Liam Parkison is a fifth grader at Englewood Elementary, one of the schools proposed for closure under Salem-Keizer’s plan to address declining enrollment. Parkison will have already moved on whether or not his school closes next year. But he still doesn’t want his school to close; he wants to return as a high school senior, a tradition in many Oregon schools.

“Kids that graduate from high school that went to Englewood get to come back and walk the halls one last time,” Parkison said.

Parkison was part of a small demonstration on the Capitol steps Wednesday, the first in a two-day rally to stop school closures. A few dozen students and parents gathered, holding signs that read things like “students shouldn’t pay the price” and “closed schools equals closed minds.”

Rallies on bikes and at the Capitol, school sit-outs and letter writing campaigns to elected officials are just a few ways students, families and teachers from Salem to Portland have made their opposition to school closures known over the last few weeks. School officials in Portland have acknowledged the proposals could change ahead of the superintendent’s final recommendation, but abandoning the process seems unlikely.

Organizers in both Salem and Portland delivered letters to Gov. Tina Kotek this week.

In Salem, parents including Laura Levin asked Kotek and state Sen. Deb Patterson, D-Salem, for “immediate state-level intervention” in both cities.

“While districts must manage long-term enrollment changes, forcing permanent, irreversible closures in the middle of winter — weeks before the state legislature even meets — is a failure of governance,” Levin wrote in the letter.

Levin is the parent of a kindergarten student and a fourth grader at Candalaria Elementary, one of the schools slated to close. She said her younger child hasn’t slept in his own bedroom since the school closure plan came out.

District officials say Candalaria was selected for closure because of its physical conditions and lower enrollment in the South Salem area.

But Candalaria parents point to the high academic achievement at the school, where student performance on state tests is consistently higher than the state average.

The letter asks for a “decision moratorium” in Portland and Salem until Feb. 15, after the start of the 2027 legislative session.

Levin also suggests expanded access to Pre-K and education policy changes, including a “School Closure Transparency and Accountability Act.”

Levin said she’ll be mailing the letters to other representatives.

Portland parents also asked for a pause in their letter to Kotek, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and leaders of legislative committees on education and spending.

“Closing schools stands in the way of the Oregon that Portlanders and all Oregonians want and deserve,” they wrote.

Pushing back through song in Sunnyside

Tuesday, at least four Portland schools hosted “sit-outs” to protest the proposed changes. They included Sunnyside Environmental School in Southeast Portland, where students walked out of class for the second Tuesday in a row.

The state’s largest district is proposing the closure of up to 14 schools, as well as dozens of boundary and program changes that would affect more than 50 schools.

At Sunnyside, the district is planning to remove the middle grades and phase out the school’s environmental focus. Under the district’s proposals, the school will also lose its status as a “focus option” school, becoming strictly a neighborhood program.

Students like 8th grader Z Adams wouldn’t be able to attend Sunnyside if that’s the case. The school is a 20-minute drive from his home.

Adams called the district’s plan irrational.

“I think changes do need to be made,” Adams said. “But they’re making them in a way that’s going to harm more than it’s helping us.”

He has spent almost his whole school career at Sunnyside, transferring after struggling in a different school.

“I didn’t know what I was doing, I couldn’t sit in the desk for too long,” Adams explained. He says Sunnyside’s place-based learning approach, where students go on weekly field trips and learn about nature, were a good fit.

After Sunnyside’s initial sit-out a week ago, more schools joined in. At least four schools hosted events Tuesday to protest the proposed changes. At Sunnyside, local musician Mo Phillips led the crowd in a protest song written by the middle school students.

“Can you save our school, cause that’d be really cool, protesting this whole thing, so the final bell never rings,” the group sang.

The student-led opposition to the plan is a product of what they’re learning in school, said Sunnyside fourth grade teacher Asa Gervich.

“We really encourage kids to speak up and speak their truth and get involved civically when issues come up,” he said.

Like many in the Sunnyside community, Gervich points out that Sunnyside is “working” by the district’s measures: enrollment has declined but less so than at other schools, and performance on state tests is better than the district average.

For Kelley Hutchison, Sunnyside is the neighborhood school where her neurodivergent sixth grader thrived. She points out that Sunnyside serves a higher rate of students receiving special education services, a sign of a supportive culture and the benefits of a K-8 model where students have fewer big transitions.

“We are urging the board, especially board members that are saying this is equitable, to really dig into what that means and ask questions about who this is going to impact, move a little slower so that they can actually do that work,” Hutchison said.

A different parent view

Not every parent in Portland thinks closing schools is a bad idea. As a handful of Portland schools hosted the sit-outs Tuesday, PTA parents from César Chávez K-8 were sharing an open letter to PPS board members and the broader community, supporting the district’s plan to “rightsize” the district.

In the letter, the parents said they’ve been advocating for more than 10 years for the district to make improvements to a school building that includes a dual language immersion program and a neighborhood school for both elementary and middle school students. The parents also flagged “harmful stereotypes and racial inequities” they’re hearing from others in the current “rightsizing” conversation, including parents saying they’ve “heard terrible things” or wouldn’t send their children to César Chávez.

Parents at the North Portland K-8 acknowledged questions and concerns as PPS moves forward in this process, but urged the district not to delay.

“Our students deserve better than a model that limits their access to the resources and opportunities available to students at other schools,” parents wrote in the letter. “Our families have been raising these concerns for more than a decade, yet they remain unaddressed and the impacts are tangible.”

The impacts parents listed in the letter include turnover both in staff and school leadership, limited class offerings and programs competing for a limited resources. Parents argue that such inequities are part of the reason that Portland has a consistent gap in achievement scores between white students and students of color.

“They do not reflect the potential of our Black and Brown students; they reflect a system that continues to fail them,” the parents wrote.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/10/28/student-and-parent-protests-highlight-resistanc-to-portland-salem-closure-plans/