaching agreement this time was the
right thing to do for our students and
our teachers and our school community on
behalf of the board I would like to
recognize and thank the members of the
district bargaining team our lead
negotiator
Laird Cusack and team members Kiley
Rogers Gen Thomas principals Curtis
Wilson Cathy and Kathleen Elwood and a
special thank you to senior senior
leader Antonio Lopez and to director
Khan stam who were there from the very
beginning to to the end at 3:30 in the
morning I also want to thank director
Moore and superintendent Guerrero who
joined the bargaining teams and spent
many nights discussing issues again both
that were important to both the school
district but also to our teachers I also
want to recognize p80 president Suzanne
Cohen and the p80 bargaining team for
the spirit in which the agreement was
reached both sides were fierce advocates
for their positions ideas and
perspectives but we were able to find
common ground on its important issues
that will be positive for our students
and our teachers other issues we're
going to save for another another day so
at this time I'd like to ask super
Guerrero who was he was a late arrival
but he was a catalyst to get us over the
over the finish line I'd like to ask you
to provide some an overview of the
contract maybe your perspective on what
it means for students and our teachers
and our school community and other
perspectives on the outcome of our
bargaining well good evening everybody
and thank you for those of you who are
here physically present and to our
listening audience this is on a very
00h 05m 00s
special episode for those of you who
remember TV in the 70s
tonight's special session I think is
momentous I I want to extend my
gratitude for their persistence to the
same collection of people for whom this
has been a journey particularly for some
members of the teams but what I wanted
to be able to start off with tonight
since Jeremy Edwards has really laid out
the context nicely is a high-level
overview what highlights of our
tentative agreement looks like which
we're really happy to hear that
Portland sociation of teachers has has
ratified this positively so we're I'm
gonna jump right into a presentation
that talks about some themes that are in
this agreement so I'm going to move to
some of the key features new and
improved more you'll notice in the
document it's 150 pages long so I'm
gonna do my best to summarize it in 8 to
10 slides here at a high level but one
thing that's that's really important
aside from the quality just having more
time for instruction for teaching and
learning to take place so there's some
features of that in in the bargaining
agreement and then there's some aspects
of increasing instructional time that
aren't necessarily things that as a
district you know are bargaining
items and so it's important as an
educator to really promote making sure
we have high quality teaching and
learning time for our students and so
one thing I want to make sure that the
broader community understands is we also
have an opportunity through our school
calendar and our daily schedules
to increase that time so while it won't
be found in our contract features that
create a more family-friendly schedule
like elimination of late starts or early
releases are going to substantially
increase the kind of time that our
teachers have to have uninterrupted
instructional days is going to be a
feature moving forward for school year
1819 but in the contract we did find
opportunities to increase on that time
as well and it's time for student
learning but also time for teacher
learning so time that's dedicated for
professional learning particularly in
themes or areas that are important to
both of us where we know as a school
system we need to play some emphasis in
areas around how to better understand
and serve our diverse learners for
instance or our students with special
needs and we know for our educators for
our professionals to do their best work
they need time together they need time
to do some planning to be prepared in
their lessons and so this agreement
affords them a little bit more time each
day to be able to do that I would say
one thing that people probably is
getting a lot of attention here is that
class size matters we want to make sure
that the ratio of adults to students
allows for differentiation to occur that
as teachers aim to be thoughtful about
how to serve the diverse learners
whether they have disabilities or
English learners or from subgroups that
maybe aren't finding themselves a great
level that there's an opportunity to do
that and so as we think about class size
while we haven't identified a maximum
capacity we have said there's a certain
point where we should acknowledge that
it has a work load bearing and so we've
called that a threshold and what we've
proposed to do is to acknowledge anytime
there's additional students beyond that
threshold and recognize that in a
differential for our classroom teachers
for our specialists they also see a lot
of students and that also matters and so
caseload for many of our special load
also makes a difference and we've set
out some goals for that too so this
agreement lays out a table of K to 12
and for many of our specialist roles
what we believe those more doable
caseloads might look like we spent a lot
of time at the table talking about a
particular area where we know as a
school system we need to lend a lot of
attention in evolving our service
delivery model for special education
students and so we've outlined some ways
that we want to make sure put an
emphasis on that that includes making
sure that as students disabilities get
identified that we offer the right level
of program seats to meet their needs and
if you're gonna offer a full continuum
sometimes that support happens in a more
inclusive fashion and sometimes we need
to make sure and offer those programs
throughout our school portfolio and then
last but not least we know our educators
didn't go into this business because of
it it matters to show respect and
acknowledgement in the way of
compensation increases and so a feature
of this contract does include those
compensation increases a total of eight
percent going back to 2016-17 which will
00h 10m 00s
be retroactive including for this year
so that is a feature in here the school
calendar this is obviously an area where
a lot of families would would have
interest we have added an additional day
for school year 1819 prior to this
contract we are operating at 176 days
177 now puts us a little bit more at the
median with surrounding school districts
but that additional day allows us to to
incorporate that much more learning time
for our students if you think about the
additional day and you think about the
recaptured instructional time by making
sure that each and every school day
starts at the same time that
accumulation results in a lot of
additional hours for uninterrupted core
instruction to take place so we're
looking forward to being able to plan
accordingly the work calendar would also
be a day longer for our educators
because of all the themes and the
priority areas that we agreed that we
needed to work on we need time to do
that professional learning so there'll
be an additional day for our educators
to come together
and receive that kind of training and
learning and hopefully we can
collaborate on sharing those promising
practices we anticipate that this is an
additional day that would happen at the
front of the school year so we can
front-load some of that time before the
start of the school year the additional
time for teachers to plan there's an
extension of 15 minutes in this contract
for four days of the week that's seven
and three-quarters hour workday also
more in line with some of our
surrounding districts but this does
result in a gain of sixty paid planning
time minutes per week for our educators
