Committed to Cultural Diversity
www.portlandobserver.com
A p ril 09. 2003
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C
o in in u n i t y
a le n d a r
SECTION
Schools Charged with Serial Neglect
Alberta Art Hop
Participants Wanted
5b Cc Ud te
The Alberta Art Hop is a one-day I
festival to celebrate the arts and
culture scene in the vibrant
Alberta Street Community. On
Saturday, May 10 the street will
open up and spread around the
glory o f music, dancing, theater,
art and great food. Therewillbeart
exhibitions, a shrine contest, live
music, a parade and hands-on art
projects for adults and children.
Art on Alberta is currently seeking
volunteers, artists and performers [
for the Art Hop. Formore informa
tion, call 503-493-7246
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Economic bias cited against
minority neighborhoods
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Online Adopt-a-Pet
The Oregon Humane Society has |
put a new twist on on-line person
als. With just two clicks, those I
looking for a loving pet can find it
with the dog, cat, rabbit or rodent of
their choice by logging on to
www.oregonhumane.org. Those
interested in pet adoption can scrol 1
through photos ofall the pets avail
able for adoption at the northeast
photo by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Portland shelter and read pet pro-1
Portland School Superintendent Jim Scherzinger (left) and school district spokes
files that are expanded daily.
man Lew Frederick urge support for a new income tax levy on Monday during a
news conference at Chief Joseph Elementary School in north Portland.
Scherzinger said voter rejection of the May 20 ballot measure would result in the
Portland Community College will J loss o f 600 teaching positions and school sports.
Alternative Medicine
Classes
feature a non-credit lecture series |
that explains how natural medi
cine can help you rely on whole-1
some cures that prevent illnesses
as well as heal them. Naturopathic
physician Dr. Suzanne Lawton will
lead a series o f six lectures during
which students can discover prac
tical, safe and natural approaches I
that can be immediately be incor
porated into the home. Each lec
ture will be held from 5:30p.m. to
7:30 p.m. W ednesdays through
May 7 at Tigard High School,
9000 S.W. Durham Rd. Cost is $ 14
for individual lectures or $66 for
the series. For more information, |
call 503-538-9774.
Ladybug Nature Walks
Parents can discover the natural I
world with their pre-schoolers
every Friday morning. A natural
ist will hand out m agnifying
glasses, bug boxes and other tools
to explore the soil, water, bark,
flowers and animals in Portland's
parks. Join the group each Friday
at 10 a.m. in Hoyt Arboretum.
T hereisa$2chargeforeachchild, |
but adults are free.
Radical Women Meeting
New School Tax Urged
Sports and 600
teaching positions
hinge on May 20 ballot
Portland Public School’s Superintendent
Jim Scherzinger told a tale o f two cities on
Monday night one where schools are well
funded under a new ballot measure and
another ofacitythatw ill loose more than 600
teaching positions and all athletic programs
ifthe measure fails.
On May 20, voters will decide if schools
will operate on a budget that contains new
revenue from a county income tax.
Passage will keep one in five teachers on
the job, continue all school sports, Outdoor
School and funding for foreign language
immersion programs.
Unlike property tax measures, which re
quire a majority o f registered voters to par
ticipate in the election. Measure 26-48 will
only need a majority o f those who voting to
win approval.
Ifthe measure passes, Multnomah County
residents with a taxable income o f $30,000
after deductions would pay an additional $21
a month for three years to restore school
funding, school officials said.
Ifthe measure fails, Scherzinger said class
sizes would increase as much as 30 percent
and all athletic programs will be eliminated.
Race and poverty issues have lead to
serial neglect o f som e neighborhood
schools, according to a Portland School
District official.
African A m erican School Board M em
ber Lolenzo Poe said there is clearly an
econom ic bias when it com es to the sup
port given to schools that serve m inority
and low -incom e fam ilies in north and
northeast Portland.
O ne northeast Portland neighborhood
has seen no less than five school clo
sures in the last 30 years, with the most
recent being M eek Elem entary School at
4039 N.F.. A lberta Ct.
W hile the Portland Public School D is
trict claim s the closures are solely related
to population, Poe and others attribute
the declining enrollm ent to the d istric t’s
lack o f com m itm ent to keep schools in
poor neighborhoods thriving.
Poe voted against M eek’s closure and
w ants to know why there is such a dispro
portionate impact to poor neighborhoods?
“T h ere’s clearly an econom ic bias,” he
said.
A long-tim e resident and com m unity
leader, Poe said there has been an ab
sence o f strong advocacy in poor neig h
borhoods that contribute to this trend o f
abandoning schools.
