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On Tuesday, the Portland Public Schools Board heard plans to scale back three planned high school rebuilds in the district’s upcoming $1.83 billion bond.
District officials and staff at various architecture firms presented initial frameworks as a direct response to the School Board’s efforts to cut costs on what would have been some of the nation’s most expensive high school rebuilds. Most plans called for scaled-back spaces or the removal of nonessential spaces.
But at Jefferson High School, a proposal to eliminate a dedicated space for the Indian Education Project drew outrage from the Indian Parent Committee, a group of parents who volunteer and fundraise for Native American students.
The blowback is an early indication of how politically hazardous it will be for the school district to scale back its promises of expensive school rebuilds for a declining student body.
At the School Board meeting, Jefferson architects presented plans to “potentially adjust” a set of spaces at the school, including ones to hold education nonprofit Self Enhancement Inc. and Indian Education. Amber Turner, with Bora Architecture, said while those areas might not have dedicated space, “there may be other flexible spaces” they could accommodate. (Cost data for how much these adjustments would save was not available at the meeting.)
The district’s Indian Education Project office is currently located inside Jefferson. It helps support work to connect Native American and Alaska Indian students to their history and culture, and has a resource library. The project also aims to improve academic outcomes and student retention. (While 56% of third graders districtwide are proficient in reading, only 7% of Native American students are.)
“I just want to clarify that these updates that we’re providing you tonight are a blunt response to the framework,” said Stormy Shanks, senior director of PPS’s office of school modernization. “These aren’t anything that from our standpoint we consider as decided….We’ll need guidance from you all to confirm these changes or to make the decision to keep including them.”
But the suggestion of cutting space for Indian Education drew criticism.
The Indian Parent Committee and the School Board have been at odds in recent months, after a push to add a $40 million Center for Native Student Success to the upcoming bond failed in a 5-2 vote at a Jan. 7 meeting. Most board members turned the proposal down because bond funding can only fund capital projects like facilities, not programming or staff—which were key pieces of a vision for a success center.
In a written public comment, Tamara Brown, interim president of the IPC, wrote of the committee’s “deep frustration and disappointment” that they would be shortchanged once again. Brown was not immediately available for additional comment.
“First, you took away our opportunity to be included in the bond. Now, you are taking away the space that has served our students and families for years,” she wrote. “Displacing us yet again is not a solution—it is another setback. It is time for PPS to do better. We demand a permanent, dedicated space for Indian Education. Anything less is unacceptable.”
The same day the board rejected the proposal for a Native Student Success Center, PPS Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong said she’d dedicate funds immediately to an additional 100 hours of tutoring, establish clear K-12 pathways for Native students and hire a tribal liaison for the upcoming academic year, among other improvements. She also committed to meeting with the Native American community to build on solutions.
School Board member Julia Brim-Edwards, who alerted board members to Brown’s written comment on Tuesday, said she felt the board did not support the Native Student Success Center in part because of Armstrong’s promises. But she says a promised gathering with Native families has been rescheduled from March to mid-April, and that there must be action to find a place for Indian Education within the district.
“I asked for a board meeting agenda item on the superintendent’s proposal to the board on the Native Student Center/Indian Education program,” Brim-Edwards says. “It has not been scheduled yet and needs to be. Indian Education links to required federal programs, and PPS needs meet the letter and spirit of the law in how we support Native students.”