The meeting was probably more productive than it would have been if more people had showed up anyway (district administrators outnumbered parents by more than a two-to-one margin).

I’ll write a post about that after I’ve thought about it some more.

I’m just now posting on my blog about the meeting — it went well. Sorry you missed it.

I also would like to let “Todd” know that, even though I do not live in the Jeff cluster and do not work for PPS, I am very concerned about the inequities between Jeff cluster schools and the schools over here. I think the correct word to describe it is “disgusting.” It is one of the (many!) reasons I campaigned so hard for change on the school board. And I am sure I am not the only one. So don’t worry, Todd, you ARE wrong on this point!

Nicole, I know it was your post, but maybe you could let Todd know?

There are so many issues here, it’s hard to know where to begin. The families at Jefferson right now have very real, very serious immediate concerns that need to be addressed. Those of us with younger kids in the cluster have strategic concerns for the future of the school.

These two groups of parents (that have some overlap) don’t have mutually exclusive concerns, and in fact ought to be able to find synergy. But there’s a lot of shouting right now about how we should boycott this meeting tonight, since there wasn’t proper notice.

My personal feeling is “anytime, anyplace.” My message is very simple, and I don’t need any time to prepare it: We must return to a comprehensive high school at Jefferson. Nothing less is acceptable. Every student must have the right to attend their comprehensive neighborhood high school.

The district owes everybody that showed up at Vernon last week an apology for flaking out on their deal. And they owe them all a rescheduled meeting with ample notice. But I don’t see how that should preclude having a meeting tonight.

Here are messages that I know of from Jefferson area parents and community members about the short meeting notice and/or requesting a new meeting that we could all attend. Thank you.

FORWARDED EMAIL SENT 12/15/07:
From: Todd M.
Date: Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:19:49 GMT
To: zsmith@pps.k12.or.us
CC: ….
Subject: Re: Jefferson Cluster Parent Meeting

Zeke:

Thank you for the invitation. I would like to attend, but cannot because of a prior commitment.

The petition I signed was ostensibly aimed to address the idea of sending kids to schools closest to where they live. A little digging convinced me that parents in this area are concerned about their kids receiving a decent education at Jefferson High. It’s obvious that there’s a discrepancy (at least in data from the available quantitative means) in high school quality in the Portland district. Until the district can change this, I would guess that parents will be left to try to “work the system” and get their kids to the school of their choice. I realize that the petition may have been an attempt at doing just that.

I want to come to the meeting and be assured that my child will receive an education at Jefferson High that will prepare him for college. The small amount research that I’ve done indicates that Jefferson may not be currently able to do this.

I feel a big problem is that only the people that live in the Jefferson cluster care about the education there. Ask the people that live on SW Vista Avenue who have kids attending Lincoln, and I’m sure they wouldn’t care or even know the extent of problems at Jefferson. I’m sure any parent outside the Jefferson cluster would just simply be glad that they don’t live within the area. People are selfish: “my kids go to a great school. It’s just too bad for those folks over in Northeast Portland.” Are there any advocates for improving Jefferson that don’t live in the Jefferson cluster and aren’t paid employees of the district? I’d love to hear that I’m wrong on this point.

Maybe just threatening to bus kids from all over the city in order to fully mix up the demographics would get all parents and people in Portland to take notice? By making the high school assignment for each kid a matter of pure chance, I’m convinced that most people would demand equality for all the schools.

It’s really a shame on this city that proclaims itself very “livable” and “forward thinking” that, within a single school district there could be, what appears to me, such an education gap. A gap evidenced by parents coming up with ideas such as a petition to change the cluster boundaries.

In the future I would appreciate a bit more notice for these meetings. I understand that school district employees are busy and these short notices will happen from time to time. I do feel somewhat snubbed in that the school district representatives did not show up for the previous meeting at Vernon School, for which I’m sure they were aware of for at least two weeks.

Previously, I received a letter about the December 4th meeting dated November 14th. For this Monday’s meeting, I’m being asked to attend on, essentially, two working days notice. I have to say that puts all of the district management in a bad light for me. It makes me somewhat suspicious and think that people would rather avoid having the meeting at all or it just got put aside, then squeezed in a the last moment before the Christmas holiday. I hope these suspicions are unfounded.

Will there be any record of the meeting that I can review later?

Also, could you tell me when the last time the school boundaries were re-drawn? I was asked to sign the petition in mid-summer and am wondering how long ago this area (Beaumont/Wilshire) was incorporated into the Jefferson cluster.
Todd

EMAIL SENT 12/16/07:
Jefferson Parents,
It was discussed today and at yesterday’s parent meeting, the consensus is that we do NOT attend tomorrow night’s meeting at Jefferson? Zeke, Carole Smith’s chief in command, only gave a one day notice.
This is not enough time to adequately prepare for a meeting that is 3 plus years in the making. I think Mr. Crittenden will send out the notice. AGAIN, the collective decision is, WE WILL NOT ATTEND tomorrow night’s meeting. Mr. Crittenden will contact all the folks listed below and notify them of our intent.
Hopefully, Mr. Crittenden will get this information out today. Thanks, Byrd

EMAIL SENT 12/16/07:
Hey Zeke,
My name is James Crittenden. I am a Jefferson High School parent. I attended the Dec. 7th, 2007 meeting at Vernon School. According to Superintendent Carole Smith’s letter, principals and administrators from both Vernon and Jefferson were supposed to attend this meeting. As you know, No one from Jefferson attended this meeting and the Vernon people pretended not to know anything about Jefferson’s participation in this meeting. Now, you all have scheduled a meeting for this Monday, Dec 17th, 2007 to make up for the disrespectful act that happened on the 7th.

