Portland superintendent resigns after approving massive teachers’ union contract

Portland Public Schools Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero resigned in December after a month-long teacher strike that drew nationwide attention.

“I am immensely proud of my team’s contribution to our school district’s 170-year history,” Guerrero said in a statement, local media reported. He plans to use his break to focus on health, take a road trip, and spend more time performing and producing rock music.

PPS board named Sandy Husk as interim superintendent once Guerrero leaves on Feb. 16.

However, the timing of Guerrero’s resignation is suspicious as it appears the superintendent wanted to make his exit before it was time to pay the proverbial piper.

“Most superintendents don’t last that long,” John Charles, president and CEO of the Oregon-based Cascade Policy Institute, told The Lion. “[It’s] always good for superintendents to get out of town before the judgement starts.”

He described the union strike as a “vote of no confidence” from district staff, but said the district’s concessions would only make things worse. 

The teachers’ union’s demands forced PPS to sign off on massive budget increases to the tune of $175 million over the next three years. PPS’s budget was already near $2 billion.  

Teachers also demanded a variety of racial equity and social justice measures, some of which had nothing to do with public education.  

And the updated student discipline guidelines even say that “student behavior is a communication of unmet needs” and claim that “the disciplinary response process should be aimed at meeting these needs.” 

According to Charles, this communicates that no behavior is out of bounds and that it is the responsibility of school staff – not students – to modify their behavior.  

He added that the district’s budget is “fiscally unsustainable” and that its race and equity-obsessed strategic reforms were “never going to work.”  

“It’s a good time [for Guerrero] to get out of town,” Charles concluded. 

The month-long union strike was so damaging that Republican state lawmakers are trying to ban them altogether. Many states already do.  

Oregon students have already suffered some of the worst learning declines of recent years, and those gaps could grow as the state lowers graduation requirements and turns basic math instruction into what critics call woke propaganda.