Four Portland school buildings suffered so much damage from the recent snow and ice storms that they’re not available for instruction — and may not be for some time. Rather than have students sit idle while repairs are made, and instead of instituting distance learning as districts across Oregon did at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, administrators of the state’s largest district are moving students into whatever space they can find.
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
The four affected schools are Forest Park and Markham elementary schools, Robert Gray Middle School and the Kelly Head Start program.
The solutions for the four schools are somewhat complex, and depend on what space is available close to the damaged buildings.
Forest Park Elementary School is one of the more remote campuses in Portland Public Schools, on Bonny Slope north of Northwest Cornell Road. The plan laid out by Portland administrators involves students finishing the week doing remote instruction and then starting to use portable classrooms at the elementary school, Tuesday, Jan. 30. Students will alternate between attending school in a portable and continuing with distance learning, until the main school building is available again. PPS said that will be February 5.
“These next several days will undoubtedly be challenging, but I’m confident that we will meet this moment with grace, patience, and creativity,” principal Aaron Martini told Forest Park Elementary families in a message this week.
Markham Elementary has arguably the most complicated plans, with its student body being split into four parts and sent to four different westside schools: Capitol Hill, Hayhurst, Maplewood and Rieke elementaries. Which students go to which school depends on the student’s main classroom teacher, though to save space, classes are being combined.
“I’m sure there will be some confusion and a little chaos at the start,” Markham Principal Traniece Brown-Warrens said in a message to families. “We will all miss our school, our home away from home, and it will take time for our students to adjust to a new environment.”
PPS has said that some school buildings won’t be in condition to receive students until mid-February. The Markham message didn’t include an anticipated return date.
A similar split of students is also ahead for the Head Start program at the Kelly Center in Southeast Portland, according to a message sent to affected families. While repairs are being made to the Kelly Center, students will go to the nearby Kelly Elementary School campus, or to Whitman or Woodmere elementary schools. Again, the timeframe for that change is Tuesday. And again, no update is given on a timeframe for the Kelly Center’s repairs to be completed.
For the oldest students affected by the weather closures, middle schoolers at Robert Gray, the entire school is expected to share the Jackson Middle School building with that school’s current student body. As a former high school, Jackson is one of the larger PPS school buildings.
“There is much to do, from moving materials to aligning schedules and adjusting spaces within Jackson to accommodate the Gray community,” PPS Chief of Schools Jon Franco acknowledged in a message to Gray and Jackson families.
On Monday, Jan. 29, the district is holding a “family event” where students and parents in the two school communities can meet each other and “give Gray students a chance to see the school,” according to Franco’s message. The next day, Gray and Jackson students are expected to go to school together at Jackson.
The message to Jackson and Gray families repeats the previous expectation, that Gray will remain closed until mid-February.