Teachers and students skip class during Oregon school district’s strike makeup week

Christmas break started late for one Oregon school district last week, the consequence of an almost month-long teachers strike. But many students and teachers skipped class anyway.

Portland Public Schools cancelled 11 school days in November after the Portland Associations of Teachers called for a strike.  

When a settlement was reached, the school board voted to turn the first week of the previously scheduled winter break into instructional days to help make up for the lost time 

“We know that families have previously scheduled plans on those days which may be impossible to break, and we sincerely wish there were other options to make up the lost time with full instructional days,” PPS Deputy Superintendent Cheryl Proctor wrote, according to KGW8.  

Indeed, PPS held classes last week, but with many teachers and students absent from classes, some questioned if it was worth it. 

On Monday, almost 600 teachers and 9,000 students were absent from class, according to KATU. The number of absentees only grew as the week progressed. On Thursday, 796 teachers and 13,744 students were absent. 

The number of students absent on Friday was not released to the public but is speculated to be even higher. 

Scott Blevins, an English teacher, noted that attendance in his classes dwindled each day, with only about a dozen students out of 30 present on Monday and Tuesday. On Friday, just two students showed up in a class of 28.  

“The hallways are incredibly empty,” Blevins said, according to The Oregonian. “It’s hard to have a regular class day when you have 10 students out of 32.” 

Mallette Faherty, a parent in the district, said she told her teens they could stay home on Friday after learning that most of the students were just watching movies in classrooms led by substitute teachers anyway. One of her kids went golfing. The other baked cookies. 

“With a substitute teacher there’s just no educational time,” Faherty told The Oregonian. “It just really didn’t pan out very well.” 

The district had approximately 500 substitutes working throughout the week to cover the growing number of absent teachers. 

Substitutes are earning incentive pay to help fill in, according to Sydney Kelly, the district spokesperson. The costs are yet to be determined since the final payroll won’t be processed until late January or early February, according to The Oregonian.  

According to the district’s official website, substitute teachers normally receive $247.58 a day, which would be well over $600,000 for 500 substitutes to cover 5 days.