Well, after meeting with the parents who attended this meeting, we are NOT willing to meet with PPS this Monday.

You didn’t call to notify us of Monday’s meeting until Friday, Dec 14th, 2007. The meeting is scheduled for Monday, Dec 17th, 2007. Do you think that is enough time for us to prepare? I am putting this email in the public arena. WE WILL NOT MEET THIS MONDAY. We need more prep time and demand a reschedule.

But, before this meeting happens, someone from PPS needs to apologize to the parents and Jefferson community who attended the Dec, 7th 2007 meeting in good faith. Feel free to respond to me at this email. For Real, Mr. Crittenden

MY EMAIL SENT LAST NIGHT:
Dear Mr. Zeke Smith,
I appreciate your phone call on Friday informing me of the meeting at Jefferson on Monday evening. I also appreciate that the meeting was scheduled as a follow-up to the community meeting that I attended on December 4th at Vernon where no one from the district or Jefferson was present to provide information about educational opportunities at Jefferson as promised by Superintendent Carole Smith in her letter dated November 14th.

As you know from your tenure at the Portland Schools Foundation, I and other Jefferson area parents and community members have been extremely concerned about the lack of educational opportunities at Jefferson for years, particularly since Jefferson’s coed 9-12th grade program was divided into small narrowly focused academies (as planned by the Portland Schools Foundation and former Superintendent Phillips and described in their grant application to the Gates Foundation in September 2005 prior to the Jefferson design team process).

Concerns about the proposal to reorganize Jefferson into four narrowly focused small academies are well-documented leading up to and following former Superintendent Phillips’ recommendation to the School Board in January 2006, including testimony at public community meetings and school board hearings; protests by Jefferson design team members; alternative recommendations from the Jefferson PTSA; petitions; surveys; formal complaint to PPS dated 8/24/06; community-based action plan submitted to the School Board on 8/21/06, etc.

The four academy structure significantly limits course offerings for Jefferson area students and also requires our children to choose a focused subject for their high school studies in the spring of their 8th grade year or to play the school transfer lottery for one of the few spaces at the more popular comprehensive high schools. The lack of educational opportunities is also a concern to our community because it puts Jefferson at risk for closure or downsizing as over 70% of the high school students in our neighborhood continue to transfer to other high schools that offer more courses and programs.

Although Jefferson has the largest number of high school students living in its attendance area than any other PPS high school, the district continues to fail to provide equal access to educational opportunities that are provided to other PPS high schools. The District’s senior staff members have recently reported that PPS plans to expand a partnership with Portland Community College in order to provide Jefferson students access to courses that are already offered at other high schools which have fewer students living in their attendance area than Jefferson. As you may know, PPS has been hoping to expand onto the Jefferson property for years. Like other Jefferson area parents I believe our students deserve the same educational opportunities that are offered at other PPS high schools; I don’t think our students should have to attend community college classes to have access to courses provided by PPS to high school students in whiter wealthier neighborhoods; and I am concerned that the district’s lack of interest in providing equitable course offerings at Jefferson is making our neighborhood high school vulnerable to a takeover by PCC. I appreciate having PCC in my community, but don’t support the expansion of PCC at the expense of not having a high school to serve our densely-populated, economically and racially diverse community.

I hope that the District’s interest in meeting with Jefferson area parents this week represents a commitment by the district to work with concerned parents and community members to provide a quality, comprehensive, 9-12th grade, coed educational program at Jefferson (as already provided at other PPS high schools), and to provide adequate support to the new district-wide 6-9th grade young men’s and young women’s academies currently housed at Tubman and Jefferson. I am hopeful that PPS is interested in working cooperatively with Jefferson families, and families throughout the district, to move forward in a direction that will provide a quality, effective, non-discriminatory public education for all our children.

I appreciate the district’s new urgency to acknowledge and respond to parents’ concerns about the curriculum at Jefferson, apparently in advance of the Mayor and City Council’s visit to Jefferson in January. However, I will not attend the meeting on Monday because I support other Jefferson area parents who have responded to the extremely short notice by calling for a boycott of the meeting and requesting that the meeting be rescheduled with more notice to parents who would like to attend. From our phone conversation on Friday I understand that the district did not send out any public notice of the community meeting on Monday, therefore it should not be a problem for the district to reschedule the meeting to a time that would be more convenient for Jefferson families. I would like to receive notice of any future public meetings where Jefferson will be discussed.

Thank you,
Nicole B.