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Thursday, June 17, 2010

Jefferson High supporters urge Portland School Board to save school | OregonLive.com

Jefferson High supporters urge Portland School Board to save school | OregonLive.com


Jefferson High supporters urge Portland School Board to save school

Published: Thursday, June 17, 2010, 9:47 AM Updated: Thursday, June 17, 2010, 11:52 AM


EnlargeRobin Beavers, Terese Brazzle, Mikayla Melson, Iyesha Rosser, and Jay'Neisha Davis (left to right) sit in front of the Portland Public School Board members during an open hearing. "We want them to have to look into the students faces," said Lisa Manning, a Jefferson alumna. Arkasha Stevenson/The OregonianStudents, community leaders rally in support of Jefferson High gallery (5 photos)More than 400 people cheered and chanted support Wednesday night for Jefferson High School, urging the Portland School Board to retreat from possible closure of the school. 

Instead, they got a promise of more public forums and a prediction of a vote on the closure proposal the week of June 28.



The show of support lasted about a half-hour and featured eight impassioned speeches from alumni, neighborhood advocates, the Pink Martini band founder and a chief organizer of the show of support.

"We will be back, en masse, in the same way" at future public forums, Tony Hopson, president of Self Enhancement Inc., told school board members.

Six buses brought many of the supporters to the school district's administration building north of the Rose Garden.

They turned out after board members indicated last week that they might close Jefferson or drastically alter its mission. Superintendent Carole Smith originally proposed closing Marshall and revamping Benson in the high school reorganization plan she unveiled in April.

After Hopson spoke, Ron Herndon, leader of the National Head Start Association, offered a historical glimpse of how the school district has treated the North Portland neighborhood surrounding Jefferson.

Herndon recounted years of busing African American children out of the neighborhood to a variety of schools, while white children were bused into African American neighborhoods to attend district-