Its no secret that lower income neighborhood schools usually do not get a fair shake with teachers, supplies, and building structure.

Karol....I have trouble buying into the idea that schools in lower income neighborhoods get less when it comes to supplies or facilities.

What they do get shorted on is experienced teachers. The union contract allows the teachers with seniority to pick the areas of town they want to teach in, rather than be assigned by the administration. Unless the contract is changed, that inequity will continue.

<h1></h1>

It gives me a good feeling to see this post. This is electrifying, with its context more than its content, which is already nourishing. Big up.

Some thoughts arrived in the energies stirring to life for school funding. Unexpectedly, I can be short:

1. The increased (and increasing) cost for schooling our K-12 children obviously results from television, watching, too much, graduating illiterate, acting out in social misbehaviors imitated from television.

An extensive documented argument 'proves' that Thought 1. The consensus of informed views upholds it. The dispute with it tends to appear as a pre-existing condition, that is, someone predetermined to disagree disregards whatever argument and 'proof' is or could be offered.

1. Tax television and radio advertising -- say, a 10% surcharge on broadcasting station sales of commercial airtime, a tax the advertising buyer pays -- and appropriate the new tax revenue to 'Schooling Repair Funds' helping pay for the corrective processes which recover children's thinking and minds from the damages of broadcast contamination.

Thought 2. is also obvious. In brief.

<h1></h1>

By all means....tax something, anything, maybe everything.....to make up for the failures of the parents of all the under performing brats.

How about....if a child does not satisfactorily complete each year of school with acceptable test scores, grades, and attendance....then that child's parents lose teh right to claim that child on their federal and state tax returns for that particular year. The feds and the state would then forward the money forfeited by the parent for crummy parenting back to the childs school district to fund remedial programs aimed at the darling little social misfits. There should be a steep price for lazy ineffective parenting.

Just a thought.

Charlie G. The filing deadline for legislature isn't until next month. Why not channel that anger into a legislative campaign. Or work on a legislative campaign. More productive than spewing anger here.

Thanks for your thoughts, Karol. I enjoy reading your posts.

I'm a PPS teacher who has taught in every quadrant over the past ten years.

North Portland has at least two very good elementary schools: Astor and Chief Joseph. Families who are connected to their child's success in school is the main factor in any school. If teachers like the school and the kids and the principal they usually don't mind working long long hours even though they would still make the same money as the teachers up at Forest Heights at 105% benchmark or so.

It's been said before that schools are like a three-legged stool -- the kid, the family and the teacher. You need all three to be successful.

Why did Whitaker fail? I taught there, so I'll take some blame, I guess. The five principals in the last five or six years there take the hit too. But, I do remember many PTA meetings where we not only did not have enough people for a meeting, we didn't have enough people to play a game of bridge.

BTW, I have run into THREE former Whitaker kids this week. One is a wrestling champ on his way to scholarships, the other is heading east college to be a psychologist and the last is at Lincoln working hard after school at my favorite Greek restaurant. What do they have in common? They worked HARD... very very hard in school.

Opa!

LT!!!! Yesterday I signed up to do all I can for Ben Westlund! It's going to be a busy election season!

No real anger here....I'm just tired of the teachers, politicians, and taxpayers all being blamed by one faction or another for lil Johnny and Suzy Q's bad performance and citizenship....while the bad parenting (across ALL socio-economic levels) is all but ignored.

Thanks for the advice anyway dear! GO BEN!

Ran into them during the school day at Nordstroms, did you Sid??

The school district says it's inappropriate for staff to be blogging during work hours, unless on scheduled breaks and regardless of the educator's placement.

BACK TO WORK, SID!!!!

Respectfully yours,

Carol Mattorazzo's Aura

The PPS contract says I have one hour duty-free during my work day to do anything I want, like hunt fat birds that can't fly with my shotgun. The contrat says I have an hour a day to do anything I want.

It is called... lunch.

Chow, baby, chow.

A good question Kari. I saw the list of those invited by Potter to his "summit" yesterday. There are several on the list that had me shaking my head and some of the omissions were a bit troubling.

