Superintendent Decides to Keep Humboldt Open

When the Portland School Board meetsThursday night, it will consider five resolutions affecting schools in North, inner Northeast and West Portland. But there's one issue that won't be up for debate: the closure of Humboldt Elementary School.

Superintendent Vicki Phillips has tabled her proposal to close Humboldt.

The school board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 4, in the Blanchard Edu-cation Service Center, 501 N. Dixon.
During a meeting Monday night, the board considered five resolutions for schools in outer Northeast and South-east Portland.

On Thursday, it will consider resolutions that:

• Call for a planning process to develop options for improving educational performance at North Portland's George Middle School and Sitton and James John elementary schools, which feed into George. A proposal,which could include reconfiguration or other measures to improve student achievement, is due to the superintendent in October.

• Begin the transition to a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade configuration for Clarendon, Astor and Peninsula elementary schools, by adding sixth grade in 2006-2007, phasing out the Portsmouth Middle School program and moving Clarendon into the Portsmouth building as a kindergarten-through-eighth grade school in the fall of 2007. The building now housing Clarendon would close.

• Transition Irvington, Laurelhurst and Sabin elementary schools to K-8 schools by adding one grade each year and phasing out the Fernwood Middle School program. Hollyrood, now a K-3, and Fernwood would merge to create a full K-8 in the 2007-08 school year, with that year's fifth- and sixth-grade students returning from Laurelhurst.

In addition, a conversation among Northeast Portland schools (including Holly-rood, Fernwood, Beaumont Middle and Alameda Elementary) would develop a plan to reassign some of the Rose City Park attendance area (the area assigned to Grant High, west of 57th Avenue) to elementary, middle or K-8 schools that feed into Grant.

Depending on the outcome of those conversations, the Hollyrood building may remain open as an annex of the Fernwood/Hollyrood K-8.

In Southwest Portland, challenge the Rieke Elementary School community to present a plan to the superintendent in October that would draw students back to the school from private schools and provide other options to create a larger and stronger school.

Establish a planning process to address overcrowding at East/West Sylvan Middle School and Lincoln High School.
The School Board plans to take up to half an hour of public testimony on each of these proposals. To sign up for public comment, call the board office at 503-916-3741 or sign up in person before the meeting begins.

To offer comments directly to school district leaders, e-mail SchoolBoard@pps. k12.or.us or Superintendent @pps.k12.or.us.

The resolutions and accompanying school closure and initiation reports are posted on the Portland Public Schools Web site, www.pps.k12.or.us/, under the "Strong and Stable Schools" link.