News Contributions to the campaign for Portland Public Schools' $548 million construction bond continue to roll in. And these aren't small-time donations. Legacy Health System gave $5,000 recently. Northwest Natural Gas gave $25,000, and Adidas gave $10,000—the same amount as Nike gave last month. The Portland School Board is expected to vote on Jan. 24 whether to couple the bond campaign with ...   More

News Another week, another round of substantial donations to the campaign for Portland Public Schools' $548 million construction bond on the May 17 ballot. On Jan. 7, Stacy and Witbeck, the construction firm specializing in public-transit projects, gave $25,000 to the Portlanders for Schools political action committee. The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters gave $10,000 to the PAC. ...   More

News Oregon Capitol News today added new information to its database of public employees' salaries, listing for the first time the wages at Portland Public Schools, the state's largest school district. The database, based on information given to the Oregon Capitol News by the school district, appears to have a few glitches. For example, it lists a physical education social studies teacher at Lincoln ...   More

News Veteran schools activist Marta Guembes, who last year ruffled feathers with her one-woman investigation of Portland Public Schools' services for Spanish-speaking parents, filed a fourth federal civil-rights complaint against the district on Monday. The new complaint alleges discrimination by PPS against parents of English-language learners and says the district lacks adequate translation and interpretation ...   More

News  A week after the Portland School Board voted torefer a $548 million construction bond to the May ballot, fundraising for a long-dormant political action committee for schools has picked up considerably.In recent days, big-money donations have poured into the “Portlanders for Schools” committee, which supported the successful 2006 local-option levy for Portland Public Schools. ...   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 Cathy Mincberg, who was hired in 2005 by then-Superintendent Vicki Phillips for Portland Public Schools, is leaving the district for a new job. Mincberg will be vice president and chief academic officer with a Portland-based online education provider (whose websites bear eery resemblance to online advertisements for certain pharmaceuticals.) But I digress. Mincberg's four-year tenure at PPS ...   More

News Portland Public Schools is telling students, teachers and parents to take precautions to prevent the spread of swine flu. One local school, Sabin K-8 in Northeast Portland, is going a step further. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: "sabinpta@comcast.net" To: sabinpta@comcast.net Cc: Richard Schafer Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 1:41:03 PM Subject: Global Experience Event - Thursday, May ...   More

News Complete results from Tuesday's special election arrived quickly, given the 14.5 percent voter turnout, and there were a few surprises: The contest for the seat in Zone 5 on Portland Public Schools' Board of Education was not nearly as close as one might have expected between two candidates with long records of school involvement. Pam Knowles beat Scott Bailey 25,055 to 15,479, as of Wednesday ...   More

News The news of the day at Portland Public Schools was supposed to be this, the reorganization of the district's high schools. Instead, it's also this: Heidi Franklin, the chief financial officer at PPS, is resigning on July 2, after more than 11 years with the district. She is the second high-level PPS official to announce her departure in recent weeks, after Cathy Mincberg, the district's former ...   More