The Portland district and its teachers’ union have signed a tentative agreement, averting a walk-off scheduled to begin Feb. 20.
The deal must be approved by rank-and-file members, which could take a few weeks. So far, details are scarce on what the new pact will include.
The teachers’ union has been pushing primarily on salary increases and for hiring more teachers to reduce class sizes. (As the Oregonian’s excellent coverage makes clear, class size is a permissible subject of bargaining in the state, but the language in the contract actually refers to teacher workload, or the total number of students assigned to each teacher.)
Teachers in the Medford, Ore., district, nearly 300 miles south of Portland, began a strike Feb. 6, which continues.