Little progress has been made on a PPS taxpayer funded project for $60 million

PORTLAND, Ore. — This May, Portland Public Schools will ask voters to pass a bond worth more than $1.8 billion — the most expensive bond the district has ever requested. But at the same time, the school district still has around $60 million left from a previous bond, intended for a specific project that has seen little progress over the past five years.

As part of the $1.2 billion bond in 2020, PPS asked voters for $60 million to build a Center for Black Student Excellence, described as a project to create a place where all students, particularly Black students, can learn and grow, making PPS more equitable. The bond passed with 75% support from voters.

“I thought it was an amazing idea and much needed,” said Rashelle Chase Miller, a Portland Public Schools parent who voted for the bond measure. “Families need someplace for their kids to be.”

She added that as a Black student who grew up in Portland Public Schools herself, she witnessed firsthand some of the inequalities in the district.

But four and a half years after the bond measure passed, there’s been little movement on The Center for Black Student Excellence. It’s still unclear where the center will be located or how much it will cost to run, and the lack of answers raised eyebrows at a March 4 PPS board meeting.

“My ask before this meeting is just to see this specific sort of long-term financial plan,” board member Julia Brim-Edwards said at the meeting.

PPS did give the board an update on the center, detailing goals to help students thrive and saying that staff are prioritizing conversations with community members and schools to determine what students need. They also outlined plans for a tutoring program at The Center for Black Student Excellence to address educational disparities. 

However, district staff did not address how the school district will achieve its goals, and there was no financial plan presented.

“Seems fair to expect perhaps more detail,” Chase Miller said.

PPS staff at the board meeting said the project would require community partners, and KGW followed up with the district to ask who those partners would be.

PPS board chair Eddie Wang spoke to KGW, but said he “might (not) be the best person to answer” about the partners. The district denied a request to speak to someone working directly on the project, telling KGW that the project is moving slowly because there are very few people assigned to work on it due to budget constraints.

“We’re fluctuating between zero and one person that was available to work on this,” Wang said.

The Director of The Center for Black Student Excellence left the position in February, a few months after starting the job. After filing a public records request, KGW learned the former director made more than $65,000 during her PPS tenure, from October 2024 to February 2025.

The school district is now looking for a new director for the project.

“You know, let’s be honest, I wish there was more progress made,” Wang said. “The longer we wait, the more expensive things get.”

The district has faced a large share of challenges in the five years since the bond measure passed, he added, including the switch to remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and the departure of former Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero last year.

“In the meantime, there was a strike,” Wang said, referring to a nearly month-long teacher strike in the fall of 2023. “Which again, delayed things for another year.”

John Charles, the president of libertarian nonprofit Cascade Policy Institute, called the project a “broken promise” from PPS. The Cascade Policy Institute analyzes Oregon state and local tax budget policies., and Charles said PPS should be better stewards of taxpayer money.

“They made a promise, they haven’t delivered,” he said.

Supporters who voted for the project want to see more progress too.

“It’s not moving as quickly as we would hope,” Chase Miller said.

The school district said that’s changing under new Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong’s leadership, adding that officials are close to choosing a site for The Center for Black Student Excellence — though other details about the project remain murky.

The district is now focused on getting the next bond passed in May. The $1.8 billion measure includes funds to rebuild three high schools. There was also a proposal to add a Native Student Success Center to aid the district’s Native student population. The proposal would have allocated $40 million for the project, but the idea was rejected by the school board.