News The first round of Portland Public Schools' community meetings about redesigning its high schools has ended. But what may be the most contentious meeting of them all lies ahead. On Dec. 8, PPS must make its case to Cleveland High School-area parents who already appear mighty skeptical of PPS's plans, according to this letter [PDF] dated Dec. 2. Here are the top 10 reasons Cleveland parents ...   More

News A sub-committee of the Portland School Board met Monday to talk about the current state of Portland Public Schools' K-8s, the hybrid "elemiddles" Portland created starting in 2004. Here's a quick take on the 90-minute meeting: * The district recognizes some of the small K-8s may never be able to sustain the K-8 model. It's possible those K-8s won't stay K-8s forever. *All K-8s in the district ...   More

News Mayor Sam Adams is weighing in on Portland Public Schools' high school redesign process. Judging from the emails I'm now getting from anxious parents about the upcoming changes, he may want to be careful what he Tweets. Here's the mayor's latest: David Wynde is a two-term school board member. Dick Spies is a former Lincoln High parent from Group Mackenzie Architects. Lincoln, Portland's ...   More

News Charles Hopson, deputy superintendent for Portland Public Schools, is one of six semifinalists for the job of superintendent of St. Paul Public Schools in Minnesota, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Before his promotion to deputy superintendent earlier this year, Hopson was named an "area director" for the district in 2008. Prior to that he was principal of Franklin High School in Southeast ...   More

News One day after teachers from Portland Public Schools crowded a School Board meeting to protest not having a contract, the school district announced a major change in their proposal to teachers. Because of an audit that reveal additional funds, the district says it no longer needs to ask all of its employees to take five furlough days this school year. There is one big caveat. If state funding ...   More

News Another busy night for the Portland School Board this evening. Portland Public Schools' teachers, who have been working without a contract since July 2008, will hold another rally outside the meeting tonight. (Here's a summary of last week's mediation session, from the Portland Association of Teachers union.) And proponents of a new charter school focused on the recording arts are also gathering ...   More

News If you were watching Portland Public Schools' Monday night School Board meeting on television you missed Jobs with Justice's appearance. The workers' rights group awarded the School Board a "Grinch of the Year" award for not settling its contract with PPS teachers during 17 months of negotiaion. But the school district, which broadcasts the meetings on Channel 28, cut to a commercial during the ...   More

News Portland Public Schools' final community meeting about the district's plan to close and redesign high schools, held at Franklin High last night, can only be described as a whopper. Franklin's theater, which holds 1,500 people, was beyond capacity. Some estimates put the crowd at 2,000. The turnout was a clear indication to school district officials that Franklin's community is worried about rumors ...   More

News A member of the Portland School Board is questioning a key assumption undergirding Superintendent Carole Smith's proposed redesign of Portland Public Schools' high schools. That assumption? That PPS should ban the long-standing practice of allowing students to transfer from their own neighborhood high school to a different high school outside their neighborhood. That practice is one element ...   More

News An estimated 500-plus people packed this morning into the Vote Yes on 66-67 campaign office in Northeast Portland, as they readied themselves for a statewide day of canvassing about the mail-in Jan. 26 election. The effort was part of a statewide push that included Salem, Medford, Bend, Corvallis and Eugene — which together brought in around 200 more volunteers in those cities. In Portland, ...   More