PPS Superintendent Floats School Closure Talks

“It is a conversation that…we will be engaged in all throughout next year.”

Children enter a Northeast Portland elementary school in 2015. (Leah Nash)
By Joanna Hou

At a virtual Portland Public Schools community budget forum Feb. 5, Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong said the school district would soon launch discussions about closing schools.

“Later this spring, we will be prepared to engage in conversations around enrollment balancing and optimizing our schools so that we are utilizing our resources wisely and that we are increasing opportunities for kiddos,” Armstrong said. “While this academic year we are not having a conversation about closing schools, it is a conversation that…we will be engaged in all throughout next year.”

PPS faces a $40 million shortfall in the budget for the upcoming 2025-26 school year, which the district says is due to rising costs and declining enrollment. Portland State University recently shared a forecast with WW that projects PPS stands to lose about 15% of its students over the next 10 years, or about 6,300 students.

Those numbers will make filling schools challenging (some in the district are already under-enrolled) and have led to questions about whether the district should consolidate schools.

PPS spokeswoman Valerie Feder tells WW it’s too early to comment on possible outcomes of such discussions, but added the district plans to assemble a committee to take on the work.

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