Seen a Rogue on the loose? Get in touch with our Roguemeister: JOHN SCHRAG jschrag@wweek.com (503) 243-2122 FAX: (503) 243-1115 If the the folks at Portland French School are really so concerned about kids' safety, they have an odd way of showing it. Next week, the city's land-use office is expected to settle the dispute that has raged since last summer between the private school and the Corbett-Terwilliger-Lair Hill Neighborhood Association. PFS, which has leased the old Terwilliger School from Portland Public Schools since August 1998, wants to fence its yard in the name of student security; neighbors want to use the public property as a park, as they have for 70 years. Both arguments have merits, but in invoking the rules of Oregon's Child Care Division, among other reasons, to justify its plan to enclose the yard, PFS has exhibited hypocrisy and Roguish disregard for basic rules. State officials told WW that since occupying the site, the school has been operating without a child-care license--which is illegal. In fact, officials in the licensing division of the CCD say they learned about the school's child-care operation from a September 1998 Oregonian article. In early October of that year, they sent a letter to school officials informing them of the licensing requirements. The school didn't apply until June 1999, nearly nine months later, says CCD licensing manager Linda Stern--and even then the school had not fulfilled the requirements to get even a temporary license. "When we went out there, they didn't have--and still don't have--a certificate of occupancy or a conditional-use permit," Stern says. French School Director Madeleine Girardin-Schuback referred questions to Peter Finley Fry, the school's land-use consultant. Fry explains that he delayed the conditional-use permit process in order to accommodate neighbors' concerns, which has delayed the licensing process. As for the school's tardiness, he says PFS officials were in regular contact with CCD before applying for a license and in fact believed they were exempt from licensing requirements. That's news to Stern, who could, if she chose, seek an injunction to shut the child-care facility. "They are not legally exempt," she says. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published February 2, 2000