Two key groups that atleast on the surface looked under represented:

   Residents with no school age children which comprise 70% 
   of all households in the area.

   East county business representation was also pretty limited.
   That seems a bit short sighted.

I also believe that the neighborhood school's PTA organizations should begin reaching out to non-parent citizens in their neighborhoods to participate. Non-parent households are all but ignored by both the schools and the PTA.....atleast until we want their tax money.

Leslie is right - the disparity between schools in poor vs middle of the road vs wealthy neighborhoods isn't caused by actual school funding; it's caused by the ability of the parents to contribute be it financially or on a volunteer level.

I volunteer with a group that is helping a low-income school become more efficient in a number of ways (parental involvement, fundraising, etc - not classroom help). I don't have children and I live in a comfortable neighborhood with lots of parental involvement and a healthy dose of auctions, etc to help fund various things for the students and teachers. I grew up in a neighborhood where this was common. My introduction to the problems this low-income school faced was shocking. I simply had no idea. Yes, I know that PPS is in dire straits and I know there were differences between various schools in the district but I didn't understand WHY.

The school that I volunteer for has a disportionate number of ESL students from MANY cultures. This brings problems that many of us are unaware. We know parental involvement is good but when a student's parent(s) cannot speak the language, they frequently feel uncomfortable or are clueless how to interact with the student (school-wise) or the school. There are ways that we can address this but too often, we don't due to lack of time or money. When a principal or teacher is stretched to the limit with a too-full class, and can't speak the language, how does they reach out to that parent? A teacher or principal sends a note home. Parent is unable to read it due to a language barrier. Again, parent is left out and student suffers for it. I could go on. We know what happens when too many parents aren't involved: Grades, delinquency, behavioral issues, learning curves, etc, not for all kids but definitely some. One kid with behavioral problems creates problems for all the kids in his/her class.

Then you have the plethora of fundraisers (whether it be cookie sales or auctions) that schools in my neighborhood has. You buy some cookies, parents go to the auction, things aren't great but you can do it. You have parents that know how to organize, know how to go into the business community and ask for donations, etc. In a very poor neighborhood, who do the parents ask? When you are watering down your powdered milk, do you spare the $5 to buy the candy bar? Even if your school has an auction (with items donated by contacts you don't have), how do you buy that weekend beach trip on minimum wage? If you're working 2 jobs to put food on the table, when do you find the time to fundraise for auction items no one can afford anyway?

Everyone in the community can get involved, no matter your profession, your talents, etc. A few weeks ago there was an article about some professional organizers that helped a school get organized. Not your typical thought about volunteering but it was very helpful. In the group that I work with, there is an architect firm that is helping us design a new, more welcoming entryway that we're hoping we can raise funds for (a process we plan to teach to the parents). During a brainstrom session, one teacher walked away with new possibilities of reaching the parents of his Hispanic students and possibly securing some multi-lingual volunteers from the Hispanic community.

These things aren't rocket science but when you're overstretched and you're running from one crisis to the next, you don't have the time or energy to think of new ways to reach parents, raise funds or improve your school. If each school had a community think tank, made up of business leaders, parents, teachers, a few retirees perhaps, we could help these schools breathe in new energy and new ideas to make their school a better place.

We're just getting started with "my" school and things are already looking brighter.

Those of us who are childless can't afford to leave this to the parents in the community; it belongs to all of us. One day, the kids in the neighborhood might be our own or the smart kid who never learned to read and dropped out might be breaking into our home. I hate taxes, I really do. But we simply can't afford to ignore this problem. We either pay the bill now or we pay a larger one later.

Seeing as it's quitting time, I'd like to thank "k" for a very thoughtful post on why schools in some neighborhoods do better than those in others. I'd also like to thank "k" and all PPS volunteers for helping out. God knows we need it.

As for Karol's original post on how much money NE schools get versus SW schools, I know this.

Whitaker got a ton of federal desegregation money and some more NCLB money. That meant smaller classes. My math kids went up 50% on their test scores, but that was not enough since they were all three-five grades behind.

The NCLB money included free tutors for anyone at a "priority school" that signed up, but guess what?

