Portland Public Schools

Dear PPS Families,

We want to update you on the Enrollment and Program Balancing (EPB) progress. As we’ve shared, the initial work focuses on schools in Southeast Portland in anticipation of the reopening of Kellogg Middle School. The Southeast Guiding Coalition has held six meetings aimed at creating a common understanding of the Coalition’s charge and the process for developing proposals and a final recommendation. The process is starting with a focus on grades 6-8 now, and will expand to grades PK-12 next spring.

Over the past few weeks, the Coalition has used data-driven analysis and multiple means of community input to evaluate and discuss several scenarios. Members worked toward developing a more refined proposal to share with the broader community. Next week they will receive results from more than 800 responses to online and telephone surveys. The survey results will further inform the development of scenarios, and be posted at the Enrollment and Program Balancing website.

The District is hosting an online open house on Thursday, November 19, to share information about the coalition proposal(s) and gather your input. The district also will engage other important stakeholders in a variety of intentional focus groups and in many languages that same week. The open house and the focus groups will include background information about the process, visuals to help illustrate the proposal(s), and opportunities to provide feedback. 

The online open house will include a standing web page that you can visit for information throughout this process and a live Zoom meeting where you can hear from Southeast Guiding Coalition members and the District Advisory Team. We will share more information about the open house next week. Links to the open house web page and Zoom meeting will be sent out just before the event. 

All community members are welcome to attend the open house. We especially encourage our Southeast families to provide feedback that will support PPS optimizing the use of our facilities. Your feedback will help us weave the perspectives of students and families in our final recommendation.

More About the Guiding Coalition and EPB Process 

The Guiding Coalition is made up of students, parents and principals representing Southeast schools (see the member roster). The coalition is currently holding a series of meetings focused on the middle school grades, including the open house on November 12 and focus groups that week.

This process has two phases: Phase 1 concludes with a recommendation in mid-December. Phase 2, scheduled to begin in spring 2021, will focus on PK-5 grades.

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. Meeting agendas, materials, minutes, and videos are posted at the Enrollment and Program Balancing website.