N. Smith's blog

My Words to the Mayor, PPS Superintendent, Jefferson High School Principal, and State Superintendent

There is a survey available to provide feedback on the Mayor's week at Jefferson High School. It's easy. For the sake of Jefferson's children, and all children of Portland Public Schools, please take a few moments to fill it out:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=a8KClIp7lT6yUKDySnFBMw_3d_3d
 read more »

The Tribune article below highlights the distainful, predictible outcomes of PPS policies negatively affecting Jefferson High School:

It is insidious that public blame has befallen Jefferson students for attempting to exercise the same privileges afforded most PPS high school students. The Portland Public Schools board of directors was previously implored to adopt an equitable, district-wide high school campus lunch policy (open, closed or combination) - to no avail. The current policy not only discriminates against high school students with low income and/or minority populations, but is directly responsible for additional (and unnecessary) harm to the reputation of Jefferson High School and its students, victimizing them as unwitting targets of negative media exposure.
 read more »

There are current moral and ethical issues relative to the Kenton Elementary closure and proposed lease situation which underscore the need for the PPS school board to "do the right thing":

1. On one hand the board is overwhelmingly supporting some school communities in their plans to increase enrollment by seeking to pull students AWAY FROM PRIVATE SCHOOLS back INTO their PUBLIC SCHOOLS; this is great!. However, in the case of Jefferson, the opposite is true. The proposal is to allow a PRIVATE SCHOOL (competing for Jefferson High Students) long-term sustainable residency WITHIN the Jefferson cluster, draining additional enrollment FROM JEFFERSON HIGH and threatening it's future existence. Approving this lease would undermine the sustainability/future of Jefferson High School and its feeder schools.
 read more »

Some of you are familiar with the article below "Who's Behind the Money?" But what you may not know is that the GATES FOUNDATION (the force behind the Jefferson "re-re-re-re-resdesign" and "reform" of the district) monetarily supports both the strong voucher-oriented BLACK ALLIANCE FOR EDUCATIONAL REFORM (coming to Portland later this month to mess with Jeff) and the CRISTO REY NETWORK, of whom De La Salle High School (who wants to lease Jefferson's Kenton Elementary) is a member. See bold text below:

Coincidence? I think not!

And of course our friends at the Broad Foundation are mentioned in the article as well.
 read more »

Excellent opinion piece by David Sarasohn of the Oregonian:

PORTLAND SCHOOL FIGHTS

Sunday, May 07, 2006

David Sarasohn

Down by the river where Portland got started, on a fountain where hardly any carriage horses drink anymore, is engraved a century-old motto that keeps popping up here when we've run out of other clues:

"Good Citizens Are The Riches Of A City."

Maybe everybody involved in the current episode of the Portland Public Schools soap opera should go down there for a drink.

Active parents are not only the district's core constituency. They're also its ground troops, its voting support and, increasingly, its capital assets. And any budget has to consider its effect on your assets.
 read more »

Regarding today's Oregonian editorial and recent school board decisions, it was correctly stated by Will Fuller: "Some areas will have community decision-making. Others will be carrying out changes that were largely handed down to them." It is this very system of inequity of opportunity that is morally unacceptable. That these decisions have, in some cases, resulted in further inequity and segregation will render endorsement of them in their current format impossible.

Until the blatant inequities existing in PPS in terms of respect/value of parent voice and educational opportunities for students are corrected, we as a district and city cannot, in good conscious, move forward.
 read more »

Phillips plows ahead with corporate Republican-type proposals, despite broken promises to Portland families, inequity, segregation, lack of planning, concern of board members, parents etc.

This was accomplished with the influence and assistance of gazillionaires like Gates and Broad, along with local corporate folks, select politicians, Portland Business Alliance, Portland Schools Foundation, Stand For Children, CPPS, Portland Schools Alliance, Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon etc. These local organizations have majority representation on the district's hand-selected "citizen advisory committee" who (surprise surprise) recommended going forward with all the proposals NOW, despite overwhelming citizen support for slowing down this process.
 read more »