PPS closed Clarendon Elementary School in 2006 and the building has sat empty (except for homeless people) since that time.  The building is falling apart, covered with graffiti, windows are boarded up, smells like piss and a homeless person is sleeping there. 

The property is adjacent to a nice little park with an abandoned playground.  Is this what we want for our neighborhoods?  

  Welcome

Enter with care and love. 

If it looks like piss and smells like piss…

Second bathroom.

1 Bedroom.

Who knows what happened here

Working on making a skylight

Watch your head

There’s paint in the dust that runs along the outside wall.  Clarendon was built in 1970.  Lead paint was banned in 1978.  Are children being exposed to lead? 

Don’t want to guess what’s smeared on the windows

Where are the children?

The Clarendon building has an interesting history.  Like Whitaker Middle School and Marshall High School, Clarendon is one of PPS newest buildings.  This is from PPS Historic Building Assessment:

While Clarendon does not meet the 50 year standard for National Register eligibility and is not considered exceptionally significant, the following eligibility determination is provided for future district planning purposes. Given the uniqueness of both the design and planning process used to arrive at the design choice, the Clarendon School is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places under Criteria A and C. As the first Portland school planned in a decentralized and collaborative manner that involved citizens, school administrators, and teachers, Clarendon set an important precedent for community involvement. It is therefore associated with a significant historical pattern or trend in educational facilities planning and policy thus meeting the standard of National Register Criterion A. The building is also eligible under Criterion C, as a unique school building type in the City of Portland. No other hexagonal unit schools were constructed in Portland either before or since the Clarendon building was erected. The building retains much of its historical integrity on the exterior and interior.  You can read more about it here.

I found it unbelievable that Superintendent Smith would give principals extra time off with pay this summer while at the same time asking teachers to sacrifice.  Oh yeah, there was an update this afternoon saying that principals will work harder later.  I’m sure.

I calculated the cost of giving all principals 18 days off with pay.  My estimate is conservative because I used the bottom end of the administrator salary schedule and most administrators are experienced and at higher steps.  The district’s About PPS page says there are:

• 15 high schools
• 10 middle school
• 31 K-8s
• 27 elementary schools
• one K-12
• one 6-11

The total cost of the paid days off just for principals alone is $479,392.  (Vice principals and assistant principals would also be getting time off with pay.) 

How is PPS leadership going to be able lobby legislators for additional funding when they continue to make thoughtless decisions?

Better yet, how can Superintendent Smith justify closing schools to save money when the savings would amount to less than the cost of giving principals a break?

The following story is from the Oregonian archives:

District aims wrecking ball at Whitaker
History – The school board OKs borrowing $2.1 million to raze what’s become an eyesore
Thursday, August 24, 2006
PAIGE PARKER

Vandals inspired by Whitaker Middle School’s vacant, dimly lit hulk have made a mess out of a building already burdened with one of Portland’s messiest pasts.  This week, the Portland School Board pledged again to clean it up, giving district officials the go-ahead to borrow $2.1 million to raze the building.

Wrecking crews could begin knocking down the Northeast Portland school in early November, said Kerry Hampton, the district’s property manager. It could take as long as three months to completely clear the site, he said.

Marcia Taylor, who has lived across the street from the school since 1974, says she’ll be relieved to be rid of the building. Three of her children attended the school when it was Adams High School.

“It’s just really been a shame,” Taylor said. “It was just a beautiful school when it was built.”

Students haven’t attended the school since district leaders closed it in 2001. Whitaker was built in 1966 with windows that didn’t open, a flaw that contributed to the buildup of radon. A leaky roof and lack of ventilation encouraged the growth of toxic mold, and a host of other structural problems made the 268,899-square-foot building too costly to repair.

And though the community uses the adjacent track and grounds, the school itself is riddled with graffiti and garbage, and boards cover most of the windows.

Whitaker neighborhood students now attend Tubman Middle School, a seven-mile haul across the city by bus. Apart from the toll that traveling takes on students, leaving the school vacant has cost taxpayers. Since 2002, the district has spent just shy of $700,000 in maintenance, utilities and insurance for the empty building.

