Murmurs: Portland Moves to Untangle Railroad Crossing Jam

PORTLAND MOVES TO UNTANGLE RAILROAD CROSSING JAM: City officials have begun to push for changes by the railroad company responsible for Portland’s worst traffic nightmare. The city filed a notice of intent June 12 to comment on a planned merger involving Union Pacific, the nation’s largest railroad in revenue and operator of 3-mile-long freight trains that every day crawl through the Central Eastside, blocking crossings at Southeast 8th, 11th and 12th avenues, often for hours at a time. If its merger with Norfolk Southern Railway wins federal approval, UP estimates train activity on the Central Eastside would increase by 22%, as WW reported last month (“Railed,” May 20). Backed by federal court decisions, railroads are largely free to block surface crossings in the U.S. But they are uniquely susceptible to public pressure during mergers, which require federal approval. The Friday notice, filed by Jack Arriaga, the city’s federal relations manager, does not indicate what demands the city might seek to place on UP. But the filing was pushed by City Councilor Steve Novick, who tells WW the train congestion at 8th, 11th and 12th is “the most annoying damned thing in the entire city.”

SCHOOL DISTRICT FORCED TO UNDO TEACHER TERMINATIONS: Five teachers across Portland Public Schools received contract nonextension or nonrenewal letters in late March, notifying them they were losing their jobs. But PPS made a timing error that forced the district to rescind those termination letters, missing Oregon’s statutory deadline of March 15 to provide written notice of nonextensions or nonrenewals. All five teachers will have their contracts extended another year. The Portland School Board had approved the terminations March 10 with Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong’s recommendation. Exact reasons for termination are not made public, but the board may choose not to renew contracts under state law “for any cause the Board in good faith considers sufficient.” (Such terminations are exceedingly rare.) PPS’s mistake means the district is legally obligated to rehire the teachers for next year in accordance with state labor law. “Because the notification deadlines established under Oregon law were not met, the district rescinded all affected notifications and addressed the matter through the appropriate legal and personnel processes,” PPS spokeswoman Candice Grose confirmed. “The district views this as a process issue and has reviewed internal procedures to help prevent similar occurrences in the future.” Grose maintains the snafu had no impact on the district’s future hiring and employment plans. PPS has laid off at least 82 educators ahead of the 2026–27 academic year because of a multimillion-dollar budget deficit. The Portland Association of Teachers has separately been protesting 77 of those layoffs, describing them as violations of the union’s contract.

OHA CHIEF’S TIMES OP-ED DRAWS PHYSICIAN RESPONSE: Oregon Health Authority director Sejal Hathi penned a New York Times opinion piece last month describing her challenges getting health care after giving birth to her child, even as she experienced serious, lingering postpartum health problems. She noted her struggles were particularly striking given her position as a leading health official with good insurance and paid leave. “What I did not have,” she wrote, “was a single provider who could serve as a quarterback for my care.” Arguing that the dominant obstetric care model treats postpartum recovery as a brief coda to pregnancy, leaving new moms to fend for themselves, Hathi proposed an alternative model more closely integrating maternal and pediatric services—and noted Finland’s progress in this direction. A few days later, she got a letter from the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians. The letter, reviewed by WW, said core aspects of the model Hathi proposes already exist in Oregon, though the institutions offering it could use additional support. It outlined ideas for how Hathi might use her official position to help primary care providers treat families in a more holistic and coordinated way, recommending several courses of action (for example, defining primary care more precisely and making it easier for providers to get into primary care). But it began with the starkest fact: Oregon has allocated money for years to incentivize primary care providers to offer quality, wraparound care. But recently, as it diverted funds to manage out-of-control costs, OHA, which Hathi runs, has “drastically” reduced this portion of its budget. “We agree that too often the system offers inadequate support to new families,“ the letter said. “Thankfully, Oregon has the infrastructure to address many aspects of the excellent model you propose.”

PPS SCHOOL BOARD CONSIDERS POLICY ON SCREENS IN CLASSROOMS: A June 15 policy committee meeting of the Portland School Board saw early consensus that the board must tackle a policy on artificial intelligence and screen use in the classroom. The discussion comes as parents and educators nationwide have reckoned with how to reel in screen time and use in the classroom; most recently, the Los Angeles Unified School District became one of the nation’s largest to limit screen time. In Portland, a chapter of Schools Beyond Screens, a national coalition to restrict smartphone use, has started showing up at board meetings. Public commenters who spoke in front of the board noted online AI tools had disincentivized their students from learning, and several urged PPS to get ahead of tools that could harm kids. Others said their students were disproportionately on screens in class. Elise Huang, an elementary school student, described her frustration using PPS-sanctioned online platforms to learn. “Me learning more from an actual person boosted my knowledge,” she said of her struggles in math. “I need a real person in my face telling me how to do something.” What a policy might look like at this point is unclear, and board members briefly debated whether to prioritize speed or quality in developing guidelines. “The board is 100% committed to doing something,” vice chair Michelle DePass said, “and I think that it’s important to do it right.”