Members of the Portland Association of Teachers ratified an agreement to take four furlough days as Portland Public Schools faces an unexpected $22.5 million gap in the current year’s budget.
The furloughs mean PPS students will lose three instructional days, and school will let out on June 5, instead of June 9 as the district previously planned. In a districtwide email sent Sunday afternoon, PPS’s bargaining communications team wrote the agreement will help avoid midyear educator layoffs, which would have been in the hundreds. (The agreement specifically outlines that any potential layoffs for the 2025–26 academic year “will be eliminated as a result of the furloughs.”)
Under the memorandum of understanding, which will go in front of the Portland School Board for formal approval on March 31, the furlough days will be May 1 and 25 and June 9 and 10. June 8, previously a school day, was converted to a grading day in lieu of June 10. May 25, the Memorial Day holiday, is now an unpaid no-work day…