Superintendent Carole Smith suggests several changes in Portland high school reorganization | OregonLive.com

Superintendent Carole Smith suggests several changes in Portland high school reorganization | OregonLive.com

Superintendent Carole Smith suggests several changes in Portland high school reorganization

By Betsy Hammond, The Oregonian

June 02, 2010, 9:12PM

Reacting to community criticism of her high school redesign proposal, Portland Superintendent Carole Smith on Wednesday proposed several modest changes, including keeping vocationally oriented Benson High as a four-year school but shrinking it to 400 students.

She also called for a series of attendance boundary changes to help decrease socioeconomic gulfs between high schools serving either a large concentration or a small fraction of low-income students.

And she raised the possibility that every high school in the district might have to switch to a common schedule. That would be a big change from the current mix of trimesters and semesters; six-, seven- and eight-period days; alternating-day block schedules; and other customized features.

Smith's plan, unveiled in April, would close Marshall High and convert Benson into a two-year technical center. The aim was to create eight larger and more equitable neighborhood high schools so that each could offer a full spectrum of classes, including advanced academics, fine arts and world languages, as well as catch-up classes for struggling students.

Most Portland Public Schools high schools are missing at least one of those elements, and those that serve mostly poor and minority students have the fewest offerings.

School board members worried that the district could not afford the full spectrum of courses on eight campuses, averaging about 1,250 students apiece, especially given looming cuts in state funding. Across the three-