February 24, 2026 Portland Board of Public Education Executive Session & Business Meeting

001podcast and get to working. >> Good evening everybody. Um I am going to just start us off um as we're going to have an executive session here at the top. So we're going to start um our meeting tonight uh and call to order the executive uh session and business meeting uh for the board of Portland public schools on Tuesday, February 24th. Um and we are here tonight at Casco Bay. Um, and so if I can start with Dr. Warren and the roll call. >> Good evening, member Ali. Ali, member user Ali >> here. >> Vice Chair Bondo here. >> Uh, member Bryen >> here. Member Lena >> here. >> Member Nor. Member Upperman >> here. >> Member Sautell >> here. >> Student representative Grant >> here. >> Student Representative Milstein Jones >> here. >> Student

002Representative Muhammad. Student Representative O'Brien. Chair Lent >> present. >> Thank you, Dr. Warren. We're now going to stand and do the pledge of allegiance. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I know. I think >> when we come back, we will do the land acknowledgement and the mission. Um, but at the top of our agenda tonight is an executive session. Um, and it's the consideration and action to enter into executive session pursuant to 1 MRSA 4056D to discuss a personnel matter. Uh, can I have a motion? Thank you, Dr. Upperman. And a second from board member Lena. Um, can we do a roll call vote on that? >> No. >> Do we

003need a roll call vote? >> Can do it all in. >> Oh, great. Uh, everybody who's in favor of that? >> Everybody. >> Great. The eyes have it. Uh, thank you. We will go into executive session and we will come back um when that's done and start with public comment. habitants of the land on which our city and schools stand. The Wis Tiguay or Maliset Mcmack, Ponobscot, and Pasamquati tribes known collectively as the Wabanaki Confederacy or people of the Dawnland. We are honored to have Wabanaki children among our students today. And as a district, we are committed to making the past, present, and future of Wabanaki peoples visible in our schools and classrooms. Uh, and as a reminder of our mission, the Portland Public Schools are responsible for ensuring a challenging, relevant, and joyful education

004that empowers every learner to make a difference in the world. We build relationships among families, educators, and the community to promote the healthy development and academic achievement of every learner. and our definition of equity. Equity is all people being held to high expectations and having access to opportunities that are reflective of their individual needs, identities, and experiences. Equity is achieved in Portland public schools when there are no identifiable differences in outcomes and experiences for any population subgroup. Um, so now we're going to move on to public comment. And as a reminder about public comment, members of the public may speak on any subject directly related to the operations of the schools except for personnel matters or complaints concerning specific employees or students which shall be addressed through established policies and procedures. If an item is

005on the agenda, please use the public comment time associated with that item. Comments are limited to a maximum of three minutes or six minutes for individuals using an interpreter to make their comment. Individuals may not relinquish a portion of their allotted time to another speaker. The board may not respond to comments and please refrain from responding in the audience. Speakers must refrain from engaging in disruptive conduct, including but not limited to using vulgar and/or obscene language, threatening others using words or by other actions, using pjorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, color, descent, gender, or other identity factor. making defamatory comments, exceeding the allotted time limits, talking over or interrupting others, offering repetitive comments, and offering comment on matters unrelated to

006the school district's programs, policies, or operations. I will stop any public comment that is contrary to these rules. To give public comment, you can come up to the podium or raise your hand in Zoom. Please begin by introducing yourself with your name and address. I will alternate batches from Zoom and in person. I'll keep the time and I'll raise a yellow folder uh when you have 30 seconds remaining and a red folder signifying the end of your time. If you get to the end of your time and would like to request more, you may do so. So, if you would like to give public comment here in the room, you can come up to the um podium now. Good evening, members of the school board and superintendent. My name is Court Kwood and I serve

007as a part-time librarian at both King Middle School and Lyman Moore Middle School, making up one full-time position between the two. In this time when the budget is being cut, the district is looking to make smaller investments that reap greater rewards. And I believe investing in a full-time librarian at each school is a way to educate the whole student and support our teachers in creating more academically rigorous and tech integrated instruction. In 2026, our students are navigating a digital landscape that is increasingly complex. As librarians, we are the primary instructors of digital citizenship. We don't just teach kids how to find books. We teach them how to verify sources in an era of AI generated misinformation and how to protect their digital footprint. We equip them with the skills to utilize AI to enhance learning,

008not as a means to bypass bypass the process. Not only are librarians teachers themselves, but they are teacher collaborators. When librarians collaborate with classroom instructors, the rigor of the curriculum rises. We integrate advanced tech tools such as graphic design and video editing. and research methodologies into standard lessons that a busy classroom teacher might not have the capacity to explore alone. Whether it's a science project requiring vetted databases or an English essay needing primary sources, we bridge the gap between Googling and actual research. Without us, teachers lose their most versatile partner in lesson design. >> Finally, there's the simplest, most gut-wrenching reality. When the librarian is gone, the doors are closed. A part-time schedule means that 2 to three days a week, a student who has finally found the courage to ask for a book about

009mental health, or a student who's just finished the first book in a series and is dying to read the second is met with a closed door. We cannot claim to prioritize literacy while we ration access to the books themselves. If we want our middle schoolers to be critical thinkers, safe digital citizens, and lifelong readers, we cannot treat the library as an optional extra, we need a full-time presence to ensure no barriers exist between our students and their access to learning resources. Thank you for your time and your commitment to our students success. >> Thank you. >> We'll take another one in person and then we'll move online. Hello. Uh my name is Joe. I live on 29 Mayfield Street. Um speaking to you, I know you guys are considering uh redistricting for elementary schools. Our

010child currently goes to Talbot. We live in the area that is possibly being redistricted and we would prefer that our child does go to Longfellow from a just from a a friend perspective, from a community perspective that we live in the Longfellow side of Morals Corner and it's a really busy intersection. For our kids to see a friend after school, we would have to drive him, you know, um he wouldn't really ever have the ability to walk on his own or ride his bike in his own to see a friend. So from that perspective, we uh our family really prefer that he would go to Longfellow. That's all. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um we're going to go to Victoria Renshaw Karen. >> Thank you. Good evening, members of the school board and superintendent.

