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SCHOOL CLOSURES COULD SPUR STUDENT EXODUS
Portland Public Schools has an enrollment problem. I’m increasingly concerned that its proposed solution may make that problem worse [“Shell Game,” WW, Sept. 16].
PPS is considering closures, consolidations, program moves, changes to K–8 schools and widespread boundary changes affecting roughly a third of its students. The district has also acknowledged that this massive restructuring is not expected to produce meaningful savings in the implementation year.
So what exactly are we buying with all this disruption?
Because there is an obvious risk here: If you disrupt the schools of thousands of Portland families at once, you also give thousands of families a reason to reconsider whether PPS is still working for them.
Portland has something worth protecting. Our focus schools and distinctive programs offer families meaningful educational choice without requiring them to leave public education. Parents can choose different educational models and communities while their children remain PPS students.
Families with resources also have other options. They can choose private school, another district, or leave Portland entirely. If their children’s lives are already being uprooted, the barrier to making one of those larger changes gets considerably lower.
Sometimes consolidation is necessary. But before reorganizing a third of the district, PPS should be able to show Portland what it expects to gain and what it risks losing.
If PPS responds to declining enrollment by making the district less attractive to families still choosing it, Portland may find that the only efficiency it created was a doom loop.
Meagan Zurn
Southeast Portland
VOTING REFORMS THREATEN THE POWER STRUCTURE
Of course [House] Majority Leader Ben Bowman doesn’t like any voting system that doesn’t facilitate and enable the establishment two-party system [“Quote of the Week,” WW, Sept. 23]. He’s a member of the duopoly and establishment and it works for him.
What we need is voting reform that enables true multiparty democracy. Not a two-party system.
Ranked choice voting is flawed. STAR Voting is much better. But Portland’s single transferable vote with three winners per district allows more representation and is better than the old system.
It’s only been one election cycle. Wait to pass judgment until there have been several more election cycles with this system.
Adam Zielinski
Southwest Portland
THREE GENERATIONS, ONE CONDO
I read today’s article in WW about “Sarah Minnick Embraces Intergenerational Living in Her North Portland Home” [Nester magazine, Sept. 21].
They are NOT living intergenerational in one home. Maybe in the same neighborhood!
I moved back to Oregon (from retirement in Maui) when my husband passed, after a poignant FaceTime with my 6-year-old grandson (“Gramma—I just want to hug you”). His mom suggested I rent the Maui place and move to Lake Oswego while the boys were young, then move back.
In December 2016, I returned and had to spend the night on the floor of the airport due to that icy storm. My daughter and her partner, their two boys AND I live in a 1,250-square-foot condo. THIS is intergeneration!!! Skateboards, soccer balls, scooters, a freezer in the dining room and me sharing a bathroom with two teens is a more realistic version of three generations living together.
We still say thank you and I love you every day.
JB Lockhart
Lake Oswego
CORRECTION
A story on Larry Crane (“Straight to Tape,” WW, Sept. 23) misstated the year Jackpot! Studios opened; it opened in 1997, not 2000. The article also incorrectly stated that Death Cab for Cutie had recorded at the studio, and that Elliott Smith won an Oscar; the singer-songwriter was only nominated for the award.
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Email: amesh@wweek.com
