Schools in Albany reopened Tuesday after a weeks-long teacher strike, a dramatic reversal just hours after the deal seemingly collapsed during a marathon negotiation session.
Greater Albany Public Schools board members voted late Monday to approve the contract and settlement agreement. Members of the Greater Albany Education Association also ratified it, meaning school will resume for the Linn County district’s nearly 9,000 students for the first time since classes were canceled on Nov. 12.
The district did not shave days off the winter or spring break schedules.
Talks resumed Monday afternoon after negotiations snagged in a session that ended at 3 a.m. Monday. The sticking points included how many missed school days to make up and how much back pay teachers would get for the days they were on strike.
“I do believe that this contract will make us a better district, a more collaborative district and we will work forward optimistically,” Superintendent Andy Gardner said during a hastily called board meeting Monday night.
In a statement posted on its website, the Greater Albany Education Association said the agreement represented “a testament to our collective dedication to improving safety, support, retention, workload balance and professional growth.”
The Albany agreement includes a hard cap on kindergarten class sizes at 22 at schools that serve higher percentages of students from low-income families and a goal of 25 at schools that do not. The district also agreed to set aside $500,000 for a “class size fund” to address classrooms that are beyond agreed-upon thresholds, either by hiring aides or more teachers.
The agreement also includes cost-of-living increases between 11.8% and 15% compounded over the next two years, depending on seniority, plus 390 minutes per week of prep time for elementary school teachers.
At 10 instructional days — and 12.5 days without pay for teachers, because parent/teacher conference days were also on the schedule in November — the strike will be among the longest in modern Oregon history. Students in Portland missed 11 days in 2023.
— Julia Silverman covers education for The Oregonian/OregonLive. She can be reached via email at jsilverman@oregonian.com
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