Only 10 percent of the families (nationwide) who qualify for tutors actually sign up. They know about it, but pass for whatever reason. Our percentage at Whitaker was a bit higher, but not much.

As has been reported, the federal deseg money is gone and the hard times are really here after fifteen years of slashed budgets, dashed arts classes, meetings, committees, sub-committees and reports. Oh the reports!

I can tell you what the NEW report will say right now: more money, please.

Because if money didn't matter in schools, Harvard would cost $5,000 a year, not $50,000.

Sid's right. Low socio economic schools benefit from a wide range of additional allocations, not the least of which are SES and Title I (federal) resources.

Low SES programs maintain the lowest student to staff ratios, and rightly so. It will take a modification to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, which expires June 30, 2006, to effect changes in staffing allocation methodologies for senior/"tenured" staff.

While the desegregation resource legislation was allowed to sunset on June 30, 2005, we must recall that the district bargained for this.. and received a higher possible local option cap in return. A difficult conversation, in not many words.

Not a large number of high SES programs benefit appreciably from "major" non-district based resources like Schools Foundation or corporate support. It's the mushy middle that merely slogs along.

For a good review of staffing allocation resource patterns, across the PPS district, please go to the following link, click on the 2005-2006 PPS District budget link and proceed to pages 35 to 38 of the .pdf file.

http://159.191.14.138/.docs/_sid/4117c86fbb9742bbf12d09aa87c19e1c/pg/6361

-Tony

Thanks to Tony for his post.

I forgot a good school in North Portland called Clarendon. It has some fine teachers and staff doing wonderful things with a creative, multicultural group of young people. Two of the teachers, Kevin and Donna, mounted an original opera last year, with a big downtown premiere, as I remember, and they are doing the same thing this year. Good luck to them.

I worked at Clarendon many years ago and enjoyed it. I also did long-term stints as a substitute at Chief Joseph and Astor and was very impressed with both.

There are many positive things happening all over North Portland schools, like all the quadrants, you just have to go looking for it.

We get a lot of info, correct or otherwise comparing salaries, healthcare benefits, etc., but we never hear, or read in the press anything about the overhead cost. How do the schools in Portland compare when it comes to cost for items such as utilities? Because many of the buildings are older does PPS have higher gas and electricity cost? How about for phone and computer services? Are the taxpayers getting the best deal possible there? Any and all comment will be appreciated. Thanks, M.

Michael, I don't know specifics on the district's utilities or phone/computer costs but their building support costs as a share of the budget are in line with Beaverton's, and Beaverton generally has newer buildings/infrastructure.

You can get lots of PPS budget/spending info at: http://159.191.14.139/.docs/pg/10311

It is true that PPS has a big backlog of maintenance and capital building improvements, like furnace upgrades etc. Why? because they have been cutting their maintenance/building budget rather than in the classroom over the last several years, to keep the classroom as intact as possible. Also, the 10 year (I think) capital bond expired last year along with the local option (everyone noticed their property tax bill went DOWN last fall, right?).

Our beautiful, historic neighborhood school buildings do need more money to keep them in great shape. It's all part of the investment that a great public school system requires. A great public school system with quality schools in every neighborhood.

As for Madam Peppler--outrageous. She has a lot of nerve with her company paying $10 a year in corporate taxes (and she herself likely enjoying Bush's rich people's tax cut) coming to the summit and saying we need to treat our schools like call centers.

For one thing, it doesn't even add up--you don't save much more than the cost of a principal and secretary's salary when you close a school (not even factoring in the loss of revenue due to families leaving the district, increased busing costs, increased traffic/congestion, health impact of kids no longer getting daily exercise walking to school, etc.). We could close dozens of schools and still not come close to closing the $57 million budget gap for PPS. Peppler is full of it.

If PPS didn't fire most of its building maintenance department to save money back in the day, radon and mold would not have been allowed to mushroom to a point it has poisoned the entire Whitaker MS site.

The radon and mold also made the kids and teachers who worked there sick for years and did not help test scores, for sure. Hard to take a state standardized test when your head is throbbing from the mold and radon under your feet.

