Carole Smith
Carole Smith Portland Public Schools

Carole Smith is retiring, after almost nine years at the helm of Portland Public Schools.

The schools superintendent sent out a long email tonight, and after 12 paragraphs and 15 bullet points announced she has "affirmed my intentions to retire" to the Portland Public Schools board.

"The board has asked me to stay through the end of my contract in June, 2017 to allow them to move forward to conduct a superintendent search at the appropriate time and set the district up for a successful and smooth transition of leadership, as well as continue our work on health and safety,' Smith wrote. "I have loved being your superintendent. It is an honor and a pleasure to serve our students, families and staff."

Smith's led the city's largest school district for nearly a decade, and it's not hard to see why she might be tired after years of budget fights, questions about shuffling students and shuttering schools, and more. Her message says she made a goal to stay at her job for 10 years, while other urban superintendents frequently departed their posts before they'd hit the three-year mark.

But it's also hard to ignore that the announcement comes as PPS is grappling with one of its thorniest issues to-date—revelations that water fixtures in some Portland schools had turned out high lead levels, and that it wasn't clear all of them had been adequately addressed.

The calls for Smith's resignation began pretty much immediately once concerns over lead became known last month. Instead, we've got an announcement that she'll retire—potentially in a year.

Smith addressed the lead crisis in her email, after laying down a list of accomplishments.

"At PPS the focus of the community, board and district has been on maintaining teachers in our classrooms and providing a full school year to our students, which not every district has been able to accomplish," she wrote. "Unfortunately, the unintended consequence of these successes for our students has meant a corresponding under-investment in facilities maintenance and business infrastructure."

Smith says the immediate focus in schools in on water—including widespread testing and "contracting with a third-party service to provide drinking water for the next school year to ensure every school has access to clean water for the 2016-17 year."

Hit the jump for Smith's full message.

Over my time as superintendent, I am proud to have worked alongside you and with seventeen different board members to make Portland Public Schools the best we can during a period of extreme financial volatility.

By prioritizing, and often times making difficult decisions about budgets, staffing and programs, we not only helped create stability for our students but we paved paths to unprecedented progress in building a district that truly serves every one of our students:

•Our graduation rate has increased 21 percentage points in the last 7 years.

•The Jefferson High School Middle College for Advanced Studies, in partnership with Portland Community College and Self Enhancement Inc., supported students to increase the graduation rate from 55% in 2011, the first year of the program, to 80% in 2015.

•We passed a $482M construction bond, have completed seismic, roofing and accessibility upgrades on 45 schools, and are scheduled to complete work on 7 more schools this summer.

•Construction on two high school modernization projects is now well underway and master planning for the third has been completed, representing the first phase of district-wide modernization plans for all our schools.

•We have launched a unique partnership with Faubion K8 and Concordia University, 3 to PhD, that will house Faubion K8 school and Concordia’s School of Education, along with an early childhood center and health clinic.

•We have re-established the Portland Interscholastic League, to strengthen athletic programming and target investments to ensure we begin restoring middle school athletic programs.

•We have worked with numerous partners to renovate and turf our 10 high school tracks and fields, providing quality places for sport and community building.

•We are bringing arts programming and access back to our students in partnership with the City and others (including Right Brain Initiative, BRAVO, White Bird, Oregon Symphony) - as well as the voters that passed the Arts Tax.

•We are steadily building new Career Technical Education capacity, increasing from 19 to more than 50 programs in the last two years.

•More students are earning college credit while in high school through Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and Dual Credit programs.

•Voters have passed multiple local option levies to help put an additional 600 teachers in our classrooms to support our students and their success.

•Most importantly to me, we have placed equity firmly at the center of our work. In partnership with our community, our board passed a Racial Educational Equity Policy that has been held up as a model locally and nationally, and that has served as the foundation to align other important policies, including our enrollment and transfer policy, boundary review process and budgeting process, Affirmative Action Policy, and Equity in Public Purchasing and Contracting Policy. The focus on equity continues to deepen and drive every aspect of our work as we strive to be a school district that truly supports every one of our students in reaching their full potential.

These successes were not without tough decisions that the act of prioritizing requires. And they were not the success of one person or board alone - but those of a collective commitment by individuals, organizations and citizens who want to see only the best outcome and opportunities for our students.

These choices, given the last 20 years of state budget constraints for schools, meant some priorities took precedence over others. At PPS the focus of the community, board and district has been on maintaining teachers in our classrooms and providing a full school year to our students, which not every district has been able to accomplish.

Unfortunately, the unintended consequence of these successes for our students has meant a corresponding under-investment in facilities maintenance and business infrastructure.

In 2012 we successfully presented the public with a plan to modernize our schools and facilities. The bond has allowed us to methodically work to replace roofs, make seismic upgrades and improve accessibility in buildings across the system, as we embark on the longer-term effort of modernizing every building in the district.

Now it is time to turn our attention to and make other infrastructure improvements a priority - and I believe that health and safety investments should be at the top of the list for the next bond.

In the short term, we are making water quality a priority:

We will contract with a third party service to provide drinking water for the next school year to ensure every school has access to clean water for the 2016-17 year.

•Water testing is now underway on an accelerated timetable so we know the details necessary to adequately address the quality of water delivery in all of our buildings.

•Tonight the board will vote on a contract with CH2M Hill to do a first phase of an assessment for a plan to address water quality once the water results are available to provide a roadmap on what we need to do to fix, remediate or renovate our water delivery systems.

•We are also working to identify an Environmental and Public Health Director to oversee assessment and planning for other issues including radon, lead (water and paint), asbestos, mold and other environmental health hazards.

This will continue to be a focus of our work over the coming year and together it is an opportunity to overcome this challenge, as we have so many others.

In the long-term, however, we must make our infrastructure a priority for the total well-being of our students. We have an opportunity before us to continue to accelerate the rebuilding of education in Oregon. PPS has been growing steadily and continues to do so - and we must plan for that growth and the 5,000 additional students we expect over the next decade. We do this by looking long-term. By making strategic investments in the areas we know support student success and a critical part of that is the health and environmental safety of our students and staff.

When I started this job in October of 2007, the average tenure of an urban superintendent was and still is 2.5 years. I knew that in order to make meaningful change, I set my goal at 10 years so that I could fully commit myself to the long-term needs of the district, students and staff. I am entering my 10th year as superintendent and today I have affirmed for the Board my intention to retire.

The board has asked me to stay through the end of my contract in June, 2017 to allow them to move forward to conduct a superintendent search at the appropriate time and set the district up for a successful and smooth transition of leadership, as well as continue our work on health and safety.

The education and success of our students is an effort that takes all of us - so thank you for your daily commitment and partnership on our students’ behalf.

I have loved being your superintendent. It is an honor and a pleasure to serve our students, families and staff.

Carole Smith
Superintendent
Portland Public Schools