Survey says: Out with the old, in with the new

Portland Public Schools is moving forward with plans to raze Cleveland High School in Southeast Portland and then build a replacement.

Some residents have decried the prospect of demolishing the 95-year-old school building, which is not listed on the National Register of Historic Places. However, 81 percent of 1,413 respondents to a recent survey, including teachers, staff and students, favored construction of a new school, PPS bond spokesman David Mayne said.

“The vast majority of people were very much wanting to build a new school,” he said.

A plan to replace Cleveland High School will be presented to the school board on May 7. At the same meeting, a recommendation to build a new Ida B. Wells High School (formerly Wilson), in Southwest Portland, will also be submitted for the board’s consideration.

“They’re on parallel tracks,” Mayne said.

The existing Cleveland High School was built long before the Americans with Disabilities Act , and a renovation would have to include a realignment of the entrance to provide ADA-compliant accessibility, he said.

A renovation would present “a lot of challenges just in terms of functionality of space,” Mayne said. New construction would provide “more open space for students and more options about how to design the building,” he added.

Also, there are constraints with the Cleveland High School site, which borders Powell Boulevard, a portion of U.S. Route 26, one of the city’s busiest streets. Unlike many suburban schools, the highly visible site interacts with the street grid and is part of the urban fabric.

Traffic is an issue. In 2022, a bicyclist, a 50-year-old woman, was killed outside the school in a collision with a truck. Athletics fields present another challenge they’re located three blocks east of the school.

Both schools’ designs are being funded by the district’s $1.2 billion bond that voters approved in 2020. The school board is expected to place a construction bond on the November ballot. It’s not yet known how much the district will ask of voters.

“The board is discussing that and what should be in it now,” Mayne said.

Cost estimates for the Cleveland High School project will also be presented to the board on May 7, Mayne said. If voters were to approve a construction bond measure this fall, the soonest work could begin is June 2026, he added.

Mahlum ’s Portland office, led by principal Abby Dacey, alongside Studio Petretti Architecture , is designing the Cleveland High School project. Mahlum also designed the renovation and expansion of Grant High School, which was completed in July 2019 for $158 million.

The Ida B. Wells High School replacement project is being designed by Bora Architecture & Interiors .

During construction of a new Cleveland High School, students would go to the Marshall High School campus in outer Southeast Portland.

Ida B. Wells High School students would be able to remain on site during construction there.

No general contractor is attached to either project yet.

“We anticipate issuing the public procurement for CM/GC contractors this spring,” Mayne said.

Public school construction has helped buoy the building industry while high interest rates and a tight lending environment have made it difficult to get private projects off the ground. Spending on all types of educational structures totaled $116 billion nationally in 2023, or more than 10 percent of all nonresidential construction spending, the Census Bureau reported.

However, Oregon was one of only 10 states to see a drop in construction employment during the past 12 months.

“This suggeststhat contractors may be more eager for school projects (in Oregon) than in states where employment is rising,” Associated General Contractors of America Chief Economist Ken Simonson stated in an email Monday. “Conversely, school districts may have an easier time getting bids and getting timely completion of projects.”

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