Better to be a stray dog in Portland than a student.

Reminds me of the LIMBO - how low can you go?

Does anybody know if Central or St Mary's has the room to take the influx of Grant kids if PPS decides to commit suicide? I'm also curious if kids from Catholic K-8s get priority for admissions. If that's the case I'll switch may daughter earlier.

I'll preface this by saying that I don't live in the PPS district.

It seems to me that the options here are keeping open a couple of good high schools and a bunch of mediocre-to-poor ones, or closing a couple of schools with the chance to have a bunch of better ones. And save money to boot.

Are the opponents' concerns emotional ("don't close MY school") or a lack of trust in the PPS board to actually be able to improve the schools?

Are the opponents' concerns emotional ("don't close MY school") or a lack of trust in the PPS board to actually be able to improve the schools?

Yes.

All of the above.

"It seems to me that the options here are keeping open a couple of good high schools and a bunch of mediocre-to-poor ones, or closing a couple of schools with the chance to have a bunch of better ones. And save money to boot."

...all based on the erroneous assumption that parents in successful schools will willingly sacrifice their kids for the primary purpose of saving failing programs at other schools. Good luck with that, PPS. No matter where you live, Michelle, the test group families are not going to do the okey-doke on that one.

Jack, as someone who also has grade-school aged kids in a school that feeds to Grant, I'm interested to know if your default is Central Catholic.

What kind of solution is it to close the successful school and force those kids to attend the historically unsuccessful one? Jefferson has 490 students and is losing kids to other schools despite repeated reform efforts. Grant has 1600+ and is turning kids away.

Bad decisions by the Portland School Board do not necessarily make religious schools a better option.

What is most telling is that the two, um, "diverse" members of the school board are the only two who voted AGAINST the reconfiguration plan.

"Bad decisions by the Portland School Board do not necessarily make religious schools a better option."

As a devout atheist I'm not a big fan of Catholic madrasahs, but if PPS closes Grant, Central will become the de facto neighborhood school for this area. The product PPS is supplying (shortest school year, class sizes etc.) isn't worth the extra distance.

In these economic times, shouldn't Carole Smith be given SOME credit for making the TOUGH choices that need to be made.Not all of the public high schools in Portland should remain open, that is as obvious as the discrepancy,scores,graduation rates etc... betweeen the schools.Everyone gets mad when its suggested/rumored that their neighborhood school will be the one to close. Also, does anyone REALLY believe that Grant (or Lincoln for that matter) will be the one to close. REALLY???? Lastly as a CC graduate with a kid their now, they accept all applicants equally. More than half of the student body gets some kind of financial aid.....

Also, does anyone REALLY believe that Grant (or Lincoln for that matter) will be the one to close. REALLY????

Lots of people believe the fix is in, and that Grant will close. Portland Public is known for making decisions well in advance, and papering it over with lots of public "process." I remember when they proposed closing Edwards Elementary, in my part of town. I didn't have kids, but went as an interested observer. It could not have been more obvious that they had already decided to close the school. Parents brought up very valid/relevant points, and these were just brushed aside without so much as a second thought. When PPS wants to close your school, they will do it. Jefferson, for whatever reason, is a sacred cow, and will remain open forever, no matter how wracked with failure it is.

"Jefferson, for whatever reason, is a sacred cow, and will remain open forever, no matter how wracked with failure it is." How true. If the district closed Jefferson and Marshall, let their students go to any school they wanted the problems would be solved. Simple and cheap.

This year's tuition at CCHS was $9,400. Not all disgruntled Grant parents will be able to swallow that, even with financial aid, and especially not with multiple kids. More likely they will re-evaluate moving to Beaverton, Vancouver, Lake Oswego or West Linn -- if the boundary re-drawings at PPS don't destroy their house equity and force them to stay put.

Remember a couple of years ago when LO tried to poach Portland parents by claiming they could enroll their kids in LO schools for the LO district's per-student cost plus some fees? They claimed it was like a private-school education for half the price, or something like that. Wonder if the offer still stands . . .

The $9400 doesn't even include the fees.Its $855 for 11 months, we get july off.Add all the fees/registration/fundraisers etc and my wife and I figure its $1000 a month.Still cheaper than moving to LO and pay thru the you know what just for living in that zip code.I still can't fathom them closing grant as its one of the only remaining PPS high schools thats respectable, even if 'the fix is in'.

I agree that not all parents can afford it, however, most parents these days pay more than $1k a month for daycare. During the K-8 debacle I looked at moving (not to the suburbs - never again) but quickly calculated that I could send my daughter to Oregon Episcopal (PhD teachers and small classes) for the amount of money I would have to pay various sharks when switching houses.

"I still can't fathom them closing grant as its one of the only remaining PPS high schools thats respectable." Follow the process and then read the bios of the PPS insiders and you will learn about the parallel universe they live in.

I understand that back east, the majority of Catholic school students often aren't Catholic, they simply want a good education. We may be on our way to similar demographics here.

PPS better hope it can fend off voucher and tax credit proposals, or the flight to quality will become a flood.

My son is a sophmore at Central Catholic and it's worth every penny (the true cost to the school is greater than the $9,400 but the school makes up it in other ways).