PORTLAND DRIZZLE

🪵Monday- First day of June and it feels like it: sunny, high of 82°. Jefferson High finally broke ground on its $466M rebuild. A state workers' comp CEO got pushed out for reasons nobody's quite explaining. Summer is here.

Six years after Portland voters approved a school construction bond, the district put shovels in the dirt Friday at Jefferson High in North Portland. The $466 million rebuild will replace the 117-year-old campus with an all-electric, multi-story building featuring new theaters, science labs, arts facilities, and athletics spaces. Jefferson, the city's historically Black high school, was passed over for modernization while other Portland schools got rebuilt — a fact that Principal Drake Shelton acknowledged directly at the ceremony. Students stay on-site during construction. The new building opens fall 2029. It has been a long time coming. KPTV

Chip Terhune — CEO of SAIF Corp., the state-chartered workers' compensation insurer that dominates Oregon's market — was earning nearly $850,000 a year when he quietly resigned in April. His employer announced the departure in a press release that buried the news under a different headline. What happened? According to the Oregon Journalism Project, the SAIF board informed Terhune in March it was considering discipline, gave him a deadline to respond, and then paid him $260,000 as part of a "release of claims." Nobody in Salem is publicly saying why. WIlammette Week

The US Tennis Association wants to take over Portland's public tennis programming — all of it — for three decades. The deal, which has gained momentum in recent weeks, would transfer control of the Portland Tennis Center and city courts to USTA Pacific Northwest, saving the city roughly $1 million a year in staffing and maintenance costs. It would also eliminate four full-time city jobs, with dozens more seasonal positions potentially affected. The city was counting on those savings before the council even voted on the deal. Negotiations continue through the summer. Portland Mercury

Stephens House: So last time I told you about the oldest house in Portland, the Tigard/ Rogers House. Well this one is the second oldest house. Built around 1862 by Virginia-born farmer James B. Stephens, the man who ran Portland's first Willamette River ferry, the Italianate home originally stood on the east bank near what is now OMSI. Moved twelve blocks in 1902 to make way for railroad development, it still stands at 1825 SE 12th Ave. On the National Register of Historic Places. You can rent it on Airbnb.

On June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the 15th state admitted to the Union. Portland would have to wait another 53 years just to get named.

Jefferson High has waited since 2020 for this. So has north Portland. See you tomorrow.

by Michael Simpson Contact: [email protected]