Here Are the 19 PPS Elementary and Middle Schools in Unreinforced Masonry Buildings

Seismic safety has gripped the Portland Public Schools Board for the past few weeks as parents have urged board members to develop a system to prioritize retrofits at some of the most high-risk schools.

On May 6, the School Board approved a resolution to prioritize seismic upgrades for funding from the $1.83 billion bond now on ballots. The district’s proposed bond includes $190 million for deferred maintenance upgrades. It could also bank an additional $176 million to $208 million of spillover from high school modernization projects. Both those pots of money now carry the directive that they should be spent on seismic upgrades before most of the district’s other needs. (The resolution allows the district to first prioritize $100 million toward imminent risk projects.)

The resolution’s approval led Safe Structures PPS, a recently created parent group advocating for seismic upgrades, to endorse the school bond on Thursday.

Calls for the district to allocate money toward seismic safety grew louder after reporting by WW in late March highlighted 19 unreinforced masonry buildings across PPS that weren’t going to receive much funding from the upcoming bond. Particularly dangerous are buildings with beams, girders and trusses resting on unreinforced masonry walls. Even a moderate quake, much less the feared “Big One” in the Cascadia subduction zone, could cause some schools to collapse on students (“Shake Shacks,” March 26).

WW‘s reporting on unreinforced masonry buildings revealed a district-commissioned report by Holmes US, which started evaluating PPS’s seismic risks back in 2023. The report, titled “2024 PPS Seismic Assessments All Schools,” analyzes the majority of PPS buildings for seismic deficiencies, and estimates costs for URM-only retrofits and complete retrofits.

The report does not include URM buildings that had been retrofitted or were in the process of undergoing modernization. It appears that two schools on the district’s upcoming bond, Cleveland High School in Southeast Portland and Jefferson High School in Northeast Portland, are included in the latter category: undergoing modernization. They are both URM buildings.

The estimated costs for URM-only retrofits at the 19 facilities come to about $110 million, though the district has estimated it will now cost more. A May 3 district memo projects it would cost about $129.3 million to seismically retrofit only the unreinforced masonry elements at all 19 schools, but that figure does not include soft costs like design services.

Read the full Holmes report here.

Below, WW has compiled a list of facilities in PPS that were designated as URMs in the Holmes report. We’ve included the names of the schools, their addresses, and Holmes’ cost estimates for URM-only retrofits. (The estimates are, in most cases, significantly lower than what complete retrofits would cost the district.)

• Ainsworth Elementary School, 2425 SW Vista Ave., $7.87 million
• Beach Elementary School, 1710 N Humboldt St., $1.35 million
• Beverly Cleary K-8 School, 1915 NE 33rd Ave., $14.4 million
• Buckman Elementary School, 320 SE 16th Ave., $19.75 million
• Capitol Hill Elementary School, 8401 SW 17th Ave., $3.43 million
• Creston Elementary School, 4701 SE Bush St., $10.97 million
• George Middle School, 10000 N Burr Ave., $11.18 million
• Hayhurst Elementary School, 5037 SW Iowa St., $520,000
• James John Elementary School, 7439 N Charleston Ave., $1.02 million
• Kelly Elementary School, 9030 SE Cooper St., $1.93 million
• Marysville Elementary School, 7733 SE Raymond St., $1.4 million
• Richmond Elementary School, 2276 SE 41st Ave., $1.72 million
• Rieke Elementary School, 1405 SW Vermont St., $4.16 million
• Rigler Elementary School, 5401 NE Prescott St., $2.85 million
• Rose City Park Elementary School, 2334 NE 57th Ave., $20.91 million
• Sabin Elementary School, 4013 NE 18th Ave., $2.6 million
• Vernon K-8 School, 2044 NE Killingsworth St., $2.45 million
• Columbia Regional Inclusive Services at Wilcox, 833 NE 74th Ave., $455,000*
• Winterhaven K-8 School, 3830 SE 14th Ave., $810,000

Smith Elementary School, which closed almost 20 years ago amid declining enrollment and a PPS budget deficit, is also on the URM list. Retrofits would cost $7.7 million for that site.

* Wilcox School serves kids who are visually impaired, hard of hearing, or deaf blind, or have autism spectrum disorder, orthopedic impairments, or traumatic brain injuries.