Tara O’Neil

Tara O’Neil

2017 NACSA Leader

Tara O’Neil is the Program Director of Charter Schools for the Portland Public School District, where she manages a portfolio of eight charter schools. Prior to her authorizing role, she served as school administrator at The Emerson School, a charter school in Portland, for 14 years. Tara enjoys visiting the schools as often as possible, seeing innovative programs in action and learning how the schools are doing at a street level. Believing that strong relationships are at the core of every success, Tara centers her work on conversation, consideration of multiple perspectives, and collaboration with charter school leaders.

Away from work, Tara enjoys spending time with her family, walking with her dog, playing music badly with friends, and most recently square dancing with Portland’s LGBTQ club, the Rosetown Ramblers.


Most Recent Posts
2023 Performance Framework Guidance
Performance Frameworks are the accountability mechanism at the center of the charter school/authorizer relationship, and Performance Frameworks are the means by which authorizers establish performance expectations for schools that are...
Nexus at NACSA
Practice + People = Excellence For more than two decades, NACSA has been the leading source for authorizing best practice, backed by research and experience. And as schooling evolves, authorizing...
2023 Version of Principles and Standards
2023 version of Principles & Standards is here!  High-quality, innovative, and equitable educational opportunities that communities are rightly demanding have never been more important. Yet even as we emerge and seek to...