011My name is Victoria Karen. I'm a Portland High School counselor and a proud parent of a 2023 Portland High School graduate. I want to begin by expressing my support for my school counseling colleagues who learned of the of the proposed reductions without meaningful time to process the impact of their work in their students. These decisions affect real people and real programs and they deserve thoughtful and transparent consideration. I respectfully urge you to reconsider the proposed reduction of two full-time high school counselors based solely on declining enrollment. In fact, the data for 2627 shows that Portland High's enrollment numbers will actually remain stable with a very minimal decline in overall enrollment as we expect to be less than five students off from this total uh from this year's enrollment total. Research consistently shows that comprehensive school

012counseling programs are linked to improved attendance, higher graduation rates, increased FA completion, and stronger postsecary enrollment outcomes. Cutting any number of high school counselors is not simply a budget adjustment. It is a decision that will directly affect students who depend on school-based support as their primary or only access point for guidance and mental health services. Enrollment changes do not reduce suicide risk assessments, crisis interventions, or the complexity of college and career planning. Larger case loads mean reduced access, longer response times, and less preventative support. When preventative services shrink, we become more reactive, and that costs more in the long run, both financially and in student well-being. high school has Portland High School has already experienced a staffing reduction this year, moving from five full-time counselors to 4.5. Further reductions were significantly compromised the support systems

013and programming currently in place. For example, did you know that Portland High School is the only high school in our district and truly the only high school in Southern Maine that teaches a weekly class for all juniors and seniors to better prepare them for life after high school, no matter what their pathway is. We designed and taught this class since CO kept us from presenting in other classrooms. We should not be cutting school counseling positions. I would argue that we need to go back to five full-time positions at Portland High School to allow us to continue to offer this level of programming to each graduating class as we have done for the past six years. Our district's strategic goals include improving graduation rates, promoting academic achievement, closing opportunity gaps, and preparing students for life after

014high school. Staffing decisions must align with those goals. Balancing a budget is necessary, but balancing on the backs of student support services undermines the very outcomes we say matter most. >> 30 seconds. >> If we are committed to student safety, equity, and achievement, then this is not the place to cut. I urge you to protect counseling services and keep student support at the center of this budget. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. >> Um we'll do another one online. Nicolo's um iPhone, please. >> Yep. Sorry. Can you hear me? >> Yep. >> Thank you. Uh my name is Nicolo Wales. I live on uh Chesley A. I'm a PPS parent and uh lead secretary at one of our middle schools. I'm just here to speak out about a couple of things

015regarding the recent approval to look into consolidating the middle schools. Uh, I know that we've spoken about poor communication in the past, but calling an all staff meeting at the last minute to let us know you'd be voting on something of that matter in just a number of hours really isn't communication. Uh, I was in that meeting and during that meeting, um, a member of the school board insinuated on several different occasions that we have staff that don't care or are bad at their jobs. uh while in a meeting talking about suddenly possibly consolidating schools. I think that was extremely disrespectful um considering this individual spent no real time in the schools. Uh there's a large feeling of distrust at my school about how this whole process has started about. Several staff members had voiced

016concerns about how a board member came into the building uh asking questions about what we needed help with. And from that one day in a few short conversations, this is now an opportunity to push consolidation of schools. It's been made very clear that this is a budget decision first and that we would be doing the research after the fact to try to keep disruptions to student learning at a minimum. We're looking at this backwards and it's clear that students are going to pay the price for rushing this. I mean, at what point are we going to look at waste elsewhere prior to tearing apart a community on the rise? With this most recent budget, we increased regular pay for 80 plus employees at central office over $800,000, while our entire middle school staff of over

017300 people increased their pay by just over $300,000. That doesn't include any additional new hires at central office or the possibility of a new superintendent. Instead of looking at those things, we're cutting bus drivers, edtes, counselors. I mean, literally everyone in direct contact with students seems to be on the table here. On top of that, this timeline of getting this started in 2026 is unrealistic and it seems as if there's not enough time to receive public comment and plan this. So, it really seems like we're doing this and you're just taking public comment to say that you took public comment. Um, the last thing I'll really say is it's really difficult to sit here and watch these decisions and discussions be made by a group of people who never come into my school. Out of

018all of you individuals sitting there, maybe two or three of you have been in my building. You have no idea what it's like on a day-to-day basis, but you don't want to take the time to investigate it closely. You don't want to respond to emails, urgent situations. You just want to make decisions. >> Time Thank you. >> Is there anyone in the room that would like to give public comment? >> Just a a question. Will you be taking public comment on the boundary question later? >> Yes. >> Okay. Then >> thank you, Damon. Is there anyone else in the room that would like to give public comment? Do you want to wait to hear boundaries comments for later or can we give them now? >> If you if because of time restraints and you're not

019staying for the conversation, you can give them now. Um but we would prefer to have them during the the item on the agenda. one is later. I think it'll be a quick um moving uh to that item. Okay. All right. There's nobody else online, so if you want to give public comment in this room, come on up. >> Oh, thank you shouting. I actually also would like to give public comment on something that's coming up later just because of my own time tonight. Thank you. Uh Carrie Dowy, Portland Education Association. Just wanted to take a minute to talk about the resolution to consolidate the middle schools. Um I which I have here after all of the warehouses as I've been reading through the board directs the superintendent to develop and present a comprehensive plan to

020reorganize the district's middle schools into a configuration of two middle schools. Then there's a long list of further resolutions. And then in the ult penultimate paragraph, it says uh be it further resolved that the board charges the superintendent with working with the board's public and legislative affairs committee to create a robust community and staff engagement plan to inform stakeholders of the rationale for reorganization and solicit meaningful input on implementation strategies included targeted outreach to historically underserved communities to ensure equitable participation. And I read that to say that my suggestion is that the board delay the vote on this for as little as two weeks to do just that. To create a robust community and staff engagement plan to inform stakeholders of the rationale for reorganization and solicit meaningful input on implementation strategies, including targeted outreach

021to historically underserved communities to ensure equitable participation. The news has come hard and fast. There are so many questions people need time to process and to understand and just maybe some additional community engagement may lead to some clearer direction and more than that uh hopefully will increase community buyin. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Go ahead. >> Hi, good evening Jen Cooper um at Tech Union President. Uh I just want to start by saying um thank you to Miss Lena last night her your comments in the meeting. Um your ability to see the resolution as two separate issues. The first being Lincoln has costly repairs that need attention and the second being whether uh the question of consolidating to two middle schools to improve student success. Those are two hugely different things. Um they're two

022different issues that should shouldn't be lumped together and I thank you for calling that out in last night's meeting. I appreciate it. Um I'd like to use the rest of my time to um advocate for the reinstatement of the six edtech positions that are up for elimination in the current budget. There are five special ed positions and one multilingual um edtech position that is slated for elimination. Yesterday I listened to Dr. for oper say to the Lincoln staff that she's been told over and over again there's not enough support in sped yet we're eliminating physicians so edte provide the necessary support to allow teachers to continue providing quality education to their students they're often critical for supervising students with behavioral needs as well as meeting the legal compliance requirements of u students IEPs which is

023additional support. The district spent $125 to work with the DM125. I wish it was that much. Let's put a couple zeros after that. $125,000 um to work with the DM group out of Boston to strengthen our um student support. Nowhere in this very hefty I read through it all 135 page report did it speak of illuminating positions. Instead, it was quote after quote calling for more support staff. Um, the need's still there. These positions are needed in our community. And the one thing that was brought up during the meeting was the fact that these are positions that haven't been filled. And I challenge you as a board to go back and figure out, have those po positions been posted the entire year? Often we see edtech positions posted and when they aren't filled within the

024first time frame, they never get reposted. So, are they actually not needed or is there just not an opportunity for someone to come in and apply for the position? So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, we're going to go back online. Um we'll start with um Johanna Burden, please. Johanna, whenever you're ready. >> Can you hear me now? You hear me now? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? >> We can. We do hear an echo, however. >> Let's see. Let's see if this will go. This will go. This will go. Will go. This will go. What's up? What's up? >> Uh, good evening board members, Superintendent Scan, and members of the public. >> My name is Johanna Burton. >> Johanna, you're still um very echoey.

