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ISSUE #33.43 • NEWS • NEWS STORY
[EDUCATION]

Taken For Granted


Portland Public Schools loses $1.1 million in federal funds.

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ON THE MONEY TRAIL: Lynn Schore, with her daughters Katie and Maya.
IMAGE: chrisryanphoto.com
BY BETH SLOVIC | bslovic at wweek dot com

[September 5th, 2007]

As superintendent of Portland Public Schools, Vicki Phillips closed schools and frustrated parents along the way. Now it appears the move may have cost the district at least a portion of $1.1 million in federal funds.

At issue is a three-year, $5.2 million grant awarded in 2004 to Portland Public Schools from the U.S. Department of Education. According to federal officials last week, more than $1 million of the grant will not be given to the schools in the Jefferson High School cluster that the grant was designed to help.

“That’s criminal,” says Jim Hartley, a parent whose children are in the second and sixth grades at Chief Joseph and Ockley Green schools in the Jefferson cluster.

Recently released documents from the federal Department of Education withhold large portions of the correspondence between Washington officials and Portland Public Schools administrators concerning the grant. But a letter from the federal government dated Sept. 16, 2005, indicates former superintendent Vicki Phillips and her school-closures plan is to blame for part of the loss.

The federal grant, called the Magnet Schools Assistance Program, had the dual purpose of creating an arts magnet program in the Jefferson cluster and easing racial segregation in the school district. But after the grant was awarded in 2004, Phillips closed elementary schools in the cluster, including Applegate and Kenton. And while Phillips promised parents in a televised March 3, 2005, school-closures meeting that the grant money would “follow students,” it appears in at least one instance that was not possible.















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“We find, however, that the merger of Applegate Elementary School with Woodlawn Elementary School is not consistent with either the purposes of the MSAP or the objectives of the approved project for the reduction, elimination or prevention of minority group isolation,” a director with the federal education department writes in September 2005. “We do not approve this change.”

Lynn Schore, a parent in the school district, decided in February 2006 to follow up on the grant as a result of Phillips’ pledge to parents. But the Freedom of Information Act request she filed in June 2006 (which was filled in July 2007) produced more questions than answers.

For example, a three-page follow-up letter to Phillips from the federal government, written on Sept. 30, 2005 (two weeks after the first letter to Phillips regarding the school district’s “unsatisfactory performance”), is redacted entirely.

A spokesman for the schools acknowledges the loss, but explains it by saying, “When the buildings closed, the need was reduced.

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Jefferson cluster parent  writes on Sep 5th, 2007 9:23am

A huge Thank You! to Ms. Schore for trying to hold the district accountable for delivering what they promise to the children in the Jefferson cluster and throughout the school district. Thank goodness not-so-Super-intendent Vicki Phillips is gone! Unfortunately the actions she took while she was here and the lies she told will continue to haunt our school district for years.

Chris Wheby  writes on Sep 5th, 2007 11:55am

Here's something I'm still trying to figure out: Why has Kenton School been closed (a Jefferson cluster school that lost some of it's federal funding described in this article by being closed) so that it could be rented to another school? BTW, this school (De La Salle) is a private Catholic school that needed a new site due to land problems caused by the priest molestation case. I'm confused by the lack of common sense here. Can someone help me?

Richard Watson  writes on Sep 5th, 2007 5:46pm

Yes, the need was reduced but not by 1.1 million. This is a net loss to PPS that I warned about in testimony but former board member Doug Morgan assured that the board was performing "due dilligence". This is one reason why Morgan got defeated in the last election.

he nasty little secret is that PPS wants to sell the Kenton Land and make someone like Walsh Construction rich at the expense of our neighborhood schools and neighborhood values!

Himself  writes on Sep 5th, 2007 10:16pm

Let's not forget that the 1.1 million one-time loss is nothing compared to the ongoing, nearly $40 million divested each year from Portland's poorer neighborhoods in favor of its richest.

morehockeylesswar.org/blog/archive/...

Common Sense  writes on Sep 6th, 2007 1:47pm

One of the two purposes of this taxpayer-financed federal grant was “easing racial segregation” in the Jefferson area. According to the feds, school closures in the Jefferson area -- decisions made locally by PPS -- increased segregation in the Jefferson cluster. How did increasing segregation through school closures reduce PPS's need to ease racial segregation?

Did local closure decisions “reduce” the need for money, as the PPS spokesperson states, because it drove so many families to private schools and out of the district?

A larger issue is that PPS took federal dollars to desegregate in the Jefferson area (as well as bring an integrated arts focus), and then went in the opposite direction by actually increasing segregation with the Applegate to Woodlawn closure / merger.

It is criminal that 1.1 million for our Jefferson students has been lost due to local segregationist policies. It is also not right that Superintendent Phillips and Board members broke their promises -- made and televised both on 3/3/05 and 3/28/05 -- that the grant money would follow the Kenton and Applegate students. Superintendent Phillips said she would make public how the grant money "flowed."

