Fellow Portlanders, 

In late August, the PPS Superintendent announced plans to close as many as twenty schools. In late September, the Oregon Secretary of State referred a contract between PPS and a contractor to the Oregon Department of Justice and Oregon Government Ethics Commission for criminal and ethics investigations. 

We are writing to ask for partnership and solidarity as fellow Portland residents, parents/guardians, neighbors, and friends on behalf of every child in our city. As our district moves ahead with decisions regarding school closures (branded as “rightsizing”), we are asking each and every school community to join us in formally requesting that the Board of Education pause this entire process until all Portland citizens have transparent and detailed information regarding the pending investigations. 

School closures are not a new phenomenon. Thankfully, there are examples of districts who faced similar circumstances in the last two decades and a deep trove of data available to inform thought-through decisions made with vision and integrity to ensure our city and its schools thrive for generations to come. Unfortunately, PPS is rushing through this process, apparently intends to move forward at breakneck speed despite the Secretary of State raising serious concerns about criminal and ethics violations, and has failed to answer basic questions such as whether closing schools will actually address the problems it is proposed to resolve. PPS leadership and the Board are looking at closing up to as much as 25% of our school buildings. This decision has the potential to impact our city politically, fiscally, socially, etc. for decades to come. These are huge decisions and as citizens we must have trust in the people making them. How can we trust the Superintendent and the PPS Board while these investigations are still pending? How can we continue to fund bonds and trust PPS to be a steward of our taxpayer dollars?

Stand with us in declaring that we are unwilling to engage in school closure discussions until the pending DOJ and Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigations are resolved. 

We understand that any process involving boundary changes or school closures can be difficult, ugly even, and that the scarcity we face oftentimes turns school communities against each other as we fight for scraps. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Join us in demanding better from our Board. Our children and our communities deserve leadership that does its due diligence, transparently shares the relevant data behind its decisions, and who are not being investigated for ethical and criminal violations. The PPS Board needs to pause this process until it can live up to those expectations. 

During this pause, we are asking PPS to publicly provide the school-by-school data and analysis underlying its recommendations — including projected net savings, enrollment and capacity, facilities conditions, transportation and equity impacts, and the employees, departments, consultants or contractors involved in producing or reviewing that analysis. We also ask for independent review of whether any matters involved in the pending PROCEDEO investigations intersect with the information or facilities analysis being relied upon in the rightsizing process.

Today we are asking that you join us in requesting a pause. Before we are subject to hasty “rightsizing” decisions we need something entirely different and we need this first: honesty, transparency, and literal receipts. We are asking that you SIGN THIS PETITION! Please continue to write to the board, district leaders, talk to your neighbors, talk to school families, come to the board meeting on 10/6 and stand with us as we fight for the future that all our children and city deserve.

Please join with us and demand transparency, and that all school closure decisions cease entirely until the public has been made aware of the audit and subsequent civil and criminal referrals to the DOJ. 

Thank you.