News One huge, unresolved issue surrounding Portland Public Schools' high-school redesign concerns career training. Under Superintendent Carole Smith's School Board-approved plan, Benson Polytechnic High School will offer fewer career-training classes to a smaller number of students. However, the remaining eight high-school campuses will offer students access to jobs-focused classes that they now lack. To ...   More

News   One huge, unresolved issue surrounding Portland Public Schools’ high-school redesign concerns career training. Under Superintendent Carole Smith’s School Board-approved plan, Benson Polytechnic High School will offer fewer career-training classes to a smaller number of students. However, the remaining eight high-school campuses will offer students access to jobs-focused classes that ...   More

News A few bits of news about the high-school redesign emerged at last night's Portland School Board meeting, and if it weren't for -- wait for it -- School Board Member David Wynde, nobody in the room would have acknowledged that news. Here's the shocker (or non-shocker, depending on how cynical you are): The school district might "carve out an exception" to its proposed ban on neighborhood-to-neighborhood ...   More

News Mayor Sam Adams met Sunday with a few Grant High School parents who are concerned about Portland Public Schools' high-school redesign. Technically speaking, the mayor has absolutely no control over Portland Public Schools. (Then again, neither does Bill Gates, and he's managed to exert plenty of influence at Jefferson, Roosevelt, Madison and Marshall High in recent years.) Two days after the ...   More

News One goal of Portland Public Schools' high-school redesign -- increasing the socio-economic diversity of its schools -- is meeting opposition in Wake County, N.C. The New York Times has an interesting story today about the Wake County school district's busing policy and fresh attempts by new board members to challenge it. "The board is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to support the creation ...   More

News The idea that the Portland School Board is just now getting the opportunity to weigh in on Superintendent Carole Smith's high-school redesign proposal is understandable. The board won't vote on anything until March 8. But that idea also ignores a lot of history. In fact, the redesign has been in the works for almost three years. Board members have had numerous chances to contribute before now. What ...   More

News ...   More

News The so-called Eastside Coalition of High Schools, an ad hoc group of parents that formed in recent weeks to address Portland Public Schools' high school redesign, has grown to include westside high schools. And under its new name, High School Alliance, the group will meet with PPS staff Saturday morning from 10 am to noon to discuss the ongoing plans. The group will then meet with Mayor Sam Adams' ...   More

News According to a fresh press release from Portland Public Schools, Mayor Sam Adams and former state Sen. Avel Gordly (who led the second failed effort to recall the mayor) will meet with Superintendent Carole Smith to discuss her proposed high-school redesign this evening. They won't be alone. Business and community-college leaders will also be at the public work session at 6 pm. But it is difficult ...   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