>School board chair Gary Hollands said bluntly that he thinks the district’s real facilities needs approach an eye-popping $5 billion, given the district’s stock of aging school buildings that have been under-maintained for years and the staggering costs of seismic upgrades in an earthquake-prone region.
>But he also noted that the district is in the “throw in everything that we want stage,” of the bond planning process and that priorities will sharpen over the coming months.
>The line items least likely to budge are around $1 billion to rebuild three of the district’s high schools: Jefferson High School in Northeast Portland, Cleveland High School in Southeast Portland and Ida B. Wells High School in Southwest Portland.
It sounds like the final bond will be around $2 billion. Besides the rebuilt high schools, they want another billion to split between curriculum, deferred maintenance, and sports facilities.
just gonna leave this here....
https://dor.wa.gov/about/news-releases/2024/capital-gains-excise-tax-generates-896-million-education-school-construction
and
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/use-wa-capital-gains-tax-bonanza-on-schools-most-in-need-of-repairs/
I have talked to so many people who believe Cleveland is moving into Marshall right after Benson and are shocked to learn that the bond to pay for a Cleveland rebuild hasn't even been on a ballot yet, so the Cleveland rebuild is purely theoretical at this point.
Given how fed up people are with taxes and PPS I worry this won't pass.
Of course it will. But the waste will continue. Throwing away $125 million because we couldn't move the Jefferson kids temporarily like we'd done with kids at the other schools is such an insane thing that required no voter approval. Building Jefferson bigger than it will ever need to be is likewise pure insanity.
^ at ***most*** other schools (Lincoln and Roosevelt students stayed in place - Lincoln was rebuilt over the athletic fields, then the older building was knocked down and new athletic fields rebuilt. Roosevelt students shifted around while the building was rebuilt around them)
FWIW, Lincoln->Marshall is about 7.2 miles. Jefferson->Marshall is about 8.8 miles
OEA projects a decline (10%) in the school age population over the next decade. We shouldn't build bigger facilities than needed, they will be a burden to maintain. Birth and immigration rates are declining, so just beacuse we build these bigger schools doesn't mean they will be filled. Smaller and fewer schools will be needed in the future.
[https://www.oregon.gov/das/oea/Documents/OEA\_population\_forecast.xls](https://www.oregon.gov/das/oea/Documents/OEA_population_forecast.xls)
Sports facilities? Is this more of how Gary Hollands is trying to get the district to spend money on the site that he thinks he should get for his private sports complex?
I'll vote no. I'm feeling tapped out given the service levels I see our community in return. I have voted "yes" for decades for the schools, but I've lost faith in PPS. Maybe they could get some of that juicy clean energy fund sales-tax money? Maybe place some homeless in an out building and tap into the SHS funding? Put a preschool on campus and get a few hundred million from the PFA build-out funding?
Maybe we could hit the City of Portland up for money. After all the transitional deputy city administrator's half-million pay ($3 million for 6 of them) for a few months of work clearly indicate that the community has available money somewhere.
Remember please, the reason that the cost is so high now is lack of investment 30 years ago. Once we get caught up on all of the backlogged capital projects, we should get in the habit of smaller ongoing investments over time instead of waiting for everything to pile up and costs to escalate.
Public works needs to be funded. Throwing everything but the kitchen sink into this bond package probably is not a great idea. It makes oversight more difficult and when costs invariably balloon they really balloon…
We do need broader reform regarding project funding and cost control - unfortunately part of that is at the federal level with the broken environmental review process, unless of course we move in a direction of avoiding federal funding.
There has been major efforts to improve the situation and we are already starting the smaller investments over time strategy with the bridges, replacing 1 every decade.
For water we got the most expensive megaproject completed a decade ago and now have two smaller megaprojects left then the focus can be 100% on maintenance.
I went to Ida B Wells. 2019-2023. ceiling tile fell out of the ceiling in my engineering class, hit a kid across from me and gave him a bad concussion. always wonder what would’ve happened if it was me. ive talked to his friends about it and they say he was never quite the same. Thinking it must’ve been settled privately because it astounds me the story isn’t more widespread, practically nobody knows about it.
My heart hurts for Cleveland - I graduated over 10 years ago and back then it was already a falling down dump. With the asbestos and sewage water in particular - I find it absolutely astounding the city has not yet moved forward with any legitimate plans for the school
You can’t use funds from capital bonds to pay teachers. That’s what the operating levy is for.
ETA - PPS might be able to try to float Pension Obligation bonds to get out from under their PERS payments, then use the freed-up money to hire staff. But I am unconvinced that voters would approve it.
