October 4, 2017 The Skanner Page 3
News
cont’d from pg 1
portion compared to the
national average of 527.
In Math, too, Oregon stu-
dents fared well, scoring
on average 543, several
notches over the nation-
al average of 517.
In the Portland Public
Schools district, 872 stu-
dents took the SAT, with
an average total score of
1159, breaking down as
“
30 more students than
last year. Their scores
improved too, which
are graded on a scale of
one to five. In 2015-16, 72
Black students scored
above three, compared
to 89 who scored above
three this school year.
“While it is always
good to see Oregon stu-
dents performing well,
I am most encouraged by
the increased participation
among student groups that
have been historically un-
derrepresented
589 on Reading and Writ-
ing and 570 on Math.
Participation in the test
was up this year across
all groups, compared
with the number of reg-
istered test-takers from
the 2015-16 school year.
Last year 151 African
American public school
students took the SAT.
This year the number al-
most doubled, with 279
African American stu-
dents having completed
the SAT.
Even so, with 1,316 Af-
rican-American
12th
graders in Oregon, that
means only 21 percent of
them took the test; while
Black students only rep-
resent two percent of all
test takers.
Moreover, of the entire
student population of
Oregon, only 2.4 percent
are Black/African Amer-
ican, according to 2016-17
data from the Oregon De-
partment of Education.
Also in the 2016-17
school year, 247 African
American students in
Oregon took an AP exam,
Outlaw
I am most encouraged
by the increased partic-
ipation among student
groups that have been
historically underrepre-
sented,” Deputy Superin-
tendent Salam Noor said
in a statement.
The improved per-
formance, cited Noor,
can likely be attributed
to a number of state-
wide plans and pro-
grams aimed at closing
the opportunity and
achievement gaps for
underserved
student
populations, as well as
addressing culturally re-
sponsive practices.
They include imple-
menting new ethnic stud-
ies programs, the English
Learner Outcome Im-
provement Plan, and
the African American
Student Success State
Plan. Passed in 2015 as
HB 2016, the plan works
to improve academic
disparities experienced
by Black students in Or-
egon, from early child-
hood through post-sec-
ondary education.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PORTLAND PARKS & RECREATION
SAT
Som Subedi Named 2017 Park Champion
Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R) was recently awarded the National Recreation and Park Association’s (NRPA) 2017 Park Champion
of the Year Award. The award, which recognizes an employee of a park and recreation agency’s efforts to educate their members of
Congress or their staff on the importance of investing in local parks and recreation, was presented this past Wednesday night to PP&R’s
Som Subedi at the 2017 NRPA Annual Conference in New Orleans. Subedi, a former refugee and the coordinator of PP&R’s Parks for New
Portlanders program, hosted Grace Stratton of Senator Ron Wyden’s office at the Bureau’s WALK with Refugees and Immigrants event
on Aug. 20, which featured around 1,000 participants. A congratulatory letter from Senator Wyden was read at the award ceremony. In
spring 2018, Subedi will travel to Washington, D.C., to advocate for parks and recreation on Capitol Hill.
Vanport
cont’d from pg 1
in Vanport — down from 40,000
during the war years — although
there is no way of knowing how
many were present when the dam
broke, she said. She added that
due to a combination of heavy
snow pack that winter and an
unusually warm spring, areas
throughout the Columbia River
Basin — including Washington
and Idaho — flooded that week-
end.
On Saturday, May 29, 1948, the
Red Cross and the Housing Au-
thority of Portland met to decide
whether to evacuate Vanport.
Other sections of the Portland
metropolitan area had already
been evacuated, but the Red Cross
said they could only find tempo-
rary lodging for 6,000 people and
never came to a decision.
The two entities decided to ta-
ble the decision until Monday. On
Sunday, the dike broke.
“Whenever there’s a disaster
like that, it tends to pull out peo-
ple to be very helpful,” Podany
said.
Vanport survivor June Reinan
took the stage after Podany. Rein-
an, whose name was June Walker
during the years she lived in Van-
port, lived in the Vanport project
“
next door. The neighbor went on
to introduce Reinan to her broth-
er, whom Reinan subsequently
married.
“Then we really were family,”
she said.
