Reactions to possible Jefferson High School closure as diverse as the residents in its attendance zone | OregonLive.com

Reactions to possible Jefferson High School closure as diverse as the residents in its attendance zone

Published: Sunday, June 13, 2010, 4:41 PM Updated: Sunday, June 13, 2010, 4:42 PM

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Faith Cathcart/The OregonianMarlon Miles (left), a 2009 graduate of Jefferson High School, and 2008 graduates Wayne Forthan (middle) and Jonathan Hall said the school has a family feel. All have relatives who attended or hoped to attend the North Portland school, now threatened with closure.

The Portland School Board's plan to close Jefferson High and disperse students in its zone to four other high schools has elicited diverse reactions, much in keeping with the diversity of the families who live in that gentrified swath of inner North and Northeast Portland.

No community ever wants to lose its high school. But in the case of Jefferson, issues of race, class and history mean the reaction is even more ferocious and complex.

"When you look at the decision to close Jefferson in light of the district's undeniable history of continually giving Jefferson short shrift, one can only surmise this was the intention all along," Eric Van Der Wolf, parent of a 2010 Jefferson graduate and vice chairman of the site council, said Friday.

Read previous stories about the Portland high school reorganization.

African American leaders say closing the school is a racist blow, unfairly striking students and neighborhoods in the heart of the city's historic African American population center. Dismantling Jefferson on the grounds that it is small and low-achieving would be a final insult, they say, given that the district has systematically undermined the school, helping cause those very problems.

But among the legions of families who live in the Jefferson zone but have chosen or made plans to send their children to other schools, many are breathing sighs of relief that their child can now attend Benson, Grant, Madison or Lincoln.

Among parents, attitudes are split largely, but not exclusively, along racial lines, with white parents most in favor of closing Jefferson. But it's not that cut and dried. Some African American parents from the Jefferson neighborhood have testified passionately about their desire to preserve Benson High as the best place for their child. Some white people testified passionately about the need to keep, and rebuild, Jefferson.

Currently, Jefferson has only 430 students, about 330 of them from the neighborhood. The school is 60 percent African American, 17 percent Latino and 13 percent white, making it the only