Death Penalty
Repeal Urged
Portland Urban League
| joins other groups to
speak out fo r justice
See Local News, page 3
Ring in the New Year!
LOT, j V
DJ OG One, Patrick
Lamb and other
celebrities headline a N e w ^
Year s Eve benefit.
See Arts & Entertainment, page 10
g j^ortlanhCOhseruer 13
Volume
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VolumeXXXXI
‘City < of Roses'
Number
Number
Ifc j | 13| www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday
• December
2012
H fl L 3 Wednesday
• December
26, 26,
2012
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A Reti
Home
New Year to
bring kids back
to Marysville
C ari H achmann
T he P ortland O bserver
by
Three years after a fire destroyed their school,
kids, faculty and families of southeast Portland’s
Marysville School can finally return to their home
building.
“There is a real excitement in the air right now,”
said Marysville Principal Lana Penley. “A sense of
returning home— that warm feeling you get when you
return home to a place that’s really special for you
after being away for such a long time.”
Four hundred and sixty students and 17 teachers
were displaced when a fire burnt down the school’s
east wing on Nov. 10, 2009. The cause was never
determined.
In the meantime, Marysville students have been
studying five miles down the road at Rose City Park
while their school was being rebuilt using $4.8 million
in insurance proceeds.
As students left Rose City Park for the last time
before the Christmas break holiday, teachers packed
up their rooms, preparing to report back to the school ’ s
original location on Southeast Raymond Street on
Wednesday, Jan 2. Over the holiday break, movers
are bringing over the rest.
Faculty will have three days to get Marysville
School set up prior to kids’ arrival. Students start
their first day in their old school on Monday, Jan. 7.
While everyone is appreciative for having Rose
City Park as a temporary school, Penley says it’s been
a struggle for the Marysville community.
Built in 1921 as a K-8 school, Marysville has a rich,
80-year history serving a culturally diverse popula
tion of children and their families. The school hosts
students from all over the world, where 20 different
languages are spoken.
The original trauma of the fire was jarring and the
move to an interim school was stressful.
It hurt our connection with families, Penley
sai d-
continued
on page 2
photo by M ark
W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver
Marysville second grader Jeremy Harmon, his school improvement specialist Amber Gerber and eighth grader Tracy La,
were on hand for the first day o f public tours for the newly reconstructed school in southeast Portland. 4 massive fire
three years ago displaced students and faculty. With construction complete, Marysville students return on Jan. 7.