PORTLAND, Ore. (KPTV) – Some students and parents in Oregon’s largest school district staged a sit-out Tuesday morning, protesting a Portland Public Schools plan that would close several schools and scale back others.
The protest took place at Sunnyside Environmental School in southeast Portland.
“I don’t want to say goodbye to this school,” a student said. “They make me feel happy even, like, on my worst days.”
Portland Public Schools, as part of its rightsizing initiative, is proposing closing 11 to 14 schools.
Sunnyside Environmental is not on the list of schools proposed for closure, but under the proposal would see changes. Students chanted “Save our schools, save our schools” during the sit-out.
The school would go from a K-8 to a K-5, and its environmental focus would be removed, changing it into a neighborhood school.
Penny Huff, a 7th grader, said, “I feel like I’ve learned so many things here that I just wouldn’t get going to another school and but also just like all of all of the teachers are like really amazing and just super welcoming and just the community is really strong and I value that a lot.”
“I mean, this is a really unique school that is leading the entire city in how education should be done right. And the building’s at capacity, and everything here is working. We’re exceeding the district’s expectations,” said Derekh Froude, a parent.
The district says the changes to Sunnyside Environmental will help balance enrollment numbers at neighboring elementary schools. Families said they don’t see how this will help.
“I’ve looked at this across their work. This is not the solution. It can’t be for special education students, for neurodivergent students, for language, dual language learners. There’s got to be better solutions to this. And we need to take the time to find them,” said Marc Heisterkamp, a parent.
Ethan Huff, a parent, said, “I think that the district hasn’t shown any benefits from having these changes happen at such a breakneck speed for next fall. They’ve shown no monetary benefits at all. And they keep saying that it’s about equity. But I think to get the most equity out of the situation, we need to pause and kind of reevaluate and have some auditing done by the state to look at the plans that have been put out by PPS.”
Buckman Elementary also staged a sit-in Tuesday morning. Sellwood Middle School is planning one for Thursday.
The Portland Public Schools board is scheduled to vote on a final path forward in December.
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