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
Springfield (The Simpsons) City Television" use of Melonville, a town with a large cast of recurring characters that serves as a mini-universe for the show, and partially based "The Simpsons" on it. Because of the many contradictory statements regarding Springfield, it is impossible for the town to exist in a specific state. In "The Simpsons Movie", Ned Flanders tells Bart that Springfield is bordered by the states of Ohio, Nevada, Maine, and Kentucky - of which only Ohio and Kentucky are real neighbouring states. The city's unknown and unknowable geography is a recurring joke in the series; one newspaper called it the "riddle