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Portland Public Schools’ proposed closure of about a dozen schools has been called many things. Disastrous. Infuriating. Heartbreaking.
You might call it stomach curdling, but a few Woodstock businesses are employing their expertise—deliciousness—to bring awareness to the issue, banding together with food specials in protest of the closures.
Cloud City Ice Cream, Double Mountain Brewery and Ate-Oh-Ate Grill are all running Save Our Schools, or S.O.S., specials to object to Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong’s Oct. 5 proposals to shutter 11 to 14 schools.
All three businesses are particularly invested in Lewis Elementary School, which is listed for closure in one of Armstrong’s two “rightsizing” scenarios. Lewis Elementary is located at 4401 SE Evergreen St., about seven blocks from the main commercial drag on Southeast Woodstock Boulevard. (Nearby Woodstock Elementary is not slated for closure in either proposed scenario.)
Cloud City renamed its Sea Salt Cookie Dough ice cream to S.O.S. Dough Not Close Lewis. Double Mountain’s sausage onion mushroom (S.O.M.) pizza is now the S.O.S. pie. And Ate-Oh-Ate is running the S.O.S. teriyaki chicken special at both its Woodstock and East Burnside locations to bring awareness to the effects of the PPS restructuring plans on Lewis, Buckman and Laurelhurst schools. (Buckman is slated for closure under both proposals. Laurelhurst would change from a K–8 school to a K–5 school.)
“Ate-Oh-Ate believes schools operate better open rather than closed,” says the restaurant’s co-owner David Kreifels, who is also a PPS parent. “Our S.O.S. teriyaki chicken special is intended to spotlight the struggles the kids within our community will face with impending school closures. These may seem like collateral damage to the district, but uprooting kids from their friends, teachers and extracurricular activities will leave some serious scar tissue.”
PPS has faced a multiyear enrollment decline that has left school buildings across the district underattended and underresourced, the administration says. According to PPS’s website, “the district is working to increase stability in staffing, balance resources and improve the student learning experience across the city, especially for historically underserved students.” Armstrong will finalize her recommendations in November, and then the School Board will vote in December. If approved, most changes will go into effect in fall 2027.
Double Mountain manager Bree Henry renamed the brewery’s pizza last week after the Parent Teacher Association reached out. Closing the school could also affect the pizza shop and brewery’s bottom line; Double Mountain hosts regular “dine-out” fundraising events with Lewis Elementary, mutually beneficial promotions where a percentage of the evening’s sales go back to the school.
“We have live music every Thursday. It’s free and a lot of kids come and dance,” Henry says. “If families have to go out of their way to get their children every night, I don’t know what that would look like for us.”
In Scenario A, the proposed plan that involves closing Lewis, students would attend Duniway Elementary in Eastmoreland, 1.3 miles from Lewis.
Cloud City rolled out its S.O.S. cookie dough ice cream promotion just days before another big announcement. On Oct. 27, the 15-year-old artisanal ice cream shop launched a $60,000 crowdfunding campaign in order to stay afloat. The parlor has been struggling financially since a major equipment failure in July 2024. As of Oct. 29, the GoFundMe has raised $55,000 from 1,000 donations.
Cloud City owner Bryan Gilbert says he’s been shocked by and grateful for the community’s outpouring of support, but he adds that a school closure would be another kind of hurdle.
“What are the long-term consequences of severing that community connection? Will we see families leave in search of ‘better’ schools? How, then, will our neighborhood businesses be impacted?” Gilbert says. “More importantly, how will students be affected?”
