An initial assessment at Robert Gray Middle School revealed about 10 breaks in water lines due to power outages and freezing temperatures, along with extensive damage to ceilings, walls and saturated floors. The school was closed Monday, Jan. 22, 2024, as the majority of Portland Public Schools sites reopened.
Portland Public Schools
Most students across Oregon and Southwest Washington are returning to school after snow and ice storms wreaked havoc on families, neighborhoods and districts all last week.
However, the extent of the damage varies from region to region or even within individual school districts. In a few areas, getting back to normal may take weeks as work crews rush to meet the high demand.
Nearly all schools in Portland Public Schools were open Monday, with the exception of a few westside schools, including Ainsworth, Markham and Forest Park elementary schools and Robert Gray Middle School. On the east side, the Kelly Annex also remained closed.
Markham Elementary and Gray Middle School suffered the most extensive damage, according to messages PPS sent to families in those school communities Monday night. The district said those two schools may not reopen to students until the middle of February.
“Unlike other schools, burst pipes and flooding were not isolated to one or two rooms in your buildings,” the district’s Chief of Schools Jon Franco said in the message to families at the two schools. “Water damaged plaster and drywall throughout your buildings, and disrupted asbestos when ceiling pipes burst.”
The message went on to point out that the district is “competing” for contractors to perform repairs and possible abatement at the buildings. The district said it didn’t yet have a “complete plan” for how to resume instruction for the hundreds of students affected by the extended closures at Robert Gray and Markham schools.
Director of Media Relations Valerie Feder said earlier Monday that the district is continuously getting updates on the damage. At Robert Gray, an on-site assessment revealed about 10 breaks in water lines due to power outages and freezing temperatures, along with extensive damage to ceilings, walls and saturated floors, but that’s just one snapshot at Gray alone.
Another snapshot — Markham was experiencing widespread damage to ceiling tiles, drywall and gym flooring due to broken piping.
Including Markham and Gray, district officials said schools in Portland’s West Hills saw the most damage. They added that it was the type of damage that couldn’t be fast-tracked over the weekend as they managed to do at other sites.
Feder said Ainsworth Elementary was closed Monday as staff made adjustments so students from the Ainsworth annex — where there was the most known damage — could join in the main building while repairs continue. Ainsworth students are set to return on Tuesday.
On the east side, PPS technicians are tackling four broken pipes at the Kelly Annex. Feder said there’s no visible standing water at Kelly, but the aftermath reveals widespread ceiling and drywall damage.
While they don’t want any students to miss out on school, Feder said it was amazing the damage was limited, given that many district buildings are over 100 years old. More than 3,100 students districtwide were affected by Monday’s closures.
Just west in Beaverton School District, all schools were open Monday. Most of the schools that had damage have been repaired, officials said, but the district will have repairs continuing at two schools — the Beaverton Academy of Science and Engineering, or BASE, and West Tualatin View Elementary School — as contractors become available.
Public Communications Officer Shellie Bailey-Shah said students in impacted classrooms have been moved to other spaces.
At West Tualatin View, trees damaged the covered play area and one classroom in the corner of a building, leaving a hole in the classroom ceiling. Some parents voiced concerns to district leadership that the students shouldn’t have returned yet for fear of safety risks.
Bailey-Shah said students in the affected classroom were relocated. The district is waiting on a contractor to do the ceiling repair. Beaverton’s facilities team inspected the downed trees, she said, as well as the trees around the covered play area. They determined there was no immediate threat.
That entire area has been cordoned off so that students and staff can’t access it, she added. But the district’s waiting on a contracted arborist to give a final assessment on which, if any, additional trees should be cut down.
“We, like many, are simply waiting [for] those folks to be available,” Bailey-Shah told OPB. “Once the assessment is made, our contracted tree removal company will do the work.”
Farther south in the Willamette Valley, Springfield schools remained closed Monday, but staff were preparing for students to return Tuesday. Staff were expected to report to buildings where power was restored, and transportation teams were to test bus routes.
Several schools in the Columbia River Gorge — on both the Oregon and Washington sides — face continued closures and delays this week.
Some, such as the Oregon Trail School District in Sandy, are rerouting buses to address continued road restrictions. Others, such as Washington’s Washougal School District, posted delays for Monday classes and canceled specialty programs. Meanwhile, Dufur School District in Oregon is closed but operating remotely. Mt. Pleasant School in Washington is expected to be closed all week because of the damage.
According to the Oregon Department of Education, the state does not require districts to report on the impacts of inclement or severe weather and does not have any statewide data when events like this happen.
Also, the state does not have any funds available to provide emergency relief to districts that have incurred unexpected costs due to damage to facilities from severe weather. Districts may have to dip into general funds to cover repairs.