Portland SD 1J staff outline plan to end Metropolitan Learning Center high school grades, drawing sharp community protest

Superintendent Armstrong and district staff told the Portland SD 1J board on Feb. 24 that they plan to discontinue Metropolitan Learning Center's grades 9—12 programming, citing long-term enrollment decline and the district's budget shortfall. Staff said the high school enrollment has fallen to about 38—1 students and that small-program staffing makes comprehensive high school programming unsustainable.

The district's senior chief of academics, Christina Howard, presented 10-year trend data showing MLC's 9—12 enrollment is less than half of what it was a decade earlier and that only about 6 percent of MLC grade-8 students matriculate into the MLC high school. A data presenter said reaching typical PPS staffing ratios would require dozens more students: "To reach the median PPS FTE per student level for grades 9 through 12, MLC would need to enroll 136 students," staff said during the presentation.

The presentation said…