PPS Superintendent Says Rebuilt High Schools Could Have Several Uses

In next month’s election, Portland Public Schools officials will ask voters to spend up to $1.15 billion to rebuild three high schools amid declining enrollment.

But in an interview with WW’s editorial board last week, PPS Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong offered a surprising contingency plan if enrollment doesn’t rebound: Those high schools could also be used as elementary and middle schools.

That disclosure comes as the district’s operating costs outstrip its enrollment figures, a key factor in a $40 million budget crunch this year. (Oregon funds its school districts per pupil, so enrollment is key to PPS’ budget.) Modernizing Cleveland, Jefferson and Ida B. Wells high schools, as the district proposes to do in its upcoming construction bond, would add to those operating costs in future budgets. School board members have argued that new buildings will attract more students to attend public high schools.

But what if new construction doesn’t reverse enrollment trends? WW put that question to Armstrong in an endorsement interview for Measure 26-259. We asked her to respond to a “doomsday scenario” in which enrollment continues to shrink and buildings are operating at half capacity.

She replied that in such a scenario, the district could use the buildings as facilities serving students from kindergarten through 12th grade. “I will tell you, there is no situation where a newly modernized, community-invested high school will go empty or even be half-full,” she said. “We would be actively working to make sure that we can house our students.”

Watch her full response here.

Look for WW’s endorsements April 30.