025Do you think you potentially are signed in twice? >> Uh, no, I'm not. Uh, >> I will um log off and try if you want to take someone else and try to log back in. >> Perfect. >> Annie Fenton. >> Hi every Hi everyone. Can you hear me? >> Yes. I actually I liked the acoustics for Joanna. It sounded like she was giving a grand speech. Um, but I wanted to speak on uh the school budget because I know we're coming into the final um moments of putting that forward. I'm a parent of a second grader at Reiki Elementary School. Um, and I spoke last time, but I kind of wanted to give a different um, vantage point uh, on why I would like for us to remember um, Reiki and the East End Community

026School when we are thinking about school budgets. Um, I know that equity is central to the district. Um and as we all know over the past few weeks uh Reiki and East in particular, all schools in Talbet but Raiki and East in particular faced substantial um emergency crisis situations from ICE. Uh there were some days when 35% of our students uh did not come to school because their parents, their families did not feel safe sending them. Um and that is just laden on top of some of the challenges that our community already faces at Riki with a substantial proportion of our student population are housing unstable. Um, and we also have a a large number of students who are coming in who speaking different languages and learning English for the first time. And all of

027that says that one, we're a really resilient community, but that from an equity perspective, we are not standing on the same steps on the step ladder as other schools in our district. And so if we want all kids to have an equal opportunity, I think that we need to ensure that they have the basic resources to help them get there. And for Reiki, I think that again means thinking about more ed techs and also thinking about the makeup of the classroom when we are >> 30 seconds. deciding. Thank you. Deciding how many teachers per student. It should not just be a body issue. It should be how many students have stable housing. How many students are already speaking English? Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else? Do we have Johanna back? Yeah. Let's go

028ahead um with Johanna Burden, please. >> Good evening. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Awesome. Thank you. Uh good evening board members, Superintendent Scallan, and members of the public. My name is Johanna Burton. I'm a proud Portland taxpayer, parent of a Portland High graduate, and proud PPS staff member. Tonight, I wish to share my genuine alarm at the idea of cutting 1.5 or two high school counselors or social workers. To my current understanding, that would mean one full-time cut at Dearing and one half-time cut at my workplace, Portland High. I do not think any of our three high schools can weather a counselor or social worker cut without severe consequences in services that students and families need and access. The 1:250 counselor to student ratio that the American School Counseling Association, ASCA, uses was

029chosen 60 years ago when the task, skills, and responsibilities required of school counselors were much different. ASCA and other research literature suggests that counselor to student ratio should be less than 1 to 250 for high schools and less still if you have many low-income and/or potential first generation college students. The district has secured grant funding from the bar foundation and grant help in the form of the rise network. All focused on increasing collegegoing, future planning and financial aid form completion. All important goals. This is the work counselors lead in our schools. In addition to many other tasks, including counseling students with mental health concerns, getting the related work accomplished requires more counselor time, not less. We also need all of our school social workers at all of our schools. I would ask the board and

030interested members of the public to make sure there is a district set ratio for high school counselor to student ratios. All Portland Public Schools counselors perform duties not traditionally considered appropriate by ASCA or other entities, which is what Casco staff would pitch to you. Casco Bay High School has 2.5 counselors for an average of 380 students. That is a 1 to 152 students ratio. This is a great ratio. Portland public high school students deserve this kind of ratio. Following that basic math, Daring and Portland should each have five full-time counselors looking at next year's enrollment data, not the proposed four each. Please know that I am not advocating for Casco to lose a counselor or part of a counselor. I am simply saying that all of the district students deserve to be served at very

031much the same ratio. I am seeing several central office positions being proposed to add to the budget that do not work directly with students and families. Please maintain direct services to students before adding more central office staff. I am also seeing on page 21 of the budget presentation that PHS will carry the majority of the proposed high school cuts when our enrollment numbers will only reduce by two. That's right, two students in 2627. This does not seem fair. And it appears that only Dearing and Portland are taking proposed cuts, though both Casco and Portland will have the same enrollment numbers in 2627 as they do currently in 2526. Why are Portland and Daring high schools slated for cuts if only Daring's enrollment numbers will change? If cuts are >> 30 seconds, >> got it. Uh,

032if cuts are needed across high schools, why is Casco not sharing any of the burden of the proposed cuts? What other criteria are being used for these cuts other than enrollment? And can these other reasons please see the light of day for the sake of transparency and understanding? I love being a high school counselor for our students, our district, and our school. Please know my comments are meant in genuine service to our students and families across the city. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh we'll go to Maggie Bergos next. Hello. >> Yeah, go ahead, Maggie. >> Thank you. Hi. Good evening, school board members and superintendent Scallan and also >> Oh, actually, Maggie, um, could you get closer to your microphone? You're a little quiet. >> Is this better? >> Yes, I think. And

033Greg, can we turn her up at all? >> Okay, try again, Maggie. >> Okay. Um, good evening. I am a Lincoln uh staff member and also a resident of Portland and I am here to comment today on the meetings that happened yesterday um in relationship to the financial budget facilities and also the consolidation of the middle schools. Um in the meetings that we had yesterday with both superintendent and schoolboard members and members of central office there were many many questions that my colleagues pro asked that do not feel answered in in or did not get answered in the meeting. Um I am concerned about the urgency and urgency with which the school board is moving on this resolution. It feels too fast to do this in a way that is also showing the integrity and

034values of Portland public schools. And I really would like to urge the school board to pause and think about how this is affecting staff, how this is affecting our community, and ultimately what this will do for student outcomes. And I don't think that voting on this tonight and moving forward with a proposal to make this happen in 2026 2027 is going to reflect the integrity that and values of Portland public schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Molly Adams on Zoom. Hi. >> Yep, we can hear you, Molly. >> Hi, everybody. My name is Molly Adams and I live at Sto State and York Street and I'm here to advocate on behalf of Reiki as well. I grew up in Portland. Um, I went to Longfellow Lincoln and Dearing. Um, so this is my first

035time commenting at a public meeting. So, uh, thank you everybody for listening to my perspective, um, about the budget and our school's needs. And I just I believe in my heart and based on the data, I'm sure everybody listening does too, that like investing in public education, in particular, the education of young students is one of the most coste effective ways to improve the social outcomes and economy in our state. So my daughter's now in first grade and she loves her teachers and friends and she's so excited for the new playground. And I love Reiki so much. I won't um rehash what Annie said, but um Reiki in East End community uh really need extra supports. Um so in talking to other parents, here's my understanding of what Reichy needs to better provide an equitable

036education. I was also bummed to see there are plans to eliminate multilingual edtech position at the elementary level when Reichy would actually greatly benefit from an additional French-speaking edte. Um, this role is going to support somebody acquiring English and they're also going to serve as a translator for families. And that's so important to help kids just be kids and focus on their studies. And you know, our current Spanish and Portuguese uh edte are so so helpful. Um, and we could also use literacy edex for each one of our kindergarten classrooms. um helping those K students settle in and build those study skills. Those reading skills are so important for the rest of their time in school. Um her teacher, Mrs. Woo, you know, high school kids were coming back to see her in kindergarten, their

