PPS wants to move Winterhaven away from the kids

Last month Portland Public Schools superintendent Vicki Phillips put forth a proposal to move Winterhaven from the Brooklyn school to the Clark school. Brooklyn has a capacity of 400 kids, and Clark has a capacity of 575, so she sees this as a win/win solution where Winterhaven can grow, and PPS gets to make a large school building with a declining student population more efficient. Unfortunately it's not a clear win for anyone.

Among other things, a key problem is that 1/3 of the students live near Winterhaven, and not one student lives in the Clark zip code. While Dr. Phillips says she wants geographic equality, Clark is on the furthest east edge of PPS's boundary. The Sellwood Bee has an article about this with the sub-headling: "Brooklyn's School could move away from its students."

The Oregonian has also covered this issue, one article being sympathetic ("Parents of magnet schools' kids mystified by siting proposals"), the other somewhat less ("Angry Winterhaven parents ready to vote with their feet").

In addition to the geography, there are other problems with the move. Winterhaven just finished paying for a high-school quality science lab which was funded by PTSA money over the past 6 or so years. Also Winterhaven middle schoolers have a life sciences program where they travel to Oaks Bottom.

The strangest thing about this is that Creative Science School, which is located much closer to Clark, wants to move into the Clark facility. "The recommendation caught parents of Creative Science students by surprise. Long promised their own building, many parents feel betrayed that Phillips didn't opt to move their school to Clark."

Other problems with the move:
According to PPS the Clark and Winterhaven buildings are almost equivalent in terms of the state of facilities:

• Neither of them are fully ADA accessible.
• Both need boiler conversion
• Both have had seismic improvements (most recently Winterhaven)
• Both have the same water system
• Clark needs a new roof: “This facility is one of 38 facilities identified as needing roofing replacement in the near future. Portions of the roof are in poor condition.”

• Winterhaven has $982,000 of capital spending needs
• Clark has $1,355,000 of capital spending needs
• So Clark actually needs almost $400,000 more work!
• Also, according to this same document, Clark will need a new roof in a couple years, while Winterhaven/Brooklyn’s can last for longer.
• Clark also needs paint, and interior work.
• Clark also just costs more to operate: $167,700 / year compared to $155,000 for Winterhaven.
• Clark’s 2005 budget: $2,408,936.
• Winterhaven’s 2005 budget: $1,489,520

If you want to write a letter to the PPS board, their committee is going to decide whether to vote on the recommendation next Monday (Jan 8th). If they decide to continue with the recommendation, there will be a vote on January 22nd.