Let’s not make this another year where PPS fails to use Title I money.  Last year PPS failed to use almost $3 million in Title I funds (including $180,000 in Optional parent involvement).  Ask your school principals for a spending report today!

 The Redesign Team is moving forward on Marshall’s closure prior to a board vote: 

  ———- Forwarded message ———-
From: ”PPS ppscomms” <ppscomms@pps.k12.or.us>
To: ”All PPS” <allpps@pps.k12.or.us>
Date: Tue, 18 May 2010 15:25:27 -0700
Subject: [Allpps] MEETING UPDATE: Marshall small school design Dear Teachers and Principals,  

 We have changed the meeting location and added an additional information session regarding the process to select a team of educators to design the new small school on the Marshall High School Campus.   

Educators who are passionate about teaching and learning in a small school environment and who are interested in finding out more about the selection and design process for the Marshall small school can attend an information meeting on:   

Monday, May 24 from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the BESC, 501 N. Dixon Street, in the Windows Cafeteria on the 2nd Floor   

OR Wednesday, May 26th from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the BESC, 501 N. Dixon Street, in the Mazama Room on the 2nd floor (go through the cafeteria, then left). 

 The meetings will be identical so there is no need to attend both. Thank you! 

Every year Oregon Department of Education releases a dropout report.  The reports are very detailed and include self-reported reasons that the students have dropped out.  In Oregon, one of the possible reasons students have  given for dropping out is lack of appropriate educational options. 

The most recent report  (2007/08) lists the number of PPS students identifying lack of appropriate educational options (even though there’s a category for it) as the reason for dropping out as ZERO.  Maybe that’s because of the wide range of educational options that currently exist for PPS students.

Where’s the demand for a small focus school coming from?  Carole with her limited alternative ed background? 

The top reasons PPS students report dropping out include:

1. Working more then 15 hours
2. Pregnant or student parent
3. Homeless
4. Too far behind in credits to catch up
5. Obligations to support family

How does the high school redesign plan address those issues? 

The high school redesign plan will only perpetuate those problems.  Time is important when students are working and going to school.  The time spent traveling a longer distance to school increases the chances that students won’t go to school.  Isn’t that part of the reason people want a neighborhood school?  Why take your most at risk students as in Marshall’s case and create additional barriers?

The second highest reason students dropout is because they are pregnant or a student parent.  Teen males and females drop out to parent their children.  PPS has a Teen Parent program that has shown success.

Did you know that Marshall has a Teen Parent Early Head Start classroom?  Yes, students parents and babies will be making longer commutes.  Parents……you know what it was like to parent for the first time.  Imagine being 16 years old and getting the baby and yourself ready to leave in the morning then taking several buses to get to class. 

Remind me again.  What’s the purpose of the high school redesign?

Do you remember this?

Diversity and Development

Under Construction Since 1964

Please check back in a few decades.

It was replaced with this:

 Nothing!  The page has disappeared.

Note to the Roosevelt Community:  Thank you for your generosity in hosting a community meeting at your school.  Unfortunately, most Marshall families are unable to attend.  We researched the amount of time it would take to travel 14 miles between the schools.  The Trimet mapper says that to arrive at Roosevelt HS by 6:30pm on 5/18, students would have to be on public transit for 78 – 100+ minutes and have at least two transfers.  This is ONE WAY.  Instead, we feel it’s more effective to ask the supporters to gather here, in Lents, in the Marshall community to have a conversation about the proposal and its impacts on the community (in terms of education, economics, sense of community, livabililty, etc). 

WE SUPPORT MARSHALL!

 Tuesday, May 18^th

Ararat Bakery, 5716 SE 92^nd Ave

5:30-8:00pm

We are boycotting the PPS meeting at Roosevelt. It is completely unrealistic and unfair that community members be expected to travel that far to support our school- so we will be doing it locally. The goal is to increase awareness and education about the PPS proposal, to talk about the impacts of such huge educational changes to our community and to get people mobilized to share their input to the PPS board. Ultimately, we’d like PPS to extend the public input period by 90 days to ensure that the community has an opportunity to properly give feedback on the proposal.

There will be refreshments, a button making table, car signs, and more!

EVERYONE IS WELCOME!

The PPS superintendent and board may have wanted to avoid discussion about race in the high school redesign but we shouldn’t.  PPS has a long history of discriminating against students of color and poor students.  Now that the district has invested some money into Courageous Conversations, let’s see if they can have one. 

 Here’s another link to a report on PPS ugly history:

Detailed report on the history of PPS and the Black United Front

How sad that Portland is being touted as a national model.  PPS must have taken their show on the road since people here aren’t buyig it.  Read and comment on the Portland Observer story.

Portland’s High School Overhaul Makes Los Angeles Times

Read where they’ve been:

Desegregation and Multiculturalism in the Portland Public Schools

Two important themes came out of today’s PPS board work session:

• Marshall High School and the Marshall community do not exist to PPS senior staff and the board
• “Today, the Portland School Board met in a work session to discuss Superintendent Smith’s high school proposal. During the discussion, the board asked Superintendent Smith to explore a new board-generated idea that was not considered among the options staff analyzed: Merging Benson and Jefferson High Schools by moving the career-technical high school program to the Jefferson Campus.”