037kindergarten teacher. Um you know, we've got kids who are coming right from home care, just nursery care. They're they're not all just English language learners. We have kids with so many different learning disabilities. Having that extra help is so important in that kindergarten room. And then the school also needs an interventionist for math. There's a lot of data coming out that that we need interventions and this is going to help kids with a critical skill that I think gets ignored a lot at the elementary level. And I'll reiterate what Annie said too about the class size policy. Um I guess in the inverse I saw this effect for the teachers who had a lot of English language learners in their class at the end of January to also see that effect of having a half

038empty classroom. Um it was more the sorrow of it all. Um but you saw how unbalanced some of those classrooms were for those students. >> Um so thank you again to the board. Thank you to the community. Thank you for everybody who spoke tonight. I was listening and I'm just um really inspired by the passion I'm hearing and um reminds me why I love living in Portland and um myself being a product of the schools at a different time can you know I I hope I am a demonstration to the world of what a wellunded public education can be especially when it's anchored in a physical community school. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to give public comment either in the room or online? If you're online,

039please raise your Zoom hand now. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and close public comment as I'm not seeing uh anybody online or here uh in the room. Thank you all for your comments. Um I am going to move into my remarks and uh for the first time in a long time uh we don't have an acute crisis right in front of us. So I'm going to start with a little bit of good news before we get into uh the challenges that we're facing right now. Um but first I just wanted to uh say Ramad Karim to all those who are celebrating. Um in addition many in our community are celebrating the lunar new year, the year of the firehorse. uh which it feels like the year of the fire horse. Um and are participating

040in lint as a leadup uh to Easter this coming April. Um the Dearing Players uh which is a um a dramatic arts group um are presenting the Elephants Graveyard one act uh this weekend. Um they're heading to regionals in March um to compete in the one act competition and they've been practicing this oneact play for two months and uh they're ready for the public to come and see it. Uh so it is going to be uh for one night only on Friday, February 27th at 700 p.m. at Daring High School. And in other good news for students, the Portland High School uh boys basketball team recently won the Class A South title. Um, Portland will face North uh champion Camden Hills in the state championship game at 7:45 p.m. this Saturday at Cross Insurance Arena.

041Um, love to hear the good news. Um, and while there are many things to celebrate right now, um, there are incredible challenges as we've heard tonight um that the district is facing. Um, and at the next meeting on March 10th, the superintendent will be presenting uh the first uh budget. Um, and this budget is being uh built to account for several things. One, um, a $4.1 million loss in state funding, which is an amount of state funding that we have never lost. Um, it is tremendous and hard to absorb any way we cut it. Uh, we have a decreasing enrollment of our students that is um, not just specific to Portland. It is a trend that's happening all across Maine. Um but forecasting shows that the decrease is uh meant to continue and um we

042are hoping to uh both do that and then bring forward a budget uh that will advance our priorities within the strategic plan. That is incredibly hard to do and it's incredibly hard to do without increasing the burden on our local taxpayers or renters who often get the the costs passed on to them. The board will be tasked with making important tradeoffs that will often uh represent a less than ideal scenario. All of the decisions board that we are going to make around these this budget are less than ideal. Let's just acknowledge that none of these cuts that we want to that are going to be in front of us are things that we want to do by any means. Um but we do ask that the public participate as we saw tonight. Um uh there

043will be more opportunities to continue with public comment at each of our board meetings and you can always email us. Um in times of heavy email, we may not all of us may not be able to respond to every email that's coming in, but we're certainly reading them all. Um, and you know, I um I this is my fourth budget year and every year I think that it will get easier and it just it it just doesn't and I it makes me sad and frustrated and angry that we live in a country that values public education in the way that it does, that it is not adequately funded um by the state and federal level and it's left to us to find solutions. And that makes me angry because it's not okay and our kids

044suffer. So tonight during committee reports, you're going to hear about some other challenges that we're facing. Um first, an extensive amount of work needed to keep Lincoln Middle School's pipes from failing. Um needed advocacy at the state level to help shape future funding formula uh so that Portland's funding does not continue to decrease. And finally, we'll hear about a resolution coming to the board um uh in March at the next meeting that will direct the superintendent to prepare a report on how best to model our middle schools and decrease the building footprint to two schools. All of these challenges are big. They are multi-layered and they will have far-reaching impacts on our community. We recognize this as a board that there is a financial and emotional and uh personal impact on everyone in our community

045with these decisions and that's just not something that we're taking lightly. Um and we uh are going to do our best to share as much information as we can as soon as we can on each of these topics. And with that, I'm going to um turn it over to a student representative. Yeah. Student Representative Grant um for the Portland High School update. >> Hi. Um here's a bunch of good news from Portland High School. >> Great. Um just starting off this kind of in a random list, but starting off with the National History Day Fair. Um sorry, the week before break, 10th grade students presented their National History Day Fair projects to staff, fellow peers, and other members of the community. This year the prompt was revolution reaction and reform in history. Students presented on

046a variety of topics that they have that they had researched for around a month and had created a presentation involving a trifold and an oral summary of their work. Students worked hard to create interesting and thoughtful presentations. Um also happening before break and the first few days after break were was access testing. students in ELLL have been working very hard on access testing the week before break and a few days following break. So just a big congrats to all students who participated in access testing. Um right now it was primarily before break but course selection for next year was happening for freshman, sophomores and juniors. Um, students work with their guidance counselors and current teachers to select courses that are right for them and keep them on track for graduation. Um, just a report on

047the student council. The student council has been working on multiple things over the past months, including a March calendar raffle, a fundraiser where students where student council receives donations from local businesses for a raffle in order to raise money for two scholarships that student council rewards to students at the end of the year. One of the scholarships is to a anonymous anonymously selected student from the senior class and one of them is to a senior that is on the student council. Um student council has also developed a wellness committee. The wellness committee aims to address student well-being and provide support for all students during stressful and difficult times. Student council also has regular meetings with administration to discuss school matters and to maintain a connection between students and staff. I attend all of those meetings.

