Portland Public School teachers will finish voting Friday on a proposal that would trim three instructional days from this school year to help patch a $14 million midyear budget deficit.
If they turn down the proposal — which also requires them to forgo pay for the Memorial Day holiday — the school district has said it may have to lay off as many as 200 school-based employees by the end of the school year, in addition to planned furloughs among non-unionized central office staff.
But that would be a complicated path. Under the terms of the district’s contract with the Portland Association of Teachers, employees must have a 60-day notice of any layoffs. In practical terms, that means no licensed educators could be laid off before at least the middle of May — at which point, the school year is just a few weeks away from being over…