Portland Public Schools Superintendent answers questions about proposed school closures
Oct 16, 2026 · 26 min · 12 segments
### The Portland Public Schools proposal to close up to 14 schools is getting a lot of pushback…
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Oct 16, 2026 · 26 min · 12 segments
### The Portland Public Schools proposal to close up to 14 schools is getting a lot of pushback…
Dave MillerHost
Very few issues that we've talked about on this show have generated as much feedback as this one.
We're gonna get into specifics as we go, but I sort of tried to just look at everything and to boil down what I saw as the two biggest issues that have come up, and the two themes that emerged to me are, first, please slow down, and second, and this is related, i- it's give us more data, more detail, more information so that we can have faith in what you're doing and, and have clarity about what this will look like.
What do you say to families or to people running for gov- [chuckles] governor or currently governor who say, "Slow this down"?
Well, so closing schools, consolidating schools is not a new conversation in Portland.
I like to share the facts that we've had over 100 schools over the last 100 years, um, of course, varying numbers in between that.
We have a school system right now that's built to serve 80,000 students, and that's just not our enrollment reality.
That, that's a justification for the closure process, but it doesn't directly address the question about the speed at which this is happening right now.
It started off with the resolution from the school board directing me to get into this work.
They then had feedback sessions as they developed their guiding principles, and we have been in the details of that work since the summer.
And so when I hear, like, "Slow down and wait," I guess I wonder, like, what are we waiting for, and to go slower to do what, as we've been processing, we're out in community, and we're responding with information.
Their neighborhood school is being slated to close.
It's two blocks from our house, and the school, they currently attend a focus option, um, that is also going to be affected by boundary changes, so they will be, um, and program changes that'll end up meaning that they'll be kicked out of that focus option school.
This is just, you know, one family's illustration, b- but it, it shows to me how d- how dramatic the changes are, the, the closure of a school two blocks away and the end of, of the focus option program where th- this parent's kids currently attend.
W- what do you think about the idea of phasing in the closures and boundary changes? So, say, doing North and Northeast Portland next year, and then Southeast Portland the year after, and then the Westside the year after that, giving the district time to really focus on the n- the needs of, of the affected communities, um, m- more fully, uh, as opposed to distributing all of that support all at once.
Very few issues that we've talked about on this show have generated as much feedback as this one.
We're gonna get into specifics as we go, but I sort of tried to just look at everything and to boil down what I saw as the two biggest issues that have come up, and the two themes that emerged to me are, first, please slow down, and second, and this is related, i- it's give us more data, more detail, more information so that we can have faith in what you're doing and, and have clarity about what this will look like.
What do you say to families or to people running for gov- [chuckles] governor or currently governor who say, "Slow this down"?
Well, so closing schools, consolidating schools is not a new conversation in Portland.
I like to share the facts that we've had over 100 schools over the last 100 years, um, of course, varying numbers in between that.
We have a school system right now that's built to serve 80,000 students, and that's just not our enrollment reality.
That, that's a justification for the closure process, but it doesn't directly address the question about the speed at which this is happening right now.
It started off with the resolution from the school board directing me to get into this work.
They then had feedback sessions as they developed their guiding principles, and we have been in the details of that work since the summer.
And so when I hear, like, "Slow down and wait," I guess I wonder, like, what are we waiting for, and to go slower to do what, as we've been processing, we're out in community, and we're responding with information.
Their neighborhood school is being slated to close.
It's two blocks from our house, and the school, they currently attend a focus option, um, that is also going to be affected by boundary changes, so they will be, um, and program changes that'll end up meaning that they'll be kicked out of that focus option school.
This is just, you know, one family's illustration, b- but it, it shows to me how d- how dramatic the changes are, the, the closure of a school two blocks away and the end of, of the focus option program where th- this parent's kids currently attend.
W- what do you think about the idea of phasing in the closures and boundary changes? So, say, doing North and Northeast Portland next year, and then Southeast Portland the year after, and then the Westside the year after that, giving the district time to really focus on the n- the needs of, of the affected communities, um, m- more fully, uh, as opposed to distributing all of that support all at once.
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