Editorial: PPS’s fast-tracked vote dodges critical questions

Amid intense community pressure last spring, Portland Public Schools was forced to hurriedly revise its school bond measure to more closely match Portland families’ priorities. So, you would think the district would have learned the importance of transparency and timely public scrutiny on big projects.

But that’s a lesson that PPS officials haven’t seemed to absorb.

The district is poised to ask the school board to approve buying a sleek, modern building in North Portland that will house a long-promised Center for Black Student Excellence, as The Oregonian/OregonLive’s Julia Silverman reported. Unfortunately, while PPS leaders have shared broad strokes of the overall vision, they have provided few details about how they will turn that vision into a functional operation. They have not said what services or community partners will be in the building, who will pay for the upkeep, what the operational costs or staffing commitments will be, or how this center will finally help the district advance student achievement.

The school board is expected to vote on a purchase agreement at its Sept. 9 meeting, board chair Eddie Wang said. Relevant information, including the purchase price, won’t be released until it is posted on PPS’ website just a few days before the meeting. Not only does this schedule bypass the usual process of vetting such significant decisions through the board’s facilities committee, it severely limits the public’s ability to weigh in.

The countless questions about how the center will function and its impact on a cash-strapped district with dwindling enrollment deserve far more deliberation and public scrutiny than the district is allowing. Instead of skipping ahead to a vote, the district should share its plan and budget for the center, analyze the financial impact on the district and send the purchasing agreement to the facilities committee for review, as that committee’s chair already requested. PPS should remember that transparency is an obligation, not an extra.

Without a doubt, PPS has taken an unreasonably long time to fulfill its promise of opening a Center for Black Student Excellence. Voters authorized $60 million for the initiative as part of the district’s successful 2020 school bond measure. A board resolution at the time called for both a physical building and a set of strategies to “advance Black student achievement in PPS,” and specifically included the commitment to work with Black-led community organizations. The resolution laid out a first phase of investments to take place in North and Northeast Portland facilities, connecting a “constellation of community schools.”

As envisioned, the center would act as a PPS-owned community hub developed with Black community leaders and nonprofits, many of which have already been serving Black students. The center would offer a range of academic, support and cultural services and aim to provide transportation to students who don’t live in walking distance – the vast majority of Black students in PPS.

But planning stalled amid the pandemic and leadership turnover. Meanwhile, with every passing year, the district’s 3,000-plus Black students are missing out on the services, resources and opportunities promised by the district to reverse a long history of neglect. Black community leaders have understandably been pressing PPS to step up and show concrete progress.

However, that justified urgency cannot replace the imperative for the district to do the planning that ensures the center is both successful and sustainable – before signing a deal. It remains unclear just how much of that has been done, since the district has failed to provide such information despite requests over the past six weeks. PPS spokeswoman Valerie Feder said in an email that the budget and plan will be “refined” during the 90-day period that would follow the board’s approval of the purchase agreement.

Wang noted that an approval on Sept. 9 isn’t the final vote – the board would still have to sign off on closing the deal before it went through. But it’s still a backwards approach – to put the critical operational planning after making the commitment.

He also argued that waiting longer for an operating budget and plan comes with the tradeoff of further delaying the center. And the One North building itself – a stunning, energy-efficient and eye-catching mixed-use space built just 10 years ago – will likely retain its value, lowering risk for the district, Wang said.

But he agreed there has been limited opportunities for the public to learn more or offer input, adding that he would raise the issue.

That doesn’t go far enough, particularly considering the community’s frayed trust in PPS, from years of poor execution.

Innovative programs with community support, such as the conversion to year-round school at Rosa Parks Elementary School, have suffered or ended due to the district’s failure to adequately plan or support them. Escalating project costs, such as the rebuild at Benson High School, reflect a district that mismanages public dollars. And the inability of the district to provide basic cooling for schools so they don’t have to close early on hot days raises legitimate concerns about PPS’ capacity to maintain the facilities it already has, much less take on the costs of keeping up more.

It may be that buying this building will end up being the right call. The district’s nonprofit partners have been digging into the key operational questions and evaluating the resources that can help bridge the opportunity gaps facing Black students.

But the district – which must answer to the public for the strategies it pursues and the resources it spends – has to show its own work. Who will be served; what resources will be available; what are the expected outcomes of this effort; how many staff will be added or transferred; what will be the management structure and financial responsibilities; and how this will affect funding and resources for PPS schools throughout the district.

These questions aren’t irrational. Plowing ahead without the answers, however, is.

-The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board