I’m writing to urge Portland voters to vote for all four schools and against the two-school question on the city ballot this November.

By voting to renovate all four schools, Portland citizens will be correcting huge disparities in our school buildings, while also setting the course for Portland to be a place for all people, including young families.

While Portland has boomed in the past decade with high-rise hotels, condominiums and office buildings adding to our tax base, across the city the youngest among us continue to spend their first years of school in substandard classrooms and buildings.

As a parent of a Reiche School second-grader, I’m proud of the teachers, staff and volunteers who make it such a wonderful school, but I am heartbroken by the noise, leaking roof and inadequate space that teachers and students cope with daily. Please don’t leave Portland’s children behind this November.

Bryan Wentzell

Portland