to actually be prepared with their
lessons for the students that they serve
speaking a little bit more on the
student and caseload goals what it does
here is it does set about a clear set of
thresholds for our students and class
size K through 12 and also acknowledges
that we have a lot of specialists that
obviously see a lot of students
throughout the course of their work week
and while those are goals we also wanted
to make sure that there were some
remedies whenever we go over that
desired goal and so one is obviously to
balance the class sizes across multiple
teachers where that's possible
a second option is to assign additional
personnel who can support classroom
learning and teachers or as a third
option that we recognize that threshold
going over by affording a stipend to the
teacher of that classroom or the
specialist who goes beyond their
caseload I spoke about the special
education support briefly and and the
commitment we want to make to continuing
to work on our service delivery model
and really making sure that we offer a
high quality full continuum of options
for our students with disabilities we
also know it makes a difference
particularly some folks might think that
in a substantially separate classroom
where you have fewer students that
adding one more you know what's one more
well when you have ten students who
experience a more intense level of need
and specialized instruction that
additional student really makes a
difference
and so we want to recognize and do our
best to maintain a manageable caseload
there we also recognize that a lot of
our students are showing up at school
with readiness to learn challenges we
have a lot of students who are
experiencing trauma they're arriving at
our front door and clearly there's
there's a need for some social emotional
support and some immediate case
management just in and taking a look at
a quick analysis of where we're seeing
many of these instances many of them are
happening with kindergarteners
surprisingly what we do know is that we
need an ability in a capacity to respond
in those situations so that our teachers
are not left alone to figure out how to
support students who are demonstrating
some of these more intensive needs so
this is a this is an area where there
was a lot of agreement around how do we
do that in a thoughtful way and if we're
gonna have a team that's able to respond
in a rapid fashion what kind of
versatility and personnel do you need on
a team like that to better meet the
needs of students who get identified
this is a feature that was identified
previously in an agreement and it hasn't
come to full fruition but it's one that
we're committed to making sure is
available there to our teachers it's
also important to recognize that the
response isn't just there for our
students it's also there to act in
consultation with our educators teacher
compensation pay increases 3%
retroactively for the 2016-17 school
year and 2.75 since July 1st for this
00h 15m 00s
school year that's hopefully our
teachers very quickly you know pending
tonight's decision we can get to work on
processing some retroactive checks for
for our teachers and I know you can't
see it there for 1819 we're not hiding a
big number all of a sudden but that
represents a 2.25 percent Cola for the
coming school year the total of those
three years comes to 8% in this 3-year
agreement
what's all that going to cost you ask
well we have our best estimates here
recalling that
for the last two years this have kind of
been integrated into our ongoing budgets
the 7.3 for 1617 14.2 for this year and
if you take into account the compounding
costs of the contract agreement that
would come to about 27 million for the
coming school year obviously that's
something we're going to have to
prioritize right off the top as we go
about our budget development season that
is commencing now most important I want
to highlight and end here with with this
slide is I think there's a lot of
features in there that we came to
compromise around but more important to
anything you'll find in this document
that I think many of us appreciate
especially for those folks who have been
part of the history in this district and
for those of us that are educators I
think and I think I can say
authentically is a renewed opportunity
to engage in a collaborative
relationship between school district
administration with our rank-and-file
educators who are the ones who are in
front of our students each and every day
without supporting them and allowing
them to do their best work we just won't
get to take it to the next level I am
looking forward to this refreshed
relationship relationships take work and
commitment that's we're committing to
here but I'm very excited and optimistic
about the remaining challenges that we
agree we need to take on and I'm looking
forward to taking those on together
thank you board that summarizes my
highlights and features for the contract
we have staff here on deck we anticipate
you're gonna have much more detailed
questions so we're ready to take those
thank you and I appreciate that I was
just so ticking through my list of
questions and you've knocked some of
them out so appreciate that and I think
it's a great summary of 20-plus months
of work I think instead of going to
questions let's look at the motion on
the table first and then we can have
questions and discussion so the board
will now consider resolution number five
five six nine the 2016 20
nineteen agreement between the Portland
Association teachers in school district
number one J Multnomah County Oregon do
I have a motion so moved
director constan moves and director
rosen seconds the motion to adopt
resolution five five six nine we need to
do one more thing with the resolution we
need to make a slight amendment to it
that you should have in front of you a
redlined version of the other resolution
and we're striking a couple lines we're
striping striking the word
superintendent is authorized and
directed to execute and the words on the
terms presented to the board and filed
in the record of the meeting and what
we're going to do is we're just adding
some language to allow for although
although Laird and Marty we're diligent
ascribes and got it already it's 156
pages and we recognize there's some
formatting and other issues some things
that need to move around so we were at
gonna add some language that will allow
them to make sort of non non substantive
changes and the formatting and moving
things around so I'm going to just read
the resolution as that we're going to
consider here tonight I know you have it
all in front of you but I want to just
read it for the record the 2016 19
agreement between the Portland
Association of teachers representing
license personnel and school district
number one J Mullen County Oregon as
provided to the Board of Education is
adopted and approved and payments on the
agreement is also there by authorized
subject to any required future board
action the superintendent designee is
authorized to make technical corrections
to the agreement in order to correct
typographical and spelling errors make
formatting changes or renumber provision
so long as the intended meeting of the
agreement is not thereby altered such
technical Corrections shall be reported
to the board at the next available
opportunity so I'd like a motion to
remove the amended language
so director rosen moves and director
00h 20m 00s
more seconds the amended version of
resolution number five five six nine
Karen I didn't we didn't we should have
voted on the underlying resolution first
or do we okay so so now we're gonna vote
on the amended language and then we go
vote on the underlying language okay so
I'm gonna ask for a board vote this is
to just get the resolution on the table
there the amended resolution all those
in favor say aye
aye all those opposed
representative Tran aye the motion
