Ida B. Wells High School will be remodeled, along with two other high schools in the Portland Public Schools (PPS) school district. Last May, Portland voters passed a $1.83 billion bond for PPS, putting the modernization plan of the three schools into action.
This past December, PPS board members also approved a $60.5 million contract with Texas construction company Procedo to manage the three remodeling projects.
The construction of the new school is estimated to begin in December 2026 and finish the main building in the summer of 2029. There will still be an additional year of construction for athletic facilities, including football and track fields. They are scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2030.
The most up-to-date information on these estimates is on bond.pps.net, as well as a plethora of renders of the new school.
One of the new school’s stand-out features will be its four-story design, with large glass panels that let natural light shine through, giving students the chance to watch the sunset from the west. Other highlights of the new design include new parking areas for cars and bikes and its modern wood-forward design, reminiscent of the remodeled Portland International Airport.
Kelly Devlin is the Vice Principal of Modernization at IBW, acting as a communication mediator. She works with the IBW community and PPS staff to help communicate between them and the design and construction team for the new school.
The majority of PPS high schools were built in the mid-20th century, including IBW, making the buildings outdated regarding modern-day designs and regulations.
While the modernization occurs, students will have to adapt, especially with pre-existing problems at IBW, like parking. “We are going to have to have students doing more carpooling, maybe riding their bikes to school or using their TriMet passes to come to school because traffic is going to be different,” Devlin said.
IBW’s stadium and the north end of the Rieke Elementary parking lot will be the staging zone for the new building. The new building will also be constructed where IBW’s grass fields and baseball field currently stand.
Due to this, student-athletes will be relocated to Jackson Middle School’s fields during construction. “We’ll need to get prepared and make arrangements so that carpooling can happen, so that kids can get to practices after school at Jackson,” Devlin said.
Home games for all athletic teams will also shift to Jackson Middle School, as it will likely be three years before these sports return to IBW’s home fields. All sports that have practices at the middle school or other specific locations will continue as normal, like wrestling, volleyball, swimming, tennis and more.
The new school is designed with growing class sizes in mind. “Most of the classrooms in the new building will be as big or bigger in square footage than the current classrooms in our schools,” Devlin said. “This building needs to last anywhere from 50 to 75 [years]… so we’re trying to build a building that’s going to last us.”
Even though planning for the new building is almost complete, students can still get involved. However, most of the conversation surrounding the modernization at this point is about the school’s interior design, like potential materials used, furniture, signage and murals, as opposed to its actual layout, which has already been largely determined.
Students can get involved in Design Club meetings in the IBW foyer every other Tuesday, where they can meet team members from BORA Architecture & Interior, the design company for the new school. These meetings provide an opportunity for students to voice their opinions with BORA members and participate in fun activities that will impact the school’s design.
There are also open forums where the community at large can attend to share their questions and concerns about the new building in person. Opinions from the IBW and larger Portland community will still affect the final design of the building that future IBW students and staff will spend most of their time in for years to come.
The new building is something everyone can look forward to. “It’s going to be a place where alumni can come back and see how we are moving into a new era in our community,” Devlin said.
