Too few students, too much land

New study of school facilities suggests selling extra property

By Todd Murphy

The Portland Tribune, Feb 5, 2002, Updated Oct 30, 2009

For the fourth time in four years, a study done for Portland Public Schools leaders has detailed an obvious problem: The district has too much property.

And too many buildings that have little or nothing to do with schooling. All of the property sucks district money Ñ $1 million to $2 million per year, by conservative estimates Ñ away from the teaching of children.

But the most recent study of school district property Ñ a draft of which was released last week Ñ also offers compelling details about an issue no one around the Portland school district much likes to talk about: that the district might have too many schools. And that some of them might need to be closed.

The study, called a “long-range facilities plan” and conducted for the district by a local nonprofit group called Innovation Partnership, seems to have increased momentum toward the easier district actions: selling or leasing its land or properties that don’t house schools.

It’s less clear how the study’s details of some roomy elementary schools Ñ some with a classroom for every 10 students Ñ will steer discussion surrounding the explosive issue of closing any of the city’s popular neighborhood schools.

“It is the most difficult thing a school board member can do,” Portland school board member Marc Abrams said. “In school politics, everything is personal. Everything is about someone’s kids, and that makes it very tough for us to make hard decisions.”

Abrams is the only member of the Portland school board who repeatedly says that with the district’s continually declining enrollment, some of Portland’s elementary schools need to be closed. He said he believes Ñ like some other district watchers do Ñ that the Innovation Partnership study only bolsters that view. Other school board members say they aren’t so sure.

There is more agreement surrounding other actions suggested in the Innovation Partnership study, many of which have been recommended before. The study recommends the district sell or lease land and buildings that don’t house schools Ñ properties that critics say should have long ago been generating income for the district instead of adding maintenance costs.

One of the study’s primary authors, Innovation Partnership Projects Director Brian Scott, said school closures probably won’t be necessary for at least the next few years Ñ if the district takes many of these other actions.

Here are some of the main property issues that the study details:

Nonschool buildings

The study recommends that the district sell or lease eight properties Ñ one piece of land and seven buildings that are either empty or primarily house administrators.

The biggest potential revenue generators would be the district’s administration building and warehouse on the east bank of the Willamette River near the Rose Garden and the former Washington High School, which now houses administrators, on Southeast 14th Avenue.

Scott estimated that the sale or lease of the two properties alone could generate revenue or interest of $1 million per year for the district.

There has been little momentum within the district to make the administration building available for sale, in part because the complex includes the warehouse and the central kitchen that makes all school meals for the district.

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