I might not agree with their answers, but it sounds like they've spent years crafting the plan very carefully. If they've spent all that time, and talked with 10,000 people, and are modeling thousands of different arrangements...aren't the dissenters just arguing from emotion?

Yes, Reymont, PPS talked with 10,000 people, but they haven't listened to them. And no, the dissenters aren't just arguing from emotion, we arguing from evidence. Evidence that even though PPS says they've learned from the K8 disaster, they've done nothing to fix them; evidence that they've designed, and redesigned, and closed, and opened Jefferson; evidence that they've opened small schools because that's the latest fad and now they are wanting to close those same schools despite many of them showing success at closing the gap and raising graduation rates.

We are arguing with emotion though. Because we are parents, stakeholders, concerned citizens, Portlanders. Interesting how Gonzalez and Williams (the only educator on the board) voted against PPS latest efforts at social engineering.

The 10,000 people number is propoganda from PPS. You really trust the administration when they speak? They did not speak with us, they spoke at us. They have not heard a word from us. Deaf and dumb. And lazy. Anybody could come up with a solution to close schools. But it takes leadership and ingenuity and hard work to find good solutions to our educational problems. The board (with the exception of Williams and Gonzalez) and the administration have totally caved and are moving like the Willamette River, finding the path of least resistence to hard solutions.
Follow the money trail for motives, follow the envy and jealousy of the great educational institutions and their communities that are at risk, follow the pc crowd that is living their Peter Pan lives bent on believing equality and gap reduction are just motives for social engineering.
And if you cannot state a case with emotion when your kids need protection from adults with agendas you have no soul.