Springfield, Oregon renovation project, completed at a cost of $3.1 million. There are 15 elementary, 4 middle, and 4 high schools in the Springfield School District, making it one of the largest in the state. The largest public high schools, by enrollment, are Thurston High School and Springfield High School. Pioneer Pacific College also has a campus in the Gateway area of Springfield. The city took third in the voting to choose one of the sixteen possible Springfields in the U.S. to host the premiere of "The Simpsons Movie." The show's creator, Oregon resident Matt Groening, sent a plaque to the city
Matt Groening James L. Brooks. In 1985, Brooks contacted Groening with the proposition of working in animation for the Fox variety show "The Tracey Ullman Show". Originally, Brooks wanted Groening to adapt his "Life in Hell" characters for the show. Fearing the loss of ownership rights, Groening decided to create something new and came up with a cartoon family, the Simpson family, and named the members after his own parents and sisters—while Bart was an anagram of the word "brat". The shorts would be spun off into their own series "The Simpsons", which has since aired episodes. In 1997, Groening and former