Portland Public Schools has selected Procedeo, a construction company based in Grapevine, Texas, to manage the school district’s bond program encompassing the modernizations of three schools (Jefferson High School, Cleveland High School and Ida B. Wells High School) as well as creation of the Center for Black Student Excellence.

The school board voted 5-2 in favor of the $61.1 million contract on Tuesday night, with board members Virginia La Forte and Stephanie Engelsman voting no.

The district continues to face costly and significant delays in its capital projects, Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong said, adding that the Center for Black Student Excellence (CBSE) project is set to advance after a five-year wait. The board approved a $16 million purchase of the One North property at 25 N. Fremont St. and 3506-3514 N. Vancouver Ave. for the center.

Placing management of the billion-dollar-plus bond program under one firm will reduce price escalation, Armstrong said.

Portland Public Schools (PPS) issued a request for proposals on Oct. 7. They were due Oct. 30, and three national firms submitted proposals. Two firms advanced to interviews held Nov. 14. The school district issued a notice of intent to award to Procedeo on Nov. 17.

The scope of work for this contract includes full project management services for the three high school modernizations and a renovation to suit the CBSE. It also includes administrative oversight of all bond projects in the program, said Sharon Toncray, chief legal officer at PPS.

Procedeo’s services for each project will include fiscal and budget management, development and maintenance of the project management plan, project scheduling, project controls, management of contingencies, design and engineering review, preconstruction, construction phase oversight, and occupancy and post-occupancy services.

Procedeo will receive base compensation of approximately $55.1 million, which represents 4 percent of the estimated combined remaining budgets for the three school modernizations, CBSE construction, and administrative oversight of the Office of School Modernization.

The contract also includes a $6 million incentive for the three school projects to be completed on time. The projects are scheduled to be built and completed at the same time.

Rather than have three different firms manage the projects separately, Armstrong said, the district wants to lean on one firm for accountability and advance the projects collectively.

The contract will be in effect for five years. PPS has the right to cancel the contract at any time with 30 days’ notice.

Board member Christy Splitt asked to postpone the vote to allow the school district to perform cost analyses of other school districts’ capital projects. But Armstrong said no comparable situation exists in another school district in Oregon.

La Forte and Engelsman also expressed concerns in the absence of a cost analysis and the lack of transparency.

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By Ethan Rohrbach
Cascade Policy Institute

The modernization of is nearing completion.

Originally budgeted for $202 million in 2016 and funded by a voter-approved bond in 2017, the scope of the project was subsequently expanded along with the cost. The revised budget, partially paid for through another bond in 2020, was $410 million.

Part of the problem is that the school is oversized. Benson enrollment last year was 823, but the new school was designed for 1,700. Enrollment has decreased by almost 50 percent over the past 30 years, and there is little chance that it will grow significantly. Many of the classrooms will simply be mothballed.

The next school up for , and the Board plans to make the same mistake. The target enrollment is 1,700, but there were only 481 students in May. The construction budget has grown from $311 million in 2020 to $491 in 2024. Since the District doesn’t have the money, the Board plans to ask for an additional $125 million in May of 2025, as part of a much larger bond request of $2.9 billion.

School board members are required to manage public funds as a “prudent person” would, but overbuilding schools by 100 percent or more is the opposite of prudent behavior.

Ethan Rohrbach is a research associate at , Oregon’s free market public policy research organization.

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A 335,000-square-foot redevelopment of Jefferson High School‘s buildings and campus in the Piedmont Conservation District is in the works.

The Portland Historic Landmarks Commission got its third look Monday on a proposal for alterations for the school at 5210 N. Kerby Ave.

The school is an approximately 13.56-acre site. The proposal includes the retention of the 1909 portion of the existing building and redevelopment of the remaining site.

“The proposal is essentially complete demolition and alteration of a number of the amenities on the site, including a number of the sports fields and parking and buildings, plazas and so on,” said Art Graves, a BDS staffer.

The existing track and field are to remain at their current location.

The project team includes Portland Public Schools, LEVER Architecture, Bora Architecture & Interiors, PLACE, and Colloqate Design of New Orleans.

Monday’s meeting was the project’s final design advice hearing meant to provide the project team with guidance. The first design advice hearing was held in November 2022, with a second hearing held in May.

The proposed restoration of the 1909 building has been scaled back from what was shown in previous design advice hearings due to project pricing issues and damaged historic materials that are not reparable, a commission memo states. The new building has been reduced to two stories and is shrunk on the south side, giving more space to athletic fields. The new building will relate to the 1909 building through material use with red brick, associated datums, window groupings and additional building symmetry.

Previously, the project was proposing a phased construction. The design has been reduced to be completed in one phase. Tennis courts have been added to the site, taking the place of some surface parking. A berm in front of the 1909 building will be removed to create a new public plaza.

