Portland Parents Weigh In on Proposed Changes to School Attendance Boundaries
Portland parents have an opportunity this October to provide feedback on proposed changes to the attendance boundaries for the city’s public elementary and middle schools. A small group of parents gathered Thursday at Lincoln Middle School to share their thoughts on how the changes might affect commuting distances and disrupt their children’s education.
Chris Dana, a parent of two Portland students, explained that his family bought their home specifically so their children could walk to school at every level, from kindergarten through senior year. Under the proposed changes, this would no longer be possible. “That’s a pretty major disappointment,” he said.
Thursday’s meeting was the third of five sessions scheduled throughout the month. Parents have two more chances to participate before the committee finalizes its recommendations to the school board.
Long-Overdue Review of Attendance Zones
A 15-member committee has been meeting for over a year to develop and propose updates to the attendance boundaries. This marks the first review of Portland’s attendance zones in two decades, a period during which population centers and city demographics have shifted considerably.
Currently, the city’s eight mainland elementary schools and three middle schools vary widely in enrollment and in the proportion of students who are economically disadvantaged. The committee’s goal is to create more balanced enrollment across schools while prioritizing walkable neighborhood schools, short transportation times, and minimizing the number of students affected by boundary changes.
Balancing Competing Priorities
Sarah Lentz, who chairs both the school board and the attendance boundaries committee, acknowledged the difficult tradeoffs the group has faced during the process. A key challenge has been balancing the desire to equalize the number of economically disadvantaged students across schools with the need to keep transportation times short for those students.
“These changes were not what we were hoping to get to by the end of this process,” Lentz said. “Especially the schools that had high utilization and a high number of economically disadvantaged students to begin with — those schools don’t see that much change here in the current boundaries.”
Under the latest proposed maps, about 350 students would be assigned to different schools.
Parents Express Concerns
At Thursday’s session, some parents voiced worries about how the changes could impact their children’s schooling. One mother shared, “My daughter’s very happy at Ocean [Avenue Elementary School].” Her child, currently enrolled there, would have to move to a different school under the proposal. “She’ll be in third grade next year, so I really think that would be horrible to her.”
Other concerns raised included the disruption caused by changing schools partway through a child’s education, the safety risks of crossing busy streets to get to a new school, and the potential separation from friends made at current schools.
Ongoing Community Engagement and Next Steps
Lentz noted that during an earlier listening session focused on multilingual families, parents were particularly worried about transportation issues. She assured families that feedback from all community sessions would be incorporated into boundary discussions moving forward.
The committee’s next two meetings will focus on considering implementation policies, such as when any boundary changes would take effect and whether the district will offer a waiver system for families facing specific hardships due to the changes.
Looking ahead, Lentz said the group is also exploring more regular reviews of attendance boundaries to better respond to population and demographic changes.
Upcoming Public Sessions
Two remaining public sessions on the current boundary proposal are scheduled:
- October 29 at United Way on Forest Avenue, 6 p.m.
- October 30 virtual session, 6 p.m.
The committee is expected to finalize its recommendations in November, after which the school board will vote on the proposed boundary changes.
https://www.pressherald.com/2025/10/17/portland-parents-weigh-proposed-school-boundary-changes/