Abby Sewell

On Jan. 23, 2006, the Portland School Board voted to implement sweeping changes for Jefferson High School and its feeder middle schools. While the changes are intended to reverse trends of low enrollment and low standardized test scores at the high school, some aspects of the plan have drawn cries of racism, as well as charges that the community’s wishes were not considered in the planning process.

Two especially controversial pieces in the school board’s initial proposal were the imposition of a uniform code, which does not exist in any other public school in Portland, and also the decision to create two single-sex academies within the school. The fact that these changes are only being proposed at Jefferson, which is the only high school in Portland with a majority African-American student body, led many people to call the proposal racist.

After massive student and parent outcry, the uniform requirement was dropped from the final plan, but the single sex academies and several other problematic piecesremain.

Over the course of the next three years, Harriet Tubman middle school will be converted into a girls’ leadership academy for grades 7-12. Jefferson High School will be divided into three schools: a boys’ leadership academy and two co-ed schools for grades 9-12, specializing in arts and science respectively. Several area elementary schools will be reconfigured to house grades K-8.

Nicole Breedlove, parent of a preschool age child in the Jefferson attendance area, is a member of the Neighborhood Schools Alliance (NSA), a group of parents who formed about a year ago to oppose school closures. She is disturbed that the school board is using low standardized test scores as a reason to embark on a costly experiment at Jefferson.

“Test scores at Jefferson aren’t what they should be, but that is largely because the students who enter Jefferson are already way behind,” she said. “In the last few years, Jefferson has actually done a better job of increasing test scores than the rest of the district.”

From 2003 to 2005, Jefferson students showed overall gains in mathematics test scores of 4.7 percent, while the district as a whole showed gains of 1.6 percent. In reading scores, Jefferson gained by 4.8 percent, while the district as a whole gained by 3.9 percent. And last year, out of a graduating class of less than 150 students, 31 received major college scholarships.

At a public hearing held Jan. 17, more than thirty students, alumni, parents, and teachers commented on the proposed changes. Opinions about the move to K-8 education were mixed, and many people spoke in favor of the idea of creating smaller academies within the school, with specific focuses; however, the students present were overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of uniforms and same-sex academies.

Joyce Nicholas, who graduated from Jefferson in 2003, told the school board that the real problems in the Jefferson cluster stem from poverty and family issues. She said that the proposed changes will simply lead to more students transferring away from Jefferson and will set the school up to be closed down for lack of enrollment. She suggested that Portland Community College is waiting for Jefferson to close down so it can buy the property to expand its own facilities.

Stefanie Goldbloom, a Jefferson teacher, agreed that the school needs more funding for social services and support services. She added that another reorganization would be disruptive for the students, and that Jefferson lost 20 teachers last year and class sizes nearly doubled.

Many people also pointed out that Jefferson was already divided into two smaller academies the last time the school was reorganized: the School of Pride for grades 9 and 10, and the School of Champions for grades 11 and 12. The academies were created just last year.

The NSA submitted a statement to the school board prior to its vote on the redesign proposal, saying, “[With the creation of the School of Pride and School of Champions] test scores were increasing, staff and students were engaged, and there was positive momentum. Abandoning this effort and starting all over again-with four separate, vertically organized schools spread over two campuses-will be very costly and makes little sense.”

The NSA suggested that, instead of entirely rearranging Jefferson again, the school board should focus on strengthening the existing academies, adding more courses and extracurricular activities.

Glenda Walker-Simmons, president of the Jefferson Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) is an alumni of the high school herself and has two children who have graduated. She also sat on the Jefferson Redesign Team, whose members were chosen by Superintendent Vicki Phillips.

Walker-Simmons believes that what the school needs is not a total reorganization but a strengthening of its existing programs.

“Jefferson desperately needs a computer technology and AP science program, as well as additional college preparatory arts programs, like music, band, and drama,” she said.

She and other PTSA members have also questioned the process by which the redesign plan was created. At the Jan. 23 school board meeting, the PTSA submitted a demand that the vote on the redesign proposal be postponed until residents of the area could be surveyed for their opinions on the proposed changes.

A questionnaire to be distributed around the neighborhood was supposed to have been a part of the design process, but it was never carried out.

Walker-Simmons stood before the school board and said, “This process was dishonest and orchestrated, with predetermined outcomes. The families were never asked what they thought until after the decisions were made.”

She believes that Superintendent Phillips had already made her decision about Jefferson’s fate before the design team was created and long before any proposal was submitted to the school board.

In September 2005, before the design team had made any recommendations, Portland Public Schools, along with the Portland Schools Foundation, had submitted a grant application to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, saying, “Whatever the configuration, it is anticipated that Jefferson will become a campus of vertical small schools.” The application spoke of Jefferson as a “pilot school” for a new model of teaching, which would include small, single sex academies and the elimination of the traditional middle school/high school division.

The NSA and PTSA also have charged that nearly all members of the design team were current or past Portland Public School employees or worked with organizations who have contracts with the school district, and therefore were predisposed to follow the superintendent’s wishes.

Now that the school board has voted in favor of the changes, Superintendent Phillips will be selecting an implementation team to begin applying them. The implementation process will be phased in over the next three years.

Abby Sewell is a local freelance writer and former Alliance intern.