048So, they also have a bridge to the board. Um, executive boards. Each grade has its own student government body and their primary goal is fundraising for their class. Freshman Executive Board recently completed their annual hearts fundraiser where they sell paper hearts for a dollar and that are put up around the first floor atrium for Valentine's Day. Each heart has a message a message on it and it is one of the most successful student fundraisers each year. The sophomores and juniors are working on restaurant fundraisers for this coming spring and the senior class is working on planning the student staff dodgeball game. Um, this is just a summary of some recent sports news for basketball. As Chair Lent already said, last Friday the boys basketball team beat Chevress 48 to30 in the Class A South Regional

049final. On Saturday, they will play Camden Hills at the Cross Arena at 7:45 p.m. For indoor track, last week the indoor track and field team competed at the Class A state championship meet, and the team had many successes. Aziz Muhammad and Josh Manda got third and fourth respectively in the Boris 400 meter. The boys 4x200 meter relay team placed fourth and the boys 4 by 800 relay team of Emil Owens, Liam Alexander, Own Blades and Aziz Muhammad placed first. Freshman Norah Schmidt won the girls two-mile and Kate Morrison placed sixth in two-mile. The girls 4x800 team of Kate Morrison, Maisy Chalmer's, Norishmitt, and Pria Fongami won the 4x800. For swimming, the girls Portland dearing combined team placed third at Southwesterns, and both the boys and girls team will head to states on March 6th. For

050Nordic skiing, Emma Price won the second in the girls classical race, third in the skate, and third overall at the Class A Nordic state championship. And just in general, a big congrats to all of the winter athletes for amazing seasons. Um, just a recap of what's going on with junior planning. All juniors at Portland started junior planning at the beginning of the second semester. Each week, juniors meet in groups with their guidance counselors to discuss topics such as career ideas, course selection, planning for college applications, setting up Common App, and financial aid. Students also meet one-on-one with their counselor for a junior interview, so the guidance counselor can get a sense of students future plans and hopes. This also gives counselors good information for letters of recommendation. This is just a shout out from the

051school to community members for helping teachers and students during difficult times, especially during the heightened ice presence. Um, sorry. Um, thank you to all who donated food and other items. And a big thank you to the volunteers who stood outside the school building during the beginning of the day when students entered the building and during the end of the day when students were leaving the building. And just some things to look forward to that are coming up. In early March, Portland High will be hosting a STEM expo. Many different STEM related organizations will come set up tables in the gym and students from Portland High School and also King Middle School usually can learn about local STEM organizations. The Portland High Dance Club will have a performance at the first week of March. And Student

052Wellness Day is coming up. There isn't a date set, but usually it's in the week of March conferences. Um, student wellness day, also known as social emotional wellness day, will also happen within the few first few weeks of March. Like I said, the date isn't set yet. Students will come to school and get to participate in fun activities with their advisories. Last year we had many different games, pancake making, emotional sport dogs, and bingo to name a few. And we're excited to be able to have this opportunity for students again this year. This year, the student council will also be collaborating with staff to help out with running the wellness day. Right now, the idea is that different club leaders will help run different activities in order for more students to possibly get involved with

053clubs that they are interested in at school. So, that's a lot of things that are happening. >> You're right. That was a lot of great news. Thank you so much for sharing. Um, does anybody have questions for student representative Grant? >> No, I don't see any questions. Thank you so much for your presentation. Um, and up next, do we have superintendent remarks? >> Good evening, everybody. Uh, first, uh, student rep, uh, Grant, thank you so much for the comments and, uh, took about four of my things off my list. So, um, I really appreciate it. Uh, first I want to recognize that this is an especially important time of year for many in our community. Last week marked the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, a month of fasting, reflection, and prayer. It happens

054this year that Ramadan coincides with the beginning of Lent, a similar period of fasting and reflection for many Christians. And the Chinese New Year was celebrated last week as well. I send my best wishes to all who are observing these holy days. Yesterday was our first storm related remote learning. I appreciate all the work done by our schools, our students, and our parents uh to ensure that learning could continue. Our preference is always for in-person learning, but with the forecast rising to blizzard level on Sunday afternoon, we needed to shift to the remote option to ensure student safety. I want to thank our facility staff who came out during the storm to take care of our buildings and ensure that snow was cleared. Also, a huge thank you to our food services team members who

055came out to serve meals at nine sites. Overall, the day went smoothly for our first remote learning um snowreated. At the same time, there are certainly things that we can do better and we are looking at our processes and continuing to think about how we improve those, including about what it looks like for screen time for students and the uh take-home packets for elementary students. So, want to acknowledge both the dedication and work that everybody did, including our families around this, and the fact that like all things, we can continue to improve our process. Last, as everybody heard, uh, our Portland Bulldogs have a big game on Saturday. Want to encourage everybody to come out. Make sure you purchase your tickets in advance. And so, um, Dr. Warren, if we can make sure that that's

056posted online so that folks know where to get tickets. Uh, but congratulations and go Bulldogs. Thank you. >> Wonderful. Um and up next we're going to do committee reports. Um and just a reminder to the board to take a look at the personnel list that's attached to the superintendent's comments. Um but committee reports we've got uh finance personnel and operations up first. >> Uh thank you chair. Um so I will Can you hear me? Yes. Super. Um so I will be giving the um update from the finance personnel and operations committee. Um we are moving away from good news. Um I really appreciated the uh Portland High School good news report. This is not that unfortunately. Um so uh there's three main areas I want to talk about. Um I want to talk about the

057work that we've been doing around um policy review. uh the work that we are uh doing around the FY27 budget and then also um a presentation that we got from the facilities team about um the state of Lincoln Middle School. So the first topic um policy review um the committee has been your mic just went out Greg um Representative Brighten's mic just went out. Can we try again? You want to grab patas? Careful picking it up by >> Okay, great. >> We got it. >> How's this? Perfect. Super. Okay. Um so, um as a committee, we have been reviewing uh a handful at a time um policies that are relevant to the areas of finance, personnel and operations. um in terms of doing a cursory review to pass along then to have um Drummond, our

058uh council, uh review our feedback and then also move that along to the policy committee for part of a broader review. Um and I just wanted to um provide an update that that uh work has been um effectively paused for a couple of meetings because there have been so many other um meaty discussions that really need our attention. Um also our committee structure really limits us to 85 90 minutes in a meeting. So we don't have the cushion to really be able to um extend our meeting time. So um second big topic um from the last month's worth of committee meetings is of course fiscal year 27 budget conversations. Um so that's um ongoing. Um, we're continuing to get updates from staff on some of the trade-offs we will need to be reviewing. Um, as

059uh, chair, as you mentioned, the uh, reduction of more than $4 million of state funding. Um, and other components that are going to be critical to understand as we move from discussion and draft um, preparation of the superintendent's budget forward through the process as we do every year. Um we also have gotten uh financial updates on a monthly basis from um the finance team which is much pre very much appreciated and allows us to see um monthtomonth where we are on both expenditures and revenues. Um, finally, uh, I would invite folks to, um, actually go in and watch the recording of yesterday's, uh, finance, personnel, and operations committee meeting, um, specifically around the topic of Lincoln Middle School. Um, so the facilities team provided us with an update on a number of concerns. um the

060fire alarm system, um ADA compliance at the entry, security around the entry, uh and lighting um are all um items that they alluded to in terms of needing attention, but the biggest um issue is around the um HVAC and heating system in the building. It's um it's very old and in disrepair. So this heating season there have been more than 15 service calls specifically meaning that the um district employee who does HVAC goes in something's broken and it's so broken that they need to call in somebody else um to address uh the problem. um for a little bit of history around this. Uh in April of 2025, uh there was a So to back up another step, uh what we're talking about here is um the the heating system of Lincoln is um it's it's

