Volunteers had coffee, T-shirts and a PTA sign-up sheet ready bright and early Tuesday morning at Woodlawn Elementary School in Northeast Portland.
Student Amara Cameron looks at a classroom list to determine where she needs to go on the first day of classes at Woodlawn Elementary, northeast Portland, Ore., Aug. 27, 2024. Elementary students across Portland, as well as sixth and ninth graders, began classes on Tuesday.
Anna Lueck / OPB
As students began arriving for the new school year, they hugged staff members and shared stories from the summer. Parents snapped photos and soothed first-day nerves — many came bearing baked goods or other donations for their classrooms.
More than 40,000 students are starting a new year in Portland Public Schools this week.
Elementary schoolers started Tuesday, along with sixth and ninth graders, who each got a one-day head start ahead of their older peers at their new middle and high schools.
New Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong joined in on the fun, arriving at Woodlawn via school bus shortly before Portland’s new elementary school start time of 8 a.m.
While there, Armstrong stopped by Lionel Clegg’s first-grade class, where students were learning classroom rules, like how to clean up and how to sit properly in their chairs.
Teacher Lionel Clegg, center, explains classroom rules to his new first-graders while new Portland Public Schools Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong, right, watches, at Woodlawn Elementary, Portland, Ore., Aug. 27, 2024. Clegg, who was a Woodlawn student himself, has taught at the school for over twenty years.
Anna Lueck / OPB
Afterward, Armstrong stopped by another campus in Northeast — Benson Polytechnic High School — to get a sneak peek at some of the school’s newly renovated spaces before a grand opening next month.
Benson Principal Curtis Wilson Jr. said it was “breathtaking” to finally have the remodeled school open and students in the building after an eight-year building process. “It hasn’t quite hit me yet,” he said.
Wilson also noted that several hundred students left the school when it moved to a temporary location three years ago. He said he hopes to increase enrollment to full capacity.
“We’re back and excited to have you,” he said of his students.
Students on the entry walkway of Benson Polytechnic High School, Portland, Ore., Aug. 27, 2024. Benson is a technical public high school that offers courses in subjects as wide-ranging as healthcare, automotive/aviation technology, and radio broadcasting. The school was recently remodeled to provide even better access to industry-standard technologies.
Anna Lueck / OPB
Across Oregon, roughly half a million students are starting classes this week and next. Most will start after Labor Day.
Schools face several challenges this year, including budget crises, high absenteeism rates and a renewed push to control student cellphone use during school days.
However, state education leaders have also stressed the many good things happening in schools this year, such as more districts offering universal school meals and Oregon’s historic investments in summer learning and literacy efforts.