As Portland teachers receive layoff notices, union raises objections

As more than 40,000 Portland Public Schools students head into summer break, a number of their teachers are getting layoff notices.

PPS administrators have been wrestling with a tight budget and have signaled for months that eliminating teaching positions — including through layoffs — would be necessary.

But the just-announced layoffs may violate the Portland Association of Teachers’ contract with PPS, according to union leaders.

According to the union’s contract, layoff decisions are to be based mainly on seniority, not on qualifications or endorsements in specific subject areas. PAT President Angela Bonilla says that’s not the case with these most recent layoffs.

“As we’re going through the list, we’re noticing several educators who likely would have been laid off across one of multiple of their endorsements who have not been laid off, and more senior educators being laid off,” Bonilla said.

“We’re really concerned about this process and the lack of transparency, and it seems like there is not a sense of consistency around the justifications for why, which should be very clear because it is outlined in our contract.”

Bonilla said she’s heard of 82 layoff notices going to members across a range of subjects and grade levels, with a concentration around elementary English Language Arts staff. Bonilla said 77 of those notices violate the union’s contract.

PPS did not respond to OPB’s request for the number of staff laid off, citing a district-wide furlough day on Tuesday.

Officials also said they could not comment on “specific personnel matters.”

But communications chief Candice Grose shares a statement saying the district is aware of the grievance.

“We disagree with the characterization that the district has violated the collective bargaining agreement,” Grose wrote.

“Determining layoff notices requires a complex review of seniority, licensure, endorsements, qualifications, and contractual requirements across the district.

PPS strives to ensure these decisions are made fairly, consistently, and in accordance with applicable law and contractual obligations.”

Bonilla said the district has not shared how many educators would be laid off, so it could be more than the 82 she’s learned about.

“To issue this scale of layoff notices without adhering to the negotiated layoff processes shows a clear contempt for educators, their voices, and the collective bargaining process,” Bonilla said in a statement shared Monday evening. “Teachers, students, parents, and our school community deserve immediate transparency from PPS about the layoff notices issued, and how many educators will be impacted.”

PPS is one of many educational institutions contending with staff layoffs as a result of budget constraints.

Earlier this year, the union representing teachers in Springfield Public Schools filed an unfair labor practice charge over mid-year layoffs.

At Portland State University last year, faculty who lost their jobs got them back after an independent mediator ruled that the university violated its labor contract.

However, budget cuts this year left some of those same staffers without jobs again.

PPS official Grose said the district “remains committed” to working with PAT and employees to help answer questions.

Bonilla, the PAT president, said the district has not been clear or consistent in how it communicates to educators who are receiving notices.

“What we have seen is that more senior educators in certain categories are being laid off than less senior educators,” Bonilla said.

Bonilla also said the district has hired an external candidate for a preschool position in Northeast Portland, when it could have instead been offered internally, including to PAT members.

It’s unclear how many PPS staff will be laid off. Bonilla questions why it took PPS so long to start issuing layoff notices after first signaling layoffs back in January.

“It’s really frustrating to see this continue to change and continue to add up, especially as educators have already left for the school year, for the summer,” Bonilla said.

“On August 20th, we are expected to return to work, to start preparing our classrooms, start taking professional development, and I’m really worried that the pace at which this is moving, that educators will start the school year working to prepare a classroom that they won’t be asked to teach, because they will be laid off,” she said.

Oregon’s largest school district has experienced a lot of change and turmoil since the Portland teachers’ strike in 2023.

In the time after the strike, both union leaders and PPS Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong worked to rebuild broken trust.

In 2024, a year after the strike, Armstrong told OPB that the district was starting its budget processes earlier to improve transparency and work with unions.

“These efforts are all focused on fostering a culture of trust and collaboration as we move forward and rise together,” Armstrong said in an emailed statement to OPB.

Bonilla noted that some things have improved between teachers and the district. But the current situation threatens that fragile relationship.

“I’d rather we be able to talk things out and deal with them and and not have to flex our power as a union, but when the district leadership just kind of disregards our contracts, disregards the impacts of these kinds of decisions being drawn out since February have on our educators, it really does not set us up to have a relationship that can be as cordial,” Bonilla said.

“We can’t keep waiting for them to do these processes correctly. We need them to do them right the first time.”