passes by seven to zero vote with
student rep Tran voting aye sorry six to
zero so now we're going to put the
motion on the butt so we're not voting
on the excuse us we're representative as
far as director as far as O'Brien is out
of town this evening and wants to
participate in the vote but I think
we're just putting the motion on the
table sorry
because maybe when we get too close to
wrapping up so now we're going to vote
on the putting the motion on the table
all those in favor say aye aye aye as
opposed to vote this is a regular
yes so thank you for not voting okay you
were right Roseanne okay sorry
the amendment threw me for a loop so we
have the amended resolution before us
okay so at this point I would like to
ask board members if if you let's start
with questions and then from there we
can people want to make some remarks or
observations or statements about their
votes we can have time for that so that
any questions for the superintendent or
the district bargaining team
darling I need to make a statement first
that because my wife is a proud member
of the Portland Association of teachers
I have a conflict of interest I spoke
with the Oregon School Board Association
about this this is apparently fairly
common throughout the state and the
practice is everywhere else is to
declare the conflict and then to go
ahead and vote anyway I would like some
clarification I wasn't on the bargaining
team so I didn't hear the conversation
around the files and personnel files so
what's in and what's out and why why
some of the language was added to the
contract and and also what it doesn't I
mean there's some people can't talk
about some things but others can so just
some clarification on I understand
director Bailey you want to be clear on
that this is an area that's garnered
quite a bit of attention so well we have
our chief negotiator and chief of talent
and culture here this evening hopefully
they can illuminate this so in regards
to the there's language in the contract
about investigation files and personnel
files for sale files contain the action
personal actions that are relate to the
particular employee the investigation
files are files that we keep and have
all the evidence and documents and
information that has gathered very
investigation that includes the if the
person is put on paid administrative
leave and those files are not do not
become part of the personnel file
and there is specific language in the
contract regarding the personnel files
the investigation files we actually hold
separately and and have in fact every
place I've worked we hold those that we
always held those files separately on
your second question regarding who can
speak or not if I have answered the
first question so has this been past
00h 25m 00s
practice in Portland Public Schools or
how is it how is it worked and what's
the change in practice there are to my
knowledge there's not a change in
practice the the documents that we we
certainly didn't bargain a different
practice with the Union the personnel
files that we are being kept the same
way they were prior to this bargain okay
thanks now the second question you had
about who can speak it not correct okay
the the Union had raised that a concern
that sometimes when their members were
placed on paid administrative leave that
the information coming from the local
administrator was inconsistent and and
sometimes problematic what we did as we
address that that concern by allowing
the administrator to be able to tell
those who may need to know in the cases
of criminal conduct or child
endangerment or violence we all tell
those those people that the employee was
not at the building and to respond that
the employee was not at the building if
asked the agreement only deals with
administrators it does not in any way
limits the district's ability to make
statements or provide information that
it chooses to do so from senior
management and the board or the
superintendent
if I could just add this language for
both the district and the Portland
Association of teachers is important as
we think about the district balancing
its obligations to ensure due process
with its obligations on public interest
and student safety is always the first
consideration if I could ask follow-up
question of Miss large how does that's
treatment of the personnel files square
with public records law director Anthony
I think it is consistent with how we
have proceeded and understand where we
are in somewhat of a state of flux and
as you know the district is currently in
litigation trying to get clarification
on some issues of public records law but
I think that the I think we've struck
that balance here as we're waiting for
some definitive Court ruling as well
since you bring up litigation what
flexibility is there what ability is
there in the contract doing with the
relationship with the Union to
renegotiate this if it goes opposite the
district's position I think that the
Union and the district both have a clear
understanding of where that case is in
its posture and have forged a path to
work together if we're dealt if there's
a decision from the court that makes it
impossible to comply simultaneously with
the agreement and with public records
law that being said I would ask Laird to
comment further if there's any further
color on the negotiations it's a very
delicate issue that we want to get right
the contract itself does not deal with
the public records law the only
agreement that we have as part of this
bargain is that when the district has
its next draft of the policy that it
will in fact send a copy to the union
and the union will have it their rights
under state law to demand to bargain
there is no we didn't provide them any
more rights than is allowed and under
the existing collective bargaining act
okay so so then to summarize the length
that the newer language around this
issue issue clarifies current practice
well the in terms in terms of what goes
into an investigative file and what goes
into a personnel file was that correct
well there actually to my recollection
isn't any language in here about
differentiating those except for that
the administrative leave letters will go
00h 30m 00s
into the investigation file which I
thought was our practice and and it
would be appropriate because we there
are investigations which have no
findings and those would not end up in a
personnel file so what you know we don't
take any action because we find that
there is nothing to act on the actual
personnel article really the change in
the article was to clarify educators
ability to get their file and to clear
up a dispute that language had caused
regarding the association's access to
the personnel files
we didn't make other other changes the
other than when we did the letters of
expectation formatting which are
expectations that do not have any
finding of wrongdoing they are
specifically an expectation that those
will be rotated out of building files
after three years
and as somebody who is an employee and
has had to deal with it from the
employee side I appreciate the it goes
both ways I've been on the on that end
of the stick so to speak can I go on a
different topic cuz I'm okay okay so I
was on the bargaining team and so I I
had the privilege of sitting through
very long discussions about these about
these fairly technical issues and where
language is exquisitely nuanced in a
contract so I'm gonna put it in plain
language because I think this is these
are the questions that we're getting
from parents and community members in
light of a number of unfortunate
instances of that have become known
where student safety was jeopardized how
can parents and students and teachers
and community members feel reassured
that similar situations are not going to
occur what actions can we take and have
we taken either within the contract or
outside the contract to ensure that
