Lincoln HS students walk out over bond measure delay

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Hundreds of Lincoln High School students walked out of class Wednesday morning, demanding that the school district put a bond measure back on the November ballot to improve schools.

The students marched across town from city hall to Portland Public Schools headquarters, calling for improved conditions at their school and others in the area.

PPS board members recently decided they weren’t ready to approach voters with a $750 million bond measure that would fund much-needed repairs on campuses.

District leaders are currently dealing with the tasks of finding new leadership and getting a handle on the problem of elevated lead levels found in school facilities.

They voted to postpone putting the measure on the ballot until May 2017.

But fed-up students say the district needs to deal with serious infrastructure and overcrowding problems at local schools now, not next year. At Lincoln High School, about 1,700 students are packed into a campus meant for only 950.

“We’ve been going to school for the past 2 years in really terrible environments,” student Ella Berry said. “This is just to show what we’ve been going through.”

Mayor Charlie Hales didn’t address the crowd of students on Wednesday, but a city hall representative agreed to let a student leader email a list of requests.

KOIN 6 News will have more information shortly.