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Keep Sunnyside K–8 and environmental.

Feeling anxious about the Portland Public Schools (PPS) proposal to end Sunnyside’s environmental focus and make us a K-5? This is not a done deal. The school board doesn’t vote until December 15, and families can still change the outcome. Here’s how to help.

Sign the Letter Last updated

The vote

School board final vote (planned)

6–8 PM · PPS District Office, 501 N Dixon St

All key dates

What you can do

Saving SES’s environmental K-8 will take steady effort between now and the December vote. Each step below takes five minutes or less.

  1. Sign the letter and share your story.

    Join more than 2,000 people who have already signed, and tell us how Sunnyside Environmental School has made a difference for you. Anyone can sign: neighbors, current and former students and staff, local businesses and community partners. We’ll deliver the letter and your signature to the PPS Board of Education, the district, and city and state officials.

    Sign the Letter

  2. Email the school board and local officials.

    A short personal note works best: who you are, what SES means to your family or community, and what you’re asking for. Need ideas? Pull a point or two from our letter or fact sheet.

    Email the School Board

    City and state officials
    Name Email
    Mayor Keith Wilson mayor@portlandoregon.gov
    Governor Tina Kotek Governor.Kotek@oregon.gov
    Governor Kotek’s campaign (Tina Kotek for Oregon) info@tinafororegon.com
    Senator Kate Lieber Sen.KateLieber@oregonlegislature.gov
    Rep. Dacia Grayber Rep.DaciaGrayber@oregonlegislature.gov

    Read the letter Sunnyside by the Numbers (fact sheet, PDF)

  3. Ask PPS your questions.

    Have a question about the rightsizing proposal or how it affects Sunnyside? Submit it directly to the district.

    Submit a Question to PPS

  4. Join the SES Closures group on Konstella.

    For SES parents

    Real-time updates, action alerts and coordination with other families happen here.

    Join on Konstella

  5. Sign up to volunteer.

    We need help with outreach, showing up at events, writing, social media and more. Sign up and tell us what you can do. We’ll reach out with ways to plug in. Questions? Email advocacy@sesptsa.org.

    Sign Up to Volunteer

  6. Spread the word.

    Forward this page to five people who care about SES or Portland schools, including neighbors without kids at SES. Copy and paste this:

  7. Send us your photos and videos.

    Were you at a rally, board meeting or community event? Share your photos and videos so we can show the board, and the city, how much this community cares. Tag @ses_ptsa on Instagram or send them to advocacy@sesptsa.org.

    Follow @ses_ptsa

Upcoming events

Showing up matters. A full room tells the board this community is paying attention. Event details change often, so check before you go.

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    Key dates ahead

    The district’s timeline for the rightsizing decision.

    1. Tue., Oct. 6 – PPS presents two rightsizing scenarios
    2. Tue., Nov. 17 – Superintendent’s recommendation (planned) The Superintendent presents a formal recommendation to the school board.
    3. The vote happens here Tue., Dec. 15, 6–8 PM – School board final vote (planned) Dr. Matthew Prophet Education Center (PPS District Office), 501 N Dixon St, Portland
    4. 2027–28 school year – Changes take effect If the board approves them.

    Full PPS Rightsizing calendar

    Why SES

    1. Sunnyside isn’t on the closure list, but our school is being dismantled.

      Sunnyside isn’t on the district’s closure list. But both scenarios would dismantle Sunnyside’s current K-8 hybrid neighborhood/focus option school, taking away its middle grades and its environmental program, both of which are integral to its program. Eliminating its curriculum and losing its middle schoolers would be an effective closure of the school, even if the physical building remains. The district has not acknowledged that this is what they are doing. What’s left would be a neighborhood K-5 school the district itself projects at 235 students, significantly below the District’s target of 360, leaving it highly vulnerable to closure in just a few more years.

    2. Our environmental focus curriculum runs through all nine grades and can’t simply be pulled apart.

      Sunnyside’s “magic” isn’t magic at all–it’s intention. Our curriculum ties students’ studies to places in their everyday lives, starting with their own schoolyard in kindergarten and expanding outward as children mature. In kindergarten through second grade, children fall in love with the outdoors. In the middle grades, they explore and build knowledge. And in middle school, we channel that energy into civic action. Place-based learning and service are woven into all aspects of Sunnyside’s curriculum, and the support Sunnyside is able to provide across nine grade levels is a key component of its success. Our 6-8 grades are the culmination of everything these children have worked toward since kindergarten. We can’t lose them.

    3. Sunnyside is Portland’s only environmental school, and losing it would be a loss not just for SES families but for the city and the community.

      Since its founding as the Environmental Middle School in 1994, Sunnyside has spent 32 years fostering deeply rooted connections between students and the places they live. Middle schoolers spend 24,810 hours a year learning in the living classrooms of our region’s rivers, mountains, forests, and oceans, with 54 community partners. For more than three decades, Sunnyside students have carried what they learn into the places where decisions get made. They have testified before Portland City Council on fossil fuel infrastructure, before the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on endangered status for orcas, and to state lawmakers on the Elliott State Forest and HB 4134. In 2016 the Board called for climate justice education across the District, and Sunnyside is where that work happens every day.

    4. Sunnyside succeeds on every measure the district says matters, and the data don’t support this decision.

      Sunnyside Environmental School is one of only 12 schools in PPS with growing enrollment. This year, Sunnyside had 101 applications for 25 open kindergarten slots and 110 applicants for 15 sixth-grade seats. Attendance is 81%, well above the District average of 68%. Scores in both reading and math exceed both District and state averages. The school has an 89% staff retention rate and has had only three principals since it was established in 1994. It serves more than twice the share of students with disabilities that the state funds districts to serve. The data do not support shuttering its program. The District’s estimated enrollment for 2026–27 undercounts current enrollment by 25 students, and these proposed changes achieve the opposite of the District’s stated goals.

    Read the Letter

    Resources