Schoolhouse Crock

[January 23rd, 2008]

After decades of deep cuts in state funding for education, the list of needs at Peninsula School in North Portland is long.

And while Peninsula is only one of Portland Public Schools’ 80-plus schools, its wish list is nearly the same as those at many other district schools.

But as at many of those schools, the items that some Peninsula parents and teachers say their students urgently need aren’t the same as the ones the district is campaigning to put before voters in November.

Peninsula supporters want more teachers and counselors. Meanwhile, the district is focusing on the school building itself.

At the first in a series of public meetings last week about district facilities, PPS unveiled a new study that purports to reveal the current condition of all its school buildings. It’s part of an ongoing effort to prepare voters for a possibly huge construction bond measure that would raise money to repair or replace all of the district’s aging buildings.

Some parents and teachers at Peninsula and other schools point to more fundamental and immediate needs. They need teachers for electives, not new flooring.

“I just don’t get it yet,” says a Faubion Elementary School teacher in Northeast Portland who didn’t want to be identified. “I don’t understand why it’s such a pressing concern all of a sudden.”

That disconnect is a growing source of frustration that threatens to undermine any campaign for a bond, which could range from $900 million to $1.4 billion.

“I hate to say it, but it does make you think twice,” says Karen Morley, president of Peninsula’s parent-teacher organization. “Teaching is No. 1 on our list.”

Morley and other parents say PPS should concentrate on supporting program changes made under former superintendent Vicki Phillips, changes that included combining elementary and middle schools into K-8 models. And, critics say, the district should do that before shifting its focus to repairing roofs.

That hasn’t happened at Peninsula, a year-round school with 326 students in kindergarten through seventh grade. Peninsula lacks a guidance counselor, a full-time librarian and dedicated art, music and technology teachers. But under a 2006 plan by Phillips, the school in the Kenton neighborhood has incorporated middle-school grades that typically offer such electives. On a recent Friday afternoon, the school secretary was in charge of disciplining two unruly boys because there was no one else to handle the disruption.

Those are problems parents and teachers see every day.

But those aren’t the same problems at the forefront of PPS’s public campaign to improve schools.

Following the district’s new $920,000 facilities study by Texas-based Magellan Group, the same study revealed at public meetings last week, the district is focused on Peninsula’s building and play area.

Among other things, the district says Peninsula has a damaged roof and insufficient electrical outlets to support additional computers. It also says Peninsula needs new basketball hoops and proper signage.

Magellan says Peninsula’s overall condition is “marginal,” while a study from 2000 listed it as “very good.”

“I have no idea exactly how they did that study in 2000,” PPS consultant Bill DeJong said at a public meeting he led last Tuesday, Jan. 15, at Jefferson High School about Magellan’s study.

As a result of Magellan’s work, the district says Peninsula requires $8.9 million in renovations, a sum that includes money to replace all 84 doors in the building to create card-key access.

“I’d rather have a new counselor first,” says Brandi Streeter, a middle-school teacher at Peninsula who teaches sixth-grade art, social studies and math, and seventh-grade reading and social studies.

Of the building’s problems, she says: “I still feel strongly it’s not the biggest issue facing my school, and the issues facing my school aren’t being addressed.”

Nicole Leggett, mother of a first-grade boy at Peninsula, agrees. “The building is not what is important,” Leggett says. “It’s what’s in it.”

Here the twist: If a bond issue doesn’t pass, there will be less money to address Peninsula parents’ and teachers’ concerns because money for repairs will have to come from the general fund or reserves. And several school buildings in Portland are in worse shape than Peninsula’s.

“There are certain problems we cannot escape, whether or not we get a bond,” says district spokesman Matt Shelby.

Jeff Miller, president of the Portland Association of Teachers union, concurs. He says failure to pass a bond would “produce trade-offs that no one would find acceptable.”

“The need [for a bond measure] is undeniable,” he says.

Voters will have the final say, however.

And at Peninsula, some parents cast doubt about the possible campaign’s success.

“My honest assessment is, this is just another way to funnel millions of dollars to outside interests,” Leggett says. “My school could use some improvement, but it’s not fundamental right now.”