Portland Public Schools is committed to (re)building trust within the broader Portland community and fostering student leadership to support a sustained, collective effort needed to create district-wide policies & protocols. We seek to provide a multitude of engagement opportunities to nurture growth and success of every student across the district. 

Within the Office of Strategic Partnerships & Engagement, engagement is a strategy to listen to, learn from, and involve our key stakeholders in district decision-making and policy change to accelerate the elimination of the achievement gap. 

This team plays a critical role in cross-functional capacity building to;

• maximize the racial identity development of graduates,
• prepare them to lead a more socially just world by partnering effectively with school leaders, families, community organizations, faith-based institutions, business, and civic leaders as key collaborators.

We believe capacity-building and movement-building practice helps PPS engagement result in systems shifts that benefit racially diverse communities.

We believe strongly in the value of stakeholders having the right to make decisions in service of students, especially those who are directly impacted. 

We believe that diverse communities have the cognition and insight that helps improve district systems, and our ability to be responsive to the needs of every student. 

We believe cross-functional engagement approaches should involve multiple groups and people:

• Who carry out the work, i.e. school-building staff, advisory councils, and/or unions
• Who make decisions about the work, i.e. departmental staff, or leadership
• Who are disproportionately impacted by a decision about the work