It's not surprising that Smith would recommend closing Marshall. She targets the weakest groups (bilingual educational assistants, paraeducators and poor communities). The Marshall community has suffered the same injustices as Jefferson and Roosevelt but doesn't get the level of attention that those schools do.

What can we now expect from the Close the Gap Not the Schools group since the high school redesign plan fails to address closing the achievement gap and closes schools?

Ugly typo on page 74 subtitle: "Cevelopement"...Ha kome Jonny cain't reed?

Why dilute Benson, which used to be the academic star of the system? Portland should strive to have at least one high school be the equal of Boston Latin.

After all the speculation about what changes were going to be made, I was both surprised and pleased to see that the plan is made up of mostly common sense changes. The other thing I liked is that they seem to be focusing on the core curiculum which will benefit the most students. For those who learn differently or on a higher track there will be Marshall. I think that it is great that Benson Tech will go back to its roots as a technical and vocational school.

I wonder what sort of educational ideas our mentoring Mao-yer will bring back from his newly announced junket to China.