061forced hot water. So there's pipes running through the building with hot water and that's what brings heat throughout the building. Um and in April of 2025, there was a major system leak um which prompted a study of the condition of these pipes. So it's not pipes that are bringing hot water to a faucet, you know, in a sink, but the pipes are carrying hot water through the building for the purposes of heating the rooms throughout the building. Um so there was a condition study of some of the pipes, sort of like spot-checking to see um what's what's going on. um in July of 2025 um the district took over HVAC um for the dis so instead of having the city providing HVAC services um July of 2025 is when the district took that over for

062our um facilities. And then in August of 2025, um there was another uh endeavor to inspect some of the pipes and sort of look at, you know, what is in the skeleton of this building. Um and uh a couple of particularly alarming statements um from the facilities team around those findings. Um there were sections with little to no remaining service life in the pipes. So there's corrosion, there's thinning pipes. um and uh just repeatedly um reports of things leaking and breaking and um and um presenting safety concerns. So there is a potential for um you know a a pipe that has thinned and corroded so much that it breaks to cause hot water and steam to just burst out of the pipes. um potentially near um electrical components. So um the the conversation was not

063uplifting. It was very alarming. Um and uh the facilities team also explained that in order to repair the problems, it would take 6 to 12 months of work and it would have to be done without students in the building. So, we're talking about a severe problem. Um, I did ask whether it um is a problem year round or only during the heating season. And thankfully, it these problems are only um present and the the risk is during the heating season. So, October to April. Um I know in in some buildings and in some facilities, there's also a need for, you know, um heating systems to continue to operate for the purposes of hot water. um that's not what this is. So by the time we get to April um we won't have to sit and

064wonder about you know how much are we going to roll the dice and is the problem going to happen um that might uh cause a safety problem. Um there are concerns I think about moving into the next heating season and whether um potential uh failures of the internal heating system of the building might cause not just um safety uh concerns but also challenges around the ability to maintain temperature. Um, so if there were to be a problem in December or January, I'm not sure, you know, what that means for our ability to keep classrooms a reasonable temperature in the dead of winter. Um, so, uh, that was a a very, um, it was an unpleasant conversation, but I'm glad to have the information, um, because, you know, the it's very relevant information and, um, I

065think we're going to need to fold that into other conversations about our responsibility as a board. >> Thank you. Are there any questions um, from the board or student representatives about that update? Board member Lena, go ahead. Oh >> jeez. Thank you. Um I haven't watched the recording yet. Um did the facilities team give any potential uh what's the word? Suggestions on how the repairs could be done like logistically. >> Um so I mean um my understanding and I would invite the superintendent to chime in if there's um if there are gaps in what I'm saying. Um so my understanding is that in terms of the current use of the building a student a student body of more than 300 students um the only way to do it is to have a at least a

066temporary um period of time where there's no students in the building. So because it's it's a longer project than a summer um you know like three months is not enough time to do the work. Um, there are some components I think that can be phased, but there's a core piece of work that's six months to a year that really needs to be, you know, an empty building. Um, or I think also an empty building or a building that's not being used by 300 students. So, I I don't know the the level of um I don't know how the options might I don't know if there's a way to like use one wing of the building for something other than um middle school classrooms um while another wing of the building is being repaired. I have

067I don't know about that um level of detail, but >> Dr. Warren wants to get in here. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> Oh, thank you. So, um this is all evolving, right? So as a starting point um we we have this assessment which is fairly clear. It's not good but um the next step of this process is a study uh that will be conducted by Haramman which has done a lot of our our work um on buildings for our future and other other projects. So they'll be looking at different options for how we can address the problem including um sort of trying to repair the existing system which would be an overhaul taking out pipes and replacing and um redoing basically um everything from that to rethinking completely looking into whether there's a more sustainable

068way of doing this. Is there any way of doing heat pumps and what would that look like? So, we're expecting to have that back in April. Um, and that, uh, next phase of the study will help us figure out what the next steps are. As far as our team understands it right now, um, none of those potential solutions are quick or easy fixes. And their best understanding at this stage is that it would take um probably 6 months to a year of having the building empty um in order to carry out one of those those paths, but we can't make say for sure until we get that next study back to help us figure out the right way forward. Thank you, Dr. Warren. Any other questions from the board of student representatives? Okay. I'm not

069>> I have a question. >> Oh, go right ahead. Um I'm sorry I didn't see your hand. >> Oh, no worries. Um my question, one of one of them was answered. Uh the second one is do were we given like a timeline of okay, you need to start work on these pipes at this um specific time or like how much time do we have basically until it's too dangerous? Not too dangerous. You know what I mean? >> We So go ahead. No, I would um by all means um but I was just um so thank you board member Ali for the question. Um I I did ask a question very similar to that. I essentially asked what level of risk do we have um in terms of people um being in the building um and

070you know how much of a lurking problem is this? And the response that I heard was that it's impossible to really say for sure. Um it did sound like there was um one situation where there had been a leak um in in the ceiling above a a teacher's desk. Um I'm not sure, you know, what the outcome was from that, but um Dr. Warren, I would invite you to add. >> Yeah, I I think that's that's right. We don't know exactly and that's one of the things that's challenging about the whole situation is that we don't know until we know. Um but you know, certainly it's something that we need to treat seriously and and with a sense of urgency. Um, we also, it's an a strange situation we're in this year where we're transitioning

071over um, having taken over responsibility for HVAC from the city. And so, we're learning a lot of things about our buildings and our HVAC systems that we didn't have as much, you know, direct um, insight into before when we weren't the ones managing it. Um, and so, you know, we have to assume that this situation was going on before we took over, um, because it's been brewing for, um, presumably a number of years. Um, and so, you know, we had that one fairly major, um, failure last year where we got a lot of water into the building. Um, and we don't know, you know, when the next one of those might happen. Um, I think that the leak you you were talking about and part of what happens is you'll see it in the um

072the tiles, the ceiling I'm pointing up the ceiling tiles because sometimes you'll see, you know, discoloration and that's part of what tips them off that there's something they need to go looking for the problem. Um, but yeah, we unfortunately we just can't predict for sure. Um, we know that the the system is not in good shape and that that's throughout the building. Um the team has told me because I, you know, both Superintendent Scallan and I have asked that question is could we potentially shut down one part of the building while we're doing this work? And again, we don't have that next study back yet, but their sense so far is that it's probably not going to be something um that could be done peace meal in different parts of the building just because of

073the nature of way the way the system is laid out and the interconnectedness and the pipes being, you know, problematic throughout the building. Thank you, Dr. Warren. Um, you sir Ali, did you have uh another question? >> No, thank you. >> Okay. Um, so we'll move now on to um policy committee board member Lena. Go ahead. >> Thank you, Chair. Um the policy committee has been reviewing the draft 2026 2027 calendar and last meeting we voted to approve the draft calendar. So that will be coming to the full board at our next meeting on March 10th. Um there are I I I do want to thank uh Dr. Warren and her team for working really hard on it. Um there was a lot of consulting with our union partners to make sure that those dates

074um worked well for everybody. We also had to align with neighboring districts because of our um arts and technology programming. We have students from um other districts that come and take classes here at PAS. Um so there's just a lot of work that went into it and it seems like we have a great draft that people agree on. Um, so that will be coming soon. At our next uh board, excuse me, at our next policy committee meeting, we will be reviewing the policy GBE, staff conduct with students. Um, board member Sautell and I have been working on revisions to that one in conjunction with Dr. Warren. Um, we will have legal counsel at our next policy meeting. So, I encourage any board members to send uh me and Dr. Warren any questions you may have

075in advance regarding that policy. And also any staff um or families that are listening, if you have questions about that policy, feel free to email me those um as we'll have legal counsel with us to review that. Um we also will be reviewing policy BEDH again about public comment um at our next meeting. And then um uh Dr. Warren and I are going to be working on the upcoming calendar and revisiting some policies that we have looked at once or twice and need to move forward with which are IHBB gifted students III class size and ECC uh extreme temperature policy. Beautiful. Any questions uh for board member Lena? Just double check online. Okay, I see no questions for you. Um, so we'll go ahead. Um, board member Uberman, are you ready for curriculum and success?

