The Portland Public School board is set to approve the sale for the “One North Building” as a home for the “Center for Black Student Excellence.”

The District is prepared to spend $16 million from the 2020 construction bond. Yet, they’ve never explained how the Center will operate or who it will serve. The name of the Center implies it will serve Black students, but the staff report claims it will be open to everyone. If true, it should be called the Center for Student Excellence.

PPS serves about 44-thousand students over 150 square miles, so how will those students travel to the Center before or after school? The building has 10 parking spaces and isn’t zoned for buses.

The staff report also states “student use will be limited.” If so, why purchase a new building with new operating costs? The district already has too many schools while enrollment is in decline.

Learning takes place everywhere in the district. Spending millions on a new building is unlikely to have a real effect on academic achievement.

Perhaps while evaluating the building, the Board can re-evaluate the Center’s vision with a goal to bring student excellence into every school and tailoring experiences to students from different ethnic backgrounds. Maybe investing in Centers for Student Excellence wouldn’t require a new building at all.