April 3, 2019
Page 5
De La Salle’s
New Home
C ontinueD from f ront
Intent to a 50-year lease with two
25-year extensions. The school’s
move eastward coincides with a
similar migration of low income
and minority students in Portland
in recent years due to gentrifica-
tion, the state of the housing mar-
ket, and other factors.
St. Charles Parish serves the
ethnically diverse neighborhood
of Cully, which is the largest
neighborhood geographically of
northeast Portland. Sixteen per-
cent of its residents are black, and
21 percent are Hispanic or Lati-
no, according to the 2010 census.
Comparatively, over 80 percent
of De La Salle’s student body is
comprised of people of color—in-
cluding 33 percent African Ameri-
can and 38 percent Hispanic.
The selection of St. Charles for
De La Salle comes after a search
of 40 locations by the school’s
board of trustees, a months-long
process following Portland Public
School’s announcement last May
that they would not renew the
Kenton lease.
De La Salle President Oscar
Leong said he was pointed in the
direction of St. Charles by Board
Chair Patti O’Mara after taking up
his position in July, having relo-
cated here from California.
Leong told the Portland Ob-
server that the opportunity for
matching up a diverse St. Charles
community with De La Salle
North High School became appar-
ent on a day he visited St. Parish
for a church service.
“As I sat there, in celebration,
and I watched the Mass happen,
I looked around,” he said. ”The
folks that were present were a col-
lection of diverse backgrounds,
racial backgrounds. I thought it
was the perfect opportunity for
both of us to come together and to
bring energy to each other.”
The St. Charles parish campus
will have space to accommodate
more than 350 students by the
time it officially opens as a high
school in 2021, a press release
from De La Salle North said.
Though nothing has been made
certain, Schwab said renovations
of the former classrooms, as well
St. Charles Parish Priest Elwin Schwab is negotiating terms of an agreement to allow De La Salle North
Catholic High School to relocate permanently to the former site of St. Charles Elementary at Northeast
42nd and Emerson in the Cully Neighborhood. The grade school was opened in 1950 and closed in
1986. Schwab has deep roots in the neighborhood. His family originally came to the area in the 1940s.
as possible structural additions,
and changes to the parking lot,
may be constructed in the years
leading up to the opening.
Leong added that such reno-
vations will need to adequately
host high school programs, such
as converting classrooms previ-
ously used for teaching grammar
school, for example, into science
classrooms. The school is poised
to launch a fundraising campaign
to raise donations for the renova-
tions and additions.
De La Salle North Catholic
High School has been offering a
private school experience to stu-
dents and families who could not
afford to attend the cost of one,
since 2001. It uses a work-study
component to offset the cost of
tuition, making it a fraction of the
cost of most other Portland private
schools.
De La Salle North students go
to school four days a week and
work one day a week, which fi-
nances 50 percent of their edu-
cation. In addition, many of the
students—all of whom come from
families earning 75 percent of the
median area income or lower--re-
ceive financial aid and full-ride
scholarships.
De La Salle at St. Charles will
return a high school to near the
corner of Northeast 42nd and Kill-
ingsworth for the first time since
1981, when John Adams High
School was closed by Portland
Public Schools due to low enroll-
ment after being opened in 1969.