Is Portland Public Schools hiring substitute teachers to prepare for a strike?: PPS News
The rumor mill started up this week soon after Portland Public Schools opened up its substitute pool.
The district recently sent out notices to various graduate schools, such as Western Oregon University and Portland State University, to let their networks know about open substitute spots for educators in the following subjects: foreign language; Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Chinese immersion; health and physical education; math; special education; music and the arts; dual language arts and social studies; science; elementary; and media specialist.
In other words, nearly all of the subjects.
For a district currently going through tense contract negotiations with its union, the timing seemed a little suspect to Portland Public Schools watchers. Is the district preparing for a way to keep the doors open when the union goes on strike?
In other words, nearly all of the subjects.
For a district currently going through tense contract negotiations with its union, the timing seemed a little suspect to Portland Public Schools watchers. Is the district preparing for a way to keep the doors open when the union goes on strike?
For its part, district spokeswoman Erin Hoover Barnett said that's not the case.
"Our substitute pool is usually at 800 to 900 subs – we need a huge pool to make sure