'Save Portland PE' campaign makes a fast, well-funded splash
Published: Monday, June 28, 2010, 6:32 PM Updated: Monday, June 28, 2010, 6:34 PM
A coalition of physical education-loving health and sports groups have put together a splashy "Save Portland PE" campaign complete with a professional poll, a full-page newspaper ad and a radio advertising blitz.
Just days after Portland Public Schools Superintendent Carole Smith recommended cutting elementary and middle school PE teachers as part of her plan to handle a $19 million cut in state funding for next school year, the coalition made a professionally designed, well-funded splash to quash that plan.
Made up of groups including the Oregon Medical Association, the Trail Blazers, Nike and Providence Health Services, the coalition is trumpeting the results of its weekend poll, conducted by the respected firm Davis, Hibbitts & Mighhall. The poll found 86 percent of Portland residents want the school board to spend money from reserves rather than cut PE.
Smith recommended cutting 66 full-time positions from elementary and middle schools to save $6 million. She said principals strongly favor cutting a uniform elective offering from all the schools -- and physical education is the only program offered in nearly every elementary and K-8 school and the only elective that involves more than about 25 teaching positions.
The Physical Education for All Kids, or PEAK, coalition has existed for several years to push for more physical education in all Oregon schools. It sprang into action as soon as it heard Smith's kill-PE proposal, with many of its leaders working long hours through the weekend to spur public input against the plan, said Drew Mahalic, executive director of the Oregon Sports Authority Foundation
Newhall named interim director of SMART reading program
A leader in Portland during the 1970s and 80s, Sarah Newhall returns to Portland and temporarily takes the reins of the volunteer reading program