student safety remains paramount well at
the most basic level the employer
relations team is now actually staffed
fully staffed at four people my
understanding that that has not been the
case for longer than anybody can
identify and so there are we now have
resources for administrators who run
across these issues we have made a very
clear assignment of
the staff to make sure that
administrators have access and know who
they need to contact we're working our
way forward now that we have this
agreement to go and produce a
investigations and discipline procedures
manual and go out and do training for
our administrators and make sure that
administrators have the tools they need
both to recognize the issues that they
need to raise and to be able to conduct
those investigations with our assistance
I think that having looked at some of
the prior cases in some what cases our
practice was not consistence and people
slipped through the cracks and the most
important aspect of dealing with
individuals who should not be in our
school system or need corrective action
is to have a consistent practice of
investigation correction and discipline
there really were no the district 20
months ago really had not made any
proposed changes in the sections
regarding building files those were
issues we could raise in the next
negotiations so and once the ground
rules stated that once we had reached a
certain point no new issues could be
raised violating ground rules as
potentially unfair labor practice so
some of those issues were could not be
addressed at the time that are showing
up 16 months ago so but I think the
change in practice is the most important
aspect and to provide the training in it
to administrators and build their
confidence in dealing with these issues
I am confident that with the consistent
practices that we have employed and will
00h 35m 00s
continue to support administrators in
the buildings in utilizing and the
support of the employee and labor
relations team that there is no new or
previous language in this contract that
prevents us from upholding student
safety as the center of what is import
and ensures that we can also hold
accountable ourselves and all employees
within the district I think it should be
noted that these are practices
there's probably that are going to apply
across all employee groups not just one
particular group so you know it's about
having sort of a robust set of practices
that are consistently applied and the
district does its job well
and I'll take it back a step from the
practices to the policies and we are in
the process of still revising some
important policies that have bearing on
this with our sexual harassment policies
which will come before board committee
next week and hopefully before the board
within about a month which will clarify
and make some revisions to current
policies but then to echo what Kylie's
saying the important piece there is how
to make sure that that gets out into all
of our buildings and that our
administrators are really well supported
in knowing exactly how to respond and
what the policies are and if I could
just build on what mr. Cusack said and
direct this specifically to the
superintendent three issues that I see
around this one is the change around
tape recording meetings another is
directing people with complaints to
speak directly with the person with who
they have an issue first and the third
is giving the name of a complaint to the
person about whom they are complaining I
understand the circumstances that bring
these issues up
I expect I know the intent of the
district behind them but on all three of
these issues to my certain knowledge in
the past they have what children at risk
in the past they have excluded families
particularly our most vulnerable
families from being able to participate
in the process I hope I expect that
district administration is going to be
giving building administration
instruction direction ongoing support on
how to deal with those issues
competently thoroughly and with good
judgment there there is a refresh in
this contract on those particular issues
first say that to your last assumption
the answer is yes we will absolutely be
ensuring that we uphold a consistent
practice and support administrators in
doing that in the complaint section of
the contract you referred to the
language the only change in that
language is that it clarifies that the
complainant does not need to be offered
the opportunity to talk to the employee
in question if the complaint involves
allegations of sexual misconduct yes and
I I was trying to be brief but I
recognize that the language there is may
not necessarily will or or will not but
it leaves open judgments on the part of
the building administrator as director
constant just said they aren't
necessarily required where the complaint
involves allegations of sexual
misconduct yes the other area is not
correct me so I think director Anthony
whether it's this topic or any other
changes in our agreement for sure we
00h 40m 00s
want to make sure that there's a uniform
process by which our responses are
applied regardless of what school
regardless of what principal obviously
we're going to need to do so some
refresh and some education on what our
features in this contract so that the
experience that any given teacher has in
any building and we spent a lot of time
talking about this we want to make sure
that we minimize that variability and we
work with our principals who I know also
want to be dutiful and and and do things
in a correct fashion and that's on us to
make sure we're offering clarity of
guidance in this area or any other so I
just want to go back to one it has been
discussed earlier and I just wanted just
a clear question with that maybe short
answer so well this contract allow PBS
to release the names of staff on paid
leave this contract does not address
that issue and then currently PBS as a
legal case against the citizen and
reporter about access to records on
staff on leave does this contract impact
that case no it does not
thank you and now I'm going to get back
into something that I'm as a parent much
more interested in is instructional days
so if people don't mind if I change the
topic so I'm wondering if you could
speak briefly to there's been some
confusion about this that the previous
contract had again 90 plus nine one
ninety plus two days and then we've
changed that to be one ninety two
and can you talk about the difference
between they guarantee in the
conditional of why there's been sort of
this change so we we could have had 178
days but that was conditioned on
something's happening and so in this
contact we've moved away from putting
conditions on it and now it's a there's
a true base you want to see that I'm
sorry it's a complicated issue but I
think there's been a lot of back and
forth about the topic about whether the
prior contract allowed for the district
to add to two instructional days - for a
total of 178 in any year in which it did
not cut PA the the teachers association
staff and which led to a case of where
this year since we did in fact cut the
amount of case dat staff that the two
days could not be added the new contract
removes the condition and simply
increases the instructional days by one
day so that will be in the contract
every year regardless of what actions
the board takes regarding budgeting and
as a superintendent said we're quite
clearly looking at the early start early
releases in the late starts for
additional instructional time we've had
seven or eight late starts and four
early releases at the high school level
so that gets you back a day at the high
school level and more than a day at the
two days at the elementary and middle
school level so in total if we take
those actions which are outside the
contract in terms of the the changing
the early and late we will in fact
increase get the instructional time back
