Steve Linder's blog

6/24/08
LYNN SCHORE AND SHEI'MEKA NEWMANN OF JEFFERSON HIGH SCHOOL PTSA /
STATEMENT TO PLANNING COMM RE DRAFT WORK PLAN
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Here is my statement before the Portland Planning Commission on 4/22/08:

Good evening. My name is Lynn Schore. I am a homeowner in the Ash Creek neighborhood, PPS parent of two daughters, founding member of the Neighborhood Schools Alliance, member of the Oregon Assembly for Black Affairs, and the Jefferson High School PTSA. I want to thank our Planning Commission members for your volunteer service to our City.
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Here is a letter to the Oregonian editor we sent today:

Portland Public Schools' plan to demolish 10 historic elementary schools ("District marks 10 for scrap," 2/28/08) focuses on the poor condition of these schools, creating a false impression that all these schools are in bad condition.  In truth, some of these schools, like Rieke and Winterhaven, are in good condition.  Other schools, such as Sitton, Chief Joseph, and Markham, urgently need replacement. And the new Whitaker Middle School has been promised for years.
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Today is the one year anniversary of the passing of our beloved Sheila Rae Brown.

(Reprint from her memorial service last year below.)
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One of the agenda items at the 11/5/07 PPS School Board meeting was to address the audit of the PPS Transfer Policy, a full seventeen months after the audit was published by City of Portland Auditor Gary Blackmer and Multnomah County Auditor Suzanne Flynn.

A link to that audit, entitled "PPS STUDENT TRANSFER SYSTEM: DISTRICT OBJECTIVES NOT MET" can be found here: http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/auditor/PPS%20Student%20Transfer%20Audit.p....

Presentations made 11/5/07 by Judy Brennan, head of the PPS Enrollment and Transfer Office, and Adam Davis of the "research" firm Hibbits, were thin, inaccurate, unscientific, cherry-picked, and so utterly lacking that the Board should be ashamed.
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With Portland’s Office of Transportation considering more taxes to pay for road widening and with Portland Public Schools considering more taxes to pay for enlarging elementary schools, it is time to consider if Portland wants larger schools and the resulting costs and traffic or if it could make better and more economical use of its current roads and existing school facilities.

Background: Elementary Schools Double in Size
Portland Public School’s target size for Elementary Schools has doubled, from 200 to 300 a few years ago, to a whopping 400 to 600 students now. This change to school size slipped into the “schools reconfiguration” process a few years back without much public debate. This doubling of the “ideal” school size was obscured by misinformation during the rush to close schools. There has been no proven savings from these school closures, but the costs of doubling the target size for schools continue to mount.
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Choice may not improve schools, study says / Report on MPS comes from longtime supporter of plan

By ALAN J. BORSUK

Posted: Oct. 23, 2007

Link: http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=678202&format=print

Some quotes:

"A study being released today suggests that school choice isn't a powerful tool for driving educational improvement in Milwaukee Public Schools.

But more surprising than the conclusion is the organization issuing the study: the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, a conservative think tank that has supported school choice for almost two decades, when Milwaukee became the nation's premier center for trying the idea. The institute is funded in large part by the Milwaukee-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, an advocate of school choice.
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