At Jefferson High School, the community wants more seats in its historic auditorium. Students and parents at Southeast Portland, Ore.'s Cleveland High want to build classrooms, and possibly a performing arts center, on top of the parking lot behind the Burgerville on Powell Boulevard.
And folks at Southwest Portland's Wilson High want a brand-new building, saying they have little attachment to the boxy '50s-era building that has housed Wilson students for six decades.
As Portland Public Schools begins developing a historic $1.4 billion construction bond to cover cost overruns from projects voters approved in 2017 and extensively renovate three more high schools, district officials have held several community meetings with students, their families and neighbors who live near the campuses of Cleveland, Jefferson and Wilson.
The school board's bond committee listened to architects working on each remodel Thursday evening.
LeRoy Landers is leading the Cleveland redesign for Mahlum Architects and said his firm has drafted three potential blueprints, one of which calls for a total demolition.
Students at the Southeast Portland school are concerned about its small footprint relative to other district high schools, Landers said. The Cleveland campus sits on a three-acre parcel on Powell Boulevard and 26th Avenue. That makes it one of the most compact high schools in the district, officials said.
Two of the school's potential redesigns would have the district erect a new building on top of the one-acre parking lot it owns behind Burgerville. In one rendering, it would house a new performing arts center with a 500-seat theater.
In another, the smaller adjunct building across the street from the existing building would house only classrooms.
Still, Landers said, students were concerned about connectivity at Cleveland, signaling a desire for it to be "like the other high schools."
At Jefferson High in North Portland, community members were adamant about keeping the wing of the building built in 1909 intact, as well as the historic theater, Bora architect Chris Linn told the bond committee.
"Jefferson is a hub for the community, and people want that to continue," he said.
Linn's firm gathered a focus group and asked members to place wooden blocks on a map of the Jefferson campus to envision where new buildings might be constructed.
Community members wanted to ensure there was space for the school's acclaimed dance team. They also wanted space for Self Enhancement, Inc., a nonprofit that offers mentorship and academic supports for students.
Board member Andrew Scott, who chairs the bond committee, wondered aloud why Jefferson's plans were developed with a student body of 1,700 in mind, because the district doesn't anticipate enrollment nearing 1,000 anytime soon.
The impact on the project's price tag if architects scaled down on a common space or two would be fairly negligible, Linn and board members reasoned, as an incremental decrease in square footage wouldn't impact concrete costs.
"It doesn't really get any cheaper to build less," Linn said.
Jefferson students and their families also told Linn's firm that they want to remain on campus as the building is renovated. Students at Madison High, which is under construction, are currently attending classes at the former Marshall High School campus on Southeast 92nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard, roughly 4.7 miles to the south.
That sort of relocation for Jefferson students would be cumbersome, Linn said. The campuses are about 11 miles apart.
Southwest Portland's Wilson High is in a similar situation. Students and families there say they'd prefer for the Portland district to construct a new building on the west side of their campus while they remain in the current building.
Principal Filip Hristic, who led North Portland's Roosevelt High when it underwent an extensive remodel as part of a $480 million bond voters passed in 2012, recalled how students had gym classes in a "portable tent" during construction to underscore the challenges of teaching or learning in a half-finished building.
"It's difficult to do a good job at a new building when people are moving in and out while it's still being built," he said.
Wilson community members told IBI Architects' Rebecca Grant that they hoped the new Wilson blueprint would keep the athletic fields on the north side of campus, away from residential Vermont Street.
Students and families also signaled they'd like to keep the city-owned Wilson Pool on the property, which will require its own bathrooms since users currently use the high school's facilities during the summer.
Wilson said IBI asked whether students preferred to renovate their current building or a complete tear it down and newly erected school. Support for a new Wilson was "overwhelming," she told the bond committee.
Details for how much each renovation would cost are still scant, but district officials started Thursday's meeting with a baseline of $250 million per project to kickstart discussion.
The district still needs to settle on the scope of each remodel, as well as which features to include and which to omit from the three concurrently developed designs.
Those conversations will happen with community groups from each school and during public meetings, officials said.
