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. A majority of the Portland School Board wants to consider closing Jefferson. The board’s only two members who have directly opposed a closure, David Wynde and Ruth Adkins, were present to hear the testimony. Dilafruz Williams and Pam Knowles were absent, as was Martín González, who first broached the idea of closing Jefferson earlier this month.
- Board member Bobbie Regan, who wants to consider closing Jefferson, enters the meeting through a throng of Jefferson supporters.
Tony Hopson, president of the SEI charter school and one of Jefferson’s most vocal supporters, gave the board an ultimatum. “We will do whatever’s necessary because the decision that you’re making, you have to understand that this isn’t just about Jefferson, you are ripping out the heart of black people in the city,” said Hopson.
“When people are pushed up into a corner, people will do whatever is necessary to survive.”
Thomas Lauderdale, band leader of Pink Martini, testified that he volunteers as a music teacher at Jefferson, and that he had big plans to increase music education programs at the school. “But we can’t do that if there’s no school,” he said, to rousing applause.
The board member absences led Chair Trudy Sargent to cancel the planned work session, rescheduling it for later this month. After a half-hour of testimony, the crowd filtered out of the building.
When Portland Public Schools Superintendent Carole Smith announced the first version of a proposed high school restructuring in April, there was a promise implicit in her decision.
Everybody knew that one or more schools had to be closed, and many thought that would include Jefferson, which has hemorrhaged students to more “successful,” whiter schools like Cleveland and Grant. Jefferson currently plods along with around 400 students.
But Smith’s plan spared Jefferson. By refusing to close it, she seemed to be committing to the immense effort it would take to build Jefferson back into a comprehensive, satisfactory neighborhood school with over a thousand students.
- Board members (the ones who showed up, at least) faced the music.
Smith said that instead of an outright campus closure, Marshall and Benson would shrink drastically. She took heat from people invested in those schools, but Jefferson supporters breathed a short-lived sigh of relief. Smith even proposed a college partnership program at the North Portland campus.
“An increased partnership with PCC would be amazing,” Jefferson alumna Angela Braxton-Johnson told the Mercury. “And the increased core offerings, that’s something that’s been needed for a long time.”
A few weeks later, school board members proposed closing Jefferson in addition to Marshall. Board member Martín González—often considered the strongest voice for minority communities on the school board—proposed the idea. Dilafruz Williams, who voted against the redesign plan along with González in March, also supports a possible closure of Jefferson High.
Black/white/whatever…just fix Jeff, or close it before my kids are HS age. Perhaps if PPS did away with the school transfer policy all together. Whatever.