Local Option Levy in Parkrose School District Fails by 127 Votes

The local option levy for Parkrose School District failed by a 1% margin at the ballot box.

The final tallies from the Multnomah County Elections Division, released Dec. 2, show voters rejecting the measure by 127 votes. The measure proposed a five-year property tax levy to voters, which would have added an estimated $1.25 per $1,000 of assessed property value, or about $26 a month for the average home in the area.

Without the levy, the district, which spans Northeast Portland neighborhoods stretching southeast of Portland International Airport, will face a budget deficit in the coming biennium. Superintendent Michael Lopes-Serrao says he expects that to be anywhere between $1 million and $3 million.

He adds he’s “very disappointed” that the levy failed, especially after watching middle and high schoolers campaign for it.

“Our kids deserve the resources, but our community struggles to afford it,” Lopes-Serrao says. “[Portland], Tigard-Tualatin, Sherwood, West Linn Wilsonville, Lake Oswego all have leverage that we don’t have. That exacerbates the achievement and opportunity gaps we see in the aggregate results across our state.”

The Parkrose School District has some of the highest rates of chronic absenteeism in the metro region, and many of its students don’t demonstrate proficiency in reading, math or science.

In an October endorsement interview with WW (which endorsed a yes vote on the measure), proponents of the Parkrose levy outlined the consequences of it failing—the levy, they said, would fund up to 26 teaching positions. While it’s unrealistic to cut all of those, more realistic options include watering down programs made possible under pandemic-relief funding, including academic supports, extracurriculars and physical education.

“Students who are left in the schools need the funding,” Lily Burnett, a levy organizer and parent, said at the October interview. “They don’t need less teaching, they don’t need less support, they don’t need to not have counselors or not have sports.”

District officials say they’re trying to find workarounds.

“Our district will strive to find ways to keep our educational programs and staff. More to come,” Andrea Stevenson, executive assistant to the superintendent, wrote in a districtwide message.

This is the second time in two years that a Parkrose school levy has failed. In the 2022 midterm elections, voters rejected a levy proposal by a larger margin of 451 votes, or about 4.5 percentage points.