^ J J o rtla n b fflbseruer
Page A4
April 19. 2006
Opinion articles do not
necessarily reflect or represent the
views o f The Portland Observer
O pinion
Closing Humboldt School is a Bad Idea
where children are helped with their Association, Neil Kelly,TheTrail Blaz­ dren from a school that’s reaching
homework by Mr. Foster who is on the ers, University of Portland and Port­ benchmarks, to a school where over
half of the students are not? And did 1
land State University.
premises during the school day.
Because of all this, I find it hard to mention the porno shop on the comer,
We have the Chargettes who were
recently showcased during half time believe that our building isn’t being right across the street from the Ockley
Green playground. My child is not
at the Blazer game. Not to mention used efficiently.
By
closing
Humboldt
Elementary,
going
there.
their
performance
at
the
Celebrate
bv S herri “G G ” W arren
It’s been said that the school board
Since it’s reorganization under Prin- Schools function held at the conven­ the school district is creating a hard­
wants
to make Portland a place for
ship
on
many
families
in
the
neigh­
tion
center.
cipal Judy Bryant in the 1990s.
families.
What family is going to
There is Ethos, the music education borhood. Most of the children walk
Humboldt Elementary students have
consistently improved. We have sta­ program that has space in our building. to school. Closing their school and want to come here when w e’re clos­
bility within the faculty, and many We also house a Touchstone coordi­ forcing them to attend schools far­ ing all of the neighborhood schools,
nator who helps families with re­ ther away, when they d o n 't have and farming our children out of the
more returning students each year.
sources;
a WORKS after-school tu­ adequate transportation, makes no area? On that same note, it’s also
One of the school district’s criteria
been said that the Humboldt area
sense.
for closing schools is the condition of toring program has a room, also.
doesn't
have as many children and
In
addition
to
that,
the
district
is
At
least
80
percent
of
our
children
the facility and use or underuse of the
facility. Humboldt is in excellent con­ are involved in some type of academic planning to have our children attend many people moving in are single.
dition and has many after school pro­ after school activity. Humboldt has Ockley Green where, the students are What about when these single people
grams that are housed in the building. partners with the Jefferson Caring performing significantly lower aca­ start having children? You’ll even­
These include Self Enhancement Inc., Community, Humboldt Neighborhood demically. Why would you send chil­ tually end up reopening Humboldt
Community
has investment
in facility
because you miscalculated the num ­
ber of families, and ongoing grow th
in our com m unity. Many o f my
friends have young children and are
looking at Humboldt for their school.
Apparently these young families fall
under the radar. And maybe you’ve
forgotten Humboldt Gardens. C on­
struction is set to begin soon, and
when finished, it will house single
people, and families.
I haven’t hit on all of the reasons
whj? closing Humboldt is a bad idea,
but this is a good start. If these were
your children who were about to be
uprooted, I'm sure you’d take more
time, and be mindful of how you make
your decision.
Sherri "G G ” Warren is a Humboldt
parent and PTA vice president.
Why Mess with Success?
Humboldt
closure fails to
net benefits
Exploited Labor
The opinion piece “Do Illegal Immigrants Really Take Our
Jobs?” (Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Apr. 5) seems to answer that
question with a big “yes!” I beg to disagree.
It is corporate America and our weak civil rights laws that have
shunted blacks, especially young men, out of the low-wage job
market.
If an entire category of jobs (agriculture, janitorial, hotel and
restaurant, food processing, residential construction, and others)
are now declining in wages and for “Latinos only,” that is because
our anti-discrimination laws and affirmative action laws have no
teeth, because our labor unions don’t have enough clout and
because our local and national governments are not enforcing
labor protections nor investing in job creation programs.
Mexicans and other Latinos did no, want to leave their homeland
to “take our jobs” any more than blacks wanted to leave the South
for Oregon. But huge economic changes - for example, the Great
Depression for African Americans, the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA, 1994) for Mexicans - forced workers
off the land and into northern migration.
Many Latinos have to take sub-minimum wage, dangerous,
dirty, drudgery jobs because of fear of deportation. Legalization
and a path to citizenship would help prevent this exploitation.
American-born and immigrant workers have two choices: join
together to enforce and extend labor and civil rights or together
suffer the downward spiral of wages and working conditions,
unemployment, crime, and incarceration.
bv S tephanie G aidosh
Based on the information sup­
plied by Portland Public Schools,
I’ve been unable to find clear evi­
dence that closing the doors of
Humboldt would save the district
any money or offer a better educa­
tion to our students. The opposite
seems to be true.
Did you know that PPS rates
Humboldt’s building as 1 on a scale
of 1-5, the best condition? Ockley
Green, the building they would like
to move Humboldt kids is rated a
4. The district is planning to move
portables to that campus. Why take
kids out of a healthy and safe build­
ing and put them into a trailer?
