The GPNA Issues
Hollyrood School
Hollyrood is one of the schools slated by the Portland School Board for potential closure.
Our letter to the school Board on this issue:
Portland Public Schools
Board of Education
P.O. Box 3107
Portland, OR 97208-3107
To Whom It May Concern:
The Grant Park Neighborhood Association is concerned at the possible negative effects to our neighborhood as a whole that would result from the proposed closing of Hollyrood Elementary School. We do not feel that the process to date has allowed enough time to consider the wider ramifications for our community. It also does not seem to have adequately considered any of the proposed possible alternate solutions to the budget crisis that our schools currently face.
As we understand it, the current proposal is to close Hollyrood and transfer those students to Fernwood Middle School, making it a K-8 school. This plan would materially alter the character of the Grant Park Neighborhood. We believe this change would require substantial retrofitting at Fernwood to make it appropriate for K-2 students under today's restrictions. Such a cost may cancel any anticipated savings to be realized by closing Hollyrood. In all likelihood, it would also be an irreversible act.
Hollyrood is unique in the Portland Public School System, because it is both (a) the only K-3 school in Portland, and (b) physically so closely situated with Fernwood and Grant High School, all of which lie within the Grant Park Neighborhood boundary. This provides ideal potential for testing some of the other proposed options for reconfiguring the school system in this time of crisis; options like creating a "campus" environment that would include all three schools, or making Hollyrood K-2 and Fernwood 3-8.
Finally, the parents, teachers and students at Hollyrood are active, involved and committed to finding a way to make this school work in a cost effective manner. This is an incalculable resource to the school system and our neighborhood that cannot and should not be ignored or alienated.
We feel that the impact on our neighborhood as a whole must be taken into consideration during the evaluation process. For these reasons, and because it appears to us that the process so far has not allowed for thorough public input or involvement, we ask that any decision to close Hollyrood be delayed so that alternate proposals may be adequately studied and tested.
Sincerely,
Michael Kinney
President
In the 'Hood
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