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 After almost two years of negotiations that twice erupted in protests from teachers, the Portland Association of Teachers union and the Portland School Board have voted to approve a new three-year contract for teachers. The union, which represents more than 3,000 Portland teachers and guidance counselors, ratified the agreement by secret ballot Friday night; the School Board voted "yes" to the agreement ...   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 Aron Anderson, father of an 8-year-old third grader at Duniway Elementary School, went before the Portland School Board last night to complain about his son's recent suspension. According to Anderson, his son forgot he had a toy gun in his pocket when he went to school recently. But after the boy showed the four-inch plastic toy (pictured above and below) to a friend, he was suspended for a day. ...   More

News Late Saturday night, Portland Public Schools announced it had reached a confidential, tentative agreement with the Portland Association of Teachers union. Portland teachers have worked without a contract since June 2008, a fact that produced two angry demonstrations at School Board meetings in recent months. The possible three-year agreement follows the school district's declaration two weeks ...   More

News The deadline for Portland Public Schools and the Portland Association of Teachers union to submit their final offers to state mediators was Thursday at 5 pm, now that the school district has declared an impasse. Negotiations have been ongoing for 19 months. Below are the lengthy documents from both sides. More analysis later. PPS's offer [PDF]. PAT Part 1 [PDF]. PAT Part 2 [PDF]. PAT ...   More

News Portland Public Schools is speeding up the high school redesign at one campus. This morning, the school district issued a letter of intent [PDF] to the Oregon Department of Education that says the district plans to apply for federal school improvement grants for the Roosevelt campus. All three "small schools" at the campus -- ACT, POWER and SEIS -- qualified for up to $2 million in federal "improvement" ...   More

News Members of the Portland School Board voted 5-2 last night to approve PPS's resolution on high schools. But during almost three hours of testimony that ended about 11:30 pm, talk kept coming back to Portland Public Schools' longstanding policy of letting students transfer to different neighborhood schools. The transfer policy was held out as a crucial component of PPS's "school choice" ethos, ...   More

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News Fire investigators still have no official word on the cause of the fire that engulfed Marysville K-8 School in Southeast Portland on Nov. 10. But an internal document from Portland Public Schools shows an independent investigator from EFI Global, Jerry Flowerdew, has focused some attention on one possible source of the blaze -- a "suspicious extension cord." On Jan. 29, according to the ...   More