The text of Rebecca Levison's speech to the PPS Board of Education:
Co-Chair Sargent, Co-Chair Adkins, Members of the Board, Superintendent Smith:
I am Rebecca Levison, President of the Portland Association of Teachers. I proudly represent the nearly 4,000 educators in Portland Public Schools.

These educators, your employees, have now been working without a contract for FIFTEEN MONTHS. Yet day after day they go to their school buildings because of their deep commitment to our students and to our community. They are constantly asked to do MORE with less.

My colleague, Dave, is here tonight. Dave is a teacher working at one of our elementary schools. He is the single wage earner in his family of four. He’s worked for the District for ten years, but can barely make it with his current salary and he works extra jobs at the school to provide for his family. Dave works an extraordinary number of hours beyond his contract day to meet the needs of his students.

My colleague, Bill, is also here tonight. Bill is a high school chemistry teacher. When Bill walked into school on the first day this year, he didn’t even have the basic tools to do his job. There was no working copy machine. There was no paper.
This year, Bill has nearly a 20% increase in the number of his students. That means significantly more papers to grade, parent contacts to make, lessons to differentiate – these are only a few examples of his “increased responsibilities”. Bill and Dave typify Portland Public Schools’ teachers, our members, who work, on average, 50 hours or more a week.

Just six years ago, both Dave and Bill took a pay cut of more than 5% when PAT members were the only employees in the entire district to work ten days without pay to provide a full school year for all Portland students.

Now you are asking Bill, Dave and the rest of our members to take another pay cut – this time a five day pay cut. Your proposal would have the majority of Portland teachers making less this year than they did in 2007. A five-day pay cut hurts much more when you’re earning $39,000 than when you are earning nearly $200,000 like the Superintendent.

You talk a lot about “shared sacrifice,” but we don’t see it. The District has three new Deputy Superintendent positions this year. Each new Deputy Superintendent received a pay increase of $13,000, for what you said were “additional responsibilities”.

Rob Cowie, in Communications here at BESC, got a raise this year of $15,268 – $15,268. We are told he received this raise because of “increased responsibilities.”
Unlike the Deputy Superintendents, Rob Cowie, or other select administrators, Portland teachers have not been offered a raise this year in recognition of their increased responsibilities. In fact, they would see a 2.63% pay reduction under your proposal. And, for last year, you haven’t even offered them the same cost of living increase that was paid to other PPS union employees.

My colleague Katie is also here tonight. Katie teaches in one of the District’s K-8s. She has a Masters Degree. She just started her fourth year teaching for Portland Public Schools. Although she would like to buy a house here in Portland, she is not able to on the salary she receives. In fact, she still shares an apartment with two roommates in order to pay her bills.

Rob Cowie’s raise – just the raise that he received this year – equals more than one- third of Katie’s annual teacher’s salary.

Last June, I spoke to you and stated that the District must use attrition in a responsible manner to balance its budget. Over $5 million dollars could have been saved in this school year by simply not filling 60 vacancies. The District did not use attrition.

In fact, this summer, the District produced yet another “organizational chart,” expanding departments in this building, while cutting resources in the schools. Hiring continues to occur here, at BESC.

People in this building seem to enjoy creating more work for our members teaching in the schools.

Portland Public Schools has one of the most highly educated and experienced staff in the state. Portland Public Schools must continue to attract and retain the best educators. This becomes increasingly difficult when your misguided priorities lead to staff frustration and low morale.

Portland teachers deserve a fair contract. And, they deserve it now.