Walking through downtown Portland, it seems pretty easy to pick the
homeless out of a crowd. They’re the people on the sidewalk with a
sleeping bag, or the people on the corner asking for change. But walking through the halls of Parkrose, homelessness can be a lot harder to
recognize.
In fact, Parkrose High School itself has a surprisingly large population of homeless students. According to Bob Grovenburg, Parkrose’s resident Homeless Liaison, about 80 students enrolled this year with no address to put on their forms, and 63 students currently come to him for help with their unstable living conditions. “They’re not street kids, they’re not kids that are involved in drugs or alcohol, they’re just regular kids,” Grovenburg said.
As Homeless Liaison, a position required in public high schools by
federal law, Grovenburg works with homeless students, helping them with issues like school supplies, transportation, and even finding places to stay, all to insure that their housing situation doesn’t deprive them of the same opportunities guaranteed to other high schoolers. “They know education is their ticket to not being in this situation again,” Grovenburg said.
A new principal
For students fearing that their right to chew gum is in jeopardy, fear not. As of Monday, May 11, there was a new principal at Parkrose High School, Ana Gonzalez, Previous principal Roy Reynolds will become an assistant principal at Parkrose Middle School. Gonzalez has no plans for new policies to implement at Parkrose High. “High school’s a little different than middle school,” Gonzalez said, referring to the changes made at the Parkrose Middle school that were made last year. Most of those changes made at the middle school were already underway before Gonzalez became the principal there. She said that there is a major difference in maturity from high school students to middle school students.
This is not to say that no changes will ever be made. There are always procedural changes from the state and the occasional change made by the administration. Gonzalez said that she will listen to the parents and students as well as staff before making major changes.
Above all, Gonzalez said that her focal point is learning. “I want everyone to graduate,” she said.
Harsh cuts in a grim economy
Going into a meeting thinking you will be talking about the freezing of funds is not hard. Until you get there. As teachers rove through the room, pulling chairs into groups, making idle chit chat, things seem calm other than the aura of knowledgeable discomfort looming behind their eyes. As the meeting began, topics roamed from firing teachers and turning off lights to save energy, to selling off pieces of land, all in the name of the falling economy. The main piece of news: All general funds are frozen. This news turns teachers into students as they grumble, make comments below their breaths, and raise their hands to make repeated opinons and complaints, whereas others just put their heads on the table or doodle in their notes.
This greater equalizer is that, according to Superintendent Karen Gray, the district “is cutting 5.7 million dollars out of its budget due to a large state revenue shortfall.”
Gray also leads regular student advisory meetings that are held once a month.