The district will borrow the demolition money, Hampton said, because interest on the loan will cost as much or less than the district now spends maintaining the building. After the building is gone, the district intends to sell the southern 5.8 acres of the approximately 10-acre site to a residential developer. Hampton estimates that the land will bring in at least enough to repay the loan, with as much as $787,000 left over.

But construction of a replacement school, which former Superintendent Jim Scherzinger promised five years ago, will have to wait. Portland Public Schools’ construction bond expired in 2005, and the district doesn’t have money to replace the school.

The school board passed a resolution in 2005 that sets aside half of the proceeds from the future sale of Washington High School for capital improvements at the Whitaker site. With an elementary school costing between $12 million and $15 million, and a middle school ranging from $18 million to $23 million, the district must raise much more to replace Whitaker.

Michelle Ovando, chairwoman of the Concordia Neighborhood Association, said neighbors hope the district sells to developers who will build affordable homes that fit in with the neighborhood.

“We’re anxious to get that school brought down. It draws in gang activity and drug activity,” Ovando said. “It’s a big building and easy to hide behind.”

The news that Cynthia Harris and Reis Willbanks were put on administrative leave this week brought back memories.

My honeymoon with PPS ended in 1997 thanks to John Braunger.  He was a terrible principal but PPS administration refused to do anything about it until he was caught mismanaging school funds. 

I was Binnsmead Middle School’s volunteer coordinator at the time.  A few people didn’t think it was appropriate for me to question Braunger’s performance so I resigned from the volunteer position.

In a memo to staff dated November 3, 1997, “RE: events of last week”, Braunger wrote:

Last week, you received a letter in your mailboxes from Ms. Bauske.  In the letter Ms. Bauske resigns her position as Volunteer Coordinator.  She has worked hard to establish a volunteer pool who can meet staff needs and those of the schools as a whole.  I appreciate what she has accomplished as Volunteer Coordinator and am grateful for her efforts.

In addition to resigning, Ms. Bauske alleges that school money is being mismanaged.  The district takes allegations of this kind seriously and has procedures to determine if there are any irregularities.  Should any be found, corrective action will be taken.  In the meantime, Laurie at the region office will be doing the books…..

Finally, Brenda’s doctors have advised her to take a medical leave.  We will miss her and hope she recovers soon.

Brenda was the school secretary responsible for doing the books. 

The next week I received a threatening letter from the PPS superintendent accusing me of “slander.”  

Four long months later after pushing for an audit report to be released, I  received a copy of the Binnsmead audit.  The report completed on November 13, 1997 found numerous irregularities.  Some of the findings included:

• Five requests for issuance of check forms did not bear evidence of administrative approval.
• Twenty checks were made payable to a specific staff member as reimbursements for purchases of supplies and other items ($3,787.94).  The checks should have been issued to the vendors.
• One additional $468 reimbursement to the same staff member did not appear to have any supporting documentation.
• Two checks reviewed totaling over $2,500 were issued to Nordstrom for the purchase of numerous gift certificates in amounts ranging from $20 to $100. 
• Three disbursements reviewed were purchases of invoiced goods with costs in excess of $1,000.  The transactions didn’t have the required pre-approval.
• One check reviewed was issued to a coffee store for $258.  The supporting request for issuance of check form indicated the expenditure was for refreshments.  Review of the store’s receipt indicated one gift certificate had been purchased.
• Nine student funds had deficit balances.
• The school’s checking account was overdrawn for two months causing $185 in overdraft fees.
• Deposits weren’t made in the required amount of time.

How seriously could the district possibly take allegations of financial mismanagement when the only difference between 1997 and now is the dollar amounts?  Who was responsible for following up on Jefferson’s financial mismanagement concerns?  The district let the Jefferson concerns go for a long time then addressed them right after a controversial meeting. Smart

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

April 20, 2009 PPS Big Ideas Q & A offers some insight into the future.  Pull your wallets out because it will require BIG BUDGETS.

Q9: Is high school redesign leading to a facilities bond for PPS?

