The school district has identified a possible site for the Center for Black Student Excellence, nearly five years after voters in Portland Public Schools approved spending up to $60 million to establish it.
Since no real estate agreement has been finalized, school district officials have declined to make the precise location publicly available.
However, whether the center is housed in a new structure or a renovated old one, or is co-located in one or more schools, the proposal has always called for anchoring it in the Albina district, the historic hub of Black Portland. Now, district employees mention a prospective location that is presently occupied by an urgent care facility that could continue to rent the space if the school district were to purchase it, according to a document that The Oregonian/OregonLive was able to receive through a public documents request.
The curvy, unique One North development at 1 N. Fremont Street is the only building on the market in Albina. It is located within easy walking distance of two elementary schools, a charter school, one middle school, one high school, and an urgent care center. Together, these institutions serve 18% of the city’s Black students.
The 35,000-square-foot wood-framed mixed-use structure at the intersection of Fremont and North Williams Avenue was designed by architects who cited Antoni Gaudi, a modernist Spanish architect, as an inspiration. It was praised in the New York Times as a symbol of Portland’s dedication to density over sprawl in the 2010s, was one of the first significant developments on the busy, if gentrified, North Williams corridor, and borders a public 14,000-square-foot plaza.
Portland-based Apex Real Estate Partners had the building advertised for sale until Monday, when The Oregonian/OregonLive called to ask about the price. The listing was quickly changed from for sale to for lease. An Apex realtor told the news station that pricing was only available to active purchasers, but she declined to speak with the media.
Before any choices are made regarding a possible location, at least one member of the school board expressed the opinion that a public process is essential.
Board member Julia Brim-Edwards told The Oregonian/OregonLive, “I could not support moving forward with buying a building when we did not receive sufficient, detailed public information or analysis and have a public board discussion about buying a new building, including implications for [its] future operational budgets.”
It is unclear whether the district will be responsible for any future programming offered by the Center for Black Student Excellence and who will pay for it, as well as any maintenance and building upkeep, because the 2020 bond can only be used for capital project costs and not for daily operations.
Brim-Edwards stated that she would need additional details regarding the financial effects, especially in a year when the district anticipates having to make staffing or program cuts of $40 million. She also questioned if we should add a new building to our portfolio at the same time as staff members may be considering closing schools. There are now 19 elementary schools in Portland Public Schools with fewer than 300 pupils enrolled; several of these schools are located within a mile of one another.
Since its founding, the Center for Black Student Excellence has been deeply involved in neighborhood revitalization initiatives in Albina, such as the nonprofit Albina Vision Trust’s continuous attempts to buy the Portland Public Schools’ current headquarters and turn it into middle-class and affordable housing.
However, the majority of the district’s Black students currently reside outside of that neighborhood. There are specific clusters around Roosevelt High School, which is approximately five miles to the northwest, McDaniel High School, which is four miles to the east, and Markham Elementary School and Jackson Middle School, which are nine miles to the southwest and have a smaller but growing population of mostly African immigrant families.
This implies that children and their families may encounter mobility challenges if those students wish to participate in after-school, summer, and nighttime programs at a future Center for Black Student Excellence with its headquarters in the Albina neighborhood.
According to a resolution adopted by the school board in the summer of 2020, the center’s original plan called for a constellation of school campuses and Black-led community-based groups in the Albina neighborhood, as well as a collective effect strategy.
District personnel stated that setting up the Center for Black Student Excellence at a single school would cause an image issue in the most recent document that was given to school board members and included information about the new center’s programmatic plans.
According to the memo, the CBSE will unavoidably adopt the culture of the school site if it is co-located there. Through site visits and interviews with the principals of Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary, Boise-Eliot/Humboldt Elementary, Harriet Tubman Middle School, and Jefferson High School, the CBSE team has observed that every school in the district has a unique culture. The CBSE as an organization does not wish to interfere with their customs, programs, or other unique aspects.
According to the document, community organizations who are supposed to offer the majority of the programming at the new center may find it more difficult to collect money from charitable organizations that don’t give to schools and districts if the program is co-located at a school.
The Center for Black Student Excellence is intended to serve as a community center with non-profit personnel that can offer programs to students on the weekends, during the summer, and before and after school.
The busiest of those groups, which CBSE employees referred to as anchor partners, would offer regular student-focused programming, such as tutoring or artistic performances, and would not charge rent. Other groups that serve students could rent a specific location or pay a monthly fee to have access to meeting rooms and hot workstations in common areas.
A preschool, communal kitchen, yoga and meditation rooms, art rooms, and a makerspace with stations for 3D printing, creating, and coding are just a few of the many possible applications for the new area that are detailed in the Q&A paper. Additionally planned is a coffee shop operated by the Black Parent Initiative, which would give the district a portion of its monthly earnings in return for offering family-friendly programs and job training to children.
As currently planned, space would also be allocated for a cultural archive space that is owned and run by the district and features lectures, workshops, and rotating exhibits that celebrate Black educational pioneers.
According to the document, custodial support and facility maintenance would continue to fall under the purview of Portland Public Schools.
Buying a structure and making modifications to it is usually less expensive than purchasing property and starting from scratch. According to the memo, the additional money saved from purchasing a nearly new location that needs comparatively little tenant improvement [could be used] to upgrade a number of elementary and middle school locations if the entire $60 million designated for the Center for Black Student Excellence is not required for the purchase price.
The purchase of the 1 North Fremont complex by the district would be a significant step for a project that has been sluggish to get off the ground.
After only four months, Toye Watson, the educator from North Carolina who was hired in October as the Center for Black Student Excellence’s first director, resigned, leaving Quinn Peoples, her deputy and program manager, in charge.
The director position is still unfilled.
Julia Silverman writes for The Oregonian/OregonLive about K–12 education. You can contact her at [email protected].
