News Jefferson High School hosts two forums on the challenges of public education next week. The first forum, on Wednesday, Dec. 8, will cover recent changes in how the Seattle public school district evaluates teacher performance. Hosted by Stand for Children, the Black Parent Initiative, and Community & Parents for Public Schools, the event from 6:30 pm to 8 pm will feature a labor negotiator ...   More

News If you're stuck this Earth Day Eve without a plan, let us help. Here's a sampling of how you can mark the 40th annual Earth Day this April 22. Portland State University is hosting what it's calling its largest Earth Day yet. Students will be planting gardens, watching eco-documentaries, learning to cook in cob ovens and mixing green cleaning products. On Thursday, PSU will have an Earth ...   More

News A previously scheduled meeting Monday night at Portland's Center for Self Enhancement turned into a community referendum on Saturday's surprise proposal to consider moving Benson Polytechnic High to Jefferson High School's campus as part of Portland Public Schools' high-school redesign. And the community is not happy. Tony Hopson, president of SEI and host of the community meeting, spoke ...   More

News CLARIFICATION: The business manager at Jefferson who is referenced in this report lost her job as a result of a layoff amid budget cuts. Portland Public Schools administrators have put Jefferson High School's Principal Cynthia Harris and her part-time business manager, Reis Wilbanks, on administrative leave. Teachers learned the news this afternoon in a 3:30 pm staff meeting with Toni Hunter, ...   More

News CLARIFICATION: The business manager at Jefferson who is referenced in this report lost her job as a result of a layoff amid budget cuts. A WW review of new documents surrounding the financial audit at Jefferson High School reveals internal finger-pointing, months of unsound business practices and at least one complaint by a contractor at the North Portland campus before Portland Public Schools ...   More

News Trudy Sargent, co-chairwoman of the Portland School Board, said at a board meeting this afternoon that she didn't support Superintendent Carole Smith's proposal for reforming Portland's high schools and instead favors a huge change for Jefferson High School. The superintendent's plan calls for shrinking Benson Polytechnic High's student population from 1,000 to 400 and reinventing the three ...   More

News The latest development in the constantly evolving re-design of Portland Public Schools' high schools is that a majority of the school board now wants to close Jefferson as a neighborhood school. That's sure to make for some serious community pushback from Jefferson's defenders at the board's next work session on June 16 from 5:30 pm to 8 pm, and then before the board's expected vote on the entire ...   More

News In front of depictions of tombstones that carried the names of short-lived Jefferson High School principals and even shorter-lived Jefferson reforms, Superintendent Carole Smith told a crowded cafeteria full of Jefferson supporters tonight that "people are still listening" and "your voices matter." The decorations for the evening's PTA session -- which also included a classroom skeleton dressed ...   More

News Aurora Lora, the top administrator at Jefferson's Young Women's Academy, announced today [PDF] she is leaving the district June 30 for a job as an executive director of K-12 education with Seattle Public Schools. Her departure after three years at the Young Women's Academy comes at a difficult time in the history of Jefferson High School. Last week, a majority of the Portland School Board said ...   More

News Portland Public Schools Superintendent Carole Smith made an unsurprising announcement this afternoon that Toni Hunter, deputy district superintendent, would remain at Jefferson High School as interim principal for the upcoming school year. Smith also announced that the former Jefferson principal, Cynthia Harris, would remain on leave. But the announcement didn't say whether that was paid leave. PPS ...   More