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Teachers and classified staff urge board to push bargaining team toward larger COLA and transparency
Summary
Multiple teachers and classified staff used public comment to criticize the district's bargaining tactics, call the proposed cost-of-living adjustments insufficient relative to local inflation, and demand transparency about a delayed audit report and better protections for staff safety.
Dozens of commenters used the public-comment period at the Woodburn School District board meeting to press elected board members to direct the district's bargaining team toward more meaningful negotiation and greater transparency.
Max Sanchez, a Woodburn High School teacher, read a statement he said represented the Woodburn Education Association that criticized the district's bargaining approach and called the district's offer — read in the meeting as a 3% increase the first year and 2.75% for the following two years — insufficient when metro Portland headline inflation stands at 3.4%. "In effect, this is not a COLA, but a pay cut," Sanchez said while reading the WEA statement, and he urged the board to instruct negotiators to engage constructively.
Multiple other members of the bargaining team and long-tenured staff echoed that message. Jason Leven, presented to the board by a reader, said the district had "repeatedly struck out proposals without offering alternatives" and urged the board to direct good-faith bargaining. He also said the district declined to include proposed definitions that would clarify what constitutes physical harm or a threat toward educators — protections Leven said would cost the district nothing but provide clearer safety standards.
Several commenters also raised concerns about transparency. The public statements said the district's 2025–26 auditing report, which speakers said was due in January, had not been released by late April; presenters said the missing audit undermines the district's claim it cannot afford a higher COLA.
Classified employees, represented in a long statement by Carol Kramer, described daily physical demands, rising turnover and recruitment challenges, and argued that the district's proposed 2.5% COLA for classified staff is inadequate. "A large percentage of classified employees not only work a full day in the district but also hold second and third jobs concurrently in order to simply survive," Kramer said.
Board members did not engage in back-and-forth during the public-comment period; the meeting recessed later for an executive session to conduct deliberations related to labor negotiations.
No formal board action on bargaining terms was taken during the public meeting; members approved a series of unrelated consent and budget items later in the agenda.
