By John Charles
On September 9th, the Portland Public School (PPS) board was set to approve the purchase and sale agreement for the 72,000 square foot “One North Building” in the Albina neighborhood, slated to house the new “Center for Black Student Excellence,” (CBSE).
The District is prepared to spend $16 million on the building, as part of a $60 million allocation from a 2020 construction bond approved by voters. However, the District has never explained how the Center will operate or who it will serve, so it’s difficult to evaluate the real estate proposal. The name of the Center implies it will serve only Black students, but the staff report claims it will be open to everyone. If this is true, should it be called the Center for Student Excellence?
PPS serves about 44-thousand students over 152 square miles, so how will those students travel to the Center before or after school? The building has 10 parking spaces and is not zoned for buses.
Elsewhere, the staff report states that “student use will be limited.” If that’s the case, why purchase a new building with new operating costs? The district already has too many schools while enrollment is in decline.
Learning takes place everywhere within the district. Spending $16 million or even $60 million on a new building will likely have no measurable effects on academic achievement for most PPS students.
The PPS Board is giving itself 90 days to perform due diligence on the transaction and many questions must be answered before the Board makes a final decision in December. Perhaps while evaluating the building, the Board can reevaluate the Center’s vision with a goal to bring student excellence to every school, tailoring experiences to students from different ethnic backgrounds within each school. Maybe investing in Centers for Student Excellence wouldn’t require a new building at all.
Read the full May 2022 19-page report, “The $60 Million Question: What Is the Center for Black Student Excellence?”
John A. Charles, Jr. is President and CEO of Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization.
