West Sylvan Parent Q & A for PPS
These are questions parents would like answered at the Oct. 8th meeting with PPS reps.
1.
Where is the boundary between West Sylvan and the field/track West of the school AND Tennis courts to the south?
Who owns the property? According to county records, the school and these areas are on one parcel of land. If PPS owns
the entire property, what operating agreements are in place between PPS and Tualatin Valley Parks and Rec district?
A: West Sylvan is one parcel owned wholly by Portland Public Schools. THPRD maintains and uses the tennis courts
after school hours.
2.
Is East Campus on the chopping block at the district level? Is the plan to take East out of the picture completely in
the near (2-4 year) picture?
A: No decisions have been made about the future of E. Sylvan. Board member Bobbie Regan is interested in exploring
the option of selling E Sylvan and using some or all of the proceeds to assist with growth at W. Sylvan. Directing
proceeds E Sylvan sale to W. Sylvan would be a change of PPS policy. PPS is exploring this as one of many options to
be considered.
3.
If PPS is asking parents to come up with a 2 year solution, what would that mean for the kids who will be 8th graders
in 3 years? Will they be negatively impacted by the long term solution?
A: The answer to this question is dependent on the changes that are ultimately made. PPS will work to avoid or
minimize negative impacts for any students.
4.
What is the legal capacity of West campus and East campus based on fire codes? (classrooms and lunch rooms)
A: Physical capacity for an existing building is determined by:
 occupancy category
 number of occupants in that category
 type of building construction
 fire suppression systems
 fire rating of exiting corridor
 distance from a classroom door to the egress door
Building code. West Sylvan and East Sylvan classrooms generally have a capacity of 20SF per person based on the
Education (E) occupancy use category (in bldg. code). Gyms, library / media, auditoriums and multipurpose rooms are
categorized as Assembly (A) occupancy use category and generally have a capacity of 7SF per person. Total capacity
based on combined E and A occupancies:
West Sylvan – 3739
East Sylvan – 875
Granted, that allows more students in W. Sylvan than may realistically accommodate. A typical classroom at West
Sylvan could potentially hold 45 or more students, though some codes, such as distance form a classroom door to the
egress door, may limit classroom capacity. The average class size in 2013-14 at West / East Sylvan was 29.2 students.
Generally, it is the District’s teacher-student ratio that limits the number of students in a classroom rather than
building/fire codes.
The multipurpose room has capacity for 213 occupants as an A occupancy.
PPS-adopted long range facility plan. According to the occupancy goals of the plan and a recent walk through of W.
Sylvan, each school has the following design capacities:
West Sylvan- 1260
East Sylvan- 326 (not confirmed via walk through)
West Sylvan Parent Q & A for PPS
Current enrollment at West / East Sylvan: 960 students.
5.
Looking at the bathrooms at East, is PPS in violation of any health codes since there is only one girls bathroom and
2 boys?
A: The girl’s restroom has six toilets. This number meets building and plumbing code when the school was constructed
and continues to meet current code as an existing building. Code is one stall per 50 students and doesn’t dictate split
between genders. Given that there are 154 students in E. Sylvan, the school is within code.
6.
What is the HARD capacity of West and East? There must be some number that legally PPS cannot take in more
kids due to laws/regulations. What is that number for each campus?
A: See answer to #4.
7.
What is the minimum number of classroom hours per day that needs to be met by students? (perhaps able to
lengthen day and stagger start times)
A: The State requires and we follow 990 a year minimum for HS, 900 a year minimum for 4-8 and 810 for K-8.
(Length of year alters required length of day.)
8.
What are the population projections for NW Portland, Pearl District and Waterfront for the next 5-10 years? How is
student projection/planning being addressed?
A: See page 74 or attached PSU-PPS enrollment projection report. Enrollment for West Sylvan is projected to grow to
1110 by 2019, and 1154 by 2024. Overall PPS enrollment is projected to grow by approximately 6,200 students by
2029. To begin planning for this growth PPS will be undergoing district wide boundary review in 2015 and will
consider boundary changes, facility changes, on an annual basis in subsequent years. PPS is also beginning to rebuild
its school facilities with the school bond program.
9.
Have boundary changes between Beaverton and PPS been looked at? Are they a possibility? Could the boundary be
moved between Beaverton and Portland vs just looking at boundary review within PPS?
A: No, and there no plans to.
10. What is the process for getting a new school built?
A: PPS is at the beginning of rebuilding its entire facility infrastructure funded by voter approved bonds. The PPS
Bond Development Committee has recommended that PPS rebuild high school facilities first and then move to
rebuilding middle and elementary schools.
11. As parents, we are not experts in school planning, population planning, etc. What would PPS recommend to us as
solutions to our problems?
A: PPS will recommend several short and long term options for consideration including changes to the West Sylvan
boundary.
12. Talk about the boundary discussions and how these discussions impact what we do short term. Will district provide
money to implement short term solutions if they know they are going to redistrict any number of students out of Lincoln
cluster?
A: There are current plans to change high school boundaries or any other boundaries. Any boundary changes will be
recommended by the PPS District Wide Boundary Review Advisory Committee (DBRAC). PPS will only move forward
with short term changes that can be implemented with appropriate funding.
West Sylvan Parent Q & A for PPS
13. What are the legal capacity numbers for Robert Gray (fire code/health codes)?
A: Physical capacity for an existing building is determined by:
 occupancy category
 number of occupants in that category
 type of building construction
 fire suppression systems
 fire rating of exiting corridor
 distance from a classroom door to the egress door
Building code. Gray classrooms generally have a capacity of 20SF per person based on the Education (E) occupancy
use category. Gyms, library / media, auditoriums and multipurpose rooms are categorized as Assembly (A) occupancy
use category and generally have a capacity of 7SF per person. Gray has a total potential for 2254 occupants based on
combined E and A occupancies. A typical classroom at Gray could potentially hold 45 or more students. The average
class size in 2013-14 at Gray was 25.9 students.
Long range facility plan. Analysis notes the design capacity at Gray is 862 students, which is a more comfortable
capacity than allowed by building code.
Current enrollment at Gray: 527