Parents and students are organizing protests, challenging school boards and pressing elected officials to intervene as proposed closures threaten neighborhood schools in Portland, Salem-Keizer and Tigard-Tualatin. The three districts have announced plans that could close as many as 21 schools over the next several years, while two Corvallis campuses have already closed.
In Portland, opposition has spread from crowded board meetings to school demonstrations and coordinated parent campaigns. Sellwood Middle School, which appears on both of the district’s proposed closure lists, has become one focus of that organizing. Its parent association advertised an October 31 event called the Fright Sizing Block Party, scheduled Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m., as families mobilized against the proposed changes.
The organizing follows demonstrations earlier in October, including a rally outside Portland Public Schools headquarters and student and parent sit-outs at Sunnyside Environmental School and Buckman Elementary. Families have challenged the speed of the process and sought clearer answers about transportation, classroom assignments, educational programs and the consequences of separating established school communities…