Murmurs: Jason Lee Elementary Renamed “Sunrise”

JASON LEE ELEMENTARY RENAMED “SUNRISE”: At press deadline May 12, the Portland School Board was poised to approve the renaming of Jason Lee Elementary School in East Portland to Sunrise Elementary School. The board first authorized the renaming process in March 2024, following advocacy from people at the school who said Lee’s values were inconsistent with theirs. Lee was a Methodist Episcopal missionary known in Oregon for founding its capital city, Salem, alongside Willamette University as he led a mission to bring Christianity to Indigenous people in the region. The Willamette Heritage Center notes Lee’s vision for Oregon was to fill the state with “white, American, Christian settlers,” and that even some of his fellow ministers saw his work as a “colonization scheme,” one that subsequently displaced Indigenous peoples. “That history doesn’t represent our diverse, inclusive school, and it doesn’t represent who we’re raising our kids to be,” says Gabrielle Haber, a parent at the school. A committee of parents, staff, students and community members selected seven finalist names, and a voting process saw 111 of 483 votes cast for the name Sunrise. Top of mind for many on the committee was honoring the people who were in the region ahead of Lee’s arrival. An accompanying presentation notes that in developing the new name, they learned that in Indigenous tradition, important places are not often named after individuals, something that is more of a Western tradition. “We felt the name ‘Sunrise’ captures both our community and our hopes for our kids’ futures,” Haber says. “We’re literally one of PPS’s easternmost schools, but we’re also a school and a neighborhood that’s growing, blossoming and ready to take on a new day.”

AUDITOR SAYS COUNTY FAILED TO ADEQUATELY TRACK SPENDING AT TROUBLED NONPROFIT: The Multnomah County auditor says the county’s Homeless Services Department could have limited the mess that followed the collapse of homeless shelter nonprofit Sunstone Way. In an April 21 memo, County Auditor Jennifer McGuirk says the county launched the nonprofit as a way to outsource its duties, then ignored her warnings that it needed safeguards to track Sunstone Way’s spending. The department and the central finance division objected to that criticism, replying May 11 that it in fact had followed the auditor’s prescriptions but still didn’t spot that Sunstone Way was in distress. In her memo to Chair Jessica Vega Pederson and the county board, McGuirk says she made four recommendations for reform after the 2022 spending mishap, two of which might have allowed the county to better prepare for the nonprofit’s death spiral. Most notably she says the county should have separated the dual roles played by program staff, who McGuirk says serve both as the advocates for county contractors and their financial overseers. She wrote, “It also puts staff in an untenable position; it is practically impossible to be both a provider’s advocate and the one who scrutinizes it and holds it to account.” Eric Arellano, Multnomah County’s chief financial officer, wrote a memo of his own saying the county added a layer of accountability in 2022, and that McGuirk’s reforms could not have prepared the county for Sunstone Way’s downfall.

COURT UPHOLDS COUNTY BAN ON FLAVORED TOBACCO: Oregonians who want to ban the sale of flavored synthetic nicotine and tobacco products scored a victory last week as a court ruling paved the way for Washington County to proceed with a prohibition that has stood in legal limbo for years. The fight comes amid a broader debate over flavoring in vapes and other addictive products, which critics see as an industry bid to hook kids. (Politico and other Beltway outlets reported that the recent resignation of U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary came, among other things, as President Donald Trump demanded he authorize a line of fruit-flavored vaping pods.) The 2021 Washington County ordinance, for its part, restricted sale of synthetic tobacco or nicotine products flavored to taste like “chocolate, cocoa, menthol, mint, wintergreen, vanilla, honey, molasses, fruit, or any candy, dessert, alcoholic beverage, herb, or spice.” Retailers sued, arguing the restriction violated their liberties and Oregon law. Following the Oregon Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling this month in its favor, Washington County said it would take “some weeks” for the lower trial court to implement the decision, suggesting the ordinance will not immediately take effect. Meanwhile, Multnomah County’s own tobacco and synthetic nicotine ban, which was supposed to take effect in 2024, is still held up in court. “Multnomah County hopes and believes that the court’s reasoning should apply to our case as well,” county spokeswoman Sarah Dean tells WW, “but we have to wait for the court to make a decision in our case.”

BUDGET COMMITTEE PRESENTS PPS WITH A MOUNTAIN OF SUGGESTIONS: A report from Portland Public Schools’ citizen budget advisers, presented to the Portland School Board May 12, contains some fiery commentary on how the district has approached its budget process for the upcoming 2026–27 school year. PPS faces a $56.3 million deficit, and its superintendent is proposing 336 layoffs as a consequence. The Community Budget Review Committee offered several notable warnings, including that the district was making “unrealistically optimistic assumptions” about key revenues and expenditures, specifically by forecasting “a 1% cost of living adjustment for employees that is significantly lower than any COLA the district has negotiated with its labor partners in recent memory.” It noted that some proposed reductions, like those to English Language Development, are cutting staff even as there is growing need for services. And it said spending on management services and non-instructional personal and professional services have dramatically increased. (In response, PPS spokeswoman Valerie Feder says the COLA assumption was “part of a strategy to avoid deeper reductions and additional school restaffing in 2026–27,” and that the vast majority of the relevant purchased services are not from the district’s general fund but its capital projects fund.) More broadly, CBRC members voiced frustrations around transparency, and noted that PPS had deprived them of a timeline adequate to assure public accountability, giving the committee nine working days to evaluate the budget. “The district faces a structural deficit, declining reserves, and significant reductions to student-facing services,” committee members wrote. “Budget oversight that cannot be conducted thoroughly risks becoming symbolic rather than substantive.”