Members of the school board and the Portland Association of Teachers received a letter on Feb. 15 from members of the legislature urging an agreement on a contract before a strike occurs. PAT released the letter on its Facebook page.

The letter comes on the eve of today’s negotiation between the two sides where the district is expected to respond to the PAT’s latest concessions. The union proposed a contract on Feb. 13 making concessions in hot button areas. According to OregonLive, both sides were feeling “cautiously optimistic” about the state of negotiations.

If a contract is not reached, the first teacher strike in PPS history will begin on Feb. 20.

Here is the letter from state legislators:

 “Dear PPS Board Members, Superintendent Smith, President Sullivan, and PAT Members,

 We have been following the negotiations for a new teachers’ contract very closely and with much interest. We and our entire city remain hopeful that you can reach a settlement before Thursday’s strike date.

 We are proud that our city has maintained a strong urban school district. We know Portland Public Schools has worked to support strong neighborhood schools and encourage parent communities. We know teachers bring energy, expertise, and commitment every day to their classrooms. It would be devastating to have a strike tear our community apart.

 We fought for a $6.75 billion biennial budget for K-12 last year, and then we made hard choices to raise another $100 million for schools during the special session (which added $7.8 million for PPS next school year). Our goal was to put sustainable resources into the classroom to help Oregon students succeed.

 We are heartened by the most recent revenue forecast that indicates there will be an additional $98 million in local revenue for our schools (another $4.6 million for PPS next school year), thus providing even more resources to reduce class sizes.

 We remain committed to sustaining these resources and increasing our investment in schools in the next biennium and beyond.

 In this time of rebuilding from the recession cuts, we believe that the quality of the classroom experience should take precedent over the length of the school year. While we need both, our expectation for our reinvestment budget was to make sure school districts had the resources to hire additional teachers and other educational professionals in order to decrease class sizes and improve the learning environment for all students.

 We hope the 2014-15 school year will be a transformative year for Oregon’s students. We hope you seize this opportunity to reach a mutually-acceptable settlement that recognizes the inadequacies of the recession years and builds a present and future PPS our children deserve.

 Sincerely,

Speaker Tina Kotek

Rep. Jules Bailey

Rep. Margaret Doherty

Rep. Shemia Fagan

Rep. Lew Frederick

Rep. Tobias Read

Rep. Jessica Vega Pederson

Rep. Jennifer Williamson”