Portland's multimillion-dollar school bond work just got a lot more political. Procedeo, the Texas-based firm hired to manage major chunks of Portland Public Schools' bond program, has brought two familiar names onto its roster: former school board chair Gary Hollands and former vice chair Herman Greene. Both are working as consultants as the district reshapes its in-house Office of School Modernization, a move that critics say deepens concerns about transparency and a revolving door between the board and its contractors.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that Procedeo has retained Hollands and Greene in consulting roles. According to email records reviewed by the outlet, Greene first connected with Procedeo representatives at an education-board conference in Las Vegas in 2024, and his agreement pays about $6,000 a month. Procedeo's president told the paper that the consulting deals come out of the company's bottom line and "do not add to the cost of the bond program." The hires land after months of public pushback and internal staff turnover around the district's bond work.
What the Procedeo Contract Covers
In December, the Portland School Board signed off on a five-year deal that hands Procedeo broad program-management authority across the district's bond portfolio, a contract widely pegged at roughly $61.5 million to oversee several modernization projects. OPB notes that Procedeo's agreement includes base compensation plus about $6 million in performance incentives tied to on-time delivery. The firm is also tasked with helping stabilize the Office of School Modernization while the district tries to make good on its bond promises.
Billions on the Line
The Procedeo contract covers modernization at Jefferson, Cleveland and Ida B. Wells high schools, along with the district's Grice-Adair Center for Student Excellence, a package of projects that together represents a multibillion-dollar investment. Willamette Week reported that Jefferson's modernization alone is estimated at about $466 million and that Procedeo's own feasibility work has already shifted parts of the project timeline. District documents currently point to fall 2029 for opening the high schools, with broader wrap-up expected by 2030.
Staffing Shifts and Community Reaction
The outside consulting hires come on the heels of a reorganization inside the district that some observers say has thinned local expertise at exactly the wrong time. Reporting by OPB and coverage in the trade press describe significant turnover in the Office of School Modernization, with some former employees let go earlier this year. That churn has prompted worries among staff and community members about continuity and institutional memory just as big, complex bond contracts begin to ramp up. Critics, including a minority of board members, pushed for deeper comparative cost analysis and broader public input before locking in such a large vendor agreement.
Politics and Optics
The story is not just about construction schedules. Herman Greene is also running this year for Multnomah County commissioner, and his paid consulting work with Procedeo adds an electoral twist to the ongoing debate over the bond program. Greene's campaign website highlights his County Commission run, and local reporting on the December board vote captured how fraught the Procedeo decision had become for both board members and the public. KPTV described the meeting as contentious and noted that concerns about local control, costs and process dominated the discussion.
For now, Procedeo and district leaders maintain that bringing in the firm, and now former board members as consultants, is about having enough capacity to finally deliver long-delayed school upgrades while PPS rebuilds its internal systems and staffing. As KPTV reported, "The board assured the crowd that PPS can cancel the contract at any time with 30 days’ notice," a clause that keeps a formal lever for oversight and public pressure in place as the work moves ahead.
