Powell Butte Elementary School

Powell Butte Elementary School is one of the medium-sized elementary-level communitys in Portland, Oregon, run under Centennial SD 28J, with 392 students on its rolls from grades K through 5. That puts it 22% larger than the typical public school in Oregon, which averages around 321 students.

Powell Butte Elementary School is one of 9 schools operated by Centennial SD 28J, a district that instructs 5,304 students overall.

For racial and ethnic makeup, Powell Butte Elementary School reports that 36% of students identify as Hispanic, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Other groups include 26% White, 18% Asian, 9% Black, 9% multiracial. That is noticeably more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 14%.

Looking at school resources, The school lists 26 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 15.3:1. The state averages around 16.5:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. An estimated 98% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is above Multnomah County's rate of about 75%.

After controlling for student poverty, Powell Butte Elementary School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 24.5%, the actual is 14.5%, a residual of -10.0 points.

In the broader community, Multnomah County reports that median household earnings sit near $88,766, roughly 49% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 7% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Multnomah County's 169 public schools (combined enrollment of about 81,096 students), Powell Butte Elementary School is one campus in the mix.

Centennial High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.4 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, Powell Butte Elementary School comes 7th of 9 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 18.0%.

The school occupies a city-core site.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count ticked down 27%: 540 students in 2018 compared to 392 in 2025. The White share of enrollment fell from 32% to 26% over that span. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 18.9:1 in 2018 to 15.3:1 today.

In the discussion threads here, recent activity here tends to focus on classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.