“What’s he doing here?” a wary Ockley Green student asked Assistant Principal Stacey Sibley, referring to this reporter.

“He’s writing a story on our school,” Sibley answered.

“Why would he want to write about us?”

“Because you guys are great,” Sibley says.

Ockley Green, a K-8 arts and technology magnet school, sits on a residential street in North Portland’s relatively well-off Arbor Lodge Neighborhood. Despite its location in the leafy subdivision off Interstate Avenue, Ockley has struggled to beat the odds and improve itself and its reputation as a tough inner-city school.

Ockley’s struggles with low test scores, insufficient budgeting, and low enrollment are typical of many public schools throughout North/Northeast and mid-county Portland. Ockley is also a poster child for reforms made to middle and elementary schools in North Portland that were done in the run up to today’s moves to restructure high schools.  Attempts to improve Ockley include expanding it from a middle school to a kindergarten through eighth grade school, closing smaller feeder schools, converting it to a magnet program, and pumping short-term federal grants. But five years later, improvements have proven to be unstable.

Five years after the restructuring, Ockley appears to have made gains but continues to struggle for cash, teachers, programs and students. The school has fought tooth and nail to maintain the gains that it achieved through a restructuring five years ago. In Ockley’s case, efforts to remake the school have still not addressed core problems of funding, staffing and the perception that their school has been labeled a pariah.

UPDATED 9:10pm

Carole Smith's presentation began ahead of schedule. Smith got a little choked up when she began to talk about the proposal to restructure schools.  

She has stated the both Jefferson and Roosevelt are going to stay as neighborhood schools.  Marshall and Benson will become a special focus schools. Marshall will be closed and its students divided between Portland and David Douglas school districts. 

“Roosevelt High will survive the cuts”

Sources inside Portland Public Schools say they believe Roosevelt High School will survive the chopping block tonight when School Superintendent Carole Smith presents a plan consolidate and redesign North Portland’s troubled high schools.

For the last two years, North Portland alumni, families and businesses have rallied around the flagging school that sits in both the literal and metaphorical heart of the St. Johns neighborhood.

Over the last three years, a new alumni association has formed, theater program has returned to the school, private investment has brought the school within striking distance of new track and field facilities, and big names in local sports have come to the aid of its football team. 

In today's Oregonian, columnist Steve Duin offered a thoughtful view on Portland Public Schools imminent high school redesign.  I recommend reading it.  Most of his comments align with our recent editorial. But we do differ in one area. The Sentinel recommends that Jefferson become a vocational special focus school.

Duin seems to believe that the redesign is on the right track, but doesn't go far enough. He makes the case that PPS is not looking into the future with it's vision. His case, perhaps, being that the redesign is, at it's least, triage rather than transformation.  Duin does not argue against PPS logic that a reapportionment of students to fewer and larger high schools would level some of the playing field. But he does say that's not good enough for a forward looking school system.

FROM THE OREGONIAN: BELOW THE CUT

Consolidation is difficult but necessary, new investment should follow
Photo of Charlene Williams, Principal at RHS's POWER Academy from Sept 2009

Over the years, The Sentinel has  attempted to cover schools in North and Northeast Portland. We profiled public, private, and charter school options in North Portland (Sept. 2006). We opposed the merging of Jefferson High School and Harriet Tubman Middle School (2005), advocated for school uniform dress codes (Dec. 2007), and highlighted the rise of Roosevelt High School’s new alumni association (March 2006). We followed the successes and defeats of a half-dozen charter school start-ups and dozens of triumphs at public elementary and middle-school programs.

According to the Portland Tribune, the idea of a 'hip-hop' charter school is one step closer to reality.  This move for a new recording arts high school is occuring during a time of broad speculation about high school closures and that Jefferson High School may be closed under the school district's new consolidation plan. The Sentinel has already speculated that a proposed closure plan might include keeping open the remote Roosevelt High School and expanding its capture area across the Willamette River to include Linnton and Forest Heights.  Jefferson's capture area might then be divided between RHS and Grant, leaving the Jefferson building for repurposing into a magnet school.  A charter school might also be a repurposing option if Jefferson were to close. 