076>> We are ready. >> Okay, go ahead. >> We've met twice um since our last report. February 9th meeting included reports from the staff on the strategic plan goals 3.1 and 3.2 um and 3.3. So this is looking at uh the SEAL curriculum and the relationships that in order to promote a joyful, supportive and safe culture. The elementary classroom has been using a purposeful people at a tier one level throughout the district uh been generally wellreceived and tier 2 or smaller group focused uh program has been piloted at Talbotz Reichy and Prisumscott uh professional development for the staff is ongoing and the uh administration is monitoring the uh pro the implementation and progress do with uh walkthroughs. There is discussion for next year potential universal screener, a tool to help educators screen and identify students

077who may be at risk of developing behavior disorder. So that um will be coming discussion will be coming up again some point um at the middle at the middle schools and high school. uh positive behavior intervention and support PBIS is the model and they're trying to explicitly teach the expectations create a positive environment and ensure students hear the same expectation and for all the building throughout the building. Um there were some attendance issues this winter largely due to significant flu outbreak and the personal safety concerns of families. Students, school staff in the Portland community at large continue to work to mitigate the safety concerns. Overall absent rates in the elementary schools are well within goals and the middle school rates have improved. High school general absence rate today is more than twice the district targeted

078goal of 15% and is higher than the previous year's rate. Chronic absenteeism as of January 1 within the district is in the district is at target for elementary school and close with the middle schools. Um and the but with the high school was much larger. Um middle school curriculum um ELA program and other aspects um also came up at the next meeting. There are at in February 23rd. The district-wide middle school collaboration among teachers is ongoing. eighth grade um is teachers are and administrators and other groups are meeting with the nth grade to make the best possible transition from middle school to high school and with all that there was no public comment at that meeting. Um in February 23rd last night um meeting was entirely focused on middle schools. This is something that the

079committee has been hearing more and more about and at this one the previous year's records and academic performance student experience and self-efficacy data enrollment data and perable costs facility limitations were brought together in one presentation and uh shared academic evidence showed that though trends of improvement outcomes were seen about in in English language arts about 30% of middle school students are below state proficiency in English language arts that's in excess of 100 students um mathematics data showed that there was 60% of students or several hundred are below the proficiency expectations although there was improvement over the last three years for the whole um group of the entire population very thankful to um Dr. um Proctor and uh the technology team, the data team, uh Haley and Matt, um for looking and finding a cohort of

080400 students in the middle schools where they could follow the test results from fifth grade through sixth and into seventh grade. This again showed modest improvement about 6.8% over those three years. um mathematics showed that there was a 10-point drop in proficiency in the same students over those three years. Less than 38% of the students were math proficient in seventh grade. Um this was in the cohort but also these trends were present in all of the other middle school um students including all subgroups. students indicated that they saw a positive improvement in many in interpersonal interactions but from 24 to 25 um from their data uh from their student survey they did say however that they did not see improvement in classroom um behavior to so that teachers could teach um there was no improvement

081in the environment for teachers to teach whe although they did like school more and the other like parents believe that teachers care about their children, but that teachers need to have higher expectations of their students. And three out of four parents would recommend their school to other parents. Chronic absenteeism is a problem in all middle schools. More than 14% of students are chronically absent so far this year. And there's a in the middle schools and there's a pattern of increasing absenteeism from sixth grade to 8th grade. uh that is uh particularly noticed in the Hispanic Latino population um and that must be uh felt addressed. Uh in general there is good attendance um you know in in not those who are necessarily um chronically absent. Um, in suspensions there were the recorded number of suspensions

082is lower this year than last year in the middle schools with Lincoln Middle School showing the lowest number of suspension incidents across the middle schools. In the recording of the incident of the various incidents, ethnic racial disproportionality was evident. particularly black students in middle school are more likely to be suspended than the black population would suggest. Uh if you look at the data on the slides, you would be useful. Black girls are more likely to be suspended than white girls. Declining student enrollments persist in all middle schools among all subgroups. Class sizes were significantly different in different middle schools. Classes in the same content area and grade level can vary widely from nine students in a class to 25 students in a class depending upon school. If averaging all the class sizes across the schools

083they are the average is less than the upper elementary class sizes. So that uh elementary classes in third, fourth, and fifth grade are uh larger than the average middle school class. Um the cost of educating one student varies across the middle schools. Lincoln student per pupil cost is $19,826. The average middle school cost per student is 17,463. The co most of the cost in these uh numbers is due to salaries and benefits. All middle schools have a utilization rate of 60% in um across the board and that is that they utilize 60% of their classroom space significantly lower than that of the elementary schools. These data prompted a proposal to improve student academic and social experiences across the middle schools and such that staff and resources would be distributed um into two campuses and there's

084a good deal of discussion by the committee and the public which was really good to see the public listening and uh engaging in the topic. Um a resolution was presented, discussed and uh was sent on to the board as a vote of 3 to one. It will be come to the board for uh discussion and first read and discussion at the next meeting. So we're hoping for more and continued discussion. Um the resolution is written and is presented in the notes. You can click on it and it's also uh to to see what it is. So we can see before the first reading. Um essentially it is asking to really do a serious study of the situation in the middle schools to understand why consistently we're having such poor results and why some of the

085anecdotal information that I have collected from teachers and parents and students across the district um as others have heard why um these are occurring. So there will be more data collection going on and so students, teachers, parents will all be asked to um contribute and a proposal for a very comprehensive and um effective middle school uh model will be uh worked over over the course of the next year. There are deadlines set for hearing from the administration as far as to what they are able to uh discern and that uh those benchmarks or deadlines are within the next 6 to 8 months. The thought is at this in in the resolution as it is stated now is that in a year or so that the middle schools would be able to be reorganized. All of

086which is can be as we've discussed among ourselves uh resolutions um can be modified. So we continue to hear information and we appreciate the hearing from students, teachers and parents. Thank you. Now oh next upcoming next time we'll be hearing from the ESOL pro program the grading task force and the MTSS and RTI practices. So do feel free to listen to that discussion as well. >> Thank you. Board member Upperman. Are there questions for board member Upperman from representatives or other board members? Oh yes, I see your hand. Um go ahead board member Sato. >> Just a quick question. Um is the investigation leading or investigation is the right word, but the study. >> The study, thank you. Leading to the plan, is that something that would be done inhouse or would a consultant be

