Benson Polytechnic High School Alumni Association

Portland Public Schools announced their plan for the high school redesign.  In short, the proposal would make Benson a 2-year school for 800 part-time 11th and 12th graders; no longer offering sports and many academic courses.

Here is a quick overview of what is in the 88-page report that can be found at http://www.pps.k12.or.us.  (CTE= Career Technical Education)

1. Not all academics will be eliminated from Benson.  Students will have the option of taking English and/or science courses at the school.  However, PE, health, social studies, world languages and other non-CTE related courses will only be offered at the neighborhood schools.  There was no mention of math options.

2. After school activities will be limited to those that support the CTE programs such as SkillsUSA, HOSA and other career related activities.

3. No sports will be offered at Benson.  Students who wish to play must do so through their neighborhood school.

4. Every student at Benson will earn college credit in their CTE classes.  Of course most of the majors already offer this.

5. Students will be transported to and from their community school; however, there is no mention of what that “transportation” might be. 

6. Students currently enrolled at Benson will be sent back to their neighborhood schools beginning Fall 2011 with the option to continue their CTE courses at Benson on a part-time basis.

7. Beginning in 2012-13, the district plans to add more CTE staff and career strands. No further explanation given.

8. 50 students from each neighborhood school would be selected to enroll at Benson part-time beginning their junior year.  If the 50 spots for that school are not filled, they will be made available to the other schools.  Students will be chosen based on lottery.

Reasons for the changes…

1. The current school structure cannot be maintained without compromising the quality and quantity of CTE offerings.  The school has seen many cuts in the past 5-year to the CTE courses.  The latest casualty was the drafting program, which at this time, will not be offered to students next year except for an introduction to AutoCAD. 

2. The school has been forced to make many tradeoffs in educational programming.  In order to keep the CTE classes sizes around 24-students per class, the academic courses are often over crowded.

3. The district does not have the resources to offer CTE courses at every community school.

4. In making the school only 2-year, they can offer up to 400 juniors the opportunity to explore CTE.  On average, there are only about 250-300 juniors at Benson per year.

The complete report is available on PPS’s website.  The plan for Benson is covered in detail beginning on page 51; however, I encourage you to read the rest of the report.  It outlines the core curriculum each high school will provide and the transfer policy between schools.  It is obvious the district has put a lot of thought into their plan, even if it isn’t what we want to hear.  The district will be voting on the proposal in June.

In the meantime, I hope to see you at Tech Show this week.

Go Tech!!!

WHAT A SHAME TO SEE THE PPS TURN A ONCE GREAT SCHOOL IN TO A FORTH RATE CATCH ALL CENTER. SAD TIMES WHEN THE CITY CAN SPEND MONEY ON BICYCLE AREAS AND FORGO THE EDUCATION OF OUR KIDS.

R CONNER CLASS OF 57

The real tragedy is the students who will be left out of a first class training / education program which not only prepares them for the job market but also helps prepare them for a future college education, as was the case with me. Too many of these decisions are left in the hands of incompetent bureaucrats. Sad situation.

Yep.  Portland Public Schools at one time, were some of the best in the country.  And, Benson was the best of the best.

We’ve done a dandy job of improving on that. 

I remember “the day”, well.  I was proud when folks would say, “Oh.  You go to Benson?”

I continue to think, often, of what is being proposed.  It is easy to be rhetorical, and easy to preach to the choir.  And doing so, discounts what I’d like to say.

Simon Benson gave this wonderful gift to the young men of Portland.  Multiple generations have benefited from this great gift. 

How dare anybody deal this school away as less valuable than other schools, or other programs. 

When I graduated from Benson, I was soon married, I was going to college, and I had to work to pay for it all.  What a blessing it was, to have truly marketable skills, fresh out of high school. 

What other school, or other programs, in Portland, could offer that? 

And folks that do not understand the real world, and do not understand working for a living, are willing to sell this legacy.  This was not their gift to take away.

Wayne DeVore
Class of ‘71

If this new PPS proposal passes, I guess the four-year camraderie that I and others experienced will ‘bite the dust’ in the name of ‘progress’?  Not to mention my classmates that received scholarships to attend such great places as MIT, West Point, U.S. Air Force Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, Cal Tech, Harvard, Standford, OIT, UO, OSU ...... will all be a thing of the past. 

How anyone can think of this as something real postitive for Benson must be out of their mind!  The PPS and the Superintendent should be ashamed of wrecking a totally great school!

Larry L(class of 64)

Now that PPS has posponed their vote on Benson and other schools, how long will it be until these issues come up again?  I think we ‘dodged a bullit’.  Keep up with the idea that Benson should remain a 4-year academic institution ... In my mind your support to keep Benson a legitimate school has made some difference to the PPS Superintent and administration.  Keep up the outcry!

PPS may have postponed the vote, but not for long.  The district is still planning to implement changes by Fall 2011, which means decisions have to be made before the end of 2010 since incoming Freshman begin the process of choosing their future high school at the end of January.