Portland Public Schools

February 2023

PPS’ operational team considered several sites to be the new location for Tubman, but none were viable. KairosPDX recognized the need for an appropriate new home for Tubman and reached out to PPS to explore a partnership. KairosPDX, an educational nonprofit with a PPS-approved public charter school, holds a long-term lease in PPS’s former Humboldt building.  

This partnership enables Portland Public Schools to study the possibility of the site KairosPDX currently sits on as well as the Jefferson High School South Lot. PPS and KairosPDX are committed to eliminating prolific racial achievement and opportunity gaps and will work with the community to explore location options.

Accordingly, our goal is to ensure the community is involved at every step of the process. When we collaborate and share ideas and dreams, everyone has a chance to shape our vision for Black student excellence.

Due Diligence 5 

2021

In the fall of 2021, the operational side of PPS was instructed by the PPS Facilities and Operations Committee to begin a process to study viable sites for the future Harriet Tubman Middle School in response to the Oregon Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) decision to expand I-5.

Resolution 6354 Protecting PPS Students, Staff, and Communities in Oregon Department of Transportation’s I-5 Rose Quarter Project

Due Diligence 1 | Due Diligence 2
Due Diligence 3 | Due Diligence 4

2016

Air quality at Tubman resurfaces as a concern as city and state regulators investigate pollution concerns due to toxic air emissions from a nearby glass manufacturer.

2009

Tubman's air quality is studied for the first time as the Environmental Protection Agency places air monitors nearby. The Harriet Tubman Young Women's Academy, a magnet program, begins operations at the site.

1980

To replace the busing program, the Portland School Board establishes plans to establish desegregated schools throughout Portland. Under the plan, Harriet Tubman Middle School would be located at the Eliot Childhood Education Center, near Memorial Coliseum. Locating Tubman Middle School at the Eliot Center site would allow the last K-8 school within the black community, Boise Elementary School, to remain open.

1969

The Model Cities Program, funded by the federal government, is implemented in Lower Albina to revitalize the area, with mixed success. Albina Art Center and Albina Corporation are formed to create jobs and enrich cultural life in the neighborhood.

1960s

Portland Public Schools initiates busing programs, and the impact of busing falls mostly on Black families who see their children going to school in other neighborhoods. However, there is no corresponding effort to see that Black students thrive in other schools or that their test scores improve. Busing systematically lowered enrollment numbers at schools in Black communities – leading school leaders to justify closing these schools.