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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 2017)
Page 10 The Skanner September 27, 2017 News PPS cont’d from pg 3 ‘A culturally-affi rming place for our African American children’ The proposal will set in motion a jostling of boundaries and buildings that will no doubt appease some and disappoint others — namely, KairosP- DX. Opened in 2013 as a one-of-kind charter school to improve academic outcomes of young African American students, KairosPDX currently oper- ates in the former building of Hum- boldt Elementary School. If the proposal passes, the district will take back its building, leaving the charter school without a home. As KairosPDX executive director Kali Ladd told The Skanner, PPS has provided no alternative space for re- location. The charter serves K-5 and current- ly enrolls 126 students; 75 percent of which are youth of color and of that, 57 percent are African American. Its curriculum focuses on Black history and incorporates an Afro-centric ap- proach. Ladd calls her a school a “cul- turally-affi rming place for our Afri- can American children.” While she is thrilled at the prospect of having Tubman Middle School available for KairosPDX students en- tering sixth grade, Ladd doesn’t want to lose her building. She said she was intentional about selecting it because it sits in a historically Black neighbor- hood. KairosPDX’s good work in helping to close the achievement gap for Afri- can American students, in particular, was the reason it was able to extend its initially one-year lease from PPS in the fi rst place. It’s no secret that the district has taken a skeptical stance on charter schools, which are oft en portrayed as resource-guzzling private ventures. “The only reason this is an issue is because we’re a charter,” said Ladd. Yet charter schools are part of the PPS portfolio, and the district reports their scores like any other public school. “Anything we do, they benefi t from. But they’re undermining that work,” continued Ladd. She told The Skanner that KairosP- DX originally tried to open as a fo- cus-option school, because the dis- trict currently has none that serve African American kids. PPS turned them down. ‘Not a building issue, but an equity issue’ The district is planning on fi lling KairosPDX’s building with another school — ACCESS Academy Alterna- tive Program, a K-8 school for excep- tionally gift ed (and predominately White) children. According to 2016 numbers, only two percent of ACCESS’s 350 students are Black. ACCESS is currently located at 57th Avenue and Sandy Boulevard, the for- mer site of Rose City Park Elementa- ry School, which would re-open in its former building as a K-5. Fortunate for KairosPDX, the school that is displacing it is joining the fi ght to stay put. Ladd told The Skanner that ACCESS doesn’t want to move either. The Skanner reached out to ACCESS, but its principal declined to comment. Ladd said the proposed relocation is not taking children at both schools into account. Read more of this story at TheSkanner.com T N E V E PAST DPRK TODAY VIA AP The vision is to usher graduates of the converted K-5 schools into Tub- man and Roseway Heights. Moreover, the district is promising around 12 percent of its seats at Tub- man to be reserved for children of families who were displaced by gen- trifi cation. While the policy looks well-inten- tioned from the onset, one good deed – in this case — disrupts another. Experts: N. Korea Lacks Ability, Intent to Attack US Planes This image made on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017, from propaganda video released by North Korea, shows U.S. President Donald Trump. Military analysts say North Korea doesn’t have the capability or intent to attack U.S. bombers and fi ghter jets, despite the country’s top diplomat saying it has the right do so. They view the remark by North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and a recent propaganda video simulating such an attack as responses to fi ery rhetoric by U.S. President Donald Trump and his hardening stance against the North’s nuclear weapons program. Words say “Madman Trump in the 70th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force babbled that if there will be an attack on the North, the F-35 will lead the way” and “F-35, B-1B and Carl Vinson, lead the attack if you will. That will be the order you head to the grave.” SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Military analysts say North Korea doesn’t have either the capability or the intent to attack U.S. bombers and fi ghter jets, despite the country’s top diplomat saying it has every right do so. They view the remark by North Ko- rean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho and a recent propaganda video simulating such an attack as tit-for-tat respons- es to fi ery rhetoric by U.S. President Donald Trump and his hardening stance against the North’s nuclear weapons program. By highlighting the possibility of a potential military clash on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea may be trying to create a distraction as it works be- hind the scenes to advance its nuclear weapons development, said Du Hyeo- gn Cha, a visiting scholar at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies. An- other possibility is that North Korea is trying to win space to save face as it contemplates whether to de-escalate its standoff with Washington, he said. Ri said Trump had “declared war” on his country by tweeting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “won’t be around much longer.” Ri said North Korea has “every right” to take countermeasures, including shooting down U.S. strategic bombers, even those not in their airspace. The U.S. frequently sends advanced warplanes to the Korean Peninsula for patrols or drills during times of animosity. Last weekend, U.S. bomb- ers and fi ghter escorts fl ew in interna- tional airspace east of North Korea to the farthest point north of the border between North and South Korea that they have in this century, according to the Pentagon. Hours aft er the fl ights Sunday, a North Korean government propagan- da website posted a video portraying U.S. warplanes and an aircraft carrier being destroyed by attacks. The video on DPRK Today, which was patched together from photos and crude com- puter-generated animation, also in- cluded footage of North Korean sol- id-fuel missiles being fi red from land mobile launchers and a submarine. Hong Min, an analyst at Seoul’s Ko- rea Institute for National Unifi cation, said the North was trying to claim it has the ability to conduct retaliatory strikes. Moon Seong Mook, a former South Korean military offi cial and current senior analyst for the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for Nation- al Strategy, said it’s unlikely North Korea has the capability to match Ri’s words. North Korea’s aging MiG fi ghters won’t stance a chance against much more powerful U.S. fi ghters es- corting long-range bombers. Read more of this story at TheSkanner.com
