The three high schools that remain to be updated in the district’s decade-plus modernization push, which has been financed by multi-million dollar bond measures approved by voters, could be completely rebuilt or renovated for almost half a billion dollars each, according to a proposal put forth by Portland Public Schools staff just six weeks ago.
Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong said Monday that the startling figures raised eyebrows because Jefferson High School in Northeast Portland, Cleveland High School in Southeast Portland, and Ida B. Wells High School in Southwest Portland would have easily been among the most costly school building projects in the nation, with projected construction costs of $490 million, $450 million, and $435 million, respectively.
For instance, the $374 million new high school in the affluent Boston suburb of Waltham just began for classes in September. Even though Massachusetts is notorious for spending a lot of money on education, that is the most costly school construction project in the state’s history. Lincoln High School in downtown Portland was finished in 2022 for $245 million, whereas Beaverton is spending $253 million to rebuild Beaverton High School.
According to staff, the new objective is to construct the three high schools for substantially less money as the Portland Public Schools board works on a plan to put a bond on the May 2025 ballot that would ask voters to extend the current property tax rate for an additional eight years in order to fund $1.8 billion in capital projects.
Although there is a chance that unforeseen cost overruns at the high schools would consume some of those money, they say that ideally it would free up about $500 million for renovations to elementary and middle schools.
Armstrong, who made repairing school buildings a key component of her campaign for the position, which she has held for five months, stated, “I think we can build schools for less than [$450 million], based on what we’re seeing happening around the map.” Over the next four years, I anticipate that three schools with space for 1,700 kids will be constructed, each with all the amenities that other schools have, if not more.
The district’s long-standing education specifications, which specify in great detail what is required, down to the space allotted for everything from counseling offices to science labs to auditoriums, set the standard for building high schools for 1,700 students. These specifications are meant to last for the next century. Due in part to lower birth rates and rising housing costs, enrollment estimates for the district’s schools plummeted during the epidemic and have subsequently continued to decline, albeit more slowly.
Portland State’s Population Research Center projects that, unless attendance boundaries are redrawn, Portland’s high schools will have roughly 11,700 students in the 2033–2034 academic year, down from roughly 14,300 this year. This includes 914 students at Cleveland, 1,257 at Wells, and 475 at Jefferson.
Chief Operating Office Dan Jung stated at a Facilities and Operations Subcommittee meeting on Monday that fresh estimates place the costs of modernization for Wells and Cleveland at $340 million each, with the money coming from the 2025 bond, if it passes. Jefferson would ideally only be able to use the $366 million set aside for it in the bond that voters authorized in 2020, and not have to use funds from the 2025 bond, according to his department’s updated proposal.
Due to design delays brought on by community outcry about students being transferred to the distant Marshall High campus while building was underway, the Jefferson project has proven especially challenging. In the end, the district abandoned those ideas and started over, which increased the budget and postponed the start of construction. Now, construction is expected to start in the summer.
According to Jung’s letter to the amemoto board members, Portland Public Schools may save up to $470 million by rethinking three projects (Cleveland, Wells, and Jefferson) with an emphasis on crucial academic programs. This money could then be used to update elementary and middle schools.
Along with reducing the sums previously allocated for curriculum purchases and technological upgrades, the updated bond plans also set aside less money for administrative expenses and contingency funds than initially anticipated.
According to school board member Julia Brim-Edwards, the updated proposal’s details are noticeably vague and include things like what, if anything, would need to be cut from the plans for Cleveland, Wells, and Jefferson, which elementary and middle schools would benefit from any funds not allocated to the high schools, and what kinds of projects those funds would fund.
During Monday’s meeting, Brim-Edwards stated, “I think it makes it harder, honestly, to sell to the voters because there is confusion then about what we’re asking them to fund.” Are we requesting that they pay for everything we did for McDaniel, Grant, and Lincoln? Or are we requesting a smaller project, and if so, what are their thoughts?
However, Jung disagreed with that description.
According to him, cost-cutting measures could involve adhering to the minimums specified in the schooling specifications and not going beyond the code requirements.
He acknowledged that overall square footage could be decreased, but the objective is to provide as much programming as possible while emphasizing the student experience.
During her brief remarks to the board, Portland Association of Teachers president Angela Bonilla expressed concern among teachers about the reduced square footage because it increases the likelihood that every classroom will be used during school hours, reducing the number of rooms available for private meetings with students and raising the likelihood that teachers will have to leave their classrooms to make room for another educator during their prep periods, which is a disruptive practice.
“There are still unknowns, such as how much, if any, money would need to be redirected to the high school projects, so it’s unclear exactly which middle and elementary schools could see improvements and of what kind,” Jung added. According to him, the district also requires the adaptability to deal with crises, such as the devastation caused by the ice storm that closed two schools in Southwest Portland for months last winter.
$75 million is also included in Monday’s proposal for athletic improvements, which include financing for seats at Grant, lights at Grant High School and West Sylvan, and turf fields at Roosevelt and Franklin High Schools as well as West Sylvan Middle School.
The bond measure must be referred to the May ballot by the district by February 28. However, outgoing school board member Andrew Scott, who leads the facilities subcommittee and is leaving his position early in January, has stated that he hopes to make the referral before he leaves.
Jung is in charge of the Office of School Modernization, which has a habit of underestimating its construction costs. A $790 million bond measure to update and upgrade Kellogg Middle School, Lincoln High School, and McDaniel and Benson High Schools was approved by voters in 2017. All four projects’ prices soared far over the district’s initial projections, eroding public confidence in district officials and necessitating the inclusion of some Benson expenses in the $1.2 billion bond that voters passed in 2020.
Julia Silverman writes for The Oregonian/OregonLive on education. Her email address is [email protected].
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