James Arcenaux, who just
moved back to Portland after a
long stint in Las Vegas, told the
Other sections of the Portland metropol-
itan area had already been evacuated
when she was a single mother
struggling to support two little
boys. She was able to relocate her
children to a family member’s
house in Portland, but decided to
go back. A man on a boat helped
her get back into her house to re-
trieve a watch. Later, Reinan said,
she moved into another govern-
ment-subsidized housing project
and became close friends — “like
family” — with a woman living
crowd that when he was nine
years old, he had to give up his
bedroom to make room for some-
one who had evacuated for the
flood. He was reluctant, and also
said he thought he was the only
person who had to do it, but later
met others who had hosted Van-
port evacuees.
“When you do something for
somebody else, it all comes back
to you,” Arcenaux said.
cont’d from pg 1
seen high turnover in recent years: the
national search that led to her hire was
a campaign promise from then-candi-
date, now-Mayor Ted Wheeler follow-
ing the resignation of Larry O’Dea, who
replaced Mike Reese after his 2015 re-
tirement. O’Dea had been arrested on
criminal charges involving a shooting
in eastern Oregon; he was later cleared.
O’Dea was briefly replaced by Donna
Henderson, who served just over a
month before retiring. Mike Marsh-
man was promoted to interim chief and
applied for the permanent position,
but announced his retirement shortly
after the city announced Outlaw had
been selected. Police Bureau veteran
Chris Uehara was sworn in as acting
chief at the end of August.
Outlaw comes to Portland from Oak-
land, where she served as deputy chief.
She holds a bachelor of arts in sociolo-
gy from the University of San Francis-
co and a master’s degree in business
administration from Pepperdine Uni-
versity.
Outlaw granted interviews with sev-
eral local media outlets, including The
Skanner, Tuesday. This interview had
been edited for space and clarity.
The Skanner News: Have you had
a chance to meet yet with representa-
tives from Portland’s communities of
color?
Danielle Outlaw: So outside of the
initial meetings with them, I have not
yet — but I have an action-packed next
two weeks to get out there and meet
with everyone. I’m actually looking
forward to it because we’ll have a little
“
One of my priori-
ties is to make sure
that I review past
incidents from
here, how we dealt
with them
more time now. I’m looking forward to
getting down to the meat and potatoes
and really picking their brains and
finding out what we all need to do to
move forward.
TSN: Portland and other police bu-
reaus around the country have drawn
some criticism for how they’ve handled
protest — including excessive force
against protesters and how potential
conflicts have been handled between
protesters and counter-protesters.
What do you think are best practices
when it comes to large crowds and pro-
tests?
DO: If you want to say “best practic-
es,” there are some things that work
well. But there’s no cookie-cutter ap-
proach to how we deal with civil un-
rest, and they really need to be taken
on a case-by-case basis: who the crowd
is, numbers, what we’re dealing with,
what resources we have available to us.
I’m very cognizant about saying what
works well in a previous agency and
forcing this agency to do the same, be-
cause it’s not always the same.
But with that said, I will also offer that
one of my priorities is to make sure that
I review past incidents from here, how
we dealt with them, to look at policy —
because sometimes it’s policy that dic-
tates how members react and respond
— to take a look at how we train and just
some critical review of what’s worked
well, what we can do to maybe improve,
and then compare that to some other
case studies with some other agencies
around the country to find out what’s
worked well. It’s not about one partic-
ular thing that you should or shouldn’t
do.
TSN: Portland has also been under
DOJ supervision for several years. But
Jeff Sessions is saying that he’s not in-
terested in continuing that. However,
Mayor Wheeler wants to continue the
reforms that were outlined in the set-
tlement. Do you have a position on that,
and do you see yourself having a role in
making sure those reforms go forward
as they were already laid out in the set-
tlement?
DO: I am all for introspection. I am all
for accountability. I think it’s import-
ant, whether we are doing really well
or really terribly, for us to self-assess –
to stop, take a break and say, Okay, how
can we improve? That’s with the DOJ or
without the DOJ. It just so happens that
the DOJ is here, there’s a settlement
agreement. I think good leadership re-
quires that and it’s my responsibility to
drive that, whether the DOJ was here or
not. We’re doing it because it’s the right
thing to do. We’re not doing it because a
federal judge or a court or any oversee-
ing body is making us do that.
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