Although most of the AJC neighborhood falls in the North Clackamas School District, the potential closure of multiple schools in the Portland Public Schools (PPS) district — which would cause a dramatic redistribution of students throughout the metro area — stands to impact schools and families outside Portland and Multnomah County.
The AJC neighborhood’s friends at SE Uplift sent us a statement outlining their recommendations on how to address the situation before any permanent steps are taken:
As our districts grapple with what, if anything, to do about the proposed PPS school closures, I wanted to share that on Monday SE Uplift’s Land Use & Transportation Committee voted to recommend that our board adopt the following recommendations at our November 2nd board meeting:
- Southeast Uplift urge Portland Public Schools to work with the City of Portland to evaluate the impacts of the proposed school closures on transportation, safety, climate, equity, land-use, public-cost, and neighborhoods before decisions are made about school closures, program changes, or attendance boundaries.
- Request that these evaluations compare all proposed Rightsizing Scenarios with the option of making no changes and to make those findings public.
- Southeast Uplift communicate this request to PPS, the PPS Board of Education, Portland City Council, Portland Bureau of Transportation, and Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.
[This] document outlines the case for these recommendations.