In the midst of a $50 million budget shortfall, Portland Public Schools is attempting to push through with the Jefferson High School rebuild. Jefferson, Cleveland, and Ida B. Wells are the last three PPS high schools that have not been rebuilt. This process has been marred with drama. Everything from the decision to use the Texas-based contractor Procedeo, whom Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong’s daughter works for. To accusations of bias in the bidding/interview process. Even promises of an accelerated building process, which was a factor in the decision of choosing Procedeo but which ultimately proved to be unfeasible, and of course the difficult redistricting choices necessary to boost Jefferson’s enrollment, which currently sits at 391, the lowest by hundreds of all PPS high schools. Jefferson as well as the entire PPS community has been fighting for what is best for students, yet there are so many different visions for what that is.
How did Jefferson get here?
Enrollment decline started in 2011 when the district made the decision to make Jefferson a “Dual-Assignment” school, meaning that families in the area could decide whether to send their kids to Jefferson, Roosevelt, Grant, or McDaniel. Jefferson’s enrollment has been on the steady decline since Roosevelt, Grant, and McDaniel have all gotten a rebuild
and thus attracted more students. This began what has proved to be an inescapable cycle for Jefferson: less students means less funding for extracurricular/academic programs and teachers, and the reduced amount of programs is part of the reason why many families choose other schools. But the school can’t fund these programs, without the students to fill them, thus the issue ensues. I personally had the decision between Jefferson and Roosevelt and I chose Roosevelt in part because they had more programs to offer me, like a Varsity Soccer Program. But how can Jefferson ever get to build a Varsity soccer program if every student makes the same decision I did? This is why Jefferson’s rebuild has come with a redistricting. The district is going to spend around $65 million dollars on the rebuild, without policy to fill the school, that money would be wasted.
What does the new redistricting look like?
The redistricting is set to come into effect for the 2027-2028 school year, making this year’s seventh grade class the first group affected. Changes in feeder middle schools were decided in a 6-1 school board vote and resulted in students at Harriet Tubman Middle School, Ockley Green Middle School, Vernon K-8, Faubion Pk-8 being zoned for Jefferson. This will affect elementary school students at Beach, Chief Joseph, Boise-Elliot/Humboldt, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Sabin, and Woodlawn schools who are set to attend those middle schools and therefore Jefferson. There are some exceptions to this, for example, Spanish immersion students who attend Beach would still be sent to Roosevelt because of the Spanish immersion program here.
How will this affect Roosevelt?
This redistricting will drop Roosevelt’s numbers to the lowest out of all affected high schools; Jefferson, McDaniel, Grant, and Roosevelt. The scenario predicts Roosevelt’s enrollment at 1,153 by the 2030-2031 school year, McDaniel’s at 1,524, Grant’s at 1,416, and Jefferson’s at 1,232. The district said there would need to be about 300 jobs lost, Roosevelt is predicted to lose 12-16 full time staff . Tenured science teacher, Vanessa Crock, says she expects, “a decline in our population. Which will then heavily affect not just the amount of staff we have but our support staff too. I think what makes Roosevelt so unique is all of our partnerships with different community outreach. So we have a lot of support staff for all types of students and their need to learn in different ways.” How has the budget deficit added to these changes? Aside from the $50 million dollar budget deficit for next year, PPS is currently operating in a $14 million dollar mid-year budget shortfall that must be addressed this year. The Portland Teachers Association has agreed to take four furlough days, these are days where school is canceled and teachers do not get paid. May 1st and
June 9th and 10th will be a day off , and May 25th, Memorial Day will be an unpaid holiday. Seniors’ last day of school has now moved a day up, to May 28th. Everyone else’s last day of school will be June 5th. At the district level Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong will take six furlough days and other senior level leadership will take five. These furlough days are expected to save around $12 million dollars. When asked about how she felt the district handled the proposal of the furlough days Crock said, “It just felt like taking this evil door or this evil door. There was no middle negotiation ground. And I felt really scared for first and second year teachers and their level of unknown…And then also you know Portland’s expensive and losing 3% of your paycheck is also really scary.”
Roosevelt is up for some big changes in the coming years, but they’re not alone. Portland Public Schools is in a moment of reckoning between budgets, redistricting, and school closures.
