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The Portland School Board on Tuesday night approved a contract extension for its superintendent, Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong. As WW first reported, the contract will increase Armstrong’s compensation package, largely through a retention bonus that will kick in after she completes four years with the district.
Armstrong, who has just entered her third year as head of Oregon’s largest school district, will under the new contract make $344,792 a year. That base pay salary will be increased by 3% each year, or an equivalent to the cost-of-living adjustment provided to the Portland Association of Teachers, whichever is less. (Her former contract included 3% yearly increases. She started at $325,000 when hired in 2024.) It will also nearly double Armstrong’s monthly car payment stipend from $400 to $750, increase the number of vacation days she can cash out, and introduce five flex days for district work she does on holidays or weekends.
The majority of the School Board, who approved the contract by a 5-2 vote, said the new contract would bring Armstrong closer to superintendents of other comparable school districts nationwide. Several members also said Armstrong’s new contract was in line with superintendents of Oregon districts that oversee fewer students, and lower than one for the new Beaverton School District superintendent.
“When the superintendent was hired, her contract even compared to comparables was actually devastatingly low. It was under average even for a first-year superintendent,” said Board Chair Eddie Wang. “It’s still pretty unpaid compared to the comparables.”
Most members also noted it was crucial that Armstrong stay as PPS’s superintendent, citing her willingness to confront problems that the district has kicked down the road. This fall, Armstrong is leading a process to close 10 to 20 of the district’s 45 elementary schools, 11 K-8s and 15 middle schools. Most members spelled out that they’d prefer to see the superintendent remain a steady force in the district throughout the process.
The auditorium at Grant High School, where Tuesday’s meeting took place, was largely empty as discussion of the contract unfolded. But members and leaders of the Portland Association of Teachers packed two rows in front of the superintendent. In public testimony, both current union president Alisha Chavez and former PAT president Angela Bonilla, now a fourth grade teacher with the district, urged the School Board to reject the contract.
As the district looks to cut at least $65 million from its budget next spring, union leaders said students and teachers had shouldered waning resources and taken furlough days to help the district out. The tone turned fiery at times, as both cited upcoming union contract negotiations, set to resume in January.
If the board could provide the superintendent with retention bonuses and benefits, Bonilla reasoned it should also be able to provide educators those same incentives. And she said she was worried that history might repeat itself, in apparent reference to the 2023 teacher strike.
“This contract will set a dangerous precedent for bargaining that I don’t think y’all want to set unless y’all have finally decided to show us that you value us with living wages and help that actually feels like help, instead of a lanyard and some sentiments during teacher appreciation week,” Bonilla said. “This district pushed us to go on strike and several School Board members who are no longer on this board helped prolong it. So, please remember that.”
Two board members, Virginia La Forte and Stephanie Engelsman, said the timing of the contract extension made them uncomfortable. Both said they couldn’t approve such a compensation package after budget shortfalls shortened the 2025–26 school year for PPS students, and staff shouldered furlough days.
“It seemed so tone-deaf given the magnitude of the budget crisis,” Engelsman said. “It just felt wrong.”
But other board members said it was the board’s fault that the contract extension had been pushed into September. Board member Christy Splitt said that when contract negotiations began, she had been impressed that Armstrong asked for a cost-of-living adjustment that matched PAT’s, and had expressed a desire to have her salary adjusted by PAT’s 1% COLA, negotiated under an unusual one-year contract agreement for the 2026–27 school year.
In fact, Armstrong received a 3% cost-of-living adjustment. Splitt said she’d only found out on Tuesday that Armstrong’s 3% COLA had gone through, and said it was the product of board inaction.
