Advice on Portland, Oregon public schools?
My family is considering a move from Berkeley to Portland (for work reasons only), and my chief concern is the public school situation. We love, love, love our school here (Rosa Parks) - my older son is currently in first grade there, and my younger would be starting kindergarten next year. What is important to us: small class size (under 24); real diversity (racial, ethnic, socio-economic); well-treated, well organized corps of teachers; intentional academic program that takes into consideration child development; institutional commitment to social justice, and gender and racial equity education. Am I dreaming that we can find this in Portland? I would really appreciate any advice on school districts/zones/process, as this would likely guide where we would look to live. Thanks so much!
Parent Replies
My cousin's son goes to Sunnyside Environmental School (K-8) in the Sunnyside/Hawthorne neighborhood east of the river. They love the school, and based on what they told me, it sounds pretty amazing. They moved to Portland from Brooklyn in early 2016. Jack had to start in the middle of second grade, but he immediately took to the school. Although he was in advanced placement classes in Brooklyn, he did not enjoy school. Right after starting at Sunnyside, he was excited to go to school, made friends and found community. We don't live there, so I can't say for sure, but there is a good chance it has most if not all of the qualities you seek. Families actually move to that neighborhood specifically for the school. They have student gardens, chickens, etc. The "Back-to-School" night is actually the Riparian Festival at which the students give presentations to the families. Last year, one of the classes gave a presentation on how development along the Willamette River affected the salmon population and local indigenous tribes. I wasn't there so I'm summarizing second-hand, but it sounded pretty awesome. I would definitely put it on your list.
We moved from Berkeley to Portland for two years and then back to Berkeley. There's a lot I can say here so I'll try to sum it up. First, Portland is not an ethnically diverse city, and it is socio-economically segregated, so often the most diverse schools are the poorest and have the worst ratings. Neighborhood matters a lot - if you're in a good neighborhood with good schools, chances are almost all the kids are caucasian. We applied to a bunch of charter schools when we got there, but they are notoriously difficult to get into. The class size at our neighborhood school, rated a "9" was 31 kids in 1st grade, with no aide. They had so little space that kids had to rotate from different stations since there weren't enough desks. It felt like a crisis. Also lead in the pipes, bottled water, huge expense to fix. Public education is horribly underfunded in Oregon because of property tax limits and no sales tax. Because we had Bay Area money, we could actually afford private school there, so we picked The International School - it was ironically more diverse than our Portland neighborhood school, probably as diverse as my son's public school in Berkeley. If you can afford it, it's great (although I hated the location, right next to the freeway). You might look into Southwest Charter, it's kind of off the radar. A lot of the charters have big drawbacks with location and amenities because they're underfunded. There's a Montessori one we looked at that seemed good. It's a lot of research to do - definitely check out the charters, and check out the private schools if you can swing it. If you're willing to compromise about diversity and you live in the right boundary, the schools are good - if you're not in the right neighborhood they are not so good. Greatschools is a good online resource for ratings and reviews.Good luck!