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After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, local Black community leaders ushered a Center for Black Student Excellence into Portland Public Schools.
Voters approved a November 2020 school bond that allocated $60 million to the initiative, but CBSE’s functions have remained vague ever since. The center’s mission is to improve outcomes for Black students and to elevate the Black student experience, according to its website. The website also notes the center’s commitment to physical buildings that serve Black students in PPS: namely, the Jefferson High School modernization and the Harriet Tubman Middle School relocation effort.
In December 2022, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported the center’s board would gather community input and “bring forward a vision, a comprehensive plan, a facilities plan and an operations plan.”
But an independent audit of bond spending last year found the center had not spent any of its earmarked funds and was two years behind schedule from baseline plans. The findings of the audit, conducted in 2023, were not made public until Dec. 16, when Cathy Brady, a principal at the auditing firm Sjoberg Evashenk Consulting, presented her concerns at a PPS audit committee meeting.
Brady said community engagement and efforts to design the program had not yielded concrete details about the center or a solid timeline for its implementation.
“The risk is that, from our perspective, CBSE will not be delivered on schedule or as intended,” she said.
Portland School Board member Andrew Scott said the board has been aware of delays and a “lack of progress” with the center. “We need to keep a focus on CBSE,” he added.