Portland Public Schools Owns a Lot of Open Land That’s Closed to Romping

Portland Public Schools owns 81 buildings, not counting spare and mothballed structures, that are all officially closed to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some Portlanders are pushing for access to the school district's hundreds of acres of open space that taxpayers paid for but cannot use.

"PPS is not really responding to the needs of the community," says Don Baack, a Hillsdale resident who lives near Wilson High School and Rieke Elementary, where tennis courts, a running track and playing fields have been off-limits since Gov. Kate Brown's executive order to stay home in March.

On Oct. 5, Deputy Superintendent Claire Hertz explained the district's decision to keep school grounds closed in an email to a parent.

"This really is a question about risk and how much oversight PPS can provide on our grounds," Hertz wrote. "We have limited resources to monitor our grounds and have focused on instruction and feeding our students and families."

Many of the district's buildings are surrounded by playgrounds and greenspaces—often including running tracks, basketball courts and playing fields exceeded only by Portland Parks & Recreation's in terms of open spaces in an increasingly crowded, pandemic-stressed city.

Relatedly, both PPS and Portland Parks & Rec asked voters for big cash infusions on the Nov. 3 ballot: $1.2 billion for school renovations and $240 million for parks upkeep. (Look for election results of those ballot measures at wweek.com.)

One big difference: PP&R reopened its playing fields, playgrounds, dog parks, trails, picnic areas and other open spaces in September, while the school district remained firmly closed, with some playgrounds gated and padlocked.

Baack knows all about the importance of providing places for city dwellers to get outside. He founded the nonprofit SWTrails 25 years ago to get people walking through Portland's hills.

Today, he's frustrated that the school district's tennis courts, running tracks and fields are closed while other publicly funded greenspaces are heavily used. Baack says Portlanders deserve better. "It's extremely backward in my opinion," he says. "I don't think PPS has its head screwed on right about this."

Portland Public Schools spokeswoman Karen Werstein says the district's policy has not changed since the March 13 shutdown order. That's even as scientific guidance about how COVID-19 is transmitted outdoors (rarely) has changed and parks have reopened.

"Since Portland Parks & Rec opened up, we have been considering it as well," Werstein says. "I think we'll have more info to share later this week."