By Daniel Perez-Crouse
Families of SE Portland’s Bridger Creative Science School (BCSS) are frustrated over the prospect of larger class sizes and unmet promises to address that very issue.
For context, BCSS is the result of reconstruction efforts following the creation of Portland Public Schools’ (PPS) Southeast Guiding Coalition (SEGC) boundary changes. PPS formed the SEGC in 2020 to balance enrollment and address educational inequities.
In 2023, BCSS was made a SEGC school by combining the formerly lottery-based Creative Science School with the neighborhood Bridger Elementary School.
News coverage at the time of this combined school showed concern over increased class sizes as a result. A BCSS parent working closely with other BCSS families, Mariah Jochai, said that, “We were assured PPS would provide additional FTE to support larger classes as they rose in grade level. Our school’s overpopulation was predicted to ease in about five years.”
A letter to the school board from the Deputy Superintendent for Business and Operations in the wake of SEGC’s formation, outlined the issues, saying, “To facilitate the boundary and program changes over the next five years, Deputy Superintendent Hertz recommends a staffing pool of 10 licensed FTE to be equitably allocated each year to help build programs at Harrison Park and SE schools through the transition.”
However, class size records from PPS show a rise in median class sizes over the last couple years for some grade levels at BCSS. This has led to the current concern of BCSS families with children heading to fourth grade in the 2025-2026 school year. They were informed that PPS will collapse three classrooms of 23-24 BCSS third-grade students into two classrooms of 33 and 34 fourth-grade students.
Compounding the issue is that the five years of 10 FTE allocated to SEGC schools has been altered and SEGC schools must now request FTE from a limited set-aside bucket like all PPS schools.
Dr. Renard Adams, PPS Chief Accountability and Equity Officer, told Jochai in an email that, “The SEGC allotment of 10 FTE for enrollment and program balancing was not included in the budget that is moving through the adoption process. Instead, we have been using a general pool of FTE to support school staffing and program balancing requests.”
This lines up with discussions in a June 10 PPS board meeting, where Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brimm Edwards asked what schools requested FTE this year. “It kind of surprises me, because I only see a list of seven schools. And it appears that what got approved was essentially three FTE (corrected for 2.8),” she said.
Amongst those seven schools was BCSS, which requested one FTE for a fourth-grade teacher, but was denied due to “decision pending confirmation closer to school start date.” This was confirmed in a document shared by Brimm Edwards on Facebook that alluded to confusion around which SEGC schools knew about the changes to requesting FTE.
In response during that meeting, Dr. Franco, Senior Chief Operations at PPS, said that all requests were addressed in an “overarching meeting” and that the “rationale for the schools that weren’t given an allocation is they were so close beneath the threshold for class size that we needed to wait until the fall. But the plan is to start in August and meet weekly, monitoring enrollment adjustments.”
It’s worth noting that PPS is in the midst of budget challenges after three years of deficits and a $40 million shortfall. Back in April, while discussing the issue with KGW, PPS Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong said, “We’re set to lose about 280 FTE (full-time equivalent) across central office in our schools in total.”
Jochai said, “Families are concerned about the potential impact on learning, teacher workload and classroom culture. In 2024/25, this cohort of students struggled with behavior in classrooms of 23-24 students. 10 additional students in each classroom will be very difficult for students and staff.” Families are also concerned that issues SEGC was supposed to solve have not been fulfilled.
195 signatures from supporters in the BCSS community were garnered to oppose this decision, and a June 6 march was held to bring attention to the issue in the Montavilla neighborhood.
In a letter to PPS from BCSS families, they said, “We appeal to PPS to fulfill their SEGC promise, honor their core values and approve three 4th grade classrooms with constructivist-trained teachers at BCSS for the 2025-26 school year—before this school year ends. Waiting until August to make this decision is unacceptable. Our students and teachers deserve a successful start to their school year.”
Currently, BCSS and families are still waiting to hear if they will be allocated additional FTE needed for a teacher to reduce their class sizes.
PPS did not respond to comment before publishing.
BCSS students at June 6 march. Photo by Mariah Jochai.
