Grant teachers staged a walkout after school Feb. 14, taking boxes of their personal possessions home with them in preparation for a potential strike.
“We’re basically moving all our personal stuff out as the union has requested us,” said Grant history teacher Shardon Lewis. “We were warned by the school district that we were responsible for anything that happened to our personal items should there be a strike, so basically we viewed that as a need to protect our things.”
Lewis said he had five boxes already packed up in his car. “Box 15 of 30” was written on the one English teacher Dylan Leeman was holding during the walkout.
Family photos and coffee mugs that sat on teachers’ desks filled cardboard boxes on their way out of the school. Posters that decorated classroom walls were rolled up and ready to go as well. The moving process is a daunting task, especially for teachers with years of art, furniture and other possessions piled up in their classrooms.
“Walking out together is a representation of the move,” says English teacher Kate Brandy.
Math teacher Jerry Young says the walkout was meant to demonstrate to the community that Grant teachers are organized and serious about striking.
On Feb. 5, PPS teachers voted to strike on Feb. 20, the result of unresolved negotiations over the latest teachers’ contract. Representatives from the Portland Association of Teachers union and administrators from Portland Public Schools have been battling since April 2013, and the negotiations reached an impasse recently when neither side could agree on new terms.
Now teachers, administrators, parents, and students are preparing for the looming possibility of a strike. Meanwhile, the union and the district continue to negotiate.
If no resolution is reached between the PAT and PPS, teachers plan on walking off the job. District officials are in a bind because replacing roughly 2,900 teachers across Portland is no simple task.
Anything and everything that teachers don’t feel comfortable leaving unattended in their classrooms has to be out of the school before the strike happens. “There will be other adults potentially using your classroom,” says Grant principal Carol Campbell. “We don’t want anything to get damaged or stolen.”
Grant Magazine staffers Eliza Kamerling-Brown, Olivia Berry, Koji Wieber, Zoey Neville, Ahren Lahvis, Alex Gerald, and Maya Montgomery contributed to this report. Photos by Cassius Pettit, Cassie Hill, Taylor Ishida and Jessica Barr.
Keep checking Grantmagazine.com for more coverage of the potential strike and follow us on Twitter (@GrantMag), Instagram (Grant_Magazine) and Facebook for live updates as Feb. 20 approaches.