PPS is currently paying a million dollars or so to keep Whitaker more or less a dump, according to a graphic front page story in the Portland Tribune.

So, now you know what happens when budgets get cut. Bad things.

Whoa, Sid!

PPS is not paying a million dollars or so to keep Whitaker a dump. The annual costs of security and maintenance are just over $100,000. It will cost about $1.8 milllion to demolish the buidling. Current plan is to sell a portion of the property for housing and t use the proceeds towards cost of a new school on that site, along with some of the funds fromt he Washington HS site.

Sid has a very strong point about things that happen when budgets get cut, voters. This is very important to pay attention to. Complain all you want in years to come about cuts made now, but remember that we had some control (if only a little) through our elections.

Yah yah... WHOAAAAAAA SID !!

David's right on... so kill that extra zero. :)

Facilities is running lean and mean..errrr... forever optimistic !! Duel firing boilers, smart contracting, energy audits and deep relationships with our partners in industry means that the Facilities and Asset Management Department remains cognizant of remedying past issues with an eye on positioning the district for future successes.

Those who haven't reviewed Portland Public Schools 2002 Health and Safety Handbook, can do so at:

http://www.pps.k12.or.us/depts-c/fam/ehs_handbook.pdf

For those wanting to play "compare and contrast", amongst major funds and function codes... please go to this site (ODE):

http://www.ode.state.or.us/sfda/reportfundingbudget.htm

Then click on "Budgeted Expenditures and Functions" ('bout 7th item in the lineup), highlight the 2005-2006 School Year, click the "Submit Query" right next to the school year choice, highlight your choice of school district in the top box and highlight "no ESDs" in the bottom box,... then click on the "View Report" sunglasses in the top right of the page...

OK.. Most folks just want the rough analysis from 7,000-10,000 feet,.. so Technology Services was mentioned.. that is Function Code 2660. You will find this function code in the General Fund Series (100) and the Special Revenue Fund Series (200), under "Support Services". From here, you can ascertain the "General Fund Total" or the "All Funds Total" (make sure your desired code doesn't also show up in other funds, and if it does add it in there to get to the All Funds number...)..

Next.. Find your desired district's student population (ADMr).. please make sure you are comparing 2005-2006 enrollments to 2005-2006 budget numbers.. Call your district's administrative hotline for 2005-2006. This tends to be right at the tip of their tongues and easy easy easy.. For earlier years, you might want to look at the School Profiles pages for ODE:

http://www.ode.state.or.us/sfda/reportprofiles.htm

The state's "Big Five" districts are currently: Portland, Salem-Keizer, Beaverton, Hillsboro and Eugene.

Divide your budget total(s) by your AMDr figure(s) to get ONE form of basic level for analysis.

REMEMBER: This is your 10,000 foot level of analysis.. from here other questions are formed. No "AHA!!" moments allowed...

What kind of student populations are being served? High cost equipment required under regulation, statute or court order for low population, high needs, students? Did a capital bond entering into force, is in force or recently expired? What is the typical replacement cycle for the type of equipment being used? Does education use, by way of wear and tear, differ appreciably from enterprise or personal use? How many people "touch" the equipment? How does material cycle through the target population? Community access to tech infrastructure? What is the effect of technology on a district's human resources? What benchmarks for professional development exist? Where are we? Impact on curriculum, or perhaps better,.. what is the impact of curriculum on our technology choices? What are the standards applied by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools??..etc.,..

THEN we're in a position to get REALLY geeky... :)

-Tony

Hmmmmmm.....Mr Wynde....the PPS board is actually planning on building one or more new schools? With enrollment on a steady decline I guess that's a bit of a surprise. Hopefully means you intend to close a couple of schools and sell that property?

With PPS enrollment destined to drop below 40,000 students and unlikely to ever go back above that, the board is looking five years out at the likely properties that can be sold off. Even with the current enrollment of 46,800, the size of PPS facilities inventory is well beyond reason.