Humboldt is totally accessible
under the Americans with Disabili­
ties Act; Ockley Green is not. The
PTA was able to provide new play
eq u ip m e n t to the H um boldt
schoolyard and Ockley Green does
not have play equipment.
Did you know that Humboldt
has a federally funded pre-kinder­
garten program and the children
attend full day school at the age of
4? Did you know that 91 percent of
the 3rd graders are meeting or ex­
c e ed in g state sta n d a rd s in
reading? This is a 35 percent in­
crease over the 2003/04 year. This
is amazing data considering that
96.1 percent of the students qualify
for free/reduced lunch and 13.8
percent have English as a second
language.
H um boldt has the highest
number o f Talented and Gifted
students com pared to King and
O ckley Green at 7.1 percent.
Sixty-five percent of the children
are African A merican, 21.9 per­
cent Hispanic and the remaining
Salaries unfair
to workers
bv J udge
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Stephanie Gaidosh is a resident
o f inner north Portland.
* There are similar stories at corporations
across the country: while worker pensions are
frozen and many are asked to do without
raises, CEOs manage to earn their multi­
million dollar bonuses.
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the Interstate 5 freeway witljout
safety fences. The school is lo­
cated o v e r a m ile from
Humboldt. Although the district
may bus children, who’s going to
bus the families so that they can be
involved in their child’s school?
A nd at w hat c o st to the
public? Ockley Green is located
right next to an adult porn shop that
our kindergarteners will walk past
daily.
Ten years ago the district fired
the principal and staff of Humboldt
starting new due to low perfor­
mance. Now that the children are
achieving the benchmarks, now is
not the time to dismantle? Who
builds a new home, gets it perfect
then tears it down?
Please don’t mess with success
and instead use our school as a
mode! for other schools within our
community.
Executives, America’s Wealthy Few
Jam ie Partridge, Northeast Portland
Il|r |Iortht«h (Obscruer Established 1 9 7 0
12 percent white. Native A m eri­
can and Asian.
Did you know: that between the
2003/04 school year to the 2004/05
school year there was only a drop
in two students as far as enrollment
num bers. The school district
turned away more than 50 percent
of transfer requests to Humboldt
this year.
Did you know that every morn­
ing the children at Humboldt have
an assembly to say the Pledge of
Allegiance in both English and
Spanish? Parents are invited into
the school regularly and a welcome
part of the morning assembly. Every
Friday there is acoffee chat (family
welcome center) for parents to net­
work, use computers, etc.; and ev­
ery child regardless of family in­
come is guaranteed breakfast and
lunch.
Did you know if the children
were required to attend Ockley
Green they would be crossing over
Send address changes to Portland
Observer. P 0B ox3137, Portland.
G reg M athis
Despite slower-than-anticipated
growth and lower-than-expected
profits, many corporations have
generously rewarded their leaders,
while sim ultaneously reducing
lower-level staff salaries and ben­
efits. This disturbing practice only
serves to further widen the gap
between America’s wealthy few and
its working class and clearly dem­
onstrates just how little this coun­
try values its workforce.
At a time when most American
workers are struggling to make ba­
sic ends meet and worrying how
they'll manage to save enough for
retirement, many of this country's
corporate chief executives are stuff­
ing their pockets with larger-than-
life compensation packages that
include high base salaries, stock
option and ample pension plans.
In 2004, the average ch ief
executive's salary at a large com­
pany was more than 170times that of
the average worker’s pay. Last year,
executive salaries grew 25-percent,
while that of the average American
worker grew only 3.1 -percent.
Even when a company struggles,
their CEOs are still rewarded. For
example, the current CEO of a glo­
bal manufacturing firm received
over $11 million in compensation
last year, despite the company's
$3.4 billion revenue loss, an 11-
percent drop in stock value and a
staff reduction of 17,000 workers.
There are simi Iar stories at corpora­
tions across the country: while
worker pensions are frozen and
many are asked to do without raises,
CEOs manage to earn their multi­
million dollar bonuses.
While it is understood that ex­
ecutive salaries would greatly ex­
ceed that of the average worker's,
there is no logical argument to ex­
plain why the growth rate between
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the two is so dramatically different.
To protect its workforce, corpo­
rate America must ensure worker’s
salaries grow at rates that keep pace
with the cost of living, whi le slowing
the rate of growth of CEO salaries.
Corporate boards must stop reward­
ing CEOs with multi-million dollar
bonuses; it is unacceptable for a
company to lay off thousands of
workers and then turn around and
pay an executive for‘ajob well done.'
As a country, we often ask our
government to think about the
needs of the 'average American,’
and rightly so. However, if America
is to truly prosper, the corporations
that feed our local economy must
also consider and respect the well­
being of average worker.
Judge Greg Mathis is national
vice president o f Rainbow PUSH
and a national board member o f
the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference.
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