Murmurs: Portland Public Schools Broaches Consolidation

PORTLAND PUBLIC SCHOOLS BROACHES CONSOLIDATION: A warm Aug. 26 marked the first day of school for many Portland Public Schools students, and also the start of an academic year sure to be marked by tough conversations: notably around redistricting and consolidation. At a first-day press tour, PPS Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong shared some updates on how the district will navigate both, noting one of her biggest priorities for the upcoming year is to tackle enrollment issues and optimize schools. That’s likely to mean consolidating some schools, perhaps in lieu of upgrades like seismic retrofits. “[We’re] looking at our schools with low numbers of enrollment and then our schools that are furthest away from having an infrastructure that meets the needs of 2025,” she said. “We’ll begin to review and make some decisions on what schools and buildings we’ll need to take a deeper look at for the long term.” She also confirmed she plans to have a conversation about redrawing Jefferson High School’s boundaries within the academic year. “If we’re building a high school that’s over $400 million, [we must ensure we’re] doing everything we can to begin to increase the enrollment now,” she said. But there are already signs this conversation will be a difficult one. The Portland Association of Teachers released a video ahead of the first day of school decrying consolidation. PAT president Angela Bonilla stressed that the district cannot afford to put its workers last, citing both “false promises of ‘consolidation’” and recent artificial intelligence partnerships as topics of concern. “As long as we continue with the number of students that we have and increase that,” Armstrong said in response, “we’ll continue to have a need for teachers.”

NEW STUDY PANS DESCHUTES DAM FIX: A new scientific review says the strategy that Portland General Electric and the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs developed to return fish to the upper Deschutes River isn’t working. As the Oregon Journalism Project previously reported, there is significant disagreement between the utility and the tribe, which co-own the dams, on one side and river users and conservation groups on the other over the “selective water withdrawal tower” that PGE installed more than 15 years ago in a reservoir on the Deschutes River near Madras. A new paper in the journal Water wades into the debate. “The installation and operation of the selective water withdrawal at Round Butte Dam has resulted in a net reduction in water quality and aquatic habitat in the lower Deschutes River,” the paper says. The authors found that water released to the lower Deschutes is warmer and contains more agricultural runoff than PGE anticipated. (One consequence: The authors noted that smallmouth bass, a nonnative, warm-water predator, appears to be far more common in the Deschutes.) PGE disagrees with the paper’s conclusions. “The [selective water withdrawal tower] has delivered real biological benefits, and monitoring shows the Deschutes is supporting strong fish runs,” says spokesman John Farmer. The Warm Springs declined to comment on the study. As requested by Gov. Tina Kotek and seven conservation groups, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is currently reviewing the dam complex’s water quality permit.

MORE BAD NEWS FOR EX-DIRECTOR OF PRESCHOOL FOR ALL: Trouble continues to mount for Leslee Barnes, the former director of preschool and early learning for Multnomah County. She resigned July 31 after WW spotted that the preschool she owns was flagged for “wasteful” spending in a state investigation of another subsidized child care program, Preschool Promise. Now, working papers from the Secretary of State Office’s investigation show that a committee reviewing low enrollment in Preschool Promise in 2021–22 recommended ending the program’s partnership with Barnes’ school, Village Childcare. The committee found that despite low enrollment, the school turned away students it was offered while surrounding preschools were successful in filling most of their Preschool Promise slots. It is not immediately clear why the committee’s recommendation was not followed. The new revelation, first reported by WW on Aug. 23, raises additional questions about Multnomah County’s due diligence before Barnes’ hiring. The county has approved an outside investigation of how it handles conflicts of interest. Also on Aug. 23, The Oregonian first reported that Barnes failed to disclose her ownership as a potential conflict of interest after her hiring. In additional records shared with WW on Aug. 25, Barnes’ résumé shows her declaring that her ownership of Village Childcare ended in December 2020 (Barnes confirmed to WW she was still the school’s owner in July). On Feb. 9, 2021, Barnes wrote she was not an employee at Village Childcare and that she understood “the delicate nature” of conflicts of interest and that the school “would not pursue any contact” with the county’s preschool and early learning division. Barnes directed questions to her attorney, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

NURSES AND GRESHAM HOSPITAL NEAR AGREEMENT: Days after threatening a strike, and about two years since they voted to unionize, hundreds of nurses established a tentative first contract last week with Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center in Gresham. The development comes amid a broader unionization wave across Portland-area health care—particularly at its second-largest system, Legacy Health. Myrna Jensen of the Oregon Nurses Association tells WW that 10 ONA-represented unions alone are currently negotiating first contracts with that system. The preliminary agreement, established on behalf of some 440 nurses at Legacy Mount Hood, established competitive wages with nurses at other institutions like Providence, though wages would remain below those at Oregon Health & Science University, the union bargaining committee said in a letter to members recommending they approve the deal. “The closure of the Family Birth Center was what pushed us to form our union,” said Christie Mikrut, a nurse at Legacy Mount Hood and member of the bargaining team, in a statement put out by the union. According to ONA, a mobilization against the closure prompted Legacy Mount Hood to reverse its decision. Around that time, nurses at the hospital voted to unionize.