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Portland Public Schools has paused its project to relocate Harriet Tubman Middle School, and doesn’t know when it will resume, according to an email from top district officials to community members on Monday night.
The indefinite pause is the latest setback in a long stall of the Tubman project. The middle school, located in the Rose Quarter, has been long cherished by the district’s Black community. But its proximity to Interstate 5 has raised health concerns over air quality, and state officials earmarked $120 million two years ago to move the school.
Now, the community email from PPS Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong and chief of schools Jon Franco blames a lack of funds for the freeway expansion and a lack of viable relocation sites for a longer pause.
“The PPS Board of Education has closely studied the viability of several potential properties, but most were cost prohibitive and none stood out as a desirable home for Harriet Tubman students, staff and families,” the email reads.
The email also cites delays from the Oregon Department of Transportation in conducting the Rose Quarter freeway expansion as a reason to pause the Tubman project. ODOT, the email notes, says the pause is due to a lack of funds. The earliest the department could take on the expansion, PPS says, is 2027.
“Given the delayed and uncertain timeline of the highway expansion and a lack of workable relocation sites, we have paused any plans for relocating Harriet Tubman for the indefinite future,” it reads.
Reached by WW, district officials did not immediately elaborate on the announcement.
A 2018 Portland State University study warned that a Rose Quarter freeway expansion would only worsen already poor air quality around the school. In response, the district spent millions on a new roof and HVAC system for Tubman, but calls for relocation only grew. The district, having just spent handsomely on improvements, ultimately asked then-Gov. Kate Brown to prioritize relocating the school away from the highway. In 2022, with Brown’s help, the district received money to do just that—$120 million from a March 2022 end-of-session funding package.
But that money has been sitting around. In the first half of 2023, the School Board held a series of meetings to determine a new site for the middle school. Different sites were controversial for different reasons, but alternatives were ultimately exhausted in June of that year, when district staff and community advocates recommended dropping all proposed locations and heading back to the drawing board. In May 2024, a district webpage said staff had “aggressively studied, engaged in dialogue, and pursued a number of alternate relocation options.”
School Bboard member Julia Brim-Edwards, who led efforts to secure the state funding to relocate Harriet Tubman, said before pausing for an extended period, the district needs to take air quality samples and share them with the board and community.
“I don’t think that the Legislature expected the district to sit on the funds; rather, they were to benefit current and future students at Harriet Tubman by paying for a relocation of the school,” Brim-Edwards says. “PPS staff should be creating a plan for the relocation with a timeline and milestones.”