It’s the perfect Portland story: a young artist brings together kids and a homeless community to build a greenhouse out of recycled materials. Ten middle school kids, most of them from Da Vinci Middle School, have spent six weeks of after-school time, and the beginning of their summer vacation, planning and building a greenhouse for […]
Schools
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Portland Public Schools Budget Slashed
Over a hundred Portland teachers at all grade levels may get laid off due to budget woes. In response to Governor Kulongoski’s proposed across-the-board 9% budget cuts, a weak state economy and the fact that $16 million of next year’s Portland Public Schools budget comes from reserve funds, Superintendent Carole Smith has proposed budget cutbacks […]
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School Board on Terminating High Schools: “We’ll Be Back”
After months of negotiations, false starts, scares, controversies, rallies, impassioned speeches, tears, speculation, and secrecy, Portland Public Schools’ High School Redesign is officially… tabled until next year. [record scratch] What? At a meeting last night where Jefferson and Marshall Supporters, as well as Sam Adams, were prepared to weigh in on the closing of Portland’s […]
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Zombie Hitler Needed to Teach Children Valuable Lesson.
I’m guessing there’s no way this is legit (what kind of preschool teaches kids about WWII?), but still: If I was in preschool and this happened? I’d either (A) shit my pants thanks to overwhelming terror, or (B) realize that this was about as awesome as things were gonna get, education-wise, for the next 18 […]
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Hundreds Gather to Keep Jefferson HS Alive
A school board work session on Wednesday, June 16 began with a huge crowd of Jefferson supporters, mostly African-American, filling the boardroom and the lobby outside. They numbered in the hundreds, and a Portland policeman stood guard from an upper balcony. For thirty minutes, they gave passionate testimony about why Jefferson should not be closed. […]
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Lents Resident to PPS: Closing Marshall Would Squander Eastside Progress
The school board has been getting a lot of criticism over the proposed closure of the Marshall campus in outer Southeast, which would leave only a small magnet school at that location. Now they want to do the same with North Portland’s Jefferson High School. Lents residents have been asking Portland Public Schools to consider […]
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David Douglas High: A Bunch of Freaking Over-Achievers
David Douglas High School, the largest high school in the state, where 75 percent of students are on free/reduced lunch, continues to impress. Last month, David Douglas won a national award for its music program. And now they’ve won an award for graduating way more kids than demographics would predict. In the recently released Diploma […]
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Tuition Increases at Oregon’s Universities
The Oregon State Board of Higher Education has approved next year’s tuition rates for Oregon’s 8 public universities—which are desperate for funds. They represent a 6.5% average tuition hike. Here’s what you’ll pay if you’re a resident: You can find more details, including nonresident tuition, on the Board’s website.
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Marshall High School to Portland Public Schools: Shape Up or We’re Leaving
Portland Public Schools (PPS) Superintendent Carole Smith wants to close down the three small schools operating at the Marshall campus in outer Southeast, and use some of the space for a tiny magnet school. That has Lents residents and the school community up in arms: they say that if PPS doesn’t want to put in […]
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David Douglas Schools Sing and Play and Are Overcrowded
Photo by David F. Ashton, East Portland News David Douglas High is the largest high school in the state. There are over 3,000 students at the school, which has grown and grown as Portland builds more of its affordable housing in East Portland. The city annexed East Portland 20 years ago. Since 1995, the percentage […]
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Jefferson HS Principal, Manager Booted
The principal of the beleaguered Jefferson High School in North Portland, Cynthia Harris, was placed on paid administrative leave yesterday with no public explanation. Harris’s part-time business manager Reis Wilbanks was also placed on leave. Portland Public Schools spokesperson Matt Shelby says he doesn’t know the duration of the leave. He says this has nothing […]
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Lents: Marshall Closure Will “Kill This Community”
PPS’s Zeke Smith faces a crowd of angry “aye”s Portland Public Schools (PPS) staffer Zeke Smith faced the equivalent of a firing squad Monday night in Lents Commons. Fifty neighbors, Marshall High School students, teachers and parents turned up to grill Smith on the specifics of PPS’s high school redesign plan to close SE Portland’s […]