In the last moments of the teacher strike that brought her fraying school district to its knees in November, Frankie Silverstein, a Franklin High sophomore who represents students on the board of Portland Public Schools, had some choice words for all the adults in the room.
“There is no winning, because students have been losing this whole time,” she said on Tuesday, just before board members unanimously ratified a new contract with the teachers union. The hard-fought deal will give educators a 14.4% compounded cost of living adjustment over three years and require the district to spend down its savings and make more than $100 million in cuts, absent a new source of funding.