Oregon Public Broadcasting

Supporters of Portland high schools will want to listen closely Monday as the district superintendent unveils her latest plan for high schools. But backers of North Portland’s Jefferson High had their ears tuned to something else over the weekend.

Rob Manning reports on the complexities of raising money for struggling music programs.

Sit back in one of those creaky wooden chairs at the Jefferson High auditorium, and it’s easy believe in the power of Portland band, Pink Martini to revive music at this school.

But open your eyes, and the auditorium is half empty. Even concert organizer, Bonnie Gilchrist, noted the low turnout Saturday night, when she spoke to the crowd.

Bonnie Gilchrist: “I can’t tell you how gratified I am to see everybody in this room tonight. I wish there was about four times more of you.  But this is the kickoff to the Rose City Music Festival.”

What’s being called the Rose City Music Festival is facing more challenges than attendance.  Organizers have said “all proceeds from the concert will help fund music instructors, artists in residence and instruments for students in the Jefferson cluster.”

Portland school district officials say there’s no problem with that promise if it was just about musical instruments, or artists-in-residence. But Portland is one of a number of districts with foundations that mediate decisions about money raised for staff.

The idea is to ensure equity -- so that wealthy parents can’t invest exclusively in their kids’ school, while others languish.

Matt Shelby with Portland Public Schools says local Portland schools get to keep two-thirds of what they raise for staff.

Matt Shelby: “That money has to come into the district office, and when it does, our finance department is going to send a third to the Portland Schools Foundation Equity Fund. So, whether an organization is working with the Portland Schools Foundation, we’re kind of hard-wired here at the district office to send a third of that money, as it comes into us, to the Equity Fund.” 

The Foundation’s Equity Fund has spent more than $7 million since the mid-1990s, with a focus on adding teachers to schools in poor neighborhoods.

Jefferson High has received $40,000 in the last two years from the fund. The primary and middle schools within the Jefferson cluster got about $75,000.

Back at the benefit concert, Maggie Mashia is smiling outside the front door. She’s a chief organizer of the festival, and a leader of the Jefferson alumni. She’s less happy about the Foundation’s Equity Fund rules.

Maggie Mashia:  “We don’t have enough money, even right now, to even just have the number of teachers we need into the school. So it’d really be a hardship for us to give up a third of what we raise to another opportunity outside of our cluster. But if that’s the way it has to be, we’re open to that.”

Mashia says her group hopes to avoid the Equity Fund in one of two ways. First, they may fund artists-in-residence instead of actual school employees to accomplish their short-term goal of creating a “pep band.” Mashia says she’s talking to foundation leaders about carving out an exception, when money is raised for a cluster of low-income schools.

Maggie Mashia: “They’re open to that idea, and it looks like something we’ll discussing in the weeks right after the event is over.”

A schools foundation spokeswoman says festival and foundation leaders have talked, but she says the foundation has no choice about the equity fund. She says it’s a policy of the Portland school board. District spokesman Matt Shelby says it’s an issue worth discussing.

Matt Shelby: “But you know at the end of the day, the Equity Fund was set up for a reason, and for it to really be effective, we need to follow the rules that we set up. I think we’d start from that position.”

The Rose City Music Festival has three more concerts on the calendar for later this week, including an eight-hour finale on Saturday. So far, the festival has raised about $15,000.

Organizers say it’s a good start, but not where they want to be.

They say part of the problem is the cloud of uncertainty hanging over how Jefferson fits into the district’s long-term plans.

Some of that uncertainty could be cleared up Monday night, when the superintendent rolls out her revised plan for high schools.