Stand on Children
Lincoln has publicly entered the school closure discussion. The Lincoln Stand for Children representative just testified before the board encouraging them to consolidate schools now. She told board members not to cave to political pressure. Lincoln can’t withstand the kinds of cuts the superintendent has proposed.
The Lincoln Long Term Development Committee wants to build a brand new high school. Let’s consolidate following Option 7B. Close Lincoln first!
16 comments
Certainly the winner for the most patronizing speech at a school board meeting for the year. She actually mentioned Lincoln, Grant, Wilson, and Cleveland in her speech by name and in essence inferred that Jeff and Marshall needed to be closed to protect the big 4. Why am I not surprised she was the Stand for Children rep. I still think they need to change the name of that organization to Stand for Wealthier Children. It fits so much better.
If they’re so eager for a new facility, then they shouldn’t mind PPS closing their current facility and shuffling their kids around!
End sarcasm?
Christina, I’d welcome the Lincoln students at Marshall. It should be an easy commute because Marshall is “centrally located.” Students from Lincoln could ride MAX to the SE campus.
All of this infighting points in the direction of having each student attend a comprehensive high school in their attendance boundaries for a couple of years creating true equality — no extra cost since the money to be spent is finite. Then, after the district has made a serious goodwill effort to create equity, they can look at what needs to be done specifically to improve education for all kids. Trying to build equity in the political climate that now exists creates enormous problems. No wonder the high school redesign didn’t work. The PE situation which drew such a large crowd in the middle of the summer did so because it encrouched on all the schools and the teachers as well. By the way, if one school has music, PE, and art and another only has art, an across the board approach where all schools share “equally” in the cuts is not equal. It, in essence, eliminates all the electives in one school and one third of the electives in another.
Steve, you forgot to mention that the only schools that have all three are on the west side!
I don’t have channel 28. Is there any other way to hear/read what this person said at the meeting?
Stephanie, Some videos are available online but I just did a quick search and couldn’t find the meeting.
Darn, it is sure to make my blood boil so perhaps for the best. I need to rethink the whole school politics thing anyway; it is eroding my soul. There has to be some other ways I can cause trouble without sparring with people who’s minds I will never change or enlighten. I want to teach students and parents who are not your usual suspects how to write and deliver testimony.
As an initial matter, I generally really like your website and what you have to say regarding PPS administration and the school board.
However, you appear to really resent the Lincoln/Wilson cluster successes, including the fact that some parents have the financial ability to make donations to their schools’ foundations; for reasons discussed below, this is puzzling.
I note that under PPS foundation rules, 33% of each school foundation donations in excess of $10,000 annually are set aside for the benefit of less financially well-off schools. For example, per the foundation website (http://www.thinkschools.org/about-us/thanks-donors/donor-list/), more than $100,000 was set aside for other Portland schools from amounts raised by the Lincoln High School Foundation in 08/09 (a terrible year, financially). When you add in the Wilson, Ainsworth, Bridlemile and East/West Sylvan Foundation amounts, this is a great deal of money being raised annually by parents in the Lincoln/Wilson cluster that is directly benefitting students in other areas such as Marshall, etc.
Accordingly, I just don’t understand the vitriol over this. You and others here say you’d like to see Lincoln closed. As evidenced by the amount of money raised by their foundation, many of the parents in the Lincoln basin have the resources to send their kids to private high schools, but choose not to. In all likelihood, closure of and/or degradation of Lincoln will mean many/most of those Lincoln students eventually will either move to other districts (e.g., Lake Oswego or Riverdale) or shift to private schools. If that happens, the amounts that would otherwise be sent to the PPS foundation (for use by other schools) will disappear.
When you criticize Lincoln/Wilson parents for expressing concern about those schools as a call to raise additional foundation money, etc., I have to wonder whether you would actually prefer that those parents shift their kids (and their money) to other non PPS schools, or to continue to support Lincoln and generously give to the Lincoln foundation (of which 1/3 of amounts raised are shared with other schools).
Wow…that Lincoln redesign is insane…I think I’d quit my position at PPS and move back east if that was approved. PDC needs to get a grip.
Larry,
You seem oblivious to the inequity of program offerings created by the system you defend. Yes, 1/3 goes into a pot, but that has to be spread out among ALL the poor schools in the district, which are the MAJORITY. In the meantime, Lincoln/Wilson schools get to keep the other 2/3, which means you still have double of what you gave to be spread out among everyone else. By the time other individual schools get a piece, it isn’t enough to pay for even a half-time teacher. The “grants” that the Foundation awards are only a few hundred or a few thousand at a time; enough to buy some books or supplies, or pay for some after-school activities or teacher training, but far short of what is needed to fund things like music, art, library, PE, foreign language–what you folks take for granted that are now luxuries here on the east side.
