Portland School Board Vows Not to Add More Schools to Closure Lists

Portland Public Schools released two proposals for closing schools, called Scenario A and Scenario B. A would close 14 schools and B would close 11. The next day, at an Oct. 6 meeting, school board members gave their first reactions. According to the article, an angry crowd booed and jeered as district leaders presented the plans.

Board members asked a range of questions, including what would happen to focus option schools and whether the district would publish a fiscal impact statement. Their views appeared to differ. Member Michelle DePass said the city once had many large families with young children and that this is no longer true, so some action is needed. Member Christy Splitt said the closures were too large in scale, noting they would affect 24% to 27% of students. She asked the board to promise it would not add schools to the list late in the process.

The board did not formally make that promise, though members indicated that adding a school was very unlikely. Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong said the district had done extensive modeling to pick the affected schools and had already tailored community engagement sessions to them. She said any single change would ripple through the whole plan. Board chair Eddie Wang said an addition was close to impossible barring an extraordinary event. The outlet corrected its original headline, which had said the board committed to the pledge.