This document will describe the ongoing support for the initiative including maintenance of infrastructure, hiring, capacity building and retention of high quality talent, etc.

This document will describe the implications of the CBSE Vision and Comprehensive Plan on physical space, including but not limited to site improvements, modernizations, property purchases and/or new builds. Elements of this plan will also closely connect spatial implications of the Jefferson Modernization Project and site considerations for the Harriet Tubman Middle School Relocation.

This document will detail the specific elements of the CBSE along with strategies, programs and experiences that span the PK-12 learning continuum.

This document will describe the collective aspiration for what the CBSE will be, do and accomplish on behalf of Black students, staff and families.

• The design and engagement process is the community’s opportunity to shape the final plans for the Center for Black Student Excellence. Ultimately, the PPS Board of Education will decide whether or not to adopt the recommendations put forth by the community. 
  
  
• The community will have a strong and important voice. We are convening leaders from across the community to focus on what Black students and their families need. We are listening and learning. We are testing ideas – all ideas. And our goal is to bring forward a systematic, comprehensive plan of action that everyone can support.

• The Innovation Studio is an in-house problem solving accelerator tasked with building the tools, processes and infrastructure to help PPS address challenges within our system. 

• The Innovation Studio’s work is rooted in design thinking, racial equity and social justice. We are applying the design methodology to the creation of the CBSE.

• That was an idea – an exciting idea – put forward as a potential idea. We welcome the vision, but that has not yet been decided by the community. Our focus is on programs and actions that are critical, no matter the kinds of buildings we have in our community. The two capital projects are going to benefit from our input and we can shape what happens inside those schools. Though nothing has been decided, additional capital projects could materialize as a result of the CBSE plan.

• In 2020, voters approved a bond measure that would pay for a modernized Jefferson High School. Separately, the state agreed to pay to relocate HTMS because of the widening of Interstate 5 in the Rose Quarter. Each of these projects has its own core objectives, problem sets and distinct timelines. For instance, Town Halls have already been held for the Jefferson Modernization project, and initial efforts to imagine the renovated high school have begun. For HTMS, there will also be a community engagement process that will consider neighborhood impacts as well as project outcomes. Both of these major capital projects will follow plans that adhere to construction deadlines, safety and environmental rules, in addition to a pledge that what happens inside those buildings reflects the goals of equity and social justice. These two major institutions in the Albina neighborhood impact interconnected communities. Throughout this process, Portland Public Schools is committed to coordinating efforts to support Black Student Achievement – and create easy access points for the community to monitor the full spectrum of activities. 

• Unfortunately, that project is moving forward, even over any opposition. Our goal is to focus on the safety and health of students at Tubman MS – and that requires relocation of the school due to air pollution concerns. 

• Black student achievement has struggled for decades due to racism and under-investment in predominantly Black schools, forced busing, the removal of Black teachers and administrators from schools and a series of churning reforms. While this has impacted many students and neighborhoods the acute impact on the Black community has been well-documented. Racist practices that advantage white students and disadvantage students of color have been reinforced by racist cultural narratives, beliefs and norms.

• The simple truth is that in a truly equitable society, CBSE would not be necessary. The problem is that for decades, the Black community – especially Black students – have been discriminated against. Blacks were forbidden from citizenship in Oregon’s first several decades. When Blacks moved to Portland, they were blocked from housing, work and school opportunities throughout the city. Racism has shaped the opportunities Black children have – even today. So we must do specific things to combat that structural and systemic racism.

• The Jefferson modernization and Tubman relocation are two discrete, major capital projects that will follow project plans that are determined by factors that are universal – deadlines for construction must be met, safety and environmental rules will be followed, standards for school construction will be adhered to. The community engagement process for the CBSE can help ensure that these two schools are built and rebuilt in a way that reflects broad support from the Black community.  

• The history of this project is very important. For decades, Blacks in Portland have been discriminated against – formally and informally. Every institution in Portland is complicit in this mistreatment and discrimination, including the Portland Public Schools. The record is clear and there is no debate.

• For decades, when projects affected the Black community, nobody asked the community what it wanted. The construction of Interstate 5, for example, cut through the Albina neighborhood, and destroyed lives, businesses and homes. The Black community was not consulted on it.

• Now that the interstate needs to be widened, a major institution in the Black community – Harriet Tubman MS – needs to be relocated to protect the safety and health of its students and staff. Also, Jefferson High School – another critical institution to the Black community – requires major renovations. 

• In 2020, voters approved a bond measure that would pay for a modernized Jefferson High School. And the state also agreed to pay for Tubman Middle School’s relocation.

• CBSE was launched so that the goals of equity and social justice guide these projects as well as all efforts to support Portland’s Black children.

• We can expect (4) guiding documents that will anchor our work, based on what we learn and hear from the community: 

  • Center for Black Student Excellence Vision - This document will describe the collective aspiration for what the CBSE will be, do and accomplish on behalf of Black students, staff and families. 

  • Center for Black Student Excellence Approach - This document will detail the specific elements of the CBSE along with strategies, programs and experiences that span the PK-12 learning continuum.

  • Center for Black Student Excellence as a Place - This document will describe the implications of the CBSE Vision and Comprehensive Plan on physical space, including but not limited to site improvements, modernizations, property purchases and/or new builds. Elements of this plan will also closely connect spatial implications of the Jefferson Modernization Project and site considerations for the Harriet Tubman Middle School Relocation.

  • Center for Black Student Excellence Redesign of the System - This document will describe the ongoing support for the initiative including maintenance of infrastructure, hiring, capacity building and retention of high quality talent, etc. 

• In regard to the Center for Black Student Excellence, PPS is embarking on a community process this fall with the Black community to help define the educational strategies, as well as the physical facility improvements to support those strategies, as they relate to the CBSE. The first phase of this effort will consist of a design and engagement process, and will occur during the 2022-2023 school year. We anticipate that this work will help inform the Comprehensive planning and design efforts for the Jefferson modernization project, which is a distinct, but associated project within the historic Albina neighborhood.

• HTMS site selection is on a separate timeline from the Jefferson modernization. As the community engagement process for HTMS gets underway, it will  consider neighborhood impacts as well as project outcom

• Both of these projects are important to the community.The idea of placing a new Harriet Tubman Middle School on the Jefferson campus is one of several potential options but no decisions have been made at this time. PPS is planning a series of meetings in the coming months with the communities involved to ensure the associated programmatic and capital projects in lower Albina work in coordination to reflect the goals of racial equity and social justice. Once those engagement sessions take place, we anticipate a decision on Tubman’s placement would be made by the PPS School Board in the spring of 2023.