Larry,
I think it’s important to note that while PSF allows wealthier schools to stabilize curriculum and PSF offers grants using 1/3 of donated funds (after first $10,000) to all Portland Public Schools, 2009-2010 was the first year PSF allowed grant money to be used for FTE. The only schools ineligible for school-based grants are those schools that will not disclosure PTA funds (see http://www.thinkschools.org/grant-programs/school-based/ “2010-2011 PPS School-based Grants: Formula” and “2010-2011 PPS School-based Grants: Rankings”).
While many schools are able to reliably raise enough funds to support music, art, PE, etc. year after year, other schools may apply for a school-based grant that can now be used for FTE for one year. For 2010-2011, of the 57 schools eligible for school-based grants, only 23 will receive one. The majority of those grants are for $20,000, which will buy less than 1/2 an FTE position. And I’m not sure with the new formula if this is still correct, but in years past, schools receiving grants one year would not receive them the next.
I’m not advocating for eliminating PSF or for individual schools to fundraise. Both are a reality of the current public education climate. I also don’t think Lincoln or Wilson cluster parents need worry that they will be forced to jump onto the private school bandwagon. The PPS board has made it very clear keeping middle/upper class families is a high priority.
Continuing to move toward offering equitable education throughout the district, whether a student’s parents/guardians are able to pay a premium or not, is important also.
Larry,
I have never been one to begrudge the money raised by the wealthier neighborhoods for their schools. And I think one third is pretty generous, though I have occasionally suggested that they pair up with poorer schools and raise money together and split it. But the problem is not just money raised but that the school activists from the Big 4 have long dominated PPS school politics making sure their schools have more resources and better education than schools in poorer neighborhoods. Much of this has been intentional. At the same time I know that the parents and community members in poorer neighborhoods should do a better job of paying attention and participating as volunteers etc. than they do (even though it is much harder for people with less time and money to take part — they should anyway). But at the same time the children of these neighborhoods should not be given a worse education in a public school system just because they are poorer (sins of the fathers went out in the Old Testament did it not?) Yet, since Matt Prophet left as superintendent, the education of poor kids has been treated as being less important than the education of wealthier kids in PPS. Stand for Children has been one of the main forces within the city in making sure this was the case. So when the Lincoln representative of Stand for Children gets up in public and patronizes poor kids it sticks in my craw. As it does I am sure in the craw of many of the people who understand how it works and often wrote on the blog PPS Equity, many of which write now on this blog.
Zeke Smith once angrily suggested I was not the only person who cared about poor kids in the district. While this is true I am sure, it is hard to argue that ALL kids are treated equitably within the district at the present time. And much of the difference is based on their economic situation. And it is also not hard to argue that the district sees people who really want justice within the system as the enemy, unwilling to allow them into the process in a meaningful way. Just the way it is.
Hi,
As the Portland Director of Stand for Children, I want to briefly chime and set the record straight: Stand did not and does not plan to take a position on school closures. We have worked extremely hard to lobby the district to include the academic priority zones as part of the initial HS Redesign plan, and we have turned out a number of testifiers to speak in support of this aspect of the overall redesign.
To clear up question at hand: Stand has teams all over the city (though we certainly need to reach more communities and talk to even more people, so please consider emailing me and we can set up a time to talk about your concerns in your community in Portland). In any case, the Lincoln parents who testified at the board meeting are also Stand leaders, but their position represented their specific team, not Stand as a whole. We have other leaders and teams who think quite the opposite, and they’ve made themselves heard at board meetings as well.
Thanks for your time.
Tyler Whitmire
twhitmire@stand.org
Tyler, good idea. Let’s set the record straight. Stand has been the major force in this city for the past several years in making sure poor kids in PPS have a worse education than kids who live in more affluent parts of the city. End of story. Done a lot of nice things in the state, though they have opposed the idea of a floor for educational funding. But in PPS Stand has been close to the major obstacle to overcome in bringing better education to the poorer parts of the city. I’d be glad to talk to you about it, but it is a hard thing to deny. And there is hardly a person who has written regularly on PPS Equity or this blog that wouldn’t agree.
Tyler, Thanks for the clarification. I looked through your list of school teams and it looks like Lincoln is the only high school with a Stand team. Is that correct? How do you determine where your teams will be located?
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