PPS Considers Requiring Students in Jefferson Catchment to Attend the School

Portland Public Schools officials will spend the upcoming school year exploring a couple of strategies to boost enrollment at Jefferson High School. It’s currently the district high school with the lowest enrollment: just 459 students.

The move comes shortly after voters approved a $1.83 billion bond presented by PPS in the May election. A substantial portion of those funds are allocated toward school modernizations at Jefferson, Cleveland and Ida B. Wells high schools. Of those three rebuilds, it is Jefferson’s size that raised the most eyebrows among several education economists WW spoke to in March, who cautioned against spending close to half a billion dollars to revamp a school with less than 500 students (“Too Many High Schools,” March 19).

But Jefferson’s supporters say the school has not been given a fair chance to bring in more students. They have said Jefferson’s current status as a noncomprehensive high school, poor facilities, and dual assignment zones are all limiting its draw.

Advocates have also underlined the significance of the school for Portland’s Black community. For decades in the 20th century, it boasted high enrollment and was Oregon’s only majority-Black high school.

In a May 29 memo to the Portland School Board, district leaders appeared poised to reverse some of those factors. The move comes as a response to a December 2022 resolution by the School Board, which required that the superintendent “initiate a process to develop a plan to increase student enrollment at Jefferson High School” by the start of the 2026–27 school year.

“PPS recognizes the need to revitalize Jefferson enrollment in order to ensure equitable access to quality education within the community, optimize resource allocation, and support the successful implementation of Jefferson’s modernization plan,” chief of schools Dr. Jon Franco wrote in the memo.

Perhaps the most notable piece of the effort to turn Jefferson’s enrollment around would be opening a conversation to sunset the district’s dual assignment zones. The memo notes that since the 1980s, Jefferson students have been allowed to transfer to other high schools, first as part of a desegregation effort and later through the No Child Left Behind Act.

Currently, students living in the Jefferson attendance zone can choose to enroll at Grant, McDaniel or Roosevelt high schools, all comprehensive high schools that have been modernized with money from other other PPS bonds. This year, 1,358 students in the dual assignment zones chose to attend one of those three high schools instead of Jefferson. The district memo also notes an inequity: While 40% of Black students opt in to Jefferson instead of a comprehensive high school, just 25% of white students do.

The discussions will consist of an advisory group to commence in the fall. Three public meetings will be heald before winter break, and the group will recommend action to increase enrollment sometime in winter of the 2025–26 school year. Any changes to the dual assignment zones would require board approval.

“A community dialogue will commence to consider sunsetting dual assignment and reestablishing Jefferson as a comprehensive neighborhood high school, ensuring equitable access, enrollment clarity, and long-term stability for students and schools,” the memo reads.

Another piece of the strategy will involve a marketing and advertising campaign “to raise awareness of the historic investment in Jefferson,” with additional outreach at Jefferson’s feeder middle and K-8 schools.

That strategy would appear to be part of a broader districtwide effort to boost declining enrollment, which the district cites as a major influence in the series of budget deficits it has faced since 2022. PPS has begun a Recruitment, Retention, and Recovery campaign to build family trust and bring students back into the district, director of communications Candice Grose previously told WW.

District officials will hear opinions from members of the School Board on June 10 regarding their plan. School Board member Michelle DePass, whose zone encompasses Jefferson and who has been one of the school’s most outspoken defenders, was not immediately available for comment.