Parents critical of K-8 change

Many complain that combined schools not receiving key resources

By Jennifer Anderson

The Portland Tribune, Apr 8, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (32 Reader comments)

ADKINS

At a time of declining enrollment in many parts of Portland Public Schools, Nicole Leggett is the type of parent North Portland’s Peninsula School wants and desperately needs.

She’s actively involved in her first-grader’s education and wants to see his school be as successful as others in the district. She also has two little boys, ages 4 and 2, who’ll enter kindergarten in upcoming years.

But Leggett is among a growing chorus of parents who remain skeptical of the district’s kindergarten through eighth-grade reconfiguration effort over the past three years, which affects 28 schools that have combined the elementary and middle-school grades.

In particular, critics say the district rushed into the move – under former Superintendent Vicki Phillips – and now is picking up the pieces, such as how to patch together ways to meet the unique staffing needs of K-8 schools.

“They’re not doing any direct funding for this K-8 thing,” said Leggett, 29, who lives six blocks from Peninsula and works as a server at a video lottery outlet.

“On the one hand, they’re doing all this planning, but on the other hand, they’re not giving the funding for it,” she said. “If they don’t do it now, in the budget, how are they going to do it later and how are they going to be accountable?”

Peninsula, 8125 N. Emerald Ave., was an elementary school until it added sixth and seventh grades over the past two years, growing to 316 students this year. Next year it will add an eighth-grade class of 30 or so students.

Since a school’s staffing is tied to its enrollment, Peninsula isn’t facing cuts, like many others are. Its influx of eighth-graders will actually bring an additional 1.27 full-time equivalent positions next year under the district’s complex staffing formula.

That means the school will be able to hire a part-time library assistant and a half-time music teacher and half-time Spanish language teacher to replace the current piecemeal arts offerings, said Principal Alan Barker, who will retire this summer after 10 years at the school.

That’s a lot more than other schools are getting in the district’s proposed $427 million general fund budget, which is currently being hashed out and due to be adopted in June.

Jefferson High School, which is merging two of its academies next year, is losing five full-time equilvalents, or FTE; Madison High School is losing two FTE, even with the addition of 115 eighth-graders who came from overcrowded K-8 schools nearby; and Ockley Green School, a K-8, is losing nine FTE, among others.

The explanation? “We’ve been overstaffed,” said Cathy Mincberg, the district’s chief operating officer. “We’re working real hard on figuring what the right staffing level is.”

Parents want promises kept

Steve Rawley, a North Portland parent and activist on school equity issues, said parents are trying to hold district leaders accountable for the promises made.

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