Kellogg Middle School welcomes students back after 15 years

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, September 1, 2021

For the first time in 15 years, Kellogg Middle School welcomed students into its classrooms.

The first day of school buzz was palpable Wednesday morning, Sept. 1, as kids clustered around the front of the newly reopened Southeast Portland school. The campus sits at the corner of Southeast 69th Avenue and Powell Boulevard.

The school had been shuttered since 2006, but after a complete rebuild, the campus now serves sixth- through eighth-graders.

Kellogg was initially built as a K-8 school in 1913 before being converted to a middle school in 1980. In 2006, while staring down a $56 million budget deficit, the Portland School Board opted to consolidate many schools. With a lack of ADA accessibility at Kellogg, needed campus improvements, dwindling enrollment and below-average performance, PPS opted to close the school that year and shuffle students to nearby campuses.

At the time, a federal mandate allowed students to transfer schools if their neighborhood schools were deemed subpar. That left Kellogg with only 482 students in 2005, according to district records.

“Kellogg received Title I funds and did not meet state achievement standards, so all students were eligible for a guaranteed transfer to different schools that were not ‘in need of improvement,'” Portland Public Schools stated in a historical timeline document for Kellogg Middle School.

The shuttered school site was used for district storage and occasional staff training or testing until it was included in part of a modernization bond measure in 2017 and underwent years of construction.

PPS Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero greeted students on the new campus, along with school board members Michelle DePass and Julia Brim-Edwards.

“I think it was the right call to rebuild,” Brim-Edwards said, recalling the history of the school and its closure.

First-day jitters, meticulously curated outfits and bear hugs from parents at the doors of the school marked students’ first day back on campus. For many, the prospect of socializing with friends again and reintegrating with peers was the hallmark of the day.

“I’m a little scared, but everybody’s feeling that way,” eighth-grader Gracen Tummala said before the first bell rang. Tummula quickly found fellow eighth-grader Kate Reed on the front lawn of the school and the two were inseparable.

“It’s nice to be able to see everybody and communicate,” Reed noted.

Moments later, Brendy Erazo, also in eighth grade, said goodbye to her mother before making her way to Kellogg’s halls. Erazo also cited “socialization” as the most important thing on her mind Wednesday.

Sept. 1 marked the first full day back on campus for many students, after Portland-area schools closed their doors in March 2020 and didn’t reopen for hybrid learning until spring 2021.

Students and staff will keep masks on the whole day, with the exception of lunchtime, and students in classrooms will be spaced 3 feet apart, in an effort to prevent infection and spread of COVID-19.