The Southeast Examiner has published an article (linked to by Blogtown this morning) about Portland Public Schools' possible plans to close Franklin and Marshall high schools as part of its high school reorganization plan. According to the article, PPS will close either Franklin or Marshall by September 2011 — the most specific information yet to emerge about the plan.

UPDATE 12:56 p.m.: After reading the Southeast Examiner story a second time, I became increasingly convinced that the article's statement about Franklin and Marshall was neighborhood speculation presented as fact (I based this on our Nov. 17 story, which quoted PPS officials as saying that any decisions about specific school closures won't be made until June 2010). So I called PPS spokesman Matt Shelby, who confirmed my suspicions.

"I wouldn't call [the Examiner article] inaccurate, just incomplete," said Shelby, who added that the fate of all PPS high schools is up in the air, and no definitive decision on school closures will be made until June 2010, as previously announced.

"This was probably an attempt to get as many people at the meeting as possible," said Shelby, referring to the Dec. 17 PPS meeting at Franklin.

UPDATE 1:08 p.m.: HA! Looks like the Mercury's Sarah Mirk and I got nearly identical responses from Shelby. He's got his spiel down to the word, it seems.

The Sentinel has reported extensively on the plan, which seeks to boost graduation rates and equity between schools by consolidating campuses into larger neighborhood schools. Our coverage has focused primarily on the potential impacts on Jefferson and Roosevelt high schools, both of which have struggled with smaller "academy" structures that the PPS plan would eliminate.

Members of the Roosevelt community discussed the High School System Redesign at Portland Public Schools' latest public outreach meeting Wednesday night. Frustration and fear of what the plan will entail for the North Portland school dominated the comment period.

One Roosevelt alumnus - Class of 1965 - asked the major question on everyone’s mind. “Is it staying open or not?” he asked. “If you close this school, you close the community. This process is too complicated and convoluted.”

PPS Chief of Staff Zeke Smith reiterated the district’s promise that no high school’s fate is predetermined and that the conversations and tough decisions about which school will close are still in the future. “What we really want to talk to you about today is the core program that will be available at every school,” he said.

This in from Mike Verbout, RHS advocate, who's concerned about Roosevelt High and the coming high school closures.

Dear Neighbors and Friends:
This is a pivotal time in Portland’s history.  Parks, open-spaces, and strong public schools have been the cornerstone of the strength and quality of the city for a century.  And High Schools have been a defining, essential element of Portland’s distinctive neighborhoods.

Portland Public Schools will visit Roosevelt HS on Wednesday, December 2nd at 6:30 p.m. Elected officials and professional staff from PPS will outline plans for the next generation of Portland’s High Schools.  What schools will look like in the future and the critrea used to identify the 2 to 3 high schools that will be closed will likely be the main discussion points.

Portland Public Schools delayed the final decision on the High School System Redesign, but representatives confirm at least two closures of existing schools.

Sarah Singer, senior manager of the redesign, says PPS Superintendent Carole Smith will make a decision on the exact number of schools to close, but the specifics will be postponed until June, after the board works out the details.

“There will be either two or three closures,” she explained. Some schools may be converted to focus schools, some may be closed outright, but Singer says the immediate decision will determine how many remain. “If we have bigger schools, we’ll have to close more.”

Photo credit: repurposeful

Saw this over on the Woodlawn neighborhood blog; a great and easy way to help needy youth fill their bellies. (And stats show that Woodlawn Elementary students have a lot of need: 77.3 percent of the student body qualifies for free and reduced lunch.)

For many students, the federally-sponsored school lunch is their main source for a nutritious, satisfying meal during the day.  If there’s not enough food in the house, these children can go hungry on the weekend when the school lunch isn’t available.  In its second year of operation, the Backpack Lunch Program puts food items for two weekend lunches each Friday into the backpacks of 40 children at Woodlawn Elementary.  The need is much greater.

Your food donations can make a difference.  We invite you to bring food donations to the monthly Woodlawn Neighborhood Association meetings, so that we can reach more Woodlawn Elementary students who are at risk of hunger on weekends.

Neighborhood concerns about the vacant Clarendon Elementary School building in Portsmouth continue despite an Oct. 6 meeting between Portland Public Schools officials and residents.  The building has been closed for over a year and residents have expressed concern that the building is attracting vandals and illicit activities.

