Before the lead crisis, Smith was enjoying a banner year. Negotiations with teachers were going smoothly, unlike two years ago when there was nearly a strike. It was only the second school year when she didn't have to oversee budget cuts. The four-year graduation rates in Portland rose to 74 percent last year, up from 53 percent in 2009. Her crowning achievement this year was the improvements seen at Jefferson High School, the city's traditionally African-American high school, where the graduation rate hit 80 percent last year—a 25-point jump from four years before.