February 25, 2003
Strike Averted? Schools Saved?
This evening's meeting to discuss public involvement procedures was moved from its original location in the Lovejoy Room at City Hall because of continuing negotiations over school funding and a potential teachers strike. Those sessions were apparently productive:
A tentative contract agreement was reached Tuesday night between the Portland Public Schools and its teachers' union, averting a possible March 10 strike.
The deal announcement came about a half-hour after Portland's 3,600 teachers overwhelmingly voted to go on strike during a meeting at the city's convention center.
The strike authorization vote was briefly halted after the union membership received word that a tentative agreement had apparently been reached.
Union president Ann Nice later told kgw.com that the city and the county had all signed off on a plan to salvage some of the days cut from the Portland school year and plug future budget gaps.
Frankly, all the initial reports are rather confusing, and horribly written in so extreme a fashion that they all appear to claim both that a deal was reached and thar a deal has not been reached. But all the headlines say a strike has been averted.
So much for clear writing on the part of local "breaking news" reporters.