How did the 4.1 million grant to PPS "flow"? What portion of that money reached our Jefferson students and teachers? Was an integrated arts focus implemented at Ockley, Chief Joseph, Beach and Jefferson High via this grant? We clearly need a full accounting of this public grant from PPS.

Anne  writes on Sep 6th, 2007 5:09pm

I was one of those at the Jefferson meeting where Vicki Phillips promised that the money would follow the students when she closed Kenton and Applegate. The loss of that portion of the grant was an additional attack on the students and families from those schools. They lost their schools and the grant money that had been promised to them.

The board and the district claim to make decisions based on sound data, but over and over again community activists have pointed out the uncounted losses.

klaatu  writes on Sep 6th, 2007 5:45pm

OMG how long is the inane debate and comments on Vicki Phillips going to go on, we should have fired her years ago and the PPS is such a mess it would take a nuclear blast to start fresh...god this gets soooo tiresome

Zarwen  writes on Sep 6th, 2007 7:13pm

Richard Watson is right. The majority of school closure decisions (if not all of them!) are based on which buildings/properties are marketable for sale or lease. Witness Cathy Mincberg announcing last spring that Rose City Park will be sold now that it is empty.

There is a long list of school properties that have gone to development. Others have long-term leases that may end up in a sale, as Normandale did. How long do we let this go on, people? Where will our children go to school after the whole district has been sold off???

 
Matt Shelby  writes on Sep 7th, 2007 11:59am

Healthy discussion is good but I wanted to clear up one inaccuracy. Cathy Minceberg has never said the Rose City Park building was going to be sold. She may have said it was an option. The district is at the beginning stages of a comprehensive evaluation of all our buildings. Until this process is complete no major decisions regarding PPS real estate will be made. If you are interested in the process, visit the PPS website at www.reshape.pps.k12.or.us

Zarwen  writes on Sep 7th, 2007 3:34pm

Mr. Shelby, this is an exact quotation from the Portland Tribune December 22, 2006:

"Cathy Mincberg, the school districts chief operating officer, said Rose City Park is set to close because it needs seismic upgrades and has accessibility issues that would cost at least $1 million. She said the building will be declared surplus property and turned over to the districts real estate trust, which will decide whether to place it on the market."

No need to be disingenuous, sir; we all know what happens to "surplus property" in PPS. Unless you think the Tribune might have misquoted Dr. Mincberg?

Hope  writes on Sep 7th, 2007 4:21pm

PPS rep. Matt Shelby says that until a comprehensive evaluation of all PPS buildings is complete, no major decisions regarding PPS real estate will be made. Isn't a TWENTY year lease of a recently closed elementary school in a rapidly developing neighborhood(Kenton) to a private religious high school a major real estate decision?

And why wasn't this comprehensive evaluation of PPS buildings done before deciding which schools to close?

Common Sense, I sure wish you worked for the school district. Your comments help create some context of the bigger picture surrounding schools closures, lost grant money, and school district leader's priorities and lack of integrity.

Anne  writes on Sep 7th, 2007 10:16pm

PPS did a comprehensive evaluation of their buildings. It was called the Long Range Facilities Plan and although there is much to criticize in the LRFP, I fail to understand why the new PPS administrators think we need to spend scarce dollars on yet another study.

Any comment Mr. Shelby?

megs  writes on Sep 8th, 2007 6:45am

MR. Shelby, perhaps that evaluation should have been done BEFORE the schools were closed? But we all agree on one thing, there is no rhyme or reason to any PPS and school board decisions.

Zarwen  writes on Sep 8th, 2007 5:02pm

The parents at my school asked the same questions of our Area Director. We were told that the LRFP of 2002, being 5 years old, is now out of date and therefore a new study is necessary.

Much more important to spend district funds on another "study" than in the classroom, right? After all, the reason we have a school district is to benefit developers, not to educate children. As soon as everyone gets that straight, then everything PPS does will start to make a whole lotta sense.

RCP Neighbor  writes on Sep 9th, 2007 1:17pm

Mincberg also said that PPS was going to wait to "see how things shake out" with regard to Rose City Park before deciding what to do with the building. If a sound plan had been in place prior to closing RCP then waiting wouldn't be necessary. Meanwhile this neighborhood is left with a building that is an attractive nuisance in its core and too many of its kids shifted toward overcapacity Grant cluster schools and underenrollment at Roseway Heights.

ex-Portlander  writes on Sep 18th, 2007 9:01am

Hey, I'm reading this from across the country. My kids are actually going to public school in (gasp!) a southern state. Smaller classes, higher standards, many more offerings, stability, etc. are reasons why I'm hapy with this choice. I miss the RCP neighborhood so much, though, but the district REALLY screwed up when it decided to close RCP school. I would still be there if not for this...I was one of those people who just gave up on the school situation and decided to move back to my home state. There are a lot of us out here.

Chris Wheby  writes on Sep 20th, 2007 2:36pm

I went to the "Reshape" site that Mr. Shelby recommended and was unable to find his address on there so that he could respond to the questions raised here.

How can we get in touch with you, Mr Shelby?

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