up to 178 or more and that actually
compares rather favorably with
surrounding districts many of who have a
lot of
vacker a lot of early releases and fewer
instructional days I want to thank you
all for putting together sort of a
compared comparative of districts the
information provided by staff of
Beaverton Hillsboro Portland tiger and
in Gresham Barlow and we are at the top
with the exception of Beaverton but they
also have early release or late opening
every week which is quite substantial so
if we think in terms of instructional
minutes what's the impact
well the instructional hour over the
course of the year again Laird talked
about it in the equivalent of
instructional days but we have with no
change to late start or early close
we've increased our per minute or
guaranteed instructional hours by a full
school day so six to six and three to
seven and then we in consideration of
the late starts and early closures that
would add an additional 16 hours back of
instructional time at the elementary and
middle school level and between 8 and 10
hours back at the high school for a net
00h 45m 00s
overall gain of doing the math only 24
hours so 24 hours on average between the
elementary middle and high school a
little bit more and I also want to just
close the loop on this issue that there
is a connection to what superintendent
referred to in the professional
development days that are added to this
contract because that's what those early
those late starts and early releases
were used for that we're valuable to our
educators particularly the equity work
that took place then so that also has
found a home
so just another question you earlier
stated that issues that weren't raised
at the beginning there was an agreement
that they wouldn't be raised later and
there was ramifications if they were
release there also to my understanding
some articles and TAS agreed to and
voted on by the board last summer or I
think it was in last spring and I'm
wondering if you could just outline what
those articles are because I think you
know in the community when something
stretches on so long the sort of
question of like what's changeable and
you know what what's not or what had
already been set in motion that part of
the agreement and the ground rules at
the beginning of bargaining was that
some of the agreements would be voted on
and would be ratified by the parties
during the course of bargaining and
those if anybody wants to look at the
actual detail you can go to the March 7
2017 board materials and it's all there
you know all the TAS are in there in
their original form the topics that were
covered were some language about moves
which had become a real issue because
we're moving people out of their high
school teachers out of their high
schools and redoing them and bringing
them back in so certain compensation for
moving all their materials in and out
issues like p-cards
notices notice of policy changes which
frankly is appropriate under state law
some changes in leaves some of it to
comply with changes in federal law we
moved up the evaluation schedule so
their probationary teachers would be
evaluated earlier and and set dates for
that so that there'd be a longer period
of time for those particularly who were
in jeopardy to understand that that was
the case and get more assistance so
change the sick leave and some some
changes in professional development the
letters of expectation was for format
was established
we renewed the Rosa Parks year around
school agreement because they have
slightly different rules because of the
their school year and some so those
sorts of things we also had before that
we had agreed to an MOA on the safety
section that dealt with a school climate
and and some contract language changes
in that the that those were all time
limited they basically said that they
would be done by the time I think by the
end of last year so we actually
bargained some more on those topics and
that that help bargaining very much so
earlier and this is my question for the
superintendent and somewhat unrelated to
the contract but I think and there's
just the context of the instructional
days the family-friendly schedules that
we referenced that this is a lot of it
will be when the calendar is presented
to the board in the community for for
review that those are many of those will
be baked into that not necessarily into
the contract agreement so that's true
pending tonight's vote of course we want
to we have to produce the school
calendar that incorporates all of those
features so the planning days will want
the clarity right up front around our
intention not to have late starts early
dismissals obviously our teachers have
particular planning days for grading and
other things and of course school
vacations are important we want to make
sure there's clarity of understanding
around when we may have a make up for
inclement weather although we really
haven't had any here this year so I
don't know what all the talk was about
so we still got a little winter left but
I am holding a prototype of the school
calendar just you know thinking ahead
around how we do that and so certainly
there'll be a lot there to review and to
00h 50m 00s
understand and how it all kind of comes
together I think in a way that makes
sense for for our for our students and
for our families my interest of course
is an educators to have fivefold
instructional days that are
uninterrupted for core instruction to
take place and I know our families you
know probably don't want to be thinking
about how who's gonna take my kid to
school on Wednesday when it starts late
you know all of those questions I think
you know are important to make sure
we're doing what we can to not just
promote learning but also look out for
our Fram our families the other areas
and I've heard about these since I got
here is we have certain months of the
school year that are pretty difficult
and broken up with a lot of long
weekends which result in very short work
weeks at the school level and so we want
to try to Remy that as much as possible
I think we have a prototype that does
that so I look forward to that
discussion after tonight two dual
language immersion programs and the
issue was raised about the need for
translated materials in the classroom
and given the expansion of DLI in our
schools teachers and parents had said
there need to be greater access maybe
you talked a little bit about what the
contract provided for because I know
that was a topic of discussion the
addition in the contract specifically
provides for professional educators who
are teaching students into a language
immersion programs access to district
adopted curriculum materials in the
language of instruction and provides the
opportunity to agree with the Department
of dual language DLI on mechanism to
translate those if they are not
currently available
right so just one last question sorry so
in the complaint section of the contract
what avenues does PCBs have to address
issues of misconduct and just is there
specific language that was added or
because my understanding is that there
very little language actually it was
changed to that that that is correct the
again the district hadn't raised changes
in that area the Union did actually
raise a number of amendments that they
were seeking in the end through a lot of
conversation we didn't make any changes
in complaint process other than for the
change we wanted regarding the not
having to offer the meeting in the cases
of sexual misconduct additionally
through a lot of conversation with the
you know serves we're going to have an
extended conversation about the
difference between complaints and
investigations because there are often
times in which there really isn't a
complaint there's just something we need
to investigate someone didn't complain
they just gave us information so we've
agreed that we're gonna have some