Portsmouth is also home to Rosa Parks Elementary, one of only two new public schools to be built in the city in a decade (the other being Forest Park Elementary). PPS held a recent meeting at Rosa Parks Elementary to discuss plans to close or repurpose some of its high schools. In recent years, PPS has closed North Portland’s John Ball, Kenton, and Applegate elementary schools, as well as Whitaker Middle School in Northeast Portland.  With more closures on the way, where does that leave already closed and vacant properties like Clarendon?

Steve Duin has a column in today's Oregonian about the struggles faced by the Roosevelt High School community - particularly the teachers and coaches - and the indomitable "Roughrider spirit" that keeps that community strong in the face of negative perceptions, dismal funding and scant opportunity. 

The takeaway: those who survive and change lives sacrifice sanity and personal relationships to do so. Like Christian Swain, the Roughriders' coach who battles exhaustion to work 70-hour weeks and be there for his players.

"It takes a heavy toll on my family," Swain conceded. "Whenever you're involved in something bigger than you are, your family has to sacrifice.

"But this is what I was made to do. I'm young. I have the energy to fight this fight. How long I'll have that energy, I don't know. But there are so many great teachers here who are fighting the same fight."

Worth a read.

Sentinel's Roosevelt coverage here.

Join your neighbors for a discussion on equitable access to resources across Portland and Multnomah County, a conversation that seems especially timely in light of the recent Willamette Week article on disparities between schools in different parts of the city.

From event press release:

You’re invited to a public hearing on equitable access to services, as part of the process of developing the 2010-2015 Consolidated Plan. Your input will inform how federal dollars are spent on programs addressing equitable access to services for households in Multnomah County.
Where:          King Elementary School Cafeteria
Date:           Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Time:           6:00-8:00 pm
Trimet:         Bus lines 6 & 72 (www.trimet.org)

All residents of our community deserve equal access to services and opportunities. The trouble is that good jobs, high performing schools, social service agencies, and even grocery stores are not always conveniently located. Census data shows that poverty now extends past the inner Portland neighborhoods to the County’s outer reaches. Yet, basic amenities and services such as parks, sidewalks, health clinics, and social service agencies are still concentrated in Portland’s inner core. Language and other cultural barriers may also stand in the way of people of color and immigrant communities seeking to connect with these vital resources.

Portland Public Schools held their second public outreach meeting on Saturday, outlining their plans, assumptions and reasoning on the high school system redesign. Discussing school size, flexibility and the effects these two factors have on elective offerings to students, the main issue PPS identified was balance.

Addressing a full room of parents and a few students in the Rosa Parks Elementary School cafeteria, PPS representatives presented data on a number of education scenarios for community schools. Ranging from five community schools of 1,640 students down to nine community schools of 911 students, PPS's conclusion was that bigger schools mean more options for students.

REPOSTED FROM EMAIL BY RICHARD ELLMYER  PHOTO FROM CHATTERBOX

Hi PPS Board Et. Al.: With regard to Washington/Monroe H.S. a A PPS representative, CJ Sylvester, was recently quoted as saying, "Our board has the fiduciary responsibility to sell lands at fair market value ... the money from a possible sale of the site has already been promised to other school sites, so giving it away or cutting the city a deal would mean taking promised money away from the other schools' coffers." So let me get this clear.

1. Someone - the city, the Buckman neighborhood, or PPS has a $600,000 federal grant to design a community center at the Washington/Monroe site.
2. The Washington/Monroe site remains the property of the PPS.
3. No bureau nor person employed by the city of Portland has been in negotiations with PPS regarding the acquisition of the Washington/Monroe site.
4. The Washington/Monroe site has "special documented legal status" which exempts it from the PPS board mandate to offer unused PPS public property to the city of Portland BEFORE it offers any PPS property for sale at fair market value as it did with the disposition of the John Ball School property.
5. The PPS board has officially rejected, abandoned, disavowed and overturned any rules, guidelines, policies and statutory regulations that instruct the PPS board to FIRST offer real property that it no longer finds useful to the city of Portland in order that the property remain in public use.