Franklin Cluster

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 »

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 »

Despite the powerful, impassioned, thoughtful dissent of board members Dilafruz Williams, Sonja Henning, and Dan Ryan, not to mention the testimony of citizens, last night a majority of the Board approved Supt. Vicki Phillips' closure and reconfiguration proposals for a huge swath of SE and NE Portland.

The Board will now be accountable for the educational quality of all the new K-8s that are starting up this fall.

They will be accountable for the quality of the "conversation" in the Lane area regarding possible reconfiguration, the manner in which the Creative Science School focus option program is given its own building; and the quality of the "conversation" (aka slugfest) in the Sellwood area over which school should close.
 read more »