Portland Public Schools' Reorganization

Tonight's Portland Public Schools board meeting will include an update on the district's plan for reorganizing its high schools.

District leaders have had some practice in that field. Under former Superintendent Vicki Phillips, PPS merged several middle schools with elementary schools to create K-8 schools. That transition, which is still in process, has been hotly criticized for years, however.

Less well known are the changes that have happened inside the central office. In the last five years, the district's administration has undergone at least four dramatic transformations [PDF]. Some of the changes were the result of new superintendents. The last round was largely the result of budget cuts in Salem.

Regardless, the changes have been sweeping, and these organizational charts (above and below) demonstrate that. Entire offices have been formed, abandoned, reworked and tossed aside.

There's no more Office of Teaching and Learning, for example. But there is an Office of Schools with Student and Academic Supports underneath.

Under former Superintendent Jim Scherzinger there was an executive assistant. Now Superintendent Carole Smith has a chief of staff, a position Phillips created. (Smith was Phillips' chief of staff.)

The executive director of communications under Scherzinger is now the executive director of Community Involvement and Public Affairs under Smith. The Office of Research and Innovation is now System Planning and Performance.