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Opened in the late 1950’s, George Smith Elementary School operated for nearly 50 years before being closed by the school district for “declining enrollment.”

In the eighties or nineties, Smith’s boundaries were shrunk in order to enhance the number of students at Markham, which had been closed. The students south of Taylors Ferry Road, many of whom walked to Smith, were bussed to Markham. This was detrimental to our community by fragmenting it, and by eliminating an opportunity for healthy exercise for students by walking to school in a safe, quiet neighborhood.

The original boundary for Smith extended all the way to I-5. That made a lot of sense as I-5 is a natural boundary, and many children living between Taylors Ferry and I-5 can easily and safely walk or bicycle to Smith. Not only that, these children live in the same local neighborhood and might play together if they attended the same school and became acquainted with one another.

When the school district redefined Smith’s boundaries (i.e. shrunk them) in its last few years of operation, they set the stage for declining enrollment.

Our community should work toward reestablishing Smith as an operating school. Since Smith no longer has any boundaries, we should insist on the more natural boundaries it had for the first 30 or 40 years, which would be essentially all of the combined Ashcreek and Crestwood neighborhood assications.

Related link: In March 2005, the Ashcreek Neighborhood Association sent a letter to Members of the Portland Public School Board regarding its decision to close Smith School.

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