Community pushes back on PPS closures at school board meeting

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Portland Public Schools parents and students gathered at Benson High School on Wednesday night to share their frustrations over the possibility of school closures.

“So, please do not close the schools,” one community member said.

The school district has proposed closing 14 schools as PPS faces a $65 million deficit. This week, the district also announced that up to 450 full-time positions could be cut.

“Parents don’t want school closures; they don’t want growing class sizes; we don’t want teacher cuts. We want an additive process that grows Portland’s enrollment,” said Eriq Wities, a parent of a PPS student.

The school district wants to hear from people this may impact. Between October 6 and October 28, the school district surveyed more than 3,200 community members. PPS says the objective was to provide transparency but also to actively listen and understand community demands.

But some parents are demanding specific details.

“They don’t have a plan. They don’t know what transportation looks like; they don’t know what size they’re gonna look like, they don’t have any evidence it benefits kids, and if we look at the evidence of all the schools that happened across other cities from that 20 years, we see the lower enrollment, worse class outcomes for students,” said one community member.

This was just a piece of the feedback from the community. Parents are calling for the district to be clear about the student experience. From school staffing to bus routes, parents are asking for more.

At Wednesday night’s meeting, the community emphasized the importance of neighborhood schools.

“Many studies have shown that proximity to schools and trust in their communities play a major role in attendance. Students have better attendance when they live closer to their schools, their roots to schools are safe and they’re trusted adults and peers are present. present,” an attendee noted.

As the district continues to hear from the community, parents ask for the process to slow down ahead of a deciding vote in December.

“I worry about how changes could affect students, and I hope the board will look into these concerns before making a decision,” another speaker shared.

Parents say they plan to rally again on November 14, which they say will hopefully push the school district to consider not closing any schools.