After-school tug-of-war at the Schools Uniting Neighborhoods program at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in Northeast Portland.
T
he 50,000 students in Portland Public Schools get the same math curriculum. More or less the same English, social studies and science, too.
Elementary school students attend school the same number of days and hours, whether they attend Woodlawn in Northeast Portland or Maplewood in Southwest Portland. But when it comes to what happens after school at PPS’s 57 elementary and K-8 schools, the opportunities differ vastly. Some kids have a wide choice in what they can do after school, while others have few options. A student at Richmond, where 3.6 percent of the population is considered “economically disadvantaged,” can take yoga or coding on campus or get picked up by bus to go learn archery with Trackers Earth. At other schools, where students come from less privileged backgrounds, there might be half as many choices. The discrepancy in after-school programming was highlighted earlier this year, when PPS discontinued an electronic flier distribution program called Peachjar that had been criticized for targeting wealthier parents and ignoring poorer students. “I had a friend up in Alameda, and she was telling me, ‘I get swamped with these (fliers,)’” says Grout Elementary School parent Angela Gillette. “And I was getting one to two a month.” Gillette did some research, and found that more Peachjar fliers advertising programs like soccer and musical theater were going to parents at schools with higher-income families.
“Does Portland Public look at it and say, ‘How come this school is offering 10 things and how do we even it out?’” Gillette asked. The answer, district officials say, is no.
Local control Independence is one reason that after-school activities are so different from school to school. “Every school manages their own after-school options in different ways,” Hauth said. Many reasons can result in a school with limited options, she said. “That could be because of space and it could be because there are not enough families in the community who can participate or who can pay,” said Hauth. “Different schools have different needs.” After-school care is a necessity, not a luxury, for working parents who don’t have family or friends living in the area who can care for kids after school lets out. (Another option is to pay for a sitter, which can be hard to find and can be less reliable.) Often, parents mishmash an art class one day, a soccer class the next, a playdate here and a homework club there. “People are used to cobbling it together. I’m lucky because I have in-laws,” said Chapman Elementary School parent Helen Shum. “As a community, we rely on these private pieces. There’s a lot at Chapman, it’s just not run by the district. You do it on your own.”
“I figured out what’s a high-income school, and they’ve had 27 Peachjar emails. If you went to a lower-income school you could see that they had maybe two,” she said. “It bugged me that PPS was giving them the tool to do it.” At Alameda, just 3.4 percent of students were considered “economically disadvantaged” in 2017-2018. At Grout, that number was 38 percent. In March, PPS discontinued the Peachjar program. In a note sent to school email lists in January, PPS communications staff wrote, “There are inherent equity issues with regards to the communities targeted for events …. Perpetuating this disparity contradicts PPS’ focus on equity and excellence, ensuring every student and every school succeeds.” But despite the emphasis on who’s allowed to distribute information, little has changed for what is being offered at each site. And working parents still need to figure out a plan for after-school care.
EG ROBOTICS/ZAYNE MAYFIELD.
Licensed child care versus enrichment programs
SUN schools
PPS contracts with 14 licensed child care providers for before and after care in 51 schools, generally available every day after school. That’s different from the nonprofits and for-profit companies such as Mad Science or Soccer Shots that provide afters-school enrichment activities, usually as a once-a-week class. Nancy Hauth, program manager for Early Learner Programs and Child Care at PPS, estimated that 3,500 PPS students are in licensed child care in or near PPS sites; many more participate in unlicensed programs like SUN (the Schools Uniting Neighborhoods community school program, managed by Multnomah County’s Department of County Human Services), gymnastics or another after-school activity.
There are some attempts to ensure that lower-income schools where parents can’t pay for a rich slate of after-school classes can nevertheless offer engaging program. In particular, 39 PPS schools offer free or low-cost after-school programming through the SUN (Schools Uniting Neighborhoods) program, which is funded by Multnomah County. The SUN program, however, is not licensed child care; it is an anti-poverty strategy, and there aren’t always enough spaces to go around.
Robotics is just one of the after-school options at Maplewood Elementary School in Southwest Portland.
Which schools get SUN funding is determined in part by a complicated formula used by Multnomah County that takes into account poverty, racial demographics and other factors. pdxparent.com
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August 2018
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