New Portland Public Schools superintendent shares goals for this year

Classes at Portland Public Schools begin next week and the district also welcomes a new superintendent. Kimberlee Armstrong began her career as a teacher in the Puyallup School District in Washington and most recently served as deputy superintendent of Evergreen Public Schools in Vancouver. Armstrong joins to share what she’s looking forward to in her first year overseeing the district and goals in her first year.

Note: This transcript was computer generated and edited by a volunteer.

Geoff Norcross: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Geoff Norcross, in for Dave Miller. I don’t know how often the Portland Public School Board agrees, but when it comes to their new leader, they were unanimous. In June, the PPS school board voted to approve Kimberlee Armstrong to be the next superintendent. One board member registered his vote as “yes, yes, yes, all kinds of yes.” For her part, Dr. Armstrong called the appointment a dream come true and a moment she had been preparing for several years.

We wanted to catch her because the new school year is about to start. Kimberlee Armstrong joins us now in our studios. Dr. Armstrong, welcome to Think Out Loud and congratulations.

Kimberlee Armstrong: Oh, thank you. It’s exciting to be here with you, Geoff.

Norcross: We know that you were previously a deputy superintendent in the Evergreen School District, but you have been here before. You were the chief academic officer for PPS and your children went to school in this district. Why was it important for you to come back and lead here?

Armstrong: Oh, that’s such an excellent question. I would say that when you think of the opportunity in Portland right now, to rise schools to the level that they need to be, to be able to put resources in the classrooms and to build an educational system that a city, that a state can be proud of, it was an opportunity that I didn’t want to pass. I think I see myself in the students of Portland from all across the city. If I don’t see myself, I see my kiddos when they were younger.

Norcross: What do you mean you see yourself in the students here?

Armstrong: Well, I was a kiddo who grew up in a city, San Francisco, and I spent some years in Sacramento as well. But I think back to my years in San Francisco and there were a lot of complicated pieces happening in the city at the time. We were a family who was constantly in transition. I grew up spending some time in homeless shelters, transition centers. Free and reduced lunch was definitely a part of my life as we were a family impacted by poverty. And there are parts of our system, parts of our city where I see that same concern or issues that are preventing a lot of students from accessing high quality instruction in the classroom.

So I see myself, and I know what it takes to be able to lean into community and be able to create some of the bridges that need to happen so that we can get our students in classes where they can experience the instruction that I need them to experience.

Norcross: The Evergreen and Portland districts are right next to each other, but I’m sure they’re different. Can you point up some key differences?

Armstrong: Yeah. Well, listen, Evergreen in Vancouver is a very special place. So when the superintendent had reached out and I was like, oh, my heart is in Portland and I’m so excited about this work, the opportunity to go over and support the superintendent and his leadership, and some of the things that they had in front of them. I know that the two cities, Vancouver and Portland, present different, but the data, the rate in which students are achieving and experiencing success is about the same. So the opportunity to be back in Washington, which is sort of like a homework state, I began my educational career there.

Norcross: In Puyallup?

Armstrong: In Puyallup, yes. Very good. Puyallup, Washington. I began as a middle school math teacher there. So, I would say they’re very similar. The data is very similar. While the cities, like I said, they present different – one, a little more suburban, the other one urban – the data is the same.

Norcross: You’ve taught in elementary, middle and high schools. Is there a piece of your teaching experience you think that will influence your new role?

Armstrong: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I believe in the power of teaching and learning. Teachers hold a special place in my heart. It makes all the difference in a kiddo who’s coming out of a situation that’s hard and tough, and knowing that you have that one person that’s constantly pushing you, that believes in you, is inspiring. So then to transition to a teacher … and I was a second year teacher. I tried some other things out. I started a nonprofit. I was in the business world and doing all those things. And then I had the opportunity to be influenced again by a teacher and decided to get back in the role.

When I think about the influence, I think about how we, as a city, can definitely do a better job of uplifting the profession of teaching, loving on our teachers and supporting them in ways that will allow them to deliver in ways that we need them to deliver for our students.

