Oregon Public Broadcasting

A high school campus would close and another would become a magnet school, under a cost-cutting plan unveiled Monday by Portland superintendent Carole Smith.

As Rob Manning reports, the Portland Public School District hopes to downsize because enrollment – and funding – aren't where they used to be.

Superintendent Smith’s plan would bring major changes to three campuses – and leave another alone that had been facing an overhaul. Smith previously recommended shutting down the three small schools at Marshall High, and replacing them with a new magnet school.

Sam Sanders / OPB

Last spring students protested at Benson High School after cuts to the programs there were proposed by Portland Public Schools Superintendent Carole Smith.

She’d even considered using one of Marshall's existing small schools as a model. But the new plan ends any high school program at Marshall. She says it was the most difficult part of her recommendation, because the Marshall schools are working.

Carole Smith: "And have actually just turned the corner in terms of really showing impact on student achievement. So it’s really a hard time to be faced with a decision that’s really about viability of program."

Two schools would shrink. Jefferson High School would become a magnet program with an emphasis on college credit courses offered in conjunction with the Portland Community College campus across the street.

And the Harriet Tubman Young Women’s Academy affiliated with Jefferson, would lose its older students to become just a middle school.

One school that’s come out bigger in the new version is Benson High, which had been slated to become a two-year school under the old plan.

The new plan keeps Benson as a four-year career-technical program. That is, assuming school board members sign off.

Carole Smith says the pressure is on the board to vote Oct. 11.

Carole Smith: "Absolutely, we’re looking to land, and we want to land by the 12th."

Smith’s previous plan – and alternatives board members floated – ran into a buzzsaw of opposition. Board co-chair Trudy Sargent thought the previous plan didn’t save enough money. She prefers the new version.

Trudy Sargent: "I think what we’re doing, what the superintendent is proposing is what we need to do as a district. I think that’s going to be the theme 'what are we going to do as a district to survive in this environment?'"

The board is planning a work session on the new plan Wednesday.

The only publicized hearing before the vote is on October 6th, at Marshall High – the school slated to close.