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There was a time when I sympathized with the PPS superintendent and board as they made what I believed to be difficult budget cuts.  My views on that changed while I was working at the PPS Central Office. 

The superintendent doesn’t have to make all of the cuts she’s proposing.  District administrators haven’t heard the expression take care of your pennies and your dollars will take care of themselves.  Complain about district administrators holding meetings at hotels and a PPS Communications representative will be there defending the practice because it’s just a drop in the budget bucket. 

Just as predictable as the annual sky is falling cry is the manner in which the cuts will be made. 

Pay attention to all Central Office cuts.  Superintendent Smith has recommended cutting 5 Central Office Communications positions.  It won’t be Robb or Sara or Lolenzo or Matt…the lowest level staff will be cut.  Staff that make less than the cost of a hotel contract for administrator meetings.

School board members:

I am writing to again urge you to reconsider your plan to close John Marshall High School. My neighborhood, Lents, has worked so hard on developing a sense of identity and on fostering economic vitality through education. Sending students at least 30 minutes each way on buses to central Portland will be a significant hurdle to eastside redevelopment and to the goal of creating 20 minute neighborhoods.

Also, I would call your attention to a PPS report School Profiles and Enrollment Data 2008/09 (pages 121-123) showing minority enrollment in the city’s attendance zone. I think it’s quite clear that a move to shutter Jefferson or Marshall would be met with civil rights questions at the U.S. Department of Education.

You’ve heard plenty of testimony on this by now, so I won’t take too much more of your time. So I ask again — change the boundary over to DDSD, keep us open with fewer students from PPS, but don’t derail the civic redevelopment in my neighborhood.

Thanks,

Nick Christensen

I’m going to take a few days off.  Anyone wanting to submit posts can email them to me at carrie.adams@comcast.net.

Rich Rodgers puts the school closure issue into perspective in “Things We Might Cut Before We Close High Schools”.  The following excerpt is from his post on  BlueOregon:

In fact, the instructional costs for every high school in PPS total $60.5 million–less than 10% of the overall budget for the district! Compare this, for example, to $145.9 million in non-instructional support services. While this $145.9 million includes essential line items like principals, utilities, custodial, maintenance and student transportation, a staggering $35.9 million goes to HR, information technology, and public information. The Superintendent’s office alone costs more than $4.5 million this year, with a request to boost the budget to $4.75 million for the next fiscal year.

Recently when PPS board member Trudy Sargent was asked if she represents the Marshall cluster, she responded by saying “well I live on Mt. Tabor.”  And?  She must have forgotten that she was nominated for Zone 6 which includes Marshall.  She needs to check her PPS bio for a map  of the area.  The Marshall cluster needs some representation.

The Portland Tribune reported yesterday ”Ron Hitchcock, superintendent of the Multnomah Education Service District – the entity that would facilitate the move – says both school districts involved in the boundary change must agree to it.  He says boundary changes may not be undertaken unilaterally, or by a third party.”

Neither school district has to agree to a boundary change.  He needs to check again:

ORS 330.092 to 330.101 – The district boundary board on the request of the district school boards of the affected districts or on petition of 5 percent or 500 electors of each affected district, whichever is less, shall merge smaller districts into larger districts or change the boundaries of common or union high school districts.

It’s been done before  and only failed because of a paperwork error.  Lesson learned.  All of the Marshall paperwork will be in.

From today’s Willamette Week:

The Lents Neighborhood Association wants the David Douglas School District to absorb Marshall High School from Portland Public Schools. The association says that would both give rapidly growing David Douglas a second high school in Southeast Portland and save Marshall from PPS’s proposed downsizing in its high-school redesign. Association President Nick Christensen says “the idea has been well received by all those we’ve talked to.” PPS is holding a community meeting at Marshall on Thursday, May 27, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm

It’s clear that Carole and Zeke have already closed Marshall.  They just don’t want a messy ending so Zeke shuts down Marshall student voice at every opportunity.  He makes up public input rules to suit his needs.  The board rarely even mentions Marshall by name during board discussion. 

So while district administration is busy trying to shut Marshall down, the military shows up to recruit.  Why are they at Marshall?  Have they heard that students are uncertain about their future?  Easy pickins?

Fundraiser Event for Nakia Hentz: A Brave Young Heart Patient

Nakia Hentz celebrated 2010 a healthy happy 17 year old.  A junior at Franklin High School, she was anxiously anticipating being involved in Franklin’s play “Oklahoma!”.   Nakia’s health went into a downward spiral when a common cold turned into a serious case of pneumonia and on March 8 2010 doctors told Nakia she needed a new heart to live.

Portland, Oregon May 17, 2010—On May 28, a fundraiser Dinner & Movie night will be held to raise money for a Portland teen diagnosed with a rare heart condition.

Deanna Hess, a friend of the Hentz family has decided to take action by creating a fundraising event called “Dinner and Movie Night” to benefit Nakia.

Nakia was diagnosed on March 8^thwith cardiomyopathy, a condition that affects only 1 in 100,000 kids under 18.  Her doctors believe this is likely a result of a viral infection that has affected her heart’s ability to pump.  She spent time in the hospital undergoing medication therapy for 16 days.  When it was clear that Nakia was unfortunately not responding to the medication, she was fitted with a defibrillator vest that would detect any irregular heart beat and deliver a shock to restart her heart if necessary.

On April 8^th,Nakia had surgery to implant an LVAD, a device that will artificially regulate the pumping of her heart.  On April 22^nd she underwent more surgery to install the defibrillator and pacemaker. This is a temporary fix as the need for a heart transplant has become more urgent.

Nakia’s new heart will cost $800,000. 

The fundraiser Dinner & Movie night at Franklin High School’s auditorium is set for Friday May 28th.  Doors will open at 4:30 and there will be concessions for dinner and snacks.  Two major films will be shown.  The first movie will start promptly at 6:00 PM and the second feature will run directly after.  We cannot disclose the names of the movies outside the school grounds due to copyright laws but we can say that we will be encouraging everyone to wear their “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob” attire!

Thankfully, Nakia’s family does have health insurance, but only a small amount of the necessary procedures and costs are covered.  Her parents have been by her side since she was hospitalized, missing work and causing a further drain on their financial situation

“The moment I heard about Nakia’s condition I knew I had to do everything possible to make sure she gets what she needs to live a full long life, says family friend Deanna Hess. “ I’ve known that baby girl since she was about 18 months old and she’d be first in line to do something like this to raise funds if it were one of my sons in her place.  She has so much to live for and to accomplish yet, and I intend to do everything possible to make sure she gets that chance.”

Please help.  You can contribute several ways:

Web site: http://www.helpnakiahentz.webs.com/ There is a button on the right hand side to donate any amount of money.  Nothing is too small!  Everything helps and every penny goes to Nakia’s medical expenses.

The donation is tax deductible. Here’s the address:

Nakia Heart Fund
5025 SE Henry
Portland OR 97206

EIN number is 80-0580699

Be sure to visit Facebook to join the group Dinner and Movie Night: Fundraiser for Nakia Hentz.

Come to the Dinner & Movie night Friday May 28^th at Franklin High School Auditorium. Tickets for this event are being offered for a $5 donation.  Dinner items will be available for an additional cost.

You can read more about Nakia here.

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!