Norcross: When you were a chief academic officer in the PPS previously, was there something in the district that you thought, we could do this differently, that now you can do something about it as the superintendent?

Armstrong: Yeah, I love that question. Well, I will say first to keep going. So really excited to continue to put high quality instructional materials in the hands of all of our teachers, to provide the training and support.

I think one of the things that we could do a whole lot better, and I was excited to have this start of my leadership – actually, it’s already started – is to get out in the field and listen to the stories of our teachers. I’m so excited to build a relationship with our labor partners and to be united in the cause of high quality education. So I definitely see and plan on using different strategies to get at that work.

Norcross: You mentioned your labor partners and that brings up the strike. It was last year, it took up 11 instructional days, but it lasted for what is basically the month of November. How do you plan to build trust between the teachers in the district and the administration?

Armstrong: That’s a great question. And I will say that any time there’s a loss of instructional time, it’s impactful. And I think that there’s some beliefs that the impact was only to students and families. I think there was an impact on teachers as well. And I think rebuilding trust takes those deliberate actions over time. Like I don’t want to just show up in classrooms and say, “Let’s start the trust and the relationship here.” I want that to be demonstrated in the way that I show up and the actions that I take over the course of this year that shows that I am about teaching and learning, that I support the work that’s happening in the classroom. And then I’m using my resources to support their learning.

Norcross: A three-year $175 million contract came out of that strike and the PBS board agreed to it. But some of the members were seriously concerned about funding it in the near future because of what they consider to be failures by the governor and the legislature to adequately fund education in the state. So what is your sense of where things stand in Salem on school funding?

Armstrong: Yeah. Well, I am excited that our governor is in the conversations about raising the current service levels and I think those conversations are progressing. I know superintendents around the state, we’re meeting, collaborating and putting together an action plan to continue to focus on funding the work that needs to happen in schools. I will say, we focus on instruction and teaching – that’s the heart of our work. And we also have facilities and other high areas of need where we need to continue to not just count on our legislators but also our voters to help us prepare environments for students that maximize learning.

Norcross: You’re transitioning into a school year following major budget cuts and layoffs. What is your game plan?

Armstrong: Well, start the budget conversation early, I will tell you that for sure. Really getting together the team and begin talking about our values and our priorities, and making sure that we are putting those numbers where it’s needed most. It’s the number one priority.

Norcross: This is a point in time when PPS has seen declining enrollment and kids bring funds, as I’m sure you know. What do you plan to do to draw families back to the district?

Armstrong: Well, we need them to know who we are, right? They need to know that the work that is going on in classrooms are high quality. And yeah, we definitely need to demonstrate that on the score front and our annual assessments, but there are some amazing things happening all across our cities and classrooms. And I think finding a way to show our city that, to show our families that, to center our students in that narrative.

I will say in our early numbers – and I look forward to seeing the way that they settle as we get into the start of school – we’re actually seeing an increase in the numbers from what we projected. So I’m hoping that that holds, but that’s just a start, right? I think the way that we draw families into Portland is by ensuring that when they come to us, they will be guaranteed a high quality education.

Norcross: What is your pitch, though, to parents who have high quality education options in private school? What is your pitch to getting them to come to their neighborhood public school?

Armstrong: Well, first, to be able to have students to be in community with those in their neighborhood, it mirrors our world, right? So I would say that that’s number one. I think number two is that we ensure that the materials and the instructional resources that we make available are high quality. And yeah, there could be high quality resources and I’m sure there are in many facilities and schools across the city, across the state. But Portland’s a special place. If you’ve spent time in the city, then I think you would know that.

I think there’s other things – we’re super excited to announce that all of our students will receive free breakfast and lunch this year. There’s no qualifying for that. We also have rich resources like our career technical education program, dual language options. I mean, there’s so many options for families to be able to access and we want to be able to tell those stories.

Norcross: I’m glad you mentioned free lunches and breakfasts because that’s a hot topic this year. Democratic vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz, is touting that as a major accomplishment during his time as the governor of Minnesota. Why is it important that all students in the district get free meals?

