Introducing HAP The Prestidigitator 2/10/03

And From Inside HAP the Sorcerer's Hat, First A Library Now A School
You will all remember the phantom $4 million dollar contribution from Multnomah County for a branch library at Columbia Villa which has never been funded or sited*, yet to this day remains an apparitious entity within the Housing Authority of Portland's plans arousing not so much as an "Oh Really!" from any member of the Multnomah County Commission or Library Board. Exceedingly curious. But that's old news. For its next magic act HAP has included in its official Hope VI grant revision of December 20, 2002 a set aside of 4 acres and a rudimentary proposal for a new elementary school at Columbia Villa without commitment or funding from the Portland Public Schools.

The only written evidence of any official communication in HAP's possession between HAP and PPS is a letter dated January 28, 2003 written by Superintendent of Portland Public Schools, Jim Scherzinger**. It is abundantly clear by the date, content and tone that Scherzinger is responding to HAP's initiative not the other way around as HAP had proclaimed. For example:
"We understand that the Housing Authority of Portland is proposing to reserve a site at New Columbia for a potential elementary school site"
"I would like to express Portland Public Schools interest in working with the Housing Authority to plan for future development"

Scherzinger is very careful NOT to commit to siting or funding:
"A community task force is in the process of identifying and prioritizing the District’s capital needs for the modernization, renewal, or replacement of its schools. This process may lead to a bond proposal that the District would place before the voters as early as 2004. I have asked the task force to include in their discussion funding for a new or modernized school to serve the educational needs of the local community in the New Columbia area, including consideration of the opportunity presented for a new elementary school on a site at New Columbia."

Ed Bettencourt's, Director of Student Achievement for the Roosevelt Cluster of the Portland Public Schools, criticism of HAP's "inaccurate" public announcements gains considerable currency now that it's clear the proposal to build a new school at the Villa and close two others is not a PPS proposal. Because this is a HAP proposal not a PPS proposal it becomes obvious why the PPS has refused to contact the parents of school children in the Portsmouth and Kenton neighborhoods as well as the wider tax-paying community. PPS has made NO proposal much less a commitment to site or fund any school in Columbia Villa.

Committing four or five acres of land, whose historical purpose was housing, to a school requires much greater public input. PPS has only said it would "include" HAP's plan as one of MANY options such as, "modernization, renewal or replacement." Even if PPS seriously considered building a new school at Columbia Villa it said only that it "MAY" seek funding through a bond measure in 2004. PPS mentioned no other possible funding source because there aren't any. The Portland Public Schools claim to be in a financial crisis. HAP proposes shutting down two schools and building another when the PPS can't even keep the doors open on the schools it already has.

Consider Susan Scanlon's Story
In a Commentary piece in the Oregonian, 02/07/03, 'Public-school snob' bags it***, Susan Scanlon writes that she has been a public school activist for years. She sat on PTA and site council boards, rallied in Salem, testified before the Legislature and many many other supportive activities. Today, former stalwart public school supporter, Susan Scanlon is enrolling her child in private school. There will be many more following Susan's lead. And who can blame them?

Susan writes, "Oregon's public schools -- Oregon's children -- have little hope of a bright future until the Legislature decides to provide them adequate and stable funding. In the meantime, I've found the safe haven of a private school for my son." Susan Scanlon lives in Northwest Portland.

Now back to Jim Scherzinger's letter. It is hard to know whether Scherzinger was writing tongue in cheek when he said, "We anticipate that New Columbia will attract additional families with children to the area." The only attractant to families at Columbia Villa will be government subsidized housing. And it won't be so much an attractant as a REQUIREMENT that HAP qualified clients live there. No private school candidates in this crowd. Surely Jim Scherzinger does not imagine that a flood of families with children will be racing to buy houses in the Portsmouth and Kenton neighborhoods so their kids can go to school in Oregon's largest tax-supported low-income housing ghetto.

*http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/HAPLibrary.html
*http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/HAPSellsLand.html
** http://www.goodgrowthnw.org/PPSletter.html
*** http://www.oregonlive.com/commentary/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/editorial/1044622583221160.xml