PORTLAND, Ore. – For the first time in years, leaders of Oregon’s Portland school district are writing their budget in black ink instead of red – and the local teachers union can’t stand it.

Leaders of the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) are upset that school officials plan to put the district’s roughly $20 million surplus into the bank when that money could be used to meet some of the union’s contract demands, according to KATU.com.

“($20 million) is a lot to stash in a rainy day fund at a time when it’s clearly raining, very hard, on the schools, without much of an umbrella,” said PAT President Gwen Sullivan.

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Sullivan thinks much of the extra money should immediately be spent on 175 new full-time employees in order to reduce class size and teacher workload, KATU.com reports.

It’s worth noting those 175 new teachers would also become dues-paying PAT members, though we’re sure that thought hasn’t even crossed Sullivan’s mind … right?

Fortunately for Portland taxpayers, there are at least a few adults involved in running the district.

Portland school leaders want to add the $20 million surplus to the district’s savings account, which would bring the total balance to $34 million – an amount equal to 5 percent of the district’s overall budget, according to Robb Cowie, a Portland Public Schools spokesman.

“No one should mistake a better budget picture for a perfect budget picture. The investments we make this year have to be sustainable over time,” Cowie said, according to the news site.

That’s good thinking, especially given that Portland schools are projecting an $8 million deficit for the 2015-16 school year.

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While the surplus is good news for the district in the long-term, it does present some problems in the short-term. The surplus gives PAT leaders a handy cudgel to wield against Portland negotiators during the ongoing (and contentious) teacher union contract talks which started last spring.

Still, if district officials play their cards right, they can use the surplus to prove to taxpayers that their stewardship of the district is paying dividends, and therefore, their judgment can be trusted on other issues (such as student-teacher ratios and personnel rules) as well.