When it came time for Zah’Ryiah Allen to decide where she wanted to go to high school, the answer was a no-brainer.

Her father had gone to Jefferson High School , and following in his footsteps meant everything to Allen, now a senior at the school.

“I used to live right by Jeff,” she said, using the nickname for the Albina high school that’s long been the pride of Portland’s Black community , even as generations of its longtime residents moved east and north as gentrification upended their neighborhood .

“I have my community,” she added. “I felt I belonged there. All my friends were there.”

Just who else belongs at Jefferson is the subject of tense debates these days all over North and Northeast Portland, at PTA meetings, in private online chats and in playground conversations.

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