Armstrong: Well, as you know, students who are hungry aren’t ready to learn and not everyone has the access to meals when they’re leaving home. And even if they do, that’s one less financial burden or one less resource that families need to think about when prepping their student for the day. We have kiddos who bring food from home. If you spend any time in an elementary school, you’ll see that depending on what day it is, maybe pizza day, most of those lunches end up in other places. I hate to share that with some families, but …

Norcross: I loved pizza day.

Armstrong: Yeah. Yeah. But given those, I want our students to be well fed, just like we want them to be well educated. Well fed, well educated, safe and in clean environments.

Norcross: Phones are a hot topic. This school year, the district is working on a policy to severely limit mobile phones on school campuses with a policy taking effect in 2025. Where do you stand on this issue, as a parent and as an administrator?

Armstrong: Yeah, that’s a great question. Well, I do know that cell phones are distractions. I think all electronic devices that are constantly alerting you to messages, videos or any other things out there in the social media world … it is a distraction. I think what I would say is that any opportunity that we can get to protect our learning environment and to make sure that it’s a place where students are focused on learning is a good move. Now, there’s lots of conversations that we want to have around it, right? We, the reason why we’re not rushing into a policy right now is that we want to have the opportunity to hear from students, to hear from families and make sure that we get the move right, whatever it is that we decide to do.

I will mention though that schools right now have the option of implementing an “off and away” expectation where cellphones are turned off, put away and not brought out. So the teachers and administrators don’t necessarily need to wait for a policy to begin to remove those distractions. But we do believe that if there is board support and language through policy, I think it will help those conversations.

Norcross: But at the same time, Governor Kotek has said she would support a statewide approach to cell phone policies. Do you have a sense of what that might look like if it was applied to the whole state?

Armstrong: Yeah. I wonder. I think it’ll probably be more guidance or even just an expectation or a restatement of a distraction. I think it’s really important that when we start talking about policies and bans that there is some local decision making in that. And when I say local decision making, I’m talking about with our classroom teachers and our administrators. So really wanting to center on that should be the focus, but certainly there are some moves that can be made that help that conversation along in some spaces.

Norcross: Some of the schools in the district had to shut down during the ice storm in January. What can you say about the state of those buildings as the school year starts again?

Armstrong: Yeah. Well, we’re busy repairing and preparing learning environments for students to return to and hope that the reopening of like, for instance, Markham, happens on schedule. These are some complex issues, right? Anytime we’re talking about the roof or some other critical repairs that are needed.

I would say, aside from the ice storm, we have over 50% of our buildings with some work that’s needed, that may list them in critical or pretty significant in terms of need and in the maintenance, across our city. So we have some lofty goals around facilities, repair, update, and hope that that then leads into some conversations about how we go about improving our facilities over the next seven, eight years.

Norcross: 50% – that’s quite a backlog. How do you get at it? How do you attack it?

Armstrong: When you think of deferred maintenance, I think it’s no secret that we have about a billion dollars in deferred maintenance needs. One of the fastest ways is to begin to replace those aging facilities, and make sure that we’re on schedule with our repairs, and we have the resources.

Norcross: First year as the PPS superintendent. What are your goals for this first year?

Armstrong: Oh, I love that question. So I have a couple of them. I think the first one of course is, as you mentioned and began with, the trust in relationships. I think there’s the reestablishment of trust, and I think there’s the building of trust for the first time. Oftentimes, we have these conversations and we assume that trust was there to begin with. We know that we have experienced families and staff in our system who never really had the trust and faith in our system. And again, like I said, going about action to resolve that.

I think, second, is really focusing a conversation on safe and clean learning environments. So that speaks to repair, that speaks to safety, that speaks to all those things that are in the environment of students. Literacy is a huge goal. I want to lift literacy and do a robust campaign that builds in our community and our partners, to talk about what it means to build scholars and while focused on literacy.

Norcross: Kimberlee Armstrong, best of luck this school year. And thanks so much for the time.

Armstrong: Yeah, absolutely. I really appreciate it.

Norcross: Kimberlee Armstrong is the new superintendent of Portland Public Schools.

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