Two weeks ago, Portland Public Schools put a list on the table: 14 schools that could close, including Maplewood, Buckman, Irvington, Sabin, James John, and Peninsula. Parents packed the board meeting so tightly they were pushing through the doors. Behind the list is a district that has lost 6,000 students since 2019, expects to lose another 6,000 by 2032, and faces a $65 million budget hole in the upcoming budget conversation.

My guest has to vote on all of it. Rashelle Chase-Miller grew up in PPS, sends her two sons there, and serves as vice chair of the school board, representing North Portland. Two of the schools on the list are in her own zone. When she ran, she was adamant she would never support closures. “I was a better school board member before I was a school board member,” she told me. A year on the board changed her mind, and she explains why.

We start with where she comes from. Her mother was among the first students to desegregate Boston’s public schools. Rashelle was an early childhood educator and is now a program director at SMART Reading.

Then we get into the plan itself. Rashelle walks through the three scenarios: A closes 14 schools, B closes 11, and C keeps things as they are. The surprise for a lot of people: this isn’t about saving money. Oregon funds schools per student, so a half-empty school gets half the funding but still needs a principal, a custodian, and a front office. Fuller schools can actually mean smaller class sizes, because there are more sections to split kids into. Her strongest argument is the equity math. Today 24% of PPS’s historically underserved students attend fully resourced schools. Under Scenario A, that would rise to 80% within five years.

We also cover the chaos at the last board meeting and why it scared her, the superintendent salary controversy (Rashelle argues Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong is underpaid, not overpaid), the $65 million in cuts ahead, and what could happen to closed buildings, from social housing modeled on Austin to senior housing and nonprofit leases. (Mike pitched 14 more McMenamins. The idea did not catch on.)

Her ask for listeners: write to the board, be specific, bring solutions, and be kind. Form letters don’t move her. Thoughtful ones do. And call your legislators. Lifting Oregon’s special education funding cap, which reimburses districts for only 11% of students when most serve around 18%, is low-hanging fruit for the coming session.

Also this week: Trash news correspondent Elinor Jones on Kelly Clarkson’s $15,000 animatronic bird standoff, Jane Fonda’s donation to the Kotek campaign, and Johnny 5 returning home to Astoria. Follow Elinor at the Portland Mercury Trash Report.

Key dates: The superintendent’s final recommendation comes November 17, and the board votes in December. Go to a meeting, send testimony, or contact your board member.

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We’re less than a month from Election Day, and the headlines are worrying. The president is attacking vote-by-mail. The DOJ is threatening election officials. People are talking about ICE at drop boxes, and some Oregon ballots are likely to be rejected because the mail is too slow. So I went straight to the person running Oregon’s elections: Secretary of State Tobias Read, who at 6’7” is also the tallest guest in Schmidt Show history.

What we covered:

* The job you didn’t know he has. The Secretary of State is also Oregon’s auditor, and his office built a statewide risk map to decide where to look first.

* Playing defense against D.C. Federal election-security staff vanished days into his term. Since then Oregon has faced an executive order trying to rewrite election law, the SAVE Act, and a push to use a flawed federal database to check voters’ citizenship.

* “No, thanks.” The DOJ sued Oregon for its voter data. The judge tossed the case from the bench, and the feds are now 0-for-25 nationally.

* Why late ballots are piling up. All of Oregon’s mail now gets postmarked at one facility in Portland, which is why 7,314 primary ballots were rejected for late postmarks in this years primary.

* More drop boxes. About 20 new ones are coming, and BallotTrax text alerts are going statewide - sign up for BallotTrax when it becomes available in your jurisdiction.

* The fraud myth. Over 19 years and 60.9 million ballots examined in Oregon, ONLY 38 cases of improper voting during that entire period.

* Lightning round. What to do about ICE at drop boxes, the National Guard, hacking, a canceled election, or a refusal to certify. On that last one, Read’s answer: Oregon certifies its own results.

Key dates 📆

* Oct 13: Register or update your address

* Oct 14: Ballots mailed

* Oct 21: No ballot yet? Call your county clerk.

* Oct 27: Last day to mail safely

* Nov 3: Election Day. Ballots are due by 8 p.m.

The short version: Use a drop box. Any drop box in Oregon works. If you’re mailing, send it a week early or ask the post office for a hand postmark. Check your voter registration status at OregonVotes.gov.

Your homework: Check your registration, talk to a neighbor, and don’t let fear keep you home. VOTE!

Thanks to our sponsor, Corbett Hill Wellness. If you’d like to sponsor the show, reach out. And if you liked this one, leave a review, tell a friend, or share it. See you next week!

Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.