The Portland Public Schools Board of Education approved a significant revision to the district policy on student field trips and out-of-town travel, and passed a resolution to offer comment on proposed construction work on Interstate 5 that would affect Harriet Tubman Middle School.

Dear PPS Families,

With hopes that inclement winter weather is done for this school year, we wanted to touch base with you regarding making up snow days. We thought it was important to share an update with you before Spring Break. 

In this week's PPS Pulse: 6 possible mascot names identified for Franklin High School; pilot water project set to launch

Lincoln High School senior Sagarika Ramachandran has been selected as the winner of the Oregon Student Journalist of the Year Award. Sagarika, who serves as editor-in-chief of Lincoln's student newspaper, the Cardinal Times, became the first journalist from a PPS school to win the award, which started in 2005.

Portland Public Schools will conduct a pilot program at six schools in an effort to find a cost-efficient way to make more drinking water options available throughout the district.

The committee charged with finding a new identity for Franklin High School has come up with a list of six possible mascot names for the school’s community to consider. The 19-member Franklin Mascot Identification Committee – which includes students, staff, alumni, family members and community members -- identified these possible names:

For the second year in a row, Portland Public Schools Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero will give the welcome address at the All Born (in) Cross-disability Best Practices Educational Inclusion Conference when the event’s 14^th staging is held on Saturday, April 6 at the Holiday Inn Portland Airport.

Dear PPS Community,

As you might be aware, there is a growing international student-led movement that designates Friday, March 15, as a day for students all over the world to express their views on climate change. We understand that some students here locally in Portland are considering leaving school to attend an 11 a.m. rally at Portland City Hall.

Extracto del Informe del Superintendente a la Junta Directiva de Educación de PPS el martes 12 de marzo de 2019:

Excerpt from Superintendent’s Report to the PPS Board of Education on Tuesday, March 12, 2019:

I want to address a topic that is of both personal and professional importance to me, both as Superintendent of the Portland Public Schools and as a son of immigrants to this country, as someone for whom public education opened doors, as someone who entered school not knowing English...who went on to obtain graduate degrees and now has the privilege of serving in this role.

In this week's PPS Pulse: Benson wins state championship in girls basketball; Transportation's early risers help keep students safe

The Benson High school girls basketball team won the first state championship in program history, doing so with a dominant win over the two-time defending champion. The Techsters defeated Southridge 66-42 in the final Saturday night at the University of Portland’s Chiles Center.

It was early on a recent morning, and the students of Portland Public Schools were (hopefully) deep into a restful night of sleep. But there was little rest for select members of the PPS Transportation crew. With a chance of snow and freezing temperatures forecasted, the crew hit the road around 2:30 a.m. to get first-hand information that would help answer the big question the students and their families would have when they woke up:

On the surface, a tea party for fifth-graders might seem out of place. But for students at Rieke Elementary School, a series of three tea parties was the perfect culmination of a unit that combined art and U.S. history.

Students from eight PPS middle schools gathered at Portland Community College last week for two days of open dialogue and creative partnerships in the second Raise Your Voices Conference.

A boys basketball rivalry that has been a high point of not just the Portland Interscholastic League, but statewide, for three years comes to a conclusion Wednesday on the opening day of the Class 6A state tournament at the Chiles Center. Jefferson and Grant will play at 6:30 p.m. in the opening round.

On Feb 26, the PPS Board of Education voted to expand the Benson modernization project plan to include all the Multiple Pathways to Graduation programs (MPG) that are currently housed at the Benson campus. 

Franklin High School sophomore Sophia Nguyen won the annual PDX Jazz Festival poster contest and will have her work used in promotional material for the 2020 festival.

Jenny Withycombe remembers the feeling she had flying home to Portland after a two-week stay in Kampala, Uganda, where she and her husband did volunteer work with refugees trying to get to a better life but dealing with conditions few Americans ever experience.