Portland mulls closing up to 20 schools amid rising costs, falling enrollment 

School closures and consolidations are key to long-term sustainability, the Portland Public Schools (PPS) board has concluded. 

“We have fewer students today spread across a system designed to serve significantly more in too many places,” said Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong, reported OregonLive.com. “That means we are stretching our people, programs and resources too thinly to consistently provide the educational experience we want for every student.” 

In a Sept. 1 meeting, the board approved the superintendent’s request to continue the district’s work on closure options for up to 20 schools, according to the article.

“The district has contended that the number of school buildings it has is no longer sustainable, given rising operational costs and rapidly declining enrollment, caused by high housing prices, fewer families moving to Portland, a lower birth rate and some families choosing private, religious, virtual or home school options for their children.”

‘Expenditures are rising faster than revenues’

Margaret Calvert, executive director for school planning and modernization, revealed a “key threshold” for the district involved at least 360 students in all K-5 schools by the 2031-32 academic year.

This number allows for “multiple homerooms at each grade level, principals, arts, gym, counselors and librarians that don’t need to split their time between several different schools and broad support for after-school programming,” according to the article.

However, such outcomes may require closing up to 15 elementary schools, Calvert noted.

“The middle school picture is less clear,” OregonLive.com observed. “The district is aiming for at least 500 students per middle school, but would most likely need to phase out some K-8 schools to reach that threshold.”

The district enrolled 42,622 students in the 2025-26 academic year. That’s 753 fewer students than the previous year, amounting to a 1.7% decrease, according to Willamette Week. 

As previously reported by Heartlander News, the district announced in January that it would need to lay off hundreds of staffers to address a $50 million shortfall.

“Simply put, expenditures are rising faster than revenues,” said PPS Chief Financial Officer Michelle Morrison. “Enrollment is declining, and because so much of our budget goes to staffing, fewer students means fewer dollars, which also means fewer staff.”

Meanwhile, an internal report warned in May that the district’s 2026-27 budget plan was “extremely optimistic” and may not have been conservative enough.

“A second consecutive mid-year budget deficit … would cause significant long-term damage to the public’s trust in PPS at a time when trust is already fragile,” the report from the district’s Community Budget Review Committee (CBRC) concluded.

Part of the challenge involves negotiations with the Portland Association of Teachers (PAT), which often goes on strike when protesting offers made by the district.

“Misestimating what they have or what ours costs by $10 or $20 million … is not problematic,” wrote Steve Lancaster, the union’s former bargaining chair, “but getting it wrong by $50 or $100 million, (as happened in this negotiation) can be a disaster.”