He fears that local school closures and
low achieving schools directly lead to
gentrification, the phenom enon w here
one class o f people displace an existing
population. In this case, A frican A m eri
cans are forced to the outskirts o f the city.
“You continue to disperse students
out to more inviting academ ic environ
m ents with the pretext that you will in
crease their academ ic success, but you
d o n ’t give them a true neighborhood
school," Poe said. “T h ere's a sense o f
loss in neighborhoods. It m anifests itself
in so m any w ays as students are assim i
lated to other areas o f town and younger
kids m ove aw ay from the northeast core.”
Lolenzo Poe
says chronic
neglect o f
some local
schools has
pushed kids
away from the
northeast core
and
dispalaced
black families.
j
Poe identifies another negative side
effect resulting from the closure o f local
schools: The loss o f tw o school p rin ci
pals who are A frican A m erican.
He said two A frican-A m erican princi
pals and role m odels are being removed
from the p u b lic’s view and the view o f
stu d en ts.
Portland Public Schools spokesm an
Lew Frederick, also an African American,
said declining enrollm ent and low achiev
ing schools w ere not exclusively a north
east Portland problem .
Frederick said the district has closed
m ore than 25 schools in 25 years in all
parts o f the city.
"It h asn ’t been tied to econom ic level
or ethnicity," he said.
Frederick says the school closures can
be chalked up to an over-estim ation o f the
c ity ’s grow th and housing areas being re
zoned for industrial use.
“ It really is a population issue,” he
said. “We used to have 80,000 students in
Portland. We now have 54,000.”
D istrict officials said it would take a
bond m easure to reopen W hitaker Middle
School, ju st blocks aw ay from Meek,
w hich closed tw o years ago because o f
the b u ild in g ’s dilapidated condition. In
that sam e building, declining enrollm ent
caused John A dam s High School to close
in the 1980s.
The sam e com m unity also w atched as
continued
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on page B^
Villa in Race
to Get New
Library
Commission pursues
site over North
Lombard location
Emiko Omori, a Japanese Ameri
can filmmaker who spent part o f I
her childhood in a ‘relocation’
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cam p, w ill ex p o se the U .S.
G overnm ent's targeting o f Japa
by L ee P erlman
nese Americans during World
T he P ortland O bserver
War II and their resistance to this |
A divided Multnomah County Com mis
stereotyping in the video screen-
sion is pursuing plans fo ra new library in a
ingofherfilm 'Rabbitinthe Moon’ refurbished Columbia Villa in north Portland.
at the Bread and Roses Center,
Commissioners Lisa Naito and Maria Rojo
819N Killingsworth. The film will
de Steffey dissented on the vote after testi
begin at 7 p.m. on Wednesday,
mony against the proposal by members of
April 9 after a Radical Women
Advocates fora Lombard Library. However,
Meeting. A buffet with vegan and | the group was given credit from Com m is
vegetarian options will be served
sioner Serena Cruz for initiating a push fora
for a donation o f $6. For more
new library in the area.
information, call 503-240-4462.
Cruz wants a new library in the Villa, a
major low-income housing project that be
Parkinson’s Disease
ing refurbished into new homes for people of
Movement Class
all income levels. The Housing Authority o f
A 10-week exercise program for I Portland runs the development and is also
people in northeast Portland with
proposing to provide space for the new
Parkinson's disease will begin on
library.
Thursday, April 10 from 2 p.m. to
Cruz and commission chair Diane Linn
3:30p.m. at Irv ington Village,420
argued that being part o f the New Columbia
N.E. Mason St. The class incor
Villa would allow a library to be built at
porates techiniques from theater,
P hoto by M ark W ashington /T h i P o r u and O rnerà er
reduced cost. It would also contribute to the
dance, yoga and tai chi to in
success o f the re-development by placing a
crease flexibility, strength, bal
majorpublic resource w ithin it. It was crucial
ance and coordination and to im both said, for the county to grasp the "w in
prove com m unication, voice
dow ofopportunity" provided by the project. The walls from a long-forgotten theater on North Albina Avenue, ju st north of Killingsworth are giving way for the expansion
power and speech clarity. The |
“It’s a opportunity to capture resources of the Portland Community College Cascade campus. The building, which served as a home to the Albina Christian Life
I
‘ Historic Walls Fall for College Expansion
continued
y^
on page B 7
continued
yf
Center for 30 years, is being demolished. The African American church sold the property after a long struggle over the
purchase with the college and moved to another church building on North Willamette Boulevard.
on page B 7
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