Portland School Bond | Dyslexia Screening | Homelessness Symphony

• The 2017 Portland school bond measure could be as much as $190 million short of the estimated amount needed to complete the facility renovations promised. The $790 million bond, which voters overwhelmingly approved, is the largest school bond in Oregon history. Now, school board members are trying to figure out how previous renovation estimates were so far off. Our guests are Rob Manning, OPB's education reporter; Rita Moore, Chairwoman of the Portland Public Schools Board; and Claire Hertz, the Deputy Superintendent for Business and Operations.

• In 2015 the Oregon Legislature passed SB 612, mandating a number of steps to address what it called a "dyslexia emergency" in schools statewide. A subsequent bill, SB 1003 — passed by the 2017 legislature —  carries forward the dyslexia-related training requirements from SB 612, and includes requirements that districts universally screen for risk factors of dyslexia in kindergarten. Parents will be informed if their child exhibits risk factors for or signs of dyslexia. Given the number of kindergartners and 1st graders, and the estimated rate of dyslexia among school-age children, there is the potential for more than 12,000 letters to be sent home to parents this school year. The legislature provided very little funding to help Oregon's 197 school districts meet these new goals. Julie Smith, the director of special programs for the Pendleton school district joins us to discuss.

• The Oregon Symphony has spent a year meditating on the idea of home, which we talked with conductor Carlos Kalmar about last fall. The symphony commissioned a number of works, including one from songwriter Gabriel Kahane about homelessness. His work, titled "emergency shelter intake form," premiered last spring. The symphony will reprise and record the piece this Friday.

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