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A warm Aug. 26 marked the first day of school for many Portland Public Schools students, and also the start of an academic year sure to be marked by tough conversations: notably around redistricting and consolidation.
At a first-day press tour, PPS Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong shared some updates on how the district will navigate both, noting one of her biggest priorities for the upcoming year is to tackle enrollment issues and optimize schools. That’s likely to mean consolidating some schools, perhaps in lieu of upgrades like seismic retrofits.
“[We’re] looking at our schools with low numbers of enrollment and then our schools that are furthest away from having an infrastructure that meets the needs of 2025,” she said. “We’ll begin to review and make some decisions on what schools and buildings we’ll need to take a deeper look at for the long term.”
She also confirmed she plans to have a conversation about redrawing Jefferson High School’s boundaries within the academic year. “If we’re building a high school that’s over $400 million, [we must ensure we’re] doing everything we can to begin to increase the enrollment now,” she said.
But there are already signs this conversation will be a difficult one. The Portland Association of Teachers released a video ahead of the first day of school decrying consolidation.
PAT president Angela Bonilla stressed that the district cannot afford to put its workers last, citing both “false promises of ‘consolidation’” and recent artificial intelligence partnerships as topics of concern.
“As long as we continue with the number of students that we have and increase that,” Armstrong said in response, “we’ll continue to have a need for teachers.”