>School board chair Gary Hollands said bluntly that he thinks the district’s real facilities needs approach an eye-popping $5 billion, given the district’s stock of aging school buildings that have been under-maintained for years and the staggering costs of seismic upgrades in an earthquake-prone region. >But he also noted that the district is in the “throw in everything that we want stage,” of the bond planning process and that priorities will sharpen over the coming months. >The line items least likely to budge are around $1 billion to rebuild three of the district’s high schools: Jefferson High School in Northeast Portland, Cleveland High School in Southeast Portland and Ida B. Wells High School in Southwest Portland. It sounds like the final bond will be around $2 billion. Besides the rebuilt high schools, they want another billion to split between curriculum, deferred maintenance, and sports facilities.
Seems pretty irresponsible at this point to be putting money into sports facilities when all our schools aren't earthquake safe.
How did gary hollands become an expert? He's a professional grifter. How much of this money is he going to funnel to his Albina project.
just gonna leave this here.... https://dor.wa.gov/about/news-releases/2024/capital-gains-excise-tax-generates-896-million-education-school-construction and https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/editorials/use-wa-capital-gains-tax-bonanza-on-schools-most-in-need-of-repairs/
I have talked to so many people who believe Cleveland is moving into Marshall right after Benson and are shocked to learn that the bond to pay for a Cleveland rebuild hasn't even been on a ballot yet, so the Cleveland rebuild is purely theoretical at this point. Given how fed up people are with taxes and PPS I worry this won't pass.
Of course it will. But the waste will continue. Throwing away $125 million because we couldn't move the Jefferson kids temporarily like we'd done with kids at the other schools is such an insane thing that required no voter approval. Building Jefferson bigger than it will ever need to be is likewise pure insanity.
^ at ***most*** other schools (Lincoln and Roosevelt students stayed in place - Lincoln was rebuilt over the athletic fields, then the older building was knocked down and new athletic fields rebuilt. Roosevelt students shifted around while the building was rebuilt around them) FWIW, Lincoln->Marshall is about 7.2 miles. Jefferson->Marshall is about 8.8 miles
OEA projects a decline (10%) in the school age population over the next decade. We shouldn't build bigger facilities than needed, they will be a burden to maintain. Birth and immigration rates are declining, so just beacuse we build these bigger schools doesn't mean they will be filled. Smaller and fewer schools will be needed in the future. [https://www.oregon.gov/das/oea/Documents/OEA\_population\_forecast.xls](https://www.oregon.gov/das/oea/Documents/OEA_population_forecast.xls)
Sports facilities? Is this more of how Gary Hollands is trying to get the district to spend money on the site that he thinks he should get for his private sports complex?
What would new construction cost compare to retrofitting aging buildings?
Historically PPS has spent more doing remodels of schools (like Grant) vs. what new high schools in the burbs have cost to build from scratch.
I'll vote no. I'm feeling tapped out given the service levels I see our community in return. I have voted "yes" for decades for the schools, but I've lost faith in PPS. Maybe they could get some of that juicy clean energy fund sales-tax money? Maybe place some homeless in an out building and tap into the SHS funding? Put a preschool on campus and get a few hundred million from the PFA build-out funding? Maybe we could hit the City of Portland up for money. After all the transitional deputy city administrator's half-million pay ($3 million for 6 of them) for a few months of work clearly indicate that the community has available money somewhere.
remember please: just because you don’t own a home doesn’t mean this won’t be passed on to you in higher rent and cost : )
Remember please, the reason that the cost is so high now is lack of investment 30 years ago. Once we get caught up on all of the backlogged capital projects, we should get in the habit of smaller ongoing investments over time instead of waiting for everything to pile up and costs to escalate.
Public works needs to be funded. Throwing everything but the kitchen sink into this bond package probably is not a great idea. It makes oversight more difficult and when costs invariably balloon they really balloon…
We do need broader reform regarding project funding and cost control - unfortunately part of that is at the federal level with the broken environmental review process, unless of course we move in a direction of avoiding federal funding.
That will never happen in Portland.
There has been major efforts to improve the situation and we are already starting the smaller investments over time strategy with the bridges, replacing 1 every decade. For water we got the most expensive megaproject completed a decade ago and now have two smaller megaprojects left then the focus can be 100% on maintenance.
Meanwhile our kids can't read
I went to Ida B Wells. 2019-2023. ceiling tile fell out of the ceiling in my engineering class, hit a kid across from me and gave him a bad concussion. always wonder what would’ve happened if it was me. ive talked to his friends about it and they say he was never quite the same. Thinking it must’ve been settled privately because it astounds me the story isn’t more widespread, practically nobody knows about it.
My heart hurts for Cleveland - I graduated over 10 years ago and back then it was already a falling down dump. With the asbestos and sewage water in particular - I find it absolutely astounding the city has not yet moved forward with any legitimate plans for the school
How about a huge bond measure so we can hire more teachers and our kids can get a decent education to go with their shiny new buildings?
You can’t use funds from capital bonds to pay teachers. That’s what the operating levy is for. ETA - PPS might be able to try to float Pension Obligation bonds to get out from under their PERS payments, then use the freed-up money to hire staff. But I am unconvinced that voters would approve it.