additional conversations about dealing
with those issues in the in as part of
contract administration which I think
will be very helpful thank you anyone
else have any other questions you asked
about family friendly scheduling cherrim
aedwards11 not small thing that I think
will matter to a significant number of
our families for students with
disabilities we want to make sure that
as an IEP team we're making those
meetings available in a way that works
for our parents and particularly when
our educators are prepared and ready to
meet and what might otherwise be their
planning period we want to recognize
that and so if they're giving up their
prep period
able to meet with families right after
school we want to make sure and
compensate for that because otherwise
they're going to do that hour of
planning after the meeting so that's
another feature that will allow more
flexibility to work with parent
schedules when they can come on campus
for those important IEP meetings great
director Anthony I don't have any more
questions but they have a couple of
comments one is that I am very happy to
see the class size goals going into the
contract that's enormous ly important to
our parents our students our community
and certainly our teachers the other
00h 55m 00s
thing that's new that I think is
absolutely marvelous is the language on
page 78 around letters of intent for
years much longer than I have been on
the board I have been hearing about what
a barrier the lack of those letters is
in doing good recruiting and I realized
that too many people in the community it
seems like these incremental moves we
are making moving up the time when we do
hiring and now with letters of intent it
feels like very little progress
particularly around recruiting teachers
of color but we are chasing our HR
department I know it's chasing after a
very very small pool of people and we
need to give them every edge that we can
and if we don't make these changes we're
just cutting ourselves off at the knees
so that's something I think we should
certainly be celebrating well thank you
for highlighting those two areas
director Anthony if you rewind the game
tape if you recall a number of months
ago upon my arrival there was testimony
here around superintendent Guerrero
you've been in a couple of districts
that really emphasized class
as an important factor and I hope I
we've delivered on that here and
recognizing that and then secondly to
your point around having an ability to
recruit the best and brightest talent to
come to Portland Public Schools I think
this gives us yet another tool to be
able to do that some of us were with
some of our business leaders earlier
today and this was something that they
expressed we want the best people we can
find in front of our children and I
think this is just one more means to be
able to do that
these questions are we're getting close
to moving to statements because I want I
think we want to get what happened to
Roseanne she's been traumatized by
earlier let's get Julie on the phone
maybe for this last portion I also want
to note for board members that we
received and you should have a copy in
your inbox if you already looked at it
the Society for Professional Journalists
is that I have the correct except the
right has submitted some testimony for
the board's consideration we got it this
afternoon
hello hi hi Julie Julie you're at the
board meeting
all right know everybody so Julie our
director Esparza Brown we just have
spent some time we had a presentation by
a superintendent Guerrero we had oh wow
it's hard to hear worry hang in there
we'll just do our best and proceed
so maybe Amy could you just tell me what
director consume can you just share
we've had we've gone through a lot of
questions we have the resolution on the
floor I think we're just gonna solicit
any comments that board members have and
proceed to a vote okay I think my
comments are round I'm thrilled that
were we're here because
yes our teachers do need a contract and
I'm so appreciative of the whole
bargaining team for getting us where
we're at and for Guadalupe is leadership
I'm particularly happy to see some of
the provisions that are put in place for
special education teachers in terms of
added supports for them so that I think
that was really important as we continue
to do this work of it you know finding
the ways to best educate all of our
01h 00m 00s
students I'm going to continue to track
and I think there were some positions
some discussion also about for bilingual
teachers in terms of giving them support
for translating materials I think we
need to continue to have a laser focus
on our dual language programs and making
sure that we provide
the you know adequate curriculum for
teachers as well but again I think that
this is really a step forward so thank
you all for your hard work to get us
here
Thank You director Esparza Brown I'm
gonna ask the veteran of this doctor
comes to him if you want to make some
comments since you you were here when it
all began so the only thing I wanted to
comment on was just the tenor of the
talks over the long trajectory and we
spent a lot of time at the beginning
really learning about and engaging in
interest based bargaining which is a way
of having dialogue that is really about
what are what are your concerns and
interests that you are bringing to this
what are your stories what are your
experiences which is a little bit
different than starting with a
inherently oppositional framework which
is this is what I'm trying to get well
this is what I'm trying to get over here
and then meet in the middle which is I
think a lay persons characterization
characterization of traditional
bargaining so we spent a lot of time in
that and I think in the middle of the
process we got away from it and it
looked and felt more like traditional
bargaining but I really feel like at the
end it came back to the original ideals
of interest based bargaining and having
a much more open dialogue and that in
the end it was pretty clear that we had
much more in common than we had
differences in terms of what we were all
looking for for our students from our
different roles and I would say that
that was really a three-legged stool of
the the Union and the teachers that they
represent and our superintendent and his
administrative team and the values that
the board brought forward into the
process and in the end they were really
very common we had so many different
different ideas about how we wanted to
address some of these problems but we
all really recognized the points where
this system is in real need of roof
and the one area I want to highlight in
particular is that we have a roadmap for
really building a much stronger more
responsive system of supports for all of
our students academic and
social/emotional some of those specific
issues around our special education
students come to bear in this but it
really is something that is needed for
all of our students at at every level
and I know this is some work that dr.
Curtis has been charged with and others
with really building out in our system
and the absence of that is what has
allowed kids to fall through the cracks
in our system in my opinion so I just
wanted to speak to that and also to say
that with those systems of support for
our students we also spend a lot of time
talking about systems of support for our
educators and what does meaningful
professional development really look
like professional development that is
gonna bear good results for our kids and
their achievement and those discussions
were fruitful but I think also the ideas
that really the superintendent put forth
about how he intends to use that
precious time
with teachers in those professional
development days and and school meetings
is really where we are going to move
things forward
so I can make Nomad Julie now I just
wanted to make one more comment to dr.
