Portland Public Schools to Rent Building to Charter School for First Time

For the first time, Portland Public Schools will rent space to a charter school, district officials said Monday.

Kairos PDX Charter School and Portland Public Schools are expected to finalize a one-year deal on Thursday to house the charter school in the vacant Humboldt School.

In the past, charter schools unsuccessfully sought space with PPS.

"We are in the final stages of ironing out a contract with Kairos for a one-year lease for their temporary home," says PPS spokeswoman Christine Miles.

The fate of the school, located in the midst of the ongoing gentrification of the traditionally black neighborhoods of North Portland, has been a sensitive subject for the district.

Parents at Kairos PDX asked for the district's help, citing the school's mission to succeed where PPS has failed in closing the achievement gap between white students and their black and Latino counterparts.

The majority of Kairos PDX's students are black, as were Humboldt's before it closed in 2012.

As part of the ongoing review of school boundaries, the proposed long-term plans would include giving Humboldt over to ACCESS, which is a majority-white alternative school for gifted students—plans that at least at least one Kairos PDX parent objected to.

No details were available on the rent being charged, but a deal is expected to be finalized without School Board approval, meaning the contract will be for less than $150,000, Miles said. Parents asked that Kairos not have to pay rent.

It's unclear at this point where Kairos PDX will move at the end of the one-year lease.

Willamette Week