63.05% of Voters Said "Yes" to Portland Public Schools

By Jane Ames

In the 60's the Beatles melodically maintained that, "All you need is love...". Well, Portland loves its schools and education, but while "Money can't buy you love..." it funded a good campaign for the Portland Public Schools $33 million levy.

Finally, PPS will have five years of funding stability for teachers, books and supplies.

With great staff support from Jeffrey King, Sam, along with State Treasurer Randall Edwards, and PGE CEO Peggy Fowler, co-chaired the Portlanders for Schools Fundraising Committee.

Fundraising is necessary but unglamorous work. Sam made more calls than we could possibly track, for two reasons.

First: Sam made all the calls out of City Hall, on his own phone and his own time.

Second: while he had more than 100 potential donors on his list, Sam called many of them three or four times.

The co-chairs encouraged, cajoled and engaged in friendly competition to get all the members of the fundraising team to get their calls made, and empower the campaign to get the message out.

The shortest call was to Dan Wieden for all of 15 seconds. It went pretty much like this:

Sam: "Hello Dan. I would like you to donate $5,000 for the schools campaign."

Dan: "Yes. Now, go win this thing."

Sam: "You are a saint, thanks!"

Dan: "Goodbye."

Sam: "Goodbye."

That's what you call "short but sweet".

Sam directly raised $100,000 and assisted with calls or conversations for $50,000 more. In total, the fundraisers brought in over $523,000 in 2 months; most all of it spent directly reaching voters through mailing and television.

There are many partners in this victory: the fundraisers, over 1000 volunteers, Portland Schools Foundation, Liz Kaufman, Mark Weiner, Rhys Scholes, Hope4Schools, Stand for Children, the PAT and OEA, very strong business support by PBA and others, PTAs, local school foundations, and that glorious 63.05% of voters who said YES on 26-84. And a special "hats off" to Jeffrey King who worked for the campaign coordinating fundraising efforts.

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Milestones:

Fall 2005 -Summer 2006: Regional, County, City, School District school funding discussions and negotiations go on.
February 17, 2006: School Summit
March 09, 2006: City Throws Schools a Lifeline
March 16, 2006: Children's Education Coalition presented a school funding solution. Co-Chairs Sho Dozono & Otto Schell
Oregon Chalkboard Project: Open Book$
August 14,2006: PPS sends a Local Option Levy to the November Ballot
August 15, 2006: Fundraising Begins
November 6, 2007: Fundraising Concludes
November 7, 2007: Voters pass Local Option Levy: 26-84
November 8, 2006: Preparation begins for Legislative Session
Will it be a Session to Remember?
On Thursday, November 16, Oregon PTA hosted a discussion on next steps for school funding and efforts to influence the upcoming session of the Oregon legislature. The Oregon PTA Office is at 123 NE 3rd. For more information contact Otto Schell at 503-284-2681.
On Saturday, November 18, Stand for Children held its 2nd Annual Statewide Summit at Woodburn High School. The keynote Speaker Wendy Pureifoy of Public Education Network addressed "Improving Our Schools: Why Us, Why Now" Call Stand at 503-235-2305 for more information.
On Sunday, November 19, Community and Parents for Public Schools hosted a general meeting at the Kennedy School.
Stand has also come forward with their 2007-09 Legislative Agenda.
December 4, 2006 Governor Kulongski Proposes 2007-09 Budget