Beverly Cleary K-8 School Opens One Day Late

PORTLAND, OR – It took an extra day but most of the students at Beverly Cleary K-8 returned to school on Tuesday morning. The delay was forced because of clean-up problems stemming from construction over the summer.

The kindergarten students will start classes on Thursday as scheduled.

In a letter to parents sent Friday, Principal John Ferraro said that the delay was necessary because clean-up from construction was taking longer than anticipated and had prevented teachers from being able to get into their classrooms.

Ferraro wrote that school officials including PPS Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero, two members of the Board of Education, and members of the Portland Association made the decision after touring the school.

"They saw how construction activity in the building this past week has made it challenging for our teachers to access their classrooms, making it impossible to be prepared for students on Monday," Ferraro wrote.

"All were in agreement that we must delay the opening of Beverly Cleary by one day to allow more time for our teachers to prepare classrooms and allow proper cleaning to take place.

Joshua Tabshy, an eight-grade teacher whose pictures on social media last week highlighted the state of things at the school, returned to social media to praise the workers for what they accomplished as well as his fellow teachers.

"Kudos to the construction and cleaning crews for getting the building ready and a big shout out to the teachers for their resilience, hard work, and dedication," Tabshy wrote.

Photo via Beverly Cleary K-8/PPS.