Jim Dow's blog

reprint from:

http://tinyurl.com/kxkcd

PPS School Closures - Admitting Mistakes Will Be Too Late
I'm reflecting on the recent news by auditors (one since quit because of the lack of transparency of the School Board) of Portland Public Schools:

* School Choice option and magnet schools are causing more segregation.
* Administration mistakes put poor at the bottom of list for having a choice.
* Superintendent admitting that this is serious and will get fixed.

So, parents blindly accept PPS decision to close schools and to be involved in a "Community Discussion" of school reconfiguration and academic improvement options (discussing the possibility of solutions that include keeping all neighborhood schools open -- NOT an option allowed by the PPS).
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Here is a re-post of a blog entry I made last night at:

http://tinyurl.com/pctq2

PDX PPS Slick SE Community Discussion Tonight.."BAAAA...BAAA"

First PPS Professionally Facilitated SE Community Discussion a success? "BAAA...BAAAA"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Portland, OR
CONTACT: Jim Dow, 503-502-0113

A little background on the Portland Public School District Conversations (partial re-print of the news release):

NEWS ADVISORY - May 24, 2006
Contact: Sarah Carlin Ames, 503-916-3212, sames@pps.k12.or.us
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Please forgive my reference to another Blog:

http://lovelewiscampaign.blogspot.com/

Naive parents of SE Portland, in Woodstock area are now awakening a little late to what is going on. We welcome thoughts, lessons you have learned, what we might do together.

In my opinion, this is much more than just reconfiguring schools to balance a bugdet, this is about local communities losing the power to create self-sustaining zones in this city. Our local neighborhoods / communities have the potential for bringing Portland into the future of self-sufficiency: we are getting our legs chopped off at the ankles of neighborhood schools are closed.
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