Constance he reminded me about the
original I was on an original team that
did use that interesting bargaining over
a year ago and we talked about a
rapid-response team so to provide
support for teachers and schools when
you know students were having crises and
needed support outside of just the
school staff and the world were working
towards funding that I think we're real
now you know the fruits of those that
early bargaining into which is
critically important that to have
01h 05m 00s
services for students that need kind of
above and beyond yeah thank you I don't
have any more comments but there is a
very important issue and I'm hoping
superintendent Guerrero or Miss Rogers
you could speak to it the language on
page 149 limiting turnover which for
some of our schools has become a huge
problem on page 149 talks specifically
about a joint commitment to work
together to identify the schools that
have high turnover to understand what
the root cause of that turnover is and
to really explore and identify solutions
to reduce that turnover and to keep our
educators in those schools supporting
students there so I think this really
just represents again what director
Khan's damn talked about about a system
that we really need to build a lot of
supports into and that includes supports
for our educators in looking at how we
retain not just attract the best
educators but retain the best educators
in those schools
a director as far as a brown could you
put your phone on mute
unless you're speaking Thank You Georgia
more I joined the bargaining team about
almost eight months ago now and I have
to say at the beginning it was a bit of
a slog I think I came in when we were in
the middle of the the traditional
bargaining mode which is something less
than scintillating and and frankly
didn't feel all that productive and and
then it changed and it changed when when
we got some new people and in particular
when we got superintendent Guerrero you
don't want to know sharing stories so I
think this is I I'm thrilled with this
contract you know obviously I wasn't
involved in previous ones I was on the
sidelines during previous ones and my my
perception in the past was that getting
to an agreement in a contract was
painful in this district and it was
always kind of eleventh hours somebody
pulls a rabbit out of a hat and it's a
really ugly rabbit and nobody's happy
but at least we were done and that's
pretty much the best anybody could say
about it and this was different
I think the last I mean in a way there
was there was the pre Guerrero in the
post career Oh
and the the the the portion of the
negotiations that happened since October
were are completely different in tone on
both sides and and we started talking
about you know okay let me let me say i
i suspect during the initial you know i
BB the interest based bargaining my
impression is that a lot of discussions
were happening about really critical
issues and and some really good work was
done and then we had that low and then
we started talking about the important
stuff again and we were talking about
issues that i have heard about from
teachers for years and in in way more
details than i had ever experienced
before i we were talking about things
that i'd heard for years from
administrators in this building in way
more detail than i had ever experienced
and but we weren't talking about we
weren't talking about things in the
abstract I mean people were people were
telling stories about real live actual
01h 10m 00s
children and how we can serve them
better and and it was to the extent a
negotiation can be thrilling it was and
at the end of it those last few days
were extraordinarily long but at the end
of it everybody was smiling I'm pretty
sure that didn't happen in the past and
I think this is I think this is a
groundbreaking contract in many ways its
groundbreaking for the state of Oregon
because we are talking about Y class
size matters and what we can do about it
I as a parent of a kid in this district
I know how important
class size has been and and we have had
problems and we are we have made a
commitment to pay attention to class
sizes and do what we can to make sure
that class sizes are manageable for
teachers and for students it's also
groundbreaking for this district because
I I sincerely hope this is the beginning
of a completely new era
I hope the days of district and teachers
being on opposite sides yelling at each
other and and and forgetting that we're
actually both in it for the same purpose
to serve kids those days are over
I hope and it's now up to all of us to
live live up to the promise of this
contract and I you know I'm hopeful that
we're all going to do it and the last
thing I'll say is this contract is just
one piece this this is a huge district
this is just one union we have many many
others and this is just one lever we
have work to do
in central office administration a lot
of it has already started a lot more has
to happen we are already seeing the
impact of I think huge changes that have
happened in the HR department thanks to
new people I think that's going to make
an enormous difference we've we've got
new people in curriculum and instruction
and things are happening it may take a
while for a lot of those changes to
become visible to parents and students
out there but they're happening and I'm
I've said this before I'll say it again
this is the very first time in
entire time I have been paying attention
to PPS that I am actually optimistic we
can do this we're gonna do better for
kids so thank you to everybody who was
involved it's all been said I just want
to say thank thank you for to both teams
speaking of both bikes can I speak out
of both sides of my mouth at the same
time no I just want to say thank you and
I agree this this is a big step going
forward not only for what's in the
contract but the spirit in which where
we ended up so that's that's good I
wanted to say thank you specifically to
directors constan and brim Edwards I
mean you guys put in countless hours
it's mind-boggling how much how hard you
worked on this and I really appreciate
it I want to thank the Union for all
your hard work I know you spend equal
amount of countless hours and you went
through some rough patches but you hung
in there and then I'm superintendent
Guerrero and Laird and Kylie and Antonio
I know you were put in everyone put in
an incredible number of hours and I want
to thank all the board members for their
good questions that was really we I
think we had a good discussion tonight
and then finally I want to thank the
public and the parents and the press who
in 72 hours came up with about a dozen
good questions and you know we didn't
change the contract but we clarified a
lot of important points that I hope will
satisfy all the parties so thank you to
everyone Thank You student representing
do you want to something I'll just like
01h 15m 00s
to thank everyone involved I think this
contract is monumental fired district
and just shows a token of appreciate
appreciate from students that the
district and the p80 have the best
interests of teachers at heart
that if we can support teachers on
better and then we can support our
students better and really show them how
this district is moving forward to bring
students first
I had one note that I forgot to say
which is that I think a lot of the
momentum that we were able to grab on to
toward the end of this process was due
to our superintendent really showing up
as a teacher as a lifelong educator and
I think that was very clear to all of
our teacher friends and union leadership
and it's what helped catalyze ideas
around innovative solutions to what had
been pretty intractable problems or
conflicts but I think that was really
the the guiding light that that landed
this contract and that led that process
Thank You director Cranston so unless
anybody else has some of the comments
I'm just going to close out so this was
my third time participating on a
bargaining team and to reach this point
I was part of those times when the ugly
rabbit cup pulled out but it was the
only one on the Hat so we did what we
had to do and so I would say you know
wasn't there at the beginning but
certainly there when it was a little you
know it wasn't clear that we were going
