Jan. 9, 2006: NSA urges Board to increase enrollment at Jeff through educational quality for all

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE —January 9, 2006 NSA CONTACTS: N-Nancy Smith, 503-285-0500; SE-Cindy Young, 503-232-6559; SW-Ruth Adkins, 503-977-2933

NSA urges Board to increase enrollment at Jeff through educational quality for all—rather than set up Jeff for failure with racist "reforms"

Portland, Ore. — Members of the Neighborhood Schools Alliance applaud the editorial by Susan Nielsen and the comments by Glenda Walker in Sunday’s Oregonian. Nielsen writes: "How can Jefferson keep its vital role as an anchor of the African American community, while also expanding its identity to attract a diverse student body?" This is the crucial question. PPS must win back students of all colors. The key is providing a high-quality curriculum and strong support from PPS. Unfortunately, the main proposals from the PPS Jeff Design Team—same-sex academies and "uniform dress"—by narrowly appealing to a segregation-based, separate-and-unequal approach to education, will make it impossible for Jeff to rebuild enrollment. We strongly agree with Ms. Walker’s comments that the "design team’s focus was either lost or misdirected" and that attention should be focused on strong, quality curriculum, not distractions like uniforms and same-sex "academies." And, we agree with Tony Hopson that "More people of all colors -- including more African Americans -- need to wrap their arms around Jefferson." We urge everyone to read the Team’s curriculum committee recommendations, which have finally been published on the PPS website: http://159.191.14.139/www.pps.k12.or.us/depts/com_gov/staff/christopher/... A few additional comments:

• Is Jeff being set up for failure? We fear that PPS is setting Jefferson up for failure: On the one hand they are demanding an enrollment increase to fill the building while on the other hand, they propose reconfiguring it as a school that is not reflective of its neighborhood’s diverse demographics, thus ensuring enrollment decline. They did ZERO research with their customers, the community, yet somehow expect enrollment to increase. The process is disingenuous and reeks of "failure by design."
• Design Team process was flawed, lacks consensus and customer research. We applaud Nielsen and Walker for pointing out the truth: there was no "overwhelming consensus" on the Design Team regarding uniforms, same-sex schools and the 7-12 configuration, and many of the JDT members felt they should have spent more time on proposals aimed at matters of substance like curriculum, programs, & quality teaching.
• The same-sex/uniform/multiple configuration plan is a plan to close Jefferson and Tubman. Let’s look at the overall picture. PPS knows these proposals will further drive away non-Black folks, and will also drive away the current Jefferson students as well. The result? Enrollment declines further and both Jefferson and Tubman are closed. At that point the Black voice completely LOST, because by then they will be scattered everywhere. Now that is racist.

The Neighborhood Schools Alliance is a group of parents, teachers, and community members from all areas of Portland working together to support and strengthen our neighborhood schools. For more information on NSA and to sign up for NSA updates & info, visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NSANews/