Experience
African Culture
‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVII • Number 31
Pan African
Festival to
fill Pioneer
Courthouse Square
See Metro, page 9
Outlaw Defends
Response to
Protests
Chief says crowd
control tactics will
be reviewed
See Local News, page 3
Established in 1970
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • August 8, 2018
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Cristina Marquez points to the
racism behind a ballot measure to kill
Oregon’s sanctuary law.
Tracking the
Hate behind
Measure 105
Ballot to kill sanctuary
law draws a fight
b everly C orbell
t he p ortlanD o bserver
Cristina Marquez is determined to
fight back against racial profiling in our
state. Marquez is Director of Advocacy&
Civic Engagement for Causa Oregon,
part of the broad coalition, Oregans Unit-
ed Against Profiling, which is urging cit-
izens to vote against Measure 105 in the
November ballot that would negate the
state’s 31-year old sanctuary law.
“This law was passed because at the
time we were seeing a lot of racial profil-
ing,” Marquez said. “So lawmakers, with
broad support from both Democrats and
Republicans, decided to pass this law to
ensure that racial profiling wasn’t some-
thing that was a norm in Oregon.”
Measure 105 (Initiative Proposition
22) seeks to roll back that reform and is
sponsored by the Repeal Oregon Sanctu-
ary Law, which is funded by Oregonians
for Immigration Reform and the Feder-
ation for American Reform. According
to the Associated Press, both groups are
classified as hate groups by the Southern
Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate
by
photo by D anny p eterson /t he p ortlanD o bserver
Board members and founders of KairosPDX, a public charter school serving children in the African American community, are
disappointed with an offer of a one year lease for the former Humboldt school property at 4915 N. North Gantenbein Ave.
Pictured (from left) are KairosPDX board members Tiffani Penson and Chris Nelson; school founders Zalika Gardner, Marsha
Williams and Kali Thorne-Ladd; and board members Stuart Ellis and Traci Rossi.
Advocating for KairosPDX
One year lease
brings uncertainty
by D anny p eterson
t he p ortlanD o bserver
Even as doors opened Monday at Kai-
rosPDX, a public charter school serving
children in the African American commu-
nity, a school that will see its first graduat-
ing class of fifth graders this new school
year, uncertainty for the school’s future
lingers.
That’s because for the second time in
less than a year, the school which is tasked
with closing the achievement gap for mi-
nority students by using evidence-based
methods of increased learning outcomes,
and is led by a volunteer, minority-led
board, has been offered just a one year
lease by the Portland School District, own-
ers of the property.
KairosPDX wanted a five year lease,
but the district offered only one year, plus
a rent increase of over 30 percent, accord-
ing to KairosPDX school board members.
Portland Public Schools cited a dis-
trict-wide shortage of facilities as the
reason for the shorter lease, though no
plans are in place specifically for the
former Humboldt Elementary School,
whose doors were shuttered when Kairos
moved in.
Tiffani Penson, who is the vice chair of
KairosPDX’s board of directors, told the
Portland Observer that she’s disappointed
in the school district’s decision.
“I understand that there is resistance to
charters, but when you are failing to serve
an entire demographic of children; you lose
the right to have an ideological argument.
You need to focus on what works and sup-
port that,” she said.
Black students were the lowest perform-
ing ethnic demographic in Portland Public
Schools this past school year, according to
scores from Smarter Balance Assessment
Consortium. Less than 15 percent of Port-
land Public Schools black students met the
C ontinueD on p age 4
C ontinueD on p age 5