Portland School Board Meets With Group Studying School Boundaries

PORTLAND, OR – FLO came ready. They had a powerpoint and lots of ideas. Unfortunately, the Portland Public Schools board had other ideas.

FLO was hired by the school board last month, given a $296,000 contract to study school boundaries with an eye toward having them redrawn for the 2020-21 school year.

On Tuesday night, they presented a plan at the board's work session. It was the first time that the board had met with FLO officials in a public setting. FLO is also the first outside company ever hired to do this task for the district.

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In their powerpoint, FLO suggests starting small. They proposed beginning with overcrowding at three elementary schools – each in one of three of the district's nine high school areas.

They suggested spending their first year looking at Bridger, which flows into Franklin, Faubion – which flows into Jefferson – and Cesar Chavez, which flows into Roosevelt.

This approach, FLO says, would allow them to establish a "baseline understanding of "District-wide enrollment, programs, and facilities."

That would allow them to "build momentum and support for later evaluations."

FLO also said that they would come back to the board six times over the next year to report on progress.

Board members said that they expect to hear from FLO more than six times and would like the company to examine the entire district rather than three clusters and come up with some ideas by the end of their first year instead of waiting until next year.

File photo via Portland Public Schools.