Think of any major event that shook the state in 2020 and its impacts on education were immense.
School districts started the year with grand aspirations for a $500 million cash infusion from the state’s biggest-ever tax increase only to scale back those plans and haphazardly adopt distance learning models as coronavirus began to spread and the resulting stay-home orders squeezed state tax revenues.
Protests against systemic racism and police brutality led students to organize demonstrations, sometimes in the face of intense pushback from their own communities. And voters weighed in on education measures across the state, from construction bonds to funding for teachers.
Here are some of the key education stories that defined the year:
Oregon’s school reopening guidelines among strictest in the nation, for a time
The Oregon Department of Education released its first guidelines for how and when schools could allow students back into classrooms in early June. Over the next several months, state officials revised those benchmarks three times until Brown announced in late December the benchmarks would become guidelines rather than rules.
Throughout the year, the governor’s reopening metrics, among the strictest in the nation, became a source of consternation for local school officials and parents alike. Administrators, particularly in the state’s rural reaches, complained of a whiplash effect as Brown and state schools chief Colt Gill introduced iterative updates with niche carve-outs and exceptions.
Many parents became similarly irritated that the state gradually eased restrictions on businesses including hair salons and bars as schools mostly remained closed in the months following Brown’s initial order.
The governor reversed course in late December, allowing local school officials full discretion to reopen. But Portland-area districts say it’s not likely they’ll offer in-person instruction until nearly February at the earliest.
Dozens of parents and students rallied at Revolution Hall in Southeast Portland on Dec. 6, pushing for Gov. Kate Brown to order the state's public schools to offer in-person education for families and educators who feel safe returning to classrooms. Weeks later, the governor announced the state's reopening guidelines would become advisory rather than mandatory.
Parents, students and teachers adjust to education in the time of COVID
When school closures thrust Oregon families and educators into distance learning, few had experience with it.
Teachers and administrators struggled to track down students who were difficult to engage during even the best of times. Families scrambled to find child care as educators remained reluctant to return to school buildings.
And although parents, students and teachers notched some small wins throughout the year, the vast majority say distance learning doesn’t hold a candle to the traditional, in-person classroom experience.
Universal preschool measure wins big
In early November, Multnomah County voters overwhelmingly approved a tax on high earners to fund free preschool for every child age 3 and 4.
Backers say the program will be funded at a level that allows every family access free care by 2026. Until then, county officials and campaign organizers say they’ll focus on enrolling Black, Indigenous and other children of color.
The effort garnered national attention. One of its main tenets, the guarantee of a wage floor for preschool teachers, was lauded by activists for its focus on a workforce traditionally composed of women of color. Feminist blog Jezebel even named the folks behind the Universal Preschool Now campaign among its most important people of 2020.
Seniors forge ahead
The last few months of high school are rife with milestones. Prom. Graduation. One last summer with close friends.
The pandemic changed the way Oregon’s high school seniors experienced those seminal moments, some of them opting to skip them altogether. The Oregonian/OregonLive spent three months speaking with teens on the last legs of their high school journey.
These are their stories:
Students lead Black Lives Matter protests
The end of the pandemic-made-virtual school year was close when George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis.
The resulting wave of protests against police brutality and systemic racism galvanized students in Portland and beyond. At Wilson High School, Black students saw renewed interest in their struggles. Black Student Union President Aslan Newson reminded her peers about the lunch-hour walkouts and community meetings she and several more Black, Indigenous and other students of color had staged in the previous year.
“So many people had been asking me, ‘What are you feeling? What should we do?’” Newson told The Oregonian/OregonLive. “It makes me feel like people aren’t doing the work. And when I say ‘people,’ I really mean white people.”
And unlike previous protests against police brutality and systemic racism, this year’s demonstrations spread beyond Oregon’s urban and suburban cities.
Thirty miles from Portland, a group of St. Helens High School students staged their own Black Lives Matter protest. Days after the teens promoted the event on Facebook, residents of surrounding Columbia County began issuing threats against anyone who might participate, convinced by conservative media and online rumor mills that Portland-based activists would descend on the rural community.
Distraught by the event’s cancellation, St. Helens High senior Savannah Manning detailed her disappointment in a lengthy Facebook post that went viral and led several neighbors to resume the march after negotiating with local law enforcement.
Hundreds gather in front of the Columbia County Courthouse, the end point of a Black Lives Matter march that began at Lewis and Clark Elementary School about a half mile away on June 3, 2020.
Cops in schools reevaluated
Days after protests began in Portland, the state’s largest district announced it was ending the presence of armed police officers in its nine high schools.
Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero said Portland Public Schools would instead invest in social workers, counselors and culturally specific supports for students. The announcement spurred a domino effect as districts across the state began reassessing their relationships with local police departments.
In Salem, the police chief and superintendent agreed to pause the presence of armed officers in schools. Beaverton district officials began surveying families on the school resource officer program in November, as well.
Guerrero’s decision marked the final chapter in a longer saga that began in late 2018 when the city police bureau asked the Portland school board for $1.2 million for the program, prompting outcry among parents and student activists.
Protests spur school renamings
Portland’s protests against police brutality also galvanized activists calling for city leaders and school district officials to address racial inequity.
Students began circulating petitions to rename various buildings, chief among them Wilson and Madison high schools. Dani Ledezma, Portland Public Schools’ senior adviser for racial equity and social justice, soon announced the district was adopting a fast-track process to do so.
Months later, principals at both Wilson and Madison announced efforts were underway to rename their buildings. In early December, the renaming committee at Wilson announced it had settled on five potential new namesakes, all of them trailblazing Black women.
On Election Day, three in four Portland Public Schools voters approved of the district's $1.2 billion construction bond, which will pay for extensive renovations to Jefferson High and pump millions into tech and accessibility updates at other schools.Photo by Eder Campuzano/Staff
Portland Public Schools passes its largest ever construction bond
A billion-dollar property tax measure, in this economy?
In early January, Portland Public Schools was planning how to best spend a $39 million infusion of state cash and pitch a $1.4 billion measure to remake three high schools. By late March, the district was in budget triage mode, drafting various scenarios for the coming year’s spending as state tax revenues took a nosedive and scuttling much of its plans for the November ballot.
Months later, the pandemic’s immediate financial fallout proved to be minimal. And district officials forged ahead with a modified, albeit still lofty request for voters.
The resulting bond measure focused primarily on a massive rebuild of Jefferson High and the creation of a Center for Black Student Excellence in the historically Black Albina neighborhood. District officials also asked voters for tens millions for technology and curriculum upgrades and about $260 million to finish projects originally approved in 2017.
Voters overwhelmingly approved the measure, with 75% saying yes on Election Day.
--Eder Campuzano | 503-221-4344 | @edercampuzano | Eder on Facebook
Eder is The Oregonian’s education reporter. Do you have a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email ecampuzano@oregonian.com.
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2020 in review: The 8 Oregon education stories that defined the year - OregonLive
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