YES. However, to make any decisions about high school buildings, we must make decisions about the programs within those buildings.  How many high school buildings do we need?  What size, and where?  Should they include special spaces such as labs, workshops and performance space?  This high school design conversation will answer those questions and allow us to finalize a long-range facilities plan for PPS that includes high schools. [Read more →]

From November 2008- The Bridgespan Group, a San Francisco-based nonprofit dedicated to improving schools, studied the efforts within PPS high schools and tracked student success. The results, although preliminary, show promise. Cleveland High School and Biz Tech High School on the Marshall Campus reported the most notable results, greatly reducing the number of freshmen failing three or more classes or missing more than 20 days of school.

Much Love,

PPS Communications Department

The superintendent is proposing cuts to the classrooms but she continues to add administrators at the central office.  She could easily make central office cuts without affecting students. [Read more →]

This past fall Superintendent Smith reorganized the Central Office  and reported that 10.5 Central Office senior level and support positions had been cut resulting in $1 million savings. 

Some of the so-called cuts didn’t make sense at the time.  Smith said the organization had been streamlined to reduce the layers between the superintendent and the schools.  “In the past, assistant superintendents oversaw area directors who oversaw PK-8 schools or high schools. Now there are four PK-12 regions, each led by a deputy superintendent and supported by a region administrator.”

What that means is that assistant superintendents are now called deputy superintendents and area directors are called region administrators.  There’s no change in the number of layers between the superintendent and the schools. 

A quick review of Smith’s 2009/10 Central Office Organizational Chart might look lean but keep looking.  Smith’s org chart is 15 pages long and doesn’t identify most Central Office administrator positions.  One could easily get the impression that the district is being run by 13 the individuals shown on the org chart but there are 37 Central Office senior level administrator positions missing from that org chart.  I was generous when reviewing the district’s structure and didn’t include a few PPS Directors located off-site or staff identified as managers.  None of the Central Office positions listed below appear on the current org chart:

1. Advisor to the Superintendent (2 positions)
2. Director – SPED & Interventions
3. Chief Information Officer
4. Director – Special Projects
5. Director – Administrator Hiring/Performance Management
6. Administrator – Regional Program (4 positions)
7. Director – Leadership Development
8. Director – Strategic Partnership
9. Director – Procurement & Distribution
10. SPED Legal Counselor
11. Director – Accounting/Payroll Services
12. Director – IT Operations
13. Director – Employment Services/Assistant Executive Director
14. Director – Workforce Diversity
15. Director – Labor Relations
16. Director – HR Legal Counsel
17. Director – Family Support/School Choice
18. Director – Federal/State Grants
19. Director – Research and Evaluation
20. Broad Fellow – Special Assistant
21. Broad Fellow – High School Reform
22. Director – Funded Programs
23. Director – Nutrition Services
24. Director – Comp/Benefits
25. Director – Government Relations
26. Director – Curriculum
27. Director – ESL (Relocated to Roosevelt Campus)
28. Director – Facilities and Assets
29. Director – Compliance
30. Director – Migrant Education
31. Director – IT Client Services
32. Director – IT Application Services
33. Director – Security Services
34. Director – School & System Performance

A bad hard copy of a 1999 PPS Central Office Organizational Chart shows 24 senior level Central Office positions including 3 chiefs, general counsel, 6 area directors, 3 assistant superintendents, executive director of human resources, 7 department directors, comptroller, lobbyist, and a system project officer.  Even then a performance audit recommended streamlining the Central Office. 

Don’t be fooled.  PPS at least 50 senior level Central Office positions today compared with 24 in 1999. 

The reality is that the PPS Central Office now has almost twice as many administrators managing a system with a declining student population.  How has that benefited children?

1-800-MIS-USED

I’m tired of PPS claims that they can’t do things because they don’t have the money.  PPS is arguing that the district needs to close high schools because they don’t have the $4.5 million necessary to create equitable programs districtwide.  Bullshit.  They need to quit wasting money and be honest in how they use it.  

The Office of the Inspector General is the government agency responsible for investigating fraud, waste or abuse of Department of Education funds.  Anyone suspecting fraud, waste or abuse of federal funds can report it anonymously and there are whistleblower protections for employees.