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Overview
Portland Public Schools has launched a multi-year process to develop a plan to balance student enrollment and programs across our district, which serves nearly 50,000 students in 81 schools. Enrollment and Program Balancing uses both a data-driven analysis process and community input to address needs such as equity and inclusion, transportation, facilities constraints, and much more.
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Why is PPS facilitating an enrollment balancing process?
- To help support the eventual redesign of PPS Middle School programs that includes reconfiguration of identified K-8 neighborhood schools to K-5 elementary schools and 6-8 new comprehensive middle schools while maintaining regional K-8 school options to support program pathway continuity (for example: IB PYP to MYP and dual immersion language pathways).
- Optimize use of facilities at PK-12 to address under-enrollment and over enrollment, and to begin phasing out portable classrooms when possible to create connected, safer schools.
- Minimize program co-locations of facilities between co-located programs and neighborhood schools at K-5, K-8 and 6-8 schools.
March 2020 Update: Community members invited to apply for Guiding Coalition
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With work about to start in Portland Public Schools’ effort to balance our boundaries and programs, we are seeking community members to serve on a committee to help guide the project in Southeast Portland – the first phase of the district-wide effort.
Family and community members with ties to our Southeast Portland schools are invited to apply for the Guiding Coalition that will review draft proposals, consider community input and make recommendations for new boundaries, school feeder patterns and special program locations.
Apply for Guiding Coalition
Selected members will be asked to be available for meetings, open houses and other gatherings on Thursdays, from 6 to 8 p.m., through November 2020. The coalition will meet from April to June, then September to November, at locations in Southeast Portland. Childcare and interpreters will be available.
The application window, which opened Tuesday, March 3, will close March 17. Applicants will be notified if they are selected by March 20. The first Guiding Coalition meeting will be held on Thursday, April 2.
Enrollment and program balancing work will begin in Southeast Portland with a focus on setting attendance boundaries for the newly modernized Kellogg Middle School, which will open the fall of 2021. The final decision on boundaries and feeder patterns for Southeast schools will be made by the Board of Education in winter 2021, with changes taking effect in the 2021-22 school year. Balancing work on the rest of the district will follow.
At its meeting last week, the Board advanced the process by approving, by a 7-0 vote, a scope of work that established goals and approaches for the district-wide process.
“This work has been pending for a very long time, and I think it’s going to produce more efficient use of our facilities,” Board Director Rita Moore said at the meeting. “And that means we’re going to be able to provide better learning environments for all of our students.”
FLO Analytics, the contractor working with the district on the project, is conducting a district-wide analysis that will be released later this month.
Previous Updates
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February 2020 Update: Board passes scope of work
At its Feb. 25 meeting, the PPS Board of Education unanimously passed a scope of work for enrollment and program balancing. The Board, by a 7-0 vote, passed Resolution 6059, which accepts a proposed scope that includes information on background, reasoning, values, outcome goals, and the approach and sequence of the work.
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February 2020: Policy Revisions
As Board undertakes policy changes to guide balancing work, we need your feedback
In order to make informed decisions on enrollment and program balancing, the PPS Board of Education is undertaking revisions to three policies that will guide the work.
To help inform the revisions, the district’s Community Engagement team is collecting feedback through a questionnaire.To see a summary flyer on the changes being considered, click on the image to right.
The three policies that will be amended are (click on name to read the full policy):
- 10.045-P: “Student Assignment to Neighborhood Schools.” The policy establishes a process for assigning students to neighborhood schools, and provides consistent guidelines for changes to school boundaries.
- 10.051-P: “Student Enrollment and Transfers.” The policy intends to provide equal access to educational options for all resident students through an open, fair and accessible process and to promote equity and diversity in student transfers and admissions.
- 10.022-P: “Education Options Policy.” The policy seeks to implement goals by offering students and their families the support they need to make informed choices among a variety of educational options, and to provide consistent guidelines and procedures for educational options.
Timeline
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January 2019
- PPS Board of Education approves contract with FLO Analytics
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Spring 2019
- FLO presentation to Board of Education
- Launch Enrollment & Program Balancing Web page
- Board meetings, interviews and updates
- Initial stakeholder interviews (PPS equity, community engagement, communications staff)
- Initial data discovery
- Review historical processes
- Integrate student information and enrollment forecasting
- PPS Pulse update to community
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Summer 2019
- Refine key inputs for analysis, including information on students, programs, facilities, future enrollment, and District and Board of Education priorities
- Build communications and community engagement team, including District staff and FLO
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Fall/Winter 2019
- Continue stakeholder interviews with community organizations, school-affiliated groups, and public officials
- Establish guiding principles for Enrollment & Program Balancing
- Finalize data inputs
- Deliver draft Enrollment, Capacity and Program Analysis Report
- Update Board of Education
- Develop springboard proposals
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Early 2020
- Launch community surveys
- Workgroup design #1
