RichW's blog

Well another six or so schools will be closing in order to "make the budget". In the business world this is classic behavior in managing a company that will eventually close its doors or go into a massive reorganization. Cut back on the business you provide and you lose more customers. This was amply shown by last years closures causing many families to vote with there feet and leave the public schools. By PPS's own statisitics this was a 15% "loss of market". We at NSA claim that the true loss of market was even higher. School closures are a self-fulfilling prophecy for declining enrollment. The problem isn't "demographics" as Vicki Phillips and Board Members would like us to believe. The problem is that what PPS serves up becomes less appealing with time. Here in North Portland, the "market penetration" is less than 50% for the 97217 zip code. Yet no one at PPS seems to want to address this problem or offer effective solutions. This is also why I believe that the recent re-re-reorganization of the Jefferson cluster is doomed to failure, at least with respect to increasing enrollment "capture rates". The top-down arrogance of the superintendent and her staff doesn't help matters any asnd more students will leave PPS because of these changes.
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