One in three
That’s the current number of Portland Public School students who choose to attend a school outside of their neighborhood school. (This, from Sunday’s article on magnet schools in The O.)
Think we’re talking about a group of children chauffered across town by their upper-middle class families? Think again. Sure, I don’t doubt that’s happening. But there are also parents of much more modest means bussing their kids across town via TriMet (I should know; I was one of them last year.) Or catching rides via school bus networks. Or carpooling. Or buying their older kids bus passes. Or taking advantage of No Child Left Behind to leave their under(performing or enrolled) neighborhood school behind.
Sure, there’s a cadre of impassioned parents fighting hard to save their neighborhood schools. Still more parents urging school officials to slow down the process.
But there’s a also a pretty large (and thus far, silent) faction out there - a faction made up of people who have already chosen to send their children elsewhere, and who have been able to find a connection, a community, and a structure worth preserving elsewhere. But we’re more than just the transfer parents - there’s also a significant group of silent people who think their neighborhood school - whether the old one or the proposed new one - would actually do better as a K-8, or combined with another program. We like what we’re hearing - even if we hear it’s just one of many ‘rough drafts.’
We’re a reticent bunch - we’re talking in hushed tones to our friends and neighbors. We’re raising tentative hands of support when the district talks about right-sizing starting now - even though we run the risk of being labeled elitist, even though we’re told we don’t really have skin in the game this time around, since it’s not our school closing, or because we chose to bail on our neighborhood school. But we’ve been sending emails of support in the privacy of our own homes (I know that the district has gotten a ton of positive email feedback already, just as I know there were plenty of people in the audience tonight at the school board meeting who feel as I do.)
We like the idea of larger schools - especially when it means we might get gym and art and music back (just wait until you see the staffing ratios and extra programs and lowered class sizes for the combined Abernathy/Edwards school this year versus a solo Edwards last year that got presented at tonight’s school board meeting, soon to be appearing on the PPS web site.)
And you know what? We do have skin in the game. We’re all tired after year after year of cuts and fights and fundraising drives to restore basic services. And if making tough cuts now, if PPS decides it can no longer support underenrolled neighborhood schools given the budget crisis and enrollment projections (all heading south) - well, I have this to say:
Closing schools? Bring. It. ON. Now. Get it done once and for all.
And then stop the bleeding.
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I agree with everything Betsy has said. When I first read the leaked PPS board recommendations last week, my first thoughts were not “to the ramparts!!,” but “hey - the first idea in almost a decade of being in this benighted educational system that actualy makes some SENSE.” And I too, whispered my support - or more accurately, kept it to myself - simply because I am sick to death of fighting/hearing about this damn battle year after year after year, while watching Portland’s vaunted and so-called “liveability” factor disappear into the dust even as housing prices go through the roof.
I say with Betsy - Bring. This. Plan. On. NOW. So maybe my son will have less than 33 kids in his damn language arts and math classes next fall.
For the record: my son, now a 7th grader, went to the Creative Science Magnet program from k-5. He is now in a regular - i.e., non-magnet - middle school.
I think most of what Betsy says is valid. But I think part of the issue honestly is Measure 5 (dramatic music). I don’t think there’d be a funding issue if the caps didn’t exist, have you looked at the housing market here? I don’t claim to know all the ins and outs of Measure 5, but I know it was supposed to make Portland so much better and look where we are. Has anyone investigated repealing Measure 5 and how that would help matters?
At this point I’m just glad something is going to be DONE and not just complained about.
Well, there’s the stuff that’s out of our control, and then there’s the stuff within our control.
PPS has decided (and rightly so) to clean our own house up first, to tackle the things we can directly influence - and THEN address the inadequate funding solutions proposed in Salem, Measure 5 repeal, etc.
No matter what kinds of money falls down from the heavens, the truth is that we’re still a district with underutilized physical resources. And we’re straining to support an outsized infrastructure we may no longer need (or want) to support.
The figures are there in today’s O article recapping the meeting last night(an article that doesn’t quite capture what was presented, in my opinion) - PPS enrollment was 81K 30 years ago, and is 47K today (with projections dropping that last figure even more in the next 10 years.) And yet there are those who feel that the district ought to support schools at only 40% of capacity, or who argue that the cost savings of closing schools isn’t that great.
I obviously disagree - and think we have to start first with what’s doable before we go tilting at windmills in Salem or across the entire state…
Don’t count on any extra programs. They won’t even be able to afford to retrofit the buildings. Or are kindergarteners going to just drown in the urinals at these middle schools? Take the time to do it right or not at all. Vicki Phillips is not about details. She’s about sweeping changes to look good to business and to heck with actually doing the job right.
Don’t count on any extra programs. They won’t even be able to afford to retrofit the buildings. Or are kindergarteners going to just drown in the urinals at these middle schools? Take the time to do it right or not at all. Vicki Phillips is not about details. She’s about sweeping changes to look good to business and forgetabout actually doing the job right.
Wake up Portland. We have been invaded by a virus called the Broad Foundation. Parents, principals, teachers, and anyone who knows anything about schools were not included in this decision of K-8 reform. Who decided? The Portland Schools Foundation and the Broad Foundation….and what are they about? Business and privitization…charter schools and a corporate model…So you think this is all fine and dandy? Think a little harder.
Meagan, do you believe that we ought to keep operating schools at half-capacity?
I was at Monday’s school board meeting, and it didn’t look as if the district is rushing to jump on a K-8 bandwagon out of thin air to me. And I also question your assertion that the Portland Schools Foundation’s helping to drive the bus here.
We’ve got big problems - what’s your solution?
Yes Portland Schools Foundation is helping to drive the bus. Absolutely. However, now there is a little infighting…might check today’s paper. And I betcha it was one of them that leaked “The Plan” to the press. Now…what to do? How about adequate state funding based on raising the corporate minimum tax from $10 to recoup the billions (I’ve heard as much as $25 billion a year) in tax credits that could help our schools and other services in oregon. We rely too much on personal income taxes…And K-8 might be a good idea. But hey! Let’s take the time to talk to educators, parents and city planners…Not have it decided by foundations that have no knowledge of what actually happens in a school or classroom when mandates are handed down from above..