The Greater Albany Education Association: A History of Advocacy and Progress
The Greater Albany Education Association (GAEA) represents roughly 600 licensed educators, including teachers and counselors, across the mid-Willamette Valley city. GAEA has a rich history of advocating for its members and striving for improvements in the Greater Albany Public Schools (GAPS) district. This article explores a significant chapter in that history, focusing on the recent 2024 strike and the landmark agreement that followed.
The 2024 Strike: A Stand for Students and Educators
In a move that reverberated throughout the community, members of the Greater Albany Education Association began striking on Tuesday, Nov. 12. This marked the first strike in the district in nearly 40 years and the longest in the district’s history. Union officials say it’s one of the longest strikes in Oregon ever. The strike, which lasted for three weeks, saw teachers holding the line with classroom safety as their end game.
The decision to strike was not taken lightly. Dana Lovejoy, president of the GAEA, who taught in the district for nearly two decades, led the charge for reaching the agreement. Teachers felt compelled to take action due to concerns surrounding several key issues, including class sizes, compensation, and support for students with learning differences.
Albany students missed a total of 10 days during the strike, and educators missed 12 work days, including parent-teacher conferences.
Community Support and Solidarity
Throughout the strike, the GAEA received overwhelming support from parents, students, and other community members. As Dana Lovejoy stated in a press release, “We are forever touched by every parent, student, and supporter who has been out with us on the strike lines these past three weeks; your kindness, support, and solidarity meant everything to us, and this agreement would not have been achieved without you.”
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Parents organized rallies and showed up on the picket lines to demonstrate their support for the teachers. Students also voiced their solidarity, understanding that the issues at stake directly impacted their learning environment. The community’s unwavering support played a crucial role in the eventual resolution of the strike.
The 2024-2027 Collective Bargaining Agreement: A Landmark Achievement
After three weeks of striking, the Greater Albany Public Schools and the teachers’ union reached an agreement on a new contract Monday evening. Members of the Greater Albany Education Association voted to ratify their new 2024-27 collective bargaining agreement, with 87% of votes in favor, as reported to the school board by Superintendent Andy Gardner. The school board, just minutes after the ratification vote was announced, also voted to approve the new contract, as well as the plan for how to reopen the schools.
The 2024-2027 Collective Bargaining Agreement represents a landmark achievement for the GAEA and its members. The agreement addresses several key issues that were at the heart of the strike, resulting in significant improvements for both educators and students.
Key Provisions of the Agreement
As the union summarized it, the agreement includes improvements to better support students with learning differences, pathways to recruit new teachers and retain educators long-term, new school safety protections, guaranteed prep times and two bathroom breaks.
- Class Size Caps: Perhaps more than any other article in the Albany contract, the change that educators and parents may find most compelling relates to a hard cap limiting class size. It’s an issue that Oregon teachers unions have prioritized for years without necessarily getting the changes they want. In Albany, the new contract establishes the first hard caps in Oregon, but only for kindergarten classes. In a summary of the contract changes, union officials said the new class size thresholds for pre-K classes are 18 students in Title I schools, which serve more students from lower-income households, and 20 students at other district schools. For kindergarten classes, those numbers are 22 and 25, respectively. If a class hits the cap, union leaders said the district can try rearranging teachers or students to bring the class size below the limit, but if they can’t, another teacher would be hired. If there is space, they would split into two classrooms. If there isn’t an available classroom, then the class could be brought under the teacher-student cap, by having two teachers team-teach the class. The class size caps will not go into effect until next school year.
- Elementary Building-Level Review Process: The new agreement also establishes a new elementary building-level review process to help with class size, as well as a districtwide class size fund of $500,000 to cover costs associated with classes over the threshold. The fund will be refilled each year.
- Compensation Increases: Gardner told the school board that compensation was a huge issue - though not the only issue. The new agreement in the first year of the contract includes a 7% pay increase for educators with one-15 years of experience and 9% for those with more. Gardner stated, “We know that the teachers of this district had fallen behind inflation. We know that they were not comparative, particularly our senior teachers at the top end with other districts. And so, it is really gratifying to be able to change that compensation, and we want our people to work here in confidence that they are not losing $7,000 a year at the top end to another district.”
- Make-Up Days: In the end, they agreed to make up 8 of the 10 missed student days and add one more teacher work day. The agreement makes up some of those days by turning what were teacher work days into days students come to school. The revised calendar extends the school year slightly into the summer break. Friday, June 13, is now the last day for students, followed by a teacher work day on Monday, June 16.
Union leaders told OPB the “cost of the improvements” made by the three-year agreement is expected to be around $20 million, though some expenses are tied to inflation.
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Addressing Concerns and Moving Forward
While the agreement was widely celebrated, some concerns remained. Cloee Hewes, a personal care assistant (PCA) for GAPS, noted the potential consequences of the two weeks of school days missed followed by a week off for Thanksgiving. She worried about the disruption to students' socialization and learning.
Dana Lovejoy acknowledged the hardships faced by families during the strike, stating, "There were hardships on all families, even if you supported the work that we were doing. We know that there are parents who were frustrated that their students were home so long, and we were frustrated as well."
Despite these concerns, the overwhelming sentiment was one of optimism and progress. Gardner told the school board that they aren’t finished, but they’re in a good place. “There’s work to do, obviously, to heal, to come together, to let go,” he told the school board Monday night.
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