Dear Portland Public Schools Community,

Tuesday night, our school board ratified the new three-year contract with the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT). Educators ratified the contract earlier in the day, so this issue is now resolved.

The Board also considered calendar shifts to accommodate the 11 instructional days we lost during the strike. You can watch the initial discussion here, and then again here.

Our decisions were driven by two elements.

1. Students have better outcomes making up full days rather than extending each day. Our calendar did not have 11 flexible days built-in. In finding possible solutions, our team began with less-disruptive options – forgoing Presidents’ Day (Feb. 19) or shifting professional development days (Jan. 26 and April 8). We also had three days set aside for possible inclement weather make-ups – June 12-14 – so it made sense to use those. That left five days to account for.
2. Middle and high school students lost time from their fall-semester classes. Given that many middle/high classes are only one-semester or one-quarter long, and that fall semester ends on January 25, we have a limited window to recoup that time. It would be impossible to make up all 11 days within the first semester – but converting days from winter break allows us to make up nearly half of the days in the same semester when they were lost. Adding days in June would extend the spring semester classes, not recoup lost time from fall semester classes.

We were particularly concerned for our seniors (and you can watch the discussion of this here). Many seniors are working to meet January college admissions deadlines. We need to maximize their instructional time primarily before transcripts are due, and secondarily before culminating exams in May and graduation in early June. May 30 will become a full day for seniors but, as noted above, we converted all other possibilities and were still five days short.

MLK Day will continue to be non-instructional.
We have spent the past week looking for ways to avoid shortening winter break, and, in consultation with PAT leaders, considered making Martin Luther King Jr. Day an instructional day. In the end, though, we all agreed that the best way to honor Dr. King's legacy would be to keep that day free for celebration, reflection, and advocacy.

Therefore, the days that were originally off, but will now be converted to instructional days, are:

1. December 18
2. December 19
3. December 20
4. December 21
5. December 22
6. January 26
7. February 19 (Presidents’ Day)
8. April 8
9. June 12
10. June 13
11. June 14

In Closing
We understand these schedule changes will be disruptive for many families, educators, and our other staff, but we made the decision we felt was best for our students’ success.

We appreciate your patience as we reestablish routines and rhythms. It has been a delight to have our students back in class these past five days.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jon Franco
Chief of Schools