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
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-