The stands were full, the lights were bright, but the game was missing something. For the first time in years, the pep band was silent. But that silence wasn’t a mistake; it was a statement.
At Portland Public Schools football games this fall, the usual brass blasts and drumline beats were nowhere to be heard. Instead, the band directors across PPS collectively chose to sit out the pep band, citing years of unpaid overtime and a district that has failed to fix stipend language in their contracts.
For students in the stands, the difference was clear.
“Without having a pep band, the game’s energy felt less cheerful,” said student Sammy Vorhees. “There was less cheering, and we needed to cheer for the team since we were losing so badly.”
The impact reached far beyond a single game. The absence of a pep band was a protest, meant to highlight a fight that has been developing for years: PPS teachers doing unpaid extracurricular work.
“Any teacher that does something beyond the school day with students has been waiting for this stipend to get figured out,” band director Gary Riler said. “When the strike happened in 2023, they said they’d put a committee together to figure it out. We’re in the third year of a three-year contract, and still nothing has been fixed. So now you can see why we’re doing what we’re doing. We’re tired of waiting.”
Riler added that the band teachers are fighting not just for band teachers, but for all teachers who haven’t received fair pay.
PPS teacher contracts require “three or more” major performances per year. Band directors, however, already do much more. “I do four concerts a year, two jazz nights, a chamber music concert, two festivals, and we go to state,” Riler explained. “That’s already way over three. Pep band is extra. We rehearse it before and after school. So by stepping back from pep band, we aren’t breaking the contract, we’re just finally saying enough is enough.”
According to Riler, the district has avoided fixing stipends since at least 2017. “It’s been almost 10 years,” he said. “The district keeps letting it go because teachers just kept doing the work without being paid fairly. Now, we’re not doing it, and suddenly they care.”
The teachers’ union has tried to bring the issue to the negotiating table, but many band directors felt frustrated by how long PPS has stalled on the issue. Some believe that PPS prolonged fixing the stipend because it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
After what some would call a strike, some a protest, long negotiation sessions, the issue was temporarily resolved with a surprise vote on Sept. 18, and the PPS school board voted to approve the new contract language. This means that for this year, teachers will start finally seeing the money they deserve from doing overtime work.
There are still disagreements on pay from previous years of overtime; however, for now, the issue is resolved.
So, expect to see the pep band at your next game, bringing the fighting spirit of Cleveland High School back to our football games!
