The Portland Public School district (PPS) is redrawing boundary lines and changing the way that immersion programs are laid out all over the Southeast (SE) section of Portland.
In June of 2019, the PPS Board of Education began a plan to transform the way that PPS schools are divided within neighborhoods. The SE section was steered in these decisions by the Southeast Guiding Coalition (SEGC), which was composed of parents and guardians, principals, students and teachers. Progress on PPS’s plan started picking up in January 2021, when feeder schools and boundary changes were activated due to the addition of Kellogg Middle School (MS). According to Resolution No. 6315, published by PPS in June of 2019, plans were put into place to change Harrison Park K-8, one of two remaining K-8 programs in SE, to a K-5 and middle school system.
Resolution No. 6315 outlines how PPS will change the SE schools boundary lines, immersion programs and school feeder plans. Currently, changes are in phase two of the plan. Phase one was focused on rebuilding Kellogg MS and creating boundaries. All of the Resolution No. 6315 phase two changes will be coming into effect in fall of 2023. The outlines for phase two include changing the “Attendance area and special program assignments for Harrison Park Middle School,” then there is “a plan to relocate K-5 students and programs currently served at Harrison Park,” and “a plan to increase enrollment at Lane Middle School.” However, according to a press release made by a PPS board member, Julia Brim-Edwards, this phase was supposed to come into effect in the 2022-2023 school year rather than the 2023-2024 school year. The changes to Harrison Park K-8 and the immersion programs and boundaries were pushed.
With the developments of Harrison Park MS, the K-5 students will be relocating too. It took the SEGC 19 meetings over an 11-month period to make the final decisions; they took feedback from stakeholders representing 20 different SE schools involved. However, the SEGC was unable to reach a final decision, causing the PPS Board of Education to vote to adopt the Deputy Superintendent’s plan for the SE community. The same press release outlines the following changes that families should be on the lookout for during the next few months for the fall 2023 school year. The K-5 students from Harrison Park MS will be headed to Clark Elementary School (ES) along with their Chinese Immersion program. With the addition of Clark Elementary, the current occupants of that building, Creative Science School K-8 will be headed to the Bridger ES campus. Bridger ES students who are enrolled in the standard English Programs will stay at Bridger ES; this includes neighborhood students. The Spanish immersion program will remain at Lent ES, which will be converted into a fully Spanish immersion school, with standard English enrollment neighborhood students going to Marysville ES. The Chinese immersion program currently located at Hosford MS will relocate to Harrison Park MS. Additionally, the Spanish Program formerly at Bridger K-8 will be sent to Mt. Tabor MS. Atkinson ES will be headed to Harrison Park MS for grade 6-8, and the Vestal ES students will be headed to Harrison Park MS. Creston ES students will change to Hosford MS and Woodstock ES is going to Lane MS.
There will also be boundary changes to the following schools: Creative Science K-8 at Bridger campus, Glencoe ES, Harrison Park MS, Kellogg MS, Kelly ES, Lane MS, Lent ES, Lewis ES, Marysville ES, Mt. Tabor MS, Whitman ES, Woodmere ES, Woodstock ES and Vestal ES. Some Harrison Park MS students will be headed to McDaniel for high school, while the rest are feeding into Franklin High School. There are seven middle and elementary schools without changes to boundary lines; those include Abernethy ES, Buckman ES, Duniway ES, Grout ES, Hosford MS, Llewellyn ES and Sellwood MS. All of the schools without changes are located near the Willamette River and are feeder schools to Cleveland High School.
All these changes brought up questions about transportation; the Deputy Superintendent’s plan states that any student living in a location that would require said student to cross Interstate 205 will be provided bus transportation. There will also be transportation provided for students who are leaving their own neighborhood to attend Harrison Park MS’s Chinese immersion program, the Woodstock Dual Language Immersion (DLI) Program and the Lent Spanish DLI.
More information about these changes, including a boundary change feeder map can be found on the PPS website under the District Finder page. Resolution No. 6315 can be found on the Enrollment & Program Balancing page on the same website.
