Portland observer., September 02, 2020, Image 1

Remembering
Cliff Robinson
B ack to S chool
Popular former
Blazer dies at 53
See Sports, page 8
Established in 1970
PO QR code
‘City
of
Roses’
Volume XLVIV • Number 20
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • September 2, 2020
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Reimaging a Better School Year
Principal says
COVID-19, racial
equity push an
opportunity
M ichael l eighton
P ortland o bserver e ditor
As students go back to distance learn-
ing and online instruction this fall there is
a great deal of anxiety in school commu-
nities as they adjust to the public health
restrictions brought on by the coronavirus
pandemic and a nationwide reckoning on
racial equity.
For Nichole Watson, the adjustments
being made now are an opportunity to pro-
vide a better education to all students now
and in the future and to reimage a better
normal for students under difficult circum-
stances, especially for disadvantaged and
minority kids.
Watson, 39, is the new principal at
Prescott Elementary in the Parkrose
School District, the first African Ameri-
can educator to lead the northeast Portland
school, and an authority on equity who
recently took a year off from teaching at
Rosa Parks Elementary in north Portland
to focus on racial equity work for the Port-
land Association of Teachers.
She said the impacts from the coronavi-
rus virus have exposed more of the inequi-
ties that too many families with children in
school face. When distance learning was
imposed in Oregon last March, for exam-
ple, with stay at home orders by the gov-
ernor closing classrooms, almost a third
of Prescott’s kids did not have access to a
computer or Internet for at home learning.
The district was able to adjust to this in-
equity by providing one laptop to a family,
based on need. But this fall, Prescott will
go further. The district will provide each
student with all of their school supplies
for distancing learning and there will be
a major effort to ensure sufficient amount
of Chromebooks to distribute to every
student in a family, based on need, along
with free Wifi hotspots for Internet con-
nections, she said.
Watson is trying to be available to an-
swer questions and share information with
parents on all the changes coming for the
new school year.
by
Police Chief Chuck Lovell
Violence
Turns Deadly
with Dueling
Protests
Chief decries
downtown shooting
by M ichael l eighton
P ortland o bserver e ditor
A
supporter
of a right wing
group was killed
in a confronta-
tion
downtown
Saturday, the first
deadly
conse-
quence amid three
months of pro-
tests over racial
injustice in Port-
land and across Aaron ‘Jay’ Danielson
the nation.
Portland Police responded to shots fired
in the area of Southwest Third Avenue
and Southwest Alder Street around 8:45
c ontinued on P age 4
Photo by s hawnte s iMs of s iMshot
Prescott Elementary Principal Nicole Watson rides in the back of an open pickup
truck to wave and distribute candy to children and other families from her new
school community in the Parkrose neighborhood of northeast Portland on July
31. The Meet the Principal parade was held under public health social distancing
requirements to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“Change brings discomfort,” she said.
“But we are resilient. We always figure it
out and we’ll do that again,” she said.
Watson held a back-to-school online ses-
sion on Zoom with 60 parents last week to
inform them about the plans for re-opening.
It was the second major introduction to
her new school community, having been
c ontinued on P age 7