Cheryl Bickle creates a school family for homeless students
Editor's Note: March is Women's History Month. Each Tuesday during March, KOIN 6 News will spotlight a Remarkable Woman nominated by others in the community.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Cheryl Bickle has been changing lives inside a classroom for 35 years. When the began in 1990, she was there.
'The school had no funding and it had no materials,' Bickle told KOIN 6 News. 'And I thought, oh, well, the most I had ever done is raise money for the March of Dimes.'
She opened the doors to a welcoming place of learning for Portland's homeless and transient children. She remembered there was only one child who came to school that day.
'I thought, OK, there's a problem here. We've got to go on and find out where the children whose lives and families that have no housing right now where they are,' she said.
She was determined. She raised money for supplies and eventually moved into a permanent spot in the Cully neighborhood in 2007.
'We bought the building and we raised the money and we were debt free when we moved in 18 months later,' she said.
Over the years, the school expanded to help even more children in pre-K through 8th grade, added two more classrooms and a small bus fleet that is able to get students to school no matter where they're currently staying.
There's so many things that hold back a homeless family. Usually transportation is a problem,' Bickle said. 'I just think we just don't understand how complicated it is to get out of poverty and to get out of being homeless or unhoused or whatever we're calling it now. It is really hard.'
Cheryl Bickle is both principal and teacher, teaching multiple grades in one classroom.
'We're not a big staff and we have a big job, so we use it all. We help each other, sort of a family.'
This family does so much more than teach reading and writing.
Students eat breakfast and lunch together, celebrate holidays together at school and, for many, it's the first time in their young lives they've established a routine.
'Probably as important as academics is helping the kids have faith in themselves,' she said, 'working with them to accept the challenge, to accept their life as it is right now. It doesn't have to be that way forever.'
Cheryl Bickle was nominated as a 2025 Remarkable Woman by one of the 2020 Remarkable Women, Joan Dalton.
'Being the principal — because I've been one — it's a lot of work,' Dalton said. 'She's also a full-time teacher, so she is carrying a big load. But the thing about her, she's so open and sharing. It's her passion. It's not a job. It's her passion.'
Bickle said she thinks they do a good job 'because we focus on what will really help them when they leave us. That's our goal.'
'You try to let them know that they have the power within themselves to succeed and to not be invisible and to be a part of the group and to be responsible to the group,' she said. 'We all probably have become who we are by people believing in us.'
And for thousands of students, Cheryl Bickle has been that person.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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