Officials with Portland Public Schools are still deciding where the future Harriet Tubman Middle School will go once the school closes for a freeway expansion, which is set to begin in 2027 or 2028.
The I-5 freeway is seen through the fencing at the back of Harriet Tubman Middle School (left) in North Portland, April 9, 2021. ODOT's proposed Rose Quarter expansion would bring the freeway even closer to the school grounds.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
The school board’s facilities and operations committee met late Wednesday afternoon to discuss next steps for Tubman planning.
Last month, the same group met and decided to “pause and reset the process“ in response to a disappointing dynamic that unfolded in the community, which is the perception that we were pitting three schools against each other, particularly those schools serving high percentages of Black students in the heart of our Black community,” said Jonathan Garcia, PPS Chief of Staff, during Thursday’s committee meeting.
Before that pause, the leading plan seemed to be for Tubman to share a site currently occupied by KairosPDX, a charter elementary school. That approach for Tubman would also involve a nearby lot that PPS owns. That lot along North Alberta St. is already included in plans for Jefferson High School, which is getting ready for a major renovation.
PPS officials appear no closer to a final decision for the Tubman relocation, as Wednesday’s meeting indicates a return to the drawing board.
There was only one public comment at the meeting, from a community member who wanted to know where the new school will be.
“So you all have no idea at this time actually where the school will be located?” the commenter said.
“Correct,” said facilities and operations committee chair Gary Hollands. “We’ve got a lot of options that we’re looking at, but at this point we don’t have a designated site for Tubman yet.”
In the last month, district officials have hosted three meetings to hear from community members. Out of that, new location ideas have come up, while old ideas seem to be back in consideration.
Here are five potential spaces the district is considering, out of several:
Jefferson South Lot: This property, included in the most recent plan for Tubman, remains under consideration “until something else is found,” as a last resort option. Previous plans proposed KairosPDX on the South Lot property, with Tubman on the current KairosPDX property, which is the former site of Humboldt School.
From the various meetings, district officials said attendees “generally do not want to see a building” on the South Lot.
“It was pretty consistent in the community that this has limited opportunities, especially for our student athletes at Jefferson High School, and that we needed to be more student centered,” said Camille Idedevbo, manager of the district’s Innovation Studio.
From May to early June, the Innovation Studio hosted the two workshops, as well as a community meeting for the Center for Black Student Excellence, a project backed by the same voter-approved bond that is funding the Jefferson modernization.
Sabin and Irvington elementary schools: In 2022, the school district published a press release saying any move would not affect existing King, Sabin and Irvington Elementary schools. At Wednesday’s meeting, the idea to merge Sabin and Irvington was shared, consolidating the two schools into one building and freeing up one of the buildings for Tubman.
PPS board member Julia Brim-Edwards expressed concern that the district would be going back on its statement, and could jeopardize millions in state funding set aside for the Tubman relocation.
“The district actually committed that we wouldn’t consider those sites,” Brim-Edwards said. “I don’t feel like we would’ve gotten the resources [...] that was very much one of the reasons we got the money, because we took those off the table.”
But the agreement only relates to displacement, not a co-location, board members said.
At workshops, Idedevbo said the following three properties came up as other options previously on the table that participants wanted PPS administrators to investigate further.
- Property at N Williams and N. Russell: District officials said they’ve “initiated an official channel of communication” with project managers of the Williams Russell project and Emmanuel Hospital.
- Irving Park: District officials said they’ve “initiated an official channel of communication” with Portland Parks and Recreation.
- Lloyd Center: According to district documents, representatives of the property have offered the site as a “temporary location for the Center for Black Student Excellence” but not as a site for Tubman.
Any site the district does not own will require an agreement with the owner of the property.
“There is a lot of promise in some of these, not all of them,” Garcia said. “We’re excited that this pause has really allowed us to reset some of those relationships.”