This football season, several Portland Public Schools (PPS) high schools will not have a pep band at their home football games.
In early August, band directors from Cleveland, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Franklin, Grant, Jefferson and Ida B. Wells (IBW) High Schools announced in a letter to PPS administrators and athletic directors that they would no longer attend or direct any after-school band activities until they could negotiate better pay.
This boycott comes during a challenging and prolonged period of conflict between PPS teachers and district administrators. Two years ago, PPS experienced a district-wide strike that lasted over a month, and teachers finally signed a conclusive contract with the administration. However, that contract still does not cover the responsibilities of high school band directors.
“Band directors get something called extended responsibility, which means we’re getting paid extra on top of our PPS salary for [activities] outside of the school day,” said Nick Caldwell, band director at IBW. Extended responsibility (ER) pay is what these teachers are striking for.
Under his contract, Caldwell is paid for “three or more” after-school activities. “When the district… says three or more, we feel like they’re really taken advantage of. We already have our three concerts,” he said. However, Caldwell isn’t paid for the over 20 other after-school performances, rehearsals and other activities.
“Basically, for the last two years, we’ve been working for free,” said Caldwell.
Meanwhile, students across the district have stood in solidarity with their teachers. “We’ve been rallying behind our teacher, Mr. Caldwell, to show the district that it’s really important [to] pay our teacher for all the amazing work that he does,” said Ainsley Porter, IBW senior and band student. “It’s been something [happening] across the district.”
IBW students decided to take an additional stand to show their support for their teacher. Last week, Porter had the idea to paint posters advocating for better ER pay and display them at the first IBW home football game of the season. “We really wanted to highlight that [the] band was not at the game,” said Porter.
On Thursday, Sept. 11, Porter and other band students painted long posters to hang across the bleachers. “[The posters] say ‘Pay them now’ and ‘Music matters,’” she said. “We have one poster in the middle that says ‘Negotiate.’”
Her idea received mixed reviews from the IBW administration. “We’ve heard from admin that they think our way of protesting is a waste of resources,” said Porter. “It’s frustrating to hear that, because we are trying to show our support for our teachers in the best way possible. We’re trying to send an impactful message and this is how we’ve decided to send [it].”
These posters were displayed on Friday night at this year’s first IBW home football game. No pep band played at the event.
As for how long the boycott will last, neither students nor teachers are sure. What’s clear is that PPS band directors won’t back down and are prepared to strike through winter basketball games if the district doesn’t resolve the contract.
“We have a new contract getting signed next year, and that [updated ER pay] will be in it,” said Caldwell. Regardless, next year’s contract doesn’t solve this year’s issue. “You’re going to just tell us we’re going to work for free for the next year?”
Communication has been attempted between the teachers, the union and the district administrators, but clarification of the contract has failed. According to Valerie Feder, Portland Public Schools Director of Media Relations, discussions are ongoing, but an agreement hasn’t been reached.
However, Caldwell and other band directors have reported that communication attempts have fallen short. “They’ve [PPS administrators] been saying, ‘Yeah, we have an agreement,’” said Caldwell. But PPS has refused to share an official agreement with band directors. “Even if we don’t get paid yet, but we know we will get backpaid for the last two years, then we’ll go play.”
According to Caldwell, student bands across the district are “ready to go,” and all the directors are looking for is clarity from their administration. “We’re in the dark,” said Caldwell. “We’ll go, right now… but we still have yet to get any kind of clarification, or a green light that they’re officially done.”
“I like playing music with my students as much as possible,” he said.
