School boundary changes finalized for Southeast Portland

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, October 26, 2022

In fall 2023, several elementary and middle school students will find themselves at schools outside of the neighborhoods they live in.

On Tuesday, Oct. 25, the Portland Public Schools Board of Education approved the final component of the second phase of planned boundary and feeder pattern changes for 19 schools in Southeast Portland. Four language immersion programs will be shuffled to different campuses.

PPS initiated the enrollment and program balancing effort to fix under-enrolled elementary schools and ditch the outdated K-8 model in favor of more middle schools. Kellogg Middle School was rebuilt and opened in 2021. Harrison Park K-8 is being converted to Harrison Park Middle School, set to open in 2023.

A summary of changes:

• Boundary changes for 12 elementary schools

• Feeder pattern changes at seven middle schools

• Harrison Park K-8 converted to middle school; Clark Elementary established

• Creative Science School moves to Bridger Elementary

• Bridger Spanish Immersion students move to Lent Elementary

• Mt. Tabor Spanish Immersion moves to Kellogg Middle School

• Harrison Park K-5 Chinese Immersion students move to Clark Elementary

• Hosford Middle School Chinese Immersion students move to Harrison Park Middle School

District administrators say the move will give students more robust learning options and likely increase academic performance. Data shows students in dual language immersion programs perform higher academically in math and English Language Arts than those in traditional, single strand neighborhood school programs.

The attendance boundary changes were approved by the school district last spring — except for one. A proposal to transition Lent Elementary School entirely into a Spanish language immersion school and send all other neighborhood students to Marysville Elementary was approved by a 5-2 vote from the school board Tuesday, with board members Gary Hollands and Julia Brim-Edwards opposed. The board’s student representative, Byronie McMahon, also opposed the plan for Lent.

Citing community concerns, Hollands and Brim-Edwards said they’re not convinced the district has done enough outreach to notify impacted families, or secured busing plans for kids at the district’s only school east of I-205.

Last year, the school board delayed transition plans for Lent Elementary after complaints from families. Since then, district staff said they held several community meetings for parents, but saw low attendance. They also called families and sent fliers home in students’ backpacks.

Board Chair Andrew Scott said he suspects “people who are opposed to the plan are criticizing the engagement process.”

But by Tuesday’s scheduled vote, PPS had yet to guarantee busing for students going to Marysville next year, and had repeatedly touted child care options that aren’t actually available.

“I’m really concerned that we’ve been telling families there’s child care because not only is the cost of the child care at Marysville between $672 to $704 a month, it’s also full, so there aren’t any spots,” Brim-Edwards said. District staff promised they would find a way to bus students to Marysville Elementary and said they’re exploring free after-school options at the campus, but some remain skeptical of the district’s plan.

Khanh Pham, an Oregon legislator serving House District 46, lives in Lent and urged the board to delay its vote for another three months, saying deeper community engagement was needed. Pham said some families learned just two weeks ago that their students would go to a new school next year.

“It is a community that has had and continues to face a lot of challenges, from when the 205 was built right through it to now, when many of its families are disenfranchised and struggling with multiple jobs and challenges,” Pham said. The lawmaker and Lent parent said she worries that moving kids out of their neighborhood school without a firm transportation plan will make it harder for them to attend school regularly.

“There are multiple reasons students struggle,” Pham said. “I worry that in trying to help these students, we might be creating new obstacles to their achievement.”

PPS Chief of Schools Jon Franco said there was no time to delay the vote any further. Franco noted a series of steps and hiring timelines that need to be met in order to implement the boundary changes by the start of the 2023-24 school year.