In November 2020, Portland Public Schools asked voters to support a $1.2 billion bond to fund continued work modernizing the district’s high schools. In addition to the funds for schools, investments in technology and other upgrades, the bond set aside money to create a new facility called the Center for Black Student Excellence.

“The leadership of the district is acutely aware that many Black students in Portland have not been historically well served or supported by the school district, and that we need to make a very concerted effort from kindergarten through high school to be supporting those students,” bond leader and PPS board member Julia Brim-Edwards said at the time.

Voters said, “Yes.”

Now, nearly five years later, the center has yet to come to fruition.

On Tuesday, a coalition of more than 35 education and community organizations issued a formal letter to Portland Public Schools, calling for immediate action.

The coalition — which includes groups such as Albina Vision Trust, the Black Business Association of Oregon, and the Portland branch of the NAACP — outlined specific deadlines and actions to address what they described as “a pattern of institutional neglect and broken promises to Portland’s Black students, families, and community.”

“This continued inaction speaks volumes about the district’s true priorities and commitment to Black student achievement.”

Oregon’s largest school district enrolls about 43,500 students, 8% of whom identify as Black or African American — a rate substantially higher than the statewide demographic.

In its letter to the school board, the coalition acknowledged the reasons the district has given for project delays: the realities of responding to a global pandemic, the need to complete various high school building projects, labor disputes, and significant staff leadership changes that led to starts and stops. They also acknowledged the higher cost of construction today.

However, the Center for Black Student Excellence is not the only project important to Portland’s Black community that has been slow to get off the ground.

Oregon legislators agreed three years ago to provide funding to PPS to move Harriet Tubman Middle School to a new location away from its current site perched above Interstate 5. But the district has failed to find a new site for the school, where more than a quarter of students are Black. District officials told OPB earlier this year that the Oregon Department of Transportation has indicated they do not have a definitive timeline for when construction efforts to widen I-5 will begin near the middle school. As a result, the school relocation efforts are on hold.

The district has also been slow to start the modernization of Jefferson High School, where 44% of students are Black. Project managers were forced to regroup after the district was unable to convince the Jefferson High community to relocate students several miles away to the Marshall campus during construction. Last month, the district terminated its contract with the construction firm it had tapped to lead the modernization of Jefferson High School, as reported by the Oregonian.

The coalition’s pushback comes at a particularly tense time for Portland Public Schools. The district is bracing for more than $40 million in cuts for next school year. And the critique of the district’s handling of money from the 2020 bond comes just two weeks before Portland voters will decide whether to approve a $1.83 billion school construction bond measure on this month’s ballot.

“The district’s willingness to leave $60 million in voter-approved, use-restricted funds unspent while simultaneously cutting vital programs across the district is inexplicable,” Aryn Frazier, executive director of the Portland-based education nonprofit Center for Black Excellence, said in the news release Tuesday. “We can and must do better by our children.”

But given recent steps by Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong, who was hired last summer, and the board’s push to reengage with the center in recent months, coalition members say they’re “cautiously optimistic.”

The coalition’s demands include a public meeting by May 20, where they said PPS must present detailed progress reports and concrete plans for site acquisition. The coalition also wants district officials to identify a site for the center by June 30, with the transaction completed by Dec. 1. And lastly, they want the immediate allocation of at least one dedicated PPS staff member to oversee this transaction.

“Our community has been patient long enough,” said Bahia Cross (Overton), Board Chair of the Center for Black Excellence and Executive Director of the Black Parent Initiative. “These funds were explicitly allocated to address historical inequities, and each day of delay represents another day our students are denied the resources they deserve.”

The coalition has requested a public response from PPS at the May 20 school board meeting. They said they plan to mobilize community members to attend upcoming meetings until the district fulfills its promise to implement and open the center.

In a written statement to OPB Tuesday afternoon, board chair Eddie Wang and vice-chair Michelle DePass said the board acknowledged that the process hasn’t “reflected the level of transparency and urgency our community deserves.”

“We hear the community,” they said, “and we appreciate the voices that continue to advocate for urgency and accountability. We are committed to transparency as we work in partnership with the community and district leadership to move this initiative forward.”

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/05/06/coalition-calls-for-immediate-action-on-portlands-delayed-center-for-black-student-excellence/