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
Politics in The Simpsons in an interview that "We [the show] are of liberal bent." The writers often evince an appreciation for progressive ideals, but the show makes jokes across the political spectrum. In the DVD commentaries, creator Matt Groening and the majority of people who work on the show state several times that they are very liberal, but some, such as John Swartzwelder (the writer of many episodes), are libertarian. So the two main political parties of Springfield, the Republicans and the Democrats, reside in a stereotype Draculan castle, and in a public salad bar respectively; the on/off Mayor, Joe Quimby is represented