Priorities for the 1909 renovation include seismic upgrades; replacing windows; repairing brick and mortar; repairing the roof; removing berms around the site; removing stairs on the north, east and west entries; establishing the main entry at the front entrance; and recreating a central hipped roof. Options for renovation include refurbishment only, adding a central hipped roof or adding a central hipped roof and articulation, depending on the budget.

The project team is proposing to demolish the 1928 gym, which sits in the middle of the school, as it conflicts with the new theater and gymnasium. The floor levels of the building do not match with the planned theater or new gymnasium, creating accessibility issues.

“It also needs to be seismically upgraded,” said Chandra Robinson, principal at LEVER Architecture, adding that it would be a big cost.

The new building will include the theater and gymnasium. The updated design includes more glazing with window groupings that relate better to the 1909 building, the addition of canopies and material changes at the entries with brick and metal panels, and activating the streetscape with landscape.

The east and west ground-level frontages of the new building include additional pedestrian treatments when compared to previous DAR schemes: landscaping, clear glazing and extended canopies. However, due to interior programming, large blank walls at the street level persist. Commissioners agreed that the ground level could use more fine tuning. Moreland suggested adding some greenery or artwork, such as a mural. Commission Chair Andrew Smith asked about other ways to create transparency on the ground floor other than more windows, such as a bay with a storefront advertising the shows happenings in the theater. The design team said they are looking into this.

“Keep pursuing those other ways to break up a little bit of the monotony of the façades,” Smith said. “With that said, I think the current design direction of the addition, I find it to be incredibly compatible with the 1909 building.”

Modifications and adjustments include exceeding the height requirement of 75 feet to 82 feet for the 1909 building, exceeding the minimum setback requirement of a 1-foot setback for each 2 feet of building height across from the adjacent residential on the North Kerby and North Commercial frontages (changing from 23 feet to 29 feet, 8 inches on North Kerby Avenue and from 28 feet to 32 feet on North Commercial Avenue), to raise the fence height from 8 feet to 10 feet for the athletic fields, an adjustment to reduce bike stalls from 355 to 200, and a superblock modification to provide the required plaza area but exceed the 3-to-1 ratio for the plaza area to allow connectivity from North Kerby Avenue to North Commercial Avenue.

The Portland Bureau of Development Services values the project at $21 million.

The team plans to submit a Type II Historic Resource Review application in January.

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The team proposing modernization of the Jefferson High School campus in North Portland received design advice from the Historic Landmarks Commission on Monday. Plans call for complete or partial demolition of existing buildings (contributing structures in the Piedmont Conservation District) and site amenities: a track, fields, parking areas and more. They would be replaced by new buildings and structures.

Jefferson, located in the Humboldt neighborhood, was historically considered Portland’s Black high school. It’s located at 5210 N. Kerby Ave., in the Humboldt neighborhood. The campus is bordered by North Killingsworth Street to the north and North Humboldt Street to the south; North Alberta Street crosses through the property.

The 13.47-acre site includes the original building that opened in 1909, additions and other buildings constructed between 1928 and 1968, a track, fields, and parking.

The project team includes Portland Public Schools, Bora Architecture & Interiors and LEVER Architecture.

At this point the team is proposing to retain the 1909 portion of the existing building and redevelop most of the remaining site. The existing field between Killingsworth Street and the 1909 building will be maintained.

The existing track also will be maintained, LEVER Architecture principal Chandra Robinson stated during Monday’s hearing.

Additional modifications are anticipated as the design process progresses. The focus of Monday’s meeting was on existing buildings’ fates, hierarchy of streets and site access, new building locations, height and massing on the site, response to the surrounding residential neighborhood, and more.

Parties stressed Monday that ADA access to the 1909 building is important to both Portland Public Schools and the design team. Currently, there is limited ADA access on sides of the building and none at the front.

The main entry requires renovation, Robinson said. The project team plans to transform it into more of a ceremonial entry, eliminate most of the stairs, and install a ramp for accessibility.

Plans also call for adding some sort of public path through the site.

Alterations made to the 1909 building include diamond detail pattern changes, plaster placed over arches, and flattened vertical breaks between sets of windows. Most of those alterations were made in the 1950s.

The project will move forward as a Type II process, Bureau of Development Services employee Art Graves said, unless demolition of most of the structures is proposed. In that event, a Type III demolition review by the Historic Landmarks Commission would be required.

Plans call for replacing tennis courts on the site’s northeast corner with parking.

Commissioner Andrew Smith said some of the 1909 building’s missing features are evident on the 1928 building, which currently is targeted for demolition. He said he can see an alternative where both buildings are retained. Commission Chair Kristen Minor agreed that the team should closely examine the 1928 building before pursuing demolition.

The primary entry was a hot topic for the commissioners. Minor expressed interest in learning if either the east entry or west entry could become the primary one.

The project is valued at $21 million. Schematic design will begin in early 2023. The team is set to return in early spring for a second design advice hearing and may request a third hearing. Construction could begin in 2024.

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