Charlie

PPS enrollment is forecast to level off at around 45,000 by the end of the decade. As to school closures and property sales, we have done both in the past several years. My expectation is that we will continue to look at the current buildings and try to ensure that we have the right buidlings in place to meet the needs of kids in every corner of the district. Right now the average age of PPS school buildings is 65 years; long-term we may need to do some replacements if we can pass a capital bond to do so.

Karol, Thanks for asking what we can do to support our public schools in order to protect our youth and our neighborhoods. I think one thing we can do is to lobby for statewide corporate tax reform. The burden of Oregon income taxes and property taxes has shifted from corporations to individuals over the past few decades. Oregon now has among the lowest corporate taxes in the country, and our schools and other public services are suffering because of it.

Kari, I think we SHOULD be listening to what corporate executives like Judy Peppler of Qwest/PBA are saying because, although many don't want to pay their fair share of taxes to adequately fund public schools, corporations and business interests are heavily involved in determining the future direction of our school district.

Here's a quote from the Gates Foundation grant that was awarded this fall to PPS and the Portland Schools Foundation, titled "The Secondary Level Transformation Initiative": "Upon selection of the management firm, the transformation process will be led by the Superintendent with advice from a steering comittee, which she will chair, with membership including the Schools Foundation and select business leaders. A working team including the School District's Chief Operating Officer, Chief HR Officer and Broad Fellows will lead the transformation internally. In addition, the Portland Schools Foundation has established an advisory group of business leaders who will provide guidance and counsel throughout the process." pg. 10

Since Judy was a co-chair of the School Efficiency and Quality Advisory Council (http://www.seacinfo.org/), I wonder if she will be included among those "select business leaders" who will be involved in transforming PPS. I hope not.

I agree PPS has taken back control of the buildings and their upkeep after years of neglect due to slashed budgets. The Portland Tribune put the figure at $900,000+ after this next year, so I was off a bit. Sorry.

To Karol and anyone interested: I have presented my future plan to replace Whitaker to the super and the board: a new technology magnet middle school that has two ladders -- industrial arts (the shops) and high tech (computers and video). Students would pick a major field of study but could take classes across the curriculum to limit "tracking". The new school would have a theatre, double gyms, a weight room and an indoor swimming pool so all the facilities would be used as a neighborhood community center nights and weekends.

A principal told me The Oregon Symphony once handed PPS a check for a million dollars if they could use the new Whitaker auditorium and practice rooms at night and weekends. That means there is corporate money out there. Some plans even called for a few retail shops which would make sense if... BESC and the warehouse and food services are also moved to a new "tower" built next door to the new school. The Whitaker site is very easy to get to with access from I-84, Columbia Boulevard and 33rd avenue. There are shops and the Kennedy Theatre and New Seasons right down the street. It makes economic sense, since you could build a new MS and BESC tower and warehouse for $20 million or so, which is a fraction of the pile PPS will collect when they sell the big orange elephant called headquarters.

And best of all, the middle school students could team up with BESC workers for internships, job partnerships and even mentorships. Plus, there would be a brand new community center for a neighborhood that has none.

That's my idea.

"Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in."

Abraham Lincoln First Political Announcement March 9, 1832

Sid:

According to Article 19 A. 6 of your PAT contract "unit members who work two-thirds (2/3) or more shall have a minimum 30 continuopus minutes of duty free lunch. Do you have a special deal for 60 minutes.

Teachers have already negotiated they only have to work a 7.5 hour day and 190 day work year (and get paid 50,000+ plus 12 months of premimum insurance).

Blogging during instructional time, working a 7.5 hour day, don't have to attend evening meetings. . .maybe you can understand why taxpayers who have to work at least 8 hours a day, have 2 weeks of vacation a year, and would get fired for spending as much time as you do on the net aren't too excited about paying more money to subsidize this lifetyle.

This is for the anonymous coward (what would the web be without you!) above:

I get 60 minutes lunch minus 20 for duty giving me 40 to do what I please, girly.

See the morning paper?

The rest of Portland did.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/renee_mitchell/index.ssf?/base/news/1140575136271810.xml&coll=7

<h2>Now back to work for you. There's a cleanup on Aisle 5.</h2>