Portland Public Schools has named a prospective site for its Center for Black Student Excellence.

District leaders want to enter into a purchase and sale agreement, or PSA, to buy the One North property, located at the corner of N. Vancouver Ave. and N. Fremont. The Oregonian/Oregonlive first reported on the district’s plans to pursue the building, located in the Albina neighborhood, the historic heart of Portland’s Black community.

The proposed purchase price is $16 million and would be paid out of PPS’s 2020 bond money. Capital construction dollars that make up school bonds have to be used for buildings and a handful of other approved infrastructure. In other words, the bond money can’t be used for daily operations like staff salaries.

The PSA is a crucial step toward creating a center to advance Black student opportunities in Portland. And it’s a long time coming.

Portland Public Schools is Oregon’s largest school district, with an enrollment of about 43,500 students, 8% of whom identify as Black or African American. That rate is substantially higher than the statewide demographic.

PPS has persistent achievement gaps between white students and students of color. White students in 2024 graduated at a 89% rate, according to state data, while the graduation rate for Black students the same year was 76%.

In November 2020, PPS asked voters to support a $1.2 billion bond to fund continued work modernizing the district’s high schools. In addition to construction money for schools, investments in technology and other upgrades, the bond set aside $60 million to create a new facility called the Center for Black Student Excellence. The bond passed with the approval of 75% of participating Portland voters.

But nearly five years later, the center has yet to come to fruition.

A coalition of more than 35 education and community organizations issued a formal letter to the Portland school board in May, calling for immediate action.

The coalition backing the letter included groups such as Albina Vision Trust, the Black Business Association of Oregon and the Portland branch of the NAACP. Together, they acknowledged some of the setbacks the district has faced in establishing the center, such as responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the letter also called out slow progress to advance many of the projects that specifically serve the district’s Black students, such as relocating Harriet Tubman Middle School and rebuilding Jefferson High School.

The coalition outlined deadlines and actions to address what they described as “a pattern of institutional neglect and broken promises to Portland’s Black students, families, and community.”

One of the letter’s demands was to identify a site for the center by June 30, with the transaction completed by Dec. 1.

This school board’s public hearing and vote this week will help guide whether the district enters into the agreement on One North.

“The community knows it is needed,” Michelle DePass, vice-chair of the school board, told OPB before the meeting. “And while all the details have not been worked out, there is a strategic plan, a vision, and a hope that the center can meet the needs of this community.”

Partners agree.

“We’re excited that after several years spent collecting community input and weighing the pros and cons of potential sites, the district is finally moving forward on a site for the CBSE,” said Aryn Frazier, the executive director of a separate nonprofit called the Center for Black Excellence, which supports the student-focused center PPS is pursuing.

“This is long overdue,” Frazier added, “and demonstrates a much-needed commitment to student excellence, collaboration, and innovation — all of which are necessary to make this a district in which race is not predictive of academic, social, or postsecondary outcomes.”

Next steps

If the PSA passes, the district will conduct due diligence on the property over the next 90 days.

This is when officials will look at things such as added structural costs or possible modifications that might be needed on the mixed-use office space before students can move in. The site wasn’t originally meant to be a school; the architects of the 2015 build described it as an innovative commercial development.

“We want to make sure … there’s no like hidden barriers or unforeseen issues that may require us to pull out of the contract,” Board Chair Eddie Wang said. “We don’t want to claim a win before a win happens.”

Assuming the district doesn’t find any major problems with the site, the board plans to vote on whether to approve the purchase of the One North property in early December.

According to board documents, the seller requires that the transaction close by December 29.

Wang described this property as a win-win-win. It’s new, meaning they don’t have to delay the center further with more construction. The total cost of $16 million is substantially lower than the $60 million planned for it in the bond. And, it will provide a needed space to give Black students added support.

“We want to make sure that our Black community gets the best possible, right?” Wang said.

Wang added that this is an especially unique project, one done in partnership with many local organizations, including many from Portland’s Black community, something he described as “a novel approach.”

“It’s one of the first times we allow our Black community to have the say in how to run things,” he said, “and give them the power and the leadership to fulfill this vision.”

Wang acknowledged there may be some growing pains to get the project off the ground, and it may require some patience. Still, they want the dream to become a reality soon.

“We’re all here,” he said, “wanting to get this off the ground and making sure it’s successful.”