to get to a a good a good moment in
something that would work for both our
teachers and our students and I think we
you know worked through it as we should
and I think that's a great it'll be a
great model for going forward that we're
not always going to agree but that we
have the capacity to listen to each
other understand you try and understand
each other's perspectives and get to a
better place so I'm going to support
this agreement tonight because it has
wins for students and teachers and it
will allow us to move forward in
partnership with our teachers on some
very important issues that we need to
tackle
so you know wins for students and
parents more guaranteed instructional
time for students more time for teachers
to plan and prepare their work more time
for teachers to participate in
professional development that's at the
end of the day it may be teacher focus
but that the beneficiary are our
students there'll be a focus on class
sighted and workloads that students and
teachers have opportunities for more
personalized instructions and you know I
think I'm not sure class size matters to
every student but for some students it
really matters to get that personalized
attention and I think it is going to
make a difference for students who in
the past because of workloads or class
size haven't been able to receive that
so as a parent those are all aspects of
the contract that I find to be very
student-centered and supportive also of
helping our teachers do their job well
which we all should care about am I
happy with everything the contract and
the did the district prevail in every
instance no but that's what negotiations
and mediation is about it's about
finding common ground I just want to
sort of briefly say that we know we've
had many questions about our public
records policy section of the agreement
as the chair of the committee
considering advice complaint policy and
the public records policy they're issues
that we take seriously and we'll move
ahead with the work in those but I
should note that as we would have done
regardless of what was in the contract
we will consult with and want to hear
the perspective of all our employee
groups because they have something to
add that can provide key insights and
we're we're always going to want to hear
from staff and and teachers on on any
policy that we're creating because we're
a whole school community and they have
things to add to the discussion that are
valuable so from my perspective this
contract lays a foundation for the
workhead between our teachers and our
district and I think it really gives us
a roadmap to do some great things so I'm
delighted at this time
to say that the bat the board is now
going to vote on resolution 5 5 6 9 as
amended Thank You Liz
Julie if you want to take your phone off
mute we're going to get ready to vote
and I'm going to do people want to have
01h 20m 00s
a roll call vote yeah we can't hear you
do you want a roll call vote okay sorry
okay miss Hewson please call the roll
yes yes yes yes yeah yes yes I'm
delighted to say that the resolution
passes 7 to 0 with student
representative Tran voting yes and I
think it's appropriate to end this
evening with by asking if you're
interested our our partner in the
process
Suzanne Cohen the president of P 80
thank you all for your comments it
really has almost all been said and I
really appreciate it
of course I want to thank all the board
directors because I know that you all
volunteer but especially those that
served on the bargaining team especially
for so long and of course thank our
bargaining team and really all the
teachers who were very very patient
during a very difficult time with a lot
of uncertainty around what direction
this district was going to take our own
bargaining team lost two members to
other districts as we started looking at
comparables and I'm really really
excited to be at the place that we are
now for a long time we have
you've heard us say a better day before
a longer year and as you you hear about
the two days and only before cutting
staffing that might sound selfish but
what we are at the heart of that that
staff is those reasonable class sizes
and caseloads
it's their media specialists its art its
counselors so it's everything we know
that goes into a really great school day
and we wanted to have as much of those
really great school days as possible we
never wanted a compromise and what a
better day meant this class size
language is the everything in that
direction that we were hoping for and
know these numbers are not the best
numbers ever but they are a step and I
really you know a lot of talk is about
superintendent Carrera and and the
catalyst for change and I'm sorry about
OPB but we needed you there we wanted
you there and it did change when you
were there and your experience as an
educator it really tone really did
change because where we talked and yes
we made you listen and we talked and
talked when we had a partner who could
hear it and understood it and was ready
to do stuff about it especially around
class size where we had been met for it
over and over again but that was just
something we were not going to discuss
we weren't going to talk about it and
then we had someone who said if this is
important to you then let's talk about
it and it is important to us and as has
been stated it's really important to our
students and to our families we wear our
shirts we say that we're fighting for
the schools Portland students deserve
and this is the next step in that
direction but also this is a step in
fighting for the schools that Oregon
students deserve we now have an
opportunity to be even prouder to be a
part of PBS because we are the first
school district in Oregon to really talk
about class size which we know matters
and now as the state is looking at a
bill around this very issue I would just
encourage everyone to know that the big
turning point when we talked about you
know mediation or strike or implementing
it was the willingness to have a
conversation of
about what we care about and so I really
thank you and applaud you for not being
afraid to talk about that very important
issue our bargaining chairs Steve
Lancaster regrets that he had to leave
but I'm it will not be nearly as well
spoken as he is with his comments but he
wanted as we close the chapter of
negotiations what we're really just
embarking on is is the next step I've
testified we want to see it in writing
and now we have that and the next goal
is to make sure that that contracts
being followed and has been spoken we
have struggled with that effort as many
Phe members asked me like how do you
know how do you know that you can trust
and we have nothing to gain and no
benefit if we don't trust and believe at
this point we have commitments and it is
up to us to make sure we're following
them and doing the right stuff but in
the spirit of negotiations and
everything that we've done together I
really really am optimistic and I'm
excited about the collaboration I'm
excited about the work ahead of us this
is a very very new contract with a lot
01h 25m 00s
of new issues and so of course our reps
and our administrators will all need to
make sure that we understand how this
works and in the true intent behind it
and that's why I really appreciate you
being at the bargaining table because
you understand the intent behind it I
know we all need a little rest right now
and I'm excited about this opportunity
and the cause for celebration and then I
should say that I'm really really
excited about the next steps that this
contract gets and moving forward
together to just keep working on making
sure that Portland Public Schools it
really is the schools that all our
students deserve so thank you thank you
to everybody and thank you to our
wonderful wonderful students who are
really always in our hearts and minds as
we have any of these conversations
thanks Suzanne thank you
[Applause]
so with that unless there's anything
else I'm the meeting is adjourned
Sources
- PPS Board of Education, Archive 2017-2018, https://www.pps.net/Page/12568 (accessed: 2022-03-24T00:57:51.006202Z)
- PPS Communications, "Board of Education" (YouTube playlist), https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8CC942A46270A16E (accessed: 2023-10-10T04:10:04.879786Z)
