Today, we spent our time with the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) discussing financial matters. As an Oregonian story last week made clear, we are far apart on finances – and that distance seems to be rooted, in part, in misunderstandings that we wanted to clarify.

At a time when, unfortunately, many districts are experiencing significant dips – at a time when national trends are going backwards – we’re proud to share with you that we have made notable gains. Across all grades, we outperformed other Oregon districts by more than 10% in both English Language Arts and Math. And in all grades, our students also improved from last year in both Math and English Language Arts.

Today was disappointing – for us but, most importantly, for our students and families. The Portland Association of Teachers offered no counter proposals – and yet declared impasse.

Today, we offered compromises that would both reward our educators and further our students’ success. We were able to raise our compensation offer substantially. We are not there yet, but we are committed to the hard work of finding common ground.