WOODBURN, Ore. — Woodburn educators reached a tentative agreement Tuesday on contract language providing immigration enforcement protections for students, which the union says is the first such provision bargained in a K-12 setting in Oregon, following 12 months of negotiations and concurrent community protests outside the district’s headquarters.
The Woodburn Education Association, which represents nearly 300 certified teachers serving more than 5,200 students in the Woodburn School District, first proposed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement protections in fall 2025. The tentative agreement came on the first day of formal mediation, as union members and community supporters rallied outside the Woodburn School District Office, according to the union.
“We teach in Woodburn, one of the most linguistically and culturally diverse student populations in Oregon,” said Tony Salm, WEA president and fifth grade dual-language Spanish teacher at Heritage Elementary School. “Recent ICE actions targeting the most vulnerable populations in this community have created a pervasive sense of fear, not only among our students, but among many of our colleagues as well.”…