PORTLAND, Ore. — Students in the Portland Public School district will head back to class Aug. 28. Some of the nearly 50,000 students will attend Grant High School, a newly upgraded school, thanks to the passing of a 2012 bond measure.
In 2017, voters approved a $790 million dollar bond measure to improve and rebuild 4 schools and plan for future improvements. Those schools are:
The southeast school has been closed for over a decade. The original school was demolished in 2018 to make way for the new school, which will still be called Joseph Kellogg Middle School.
It cost almost $60 million to tear down and rebuild the school and should reopen when school starts in 2021.
Madison started deconstruction of certain parts of the school after school was let out in the summer of 2019. During construction, students will go to Marshall High School.
The updated school will add around 170,000 square feet of new construction including a new gym, a new theater, and commons area.
Construction on the school should be completed by 2021.
Lincoln's is a little different. The original building will stay intact while construction on the new school happens. The school will start construction where the current athletic fields are. Students will move into that school in 2022. At that time, demolition of the old building will take place and then the rebuilding of new athletic fields will take place.
Work on Benson will start in 2021 after Madison is finished, that way students can be moved to Marshall High School to attend school while upgrades take place. Air conditioning and seismic upgrades are among the major improvements.
Work should be completed by the start of the 2024 school year.
An audit recently showed the projects were over budget, so to make up for that shortfall the district will look to ask for a bigger bond in 2020. Jefferson, Cleveland, and Wilson are on the next list of schools needing upgrades.