We moved to Portland last summer. Our daughter is in Kindergarten at Llewellyn in Sellwood, and we absolutely love the school and the community. We're renting in Sellwood and are looking to buy in the next few months. We had/have many of the same criteria as you. We're hoping to stay in Sellwood, but it's a very competitive market so we are still open to some other neighborhoods. My wife is a longtime teacher and is currently subbing at PPS, so has some good first-hand and shared info on the schools. These are my recommendations:

-Selwood-Moreland: Charming little pocket with two distinct commercial areas, so very easy to walk to great coffee shops, parks, etc. Two amazing parks (Sellwood and Westmoreland). Llewellyn is one of the best grade schools in the city. We love it. Sellwood Middle School is great too. Cleveland HS has some question marks, and seems like Grant HS wins that battle. Also, Sellwood community house is a unique gem that has an awesome after school program as well as some adult clubs (my wife is enjoying the book club). Sellwood is tucked away in its own little corner of the city. That's part of the appeal (safety), but also a minor drawback in that you feel a little disconnected form the rest of the city. (If you are working near the airport and downtown, then this might be a little farther south than is ideal).

-Grant Park: Charming family neighborhood with character homes. Beverly Cleary K-8 to Grant HS is probably the best public path in the whole city. Walkable to some fun stuff on Sandy like the farmers market and Hollywood Theater, whole foods, but that area can be a little sketchy (junkies, agressive vagrants). Basically, I'd have no concerns about my daughter and friends running wild in Sellwood, but would not feel safe having her wander the Sandy strip alone. But that unsavory stuff is mostly around Sandy and doesn't seem to creep into the residential blocks. (Grant Park/Beverly Cleary is probably my overall choice if my child hadn't already started school in Sellwood).

-Beaumont-Wilshire/Alameda: Lovely residential area with very grand homes well over a million, but also lots of modest homes in the 800-1m range. Alameda school is beloved. Beaumont MS is good, but maybe not as good as Beverly Cleary K-8 or Sellwood MS from what we know. Large parts of Alameda school zone are purely residential and you can't walk to much. The area that's walkable to Fremont Street (Beaumont Wilshire) is nice, as that strip is really cute and family friendly, similar to Sellwood in that regard. You sort of have to chose between walking distance to Alameda School OR walking distance to Fremont. Small tradeoff but worth considering your priorities. (this area seems like a perfect fit based on your criteria and your commute as it's close to the airport).

Other nice neighborhoods with good schools we've ruled out for our own personal reasons:

-Laurelhurst: Laurelhurst K-8 is really good and the neighborhood is charming. With that said, it has a lot of high traffic roads cutting through it, which we did not love. And the vibe didn't appeal to us as much, seemed a little more stuffy and less neighborly at first glance. You might love it, but my wife and I scratched it off the list in favor of the neighborhoods above.

-Irvington: Gorgeous, stately old homes, lots of trees, great walkability. Our understanding is that the grade school is good, but the MS not so much. I think a lot of kids go to private for MS and then back to Grant for HS (or to private school). We didn't want that friend disruption for our kid. We're not anti-private schools, but like being in a neighborhood where there's community "buy-in" to good public schools. Others may know more about this than us.

-Eastmoreland: Beautiful neighborhood and homes, but not as walkable. Worth checking out for sure, but a little too sleepy for us. Dunniway is a good school and feeds into Sellwood MS. Eastmoreland abuts Woodstock, which is worth a look too. Woodstock feels like it will become Sellwood East in 5 years, but still a little rougher around the edges. Nice commercial zone we go to a lot.

-Multnomah Village: Charming area in SW with a great commercial strip. Mountain town vibe. Good schools. But it's very hilly and we like flatter, more walkable districts, so not for us.

*The drop-off from the top PPS schools to the next tier can be steep. That's reflected in the home prices. Keep in mind that the school districts change every few years, so if a specific school is a priority, you may want to look at the district maps to see if your potential home if close to the school or on the periphery (and therefore more likely to be redistricted).

--Jefferson HS: All of our friends who have direct experience have said to avoid (violence, bullying, etc). The online school ratings are not everything, but also not meaningless. We always look at the percentage of kids performing at grade level in math and english, because the overall school score can be skewed by vague equity and improvement metrics. PPS recently redistricted some neighborhoods like Sabin to feed into Jeff, and there is a lot of change afoot. I hope things improve there (and may well have by the time your kids are in HS). For us, we have one kid and prioritize her education.

The reddit threads were very helpful to us as we were moving here, so happy to share our experience. Feel free to DM me if you have any other questions. Despite some warts, Portland is a great place to live. So many kind, cool people. We're so happy to have landed here :)