087brought in to help? would be done in-house. That is to save costs, but in-house means the community. Other questions for board member Upperman? Just double check Zoom really quickly. Um I see that we have um an attendee with their hand up, but there is no public comment um right now. These are just report outs. >> There's no vote today. >> Yes. Um, uh, Representative Grant, go ahead. >> I was just wondering, you were talking about the different like percentages of proficiency in math and reading. Is that coming from NWA testing or different sorts of testing? >> A couple different um sorts. I believe it's uh NWA particularly um and other state testing values. So yeah. >> Okay. >> It's basically the state testing. Um so we're it's proficiency is um set uh by the state

088and we uh are hopefully helping students be more than proficient and that's the plan. >> I just wanted to know what it >> what it meant. Yes, absolutely. >> Any other questions? Okay. Um I'm going to move on to um public and legislative affairs. Uh this committee we continue to track what is happening with our current EPS allocation. Uh so really understanding the $4.1 million gap and then also working with our uh representatives to see if there's anything that we can um do to get uh some of those funds in a in a in a different way. So right now the government is working on the supplemental budget. Um there's a lot of pieces of policy moving. Um one of the things you can do around your EPS allocation is if your student count has

089changed, you can submit that information. So our student count has gone up a bit since October 1st, which is our official count. Um so we submitted that information and are waiting to see kind of um it's not it's not going to be um close to to what we need, but it will be um something. So, we're we're just continuing to work on that and working with our representatives in Augusta. Um and then uh secondarily which is a big body of work and something that we've been talking about for years but it's really coming into fruition now um is that uh the the education committee in Augusta asked an organization called meri to do a study of the funding formula the EPS funding formula and to come back to the committee with recommendations on what changes

090could be made because it's not just Portland that is um you're certainly having the biggest cut, but there are school districts across the state that are really not getting their needs met. Um, as a reminder, the state pays um for 55% of education costs overall, but some communities um like ours uh only see about uh 15% of their education um costs covered by the state and there are even communities that get 0% covered. Uh so this um organization MEPRI has uh really done a ton of research. They did a lot of uh community outreach. They I have talked to them, other board members have talked to them. Um and so they recently put out a report with their recommendations and um uh presented to the education committee and their recommendations are in four areas. Uh

091the first one is um what's called a regional adjustment. So with the EPS uh formula now there's a regional adjustment to kind of account for how much uh people pay their staff. Um but that hasn't been updated uh really in a long long time. Um I actually has it ever been updated Dr. Scallan? Do you remember? >> Current. >> Okay. 2006. So this this funding formula has been in place since 2005 um without any updates. So there is uh a recommended update uh to change that regional adjustment so that cities like Portland or um bigger cities that are paying their staff more um right now the the kind of like base level number in that formula is 40,000 which you know is is is uh lower than we pay staff. So that is one adjustment

092that is um coming up uh for recommendation. Uh the second one is incorporating um economically disadvantaged data into a community's ability to pay. So right now the community's ability to pay is based uh solely on the valuation of their community and property. Um and so we have seen in the last year that there was an increase of $20 billion in the valuation of property in Portland. Right? And so what happens is it even it doesn't matter how many students we have in the district or if we lose or that valuation piece kind of like overtakes everything else in the formula because it's the the way that it's weighted. Uh so they are looking at um some differences uh to change the way that valuation is incorporated. Potentially looking at um the overall income rate in

093a community as part of that balance. So looking at weighted um a 9010 split, a 50/50 split, and a 7525 split to see what that would do for communities. Um the education committee did seem receptive to making both of these changes that I that I've named and they have asked for more models from MEPRI to see what the different formulas would be. So like in a 9010 um the 90% would still be using valuation uh and then you would take into p in into account 10% of the uh income levels in a community. 50/50 is equal and then 7520 would be flipping it around. Um it does seem like that there are there is interest from the education committee um in upping that that number uh to 50/50 or 75 um25 uh and which is

094something that I think that we would want to advocate for as it gets uh closer to getting into a bill. Uh then changing the weights for additional funding for economically disadvantaged students. Right now that already exists within the uh formula, but increasing those weights even more. Um so for for communities that have high poverty levels uh they would be compensated by the state more. Um uh again though that will be um that will it unless we change something about valuation tremendously it over time it's just not going to you know in two years that could potentially be absorbed. Uh and then the the fourth area that they haven't gotten into a ton yet, they're going to do another presentation is around transportation costs um and special education. Uh so right now I I don't think

095that there's a district in the state that is getting compensated for their special education costs at the level that it costs to educate a student right now. Uh and that is a a glaring need and the education committee has heard that. So, I think that they are taking that into consideration and potentially um adjusting what the formula would um allocate for special education. Um I will say that some of these recommendations are about reallocating the money that's already in the system and then there are some that would add um funds to the overall amount that the state is funding. So, the education committee is deep in it right now. Um and we are tracking that. Dr. of Venuela and I um are uh yeah really tracking that to see at what point is it uh

096the time to start advocating um and uh also how can we best um uh find allies in this um because again it's not just Portland any city that has high valuation um is really this this formula just doesn't uh work as intended. So, uh, the next couple steps are, um, MEPRI is doing another presentation and then they'll also be drafting the bill language based on the recommendations, um, that they've brought forward and what the committee has said that they want in the in the bill. So, that's what's coming up next. Um, and then a whole other kind of like track of things happening in Augusta is around school construction. And I am not totally up to date on the report that was just released. It's about 100 pages, so I've not uh read it all

097the way through, but this is a way that um you've probably seen articles in the Press Herald about the number of buildings uh that we have in the state versus the amount of students. As I said before, the decreased enrollment is statewide. And so, we are finding ourselves with lots of buildings that are old and need work without the funds to um uh keep them up to date for the for the students. So, that's something else we're tracking. Uh board members, if you can um just make sure to sign up for community engagement sessions that are happening this spring. It's linked in the update in diligent community and students also. Um we'll get you that. So you're welcome to join um uh those as well. Um and uh the next meeting we'll just be doing

098some more build tracking um and continuing to monitor what's happening with the EPS funding formula. Any questions on any of that? Yes. Oh, we got lots of questions. That's good. Member Brighten, go ahead. >> Thank you, chair. Um, I have a question about the uh the so what uh meri is doing in terms of um consolidating recommendations for a potential bill. Um I is it accurate to say that that would be a bill put forward in this current session? So, we were just talking about this this week. We believe that it is. However, we do not know for sure when that bill would be enacted >> when it would take to take effect. >> It sounds like there's a lack of clarity or like a lack of certainty around when the bill would even start

099moving and it even if it did move in this current session and it and we were lucky enough to see something good pass like when the effective date would be. So we do know that it's not going to be it's not going to change our allocation this year 100%. So if it if it gets kicked in, we we are guessing that it would be for the next cycle, but we don't know that. >> So that's the most optimistic time frame. >> The education committee could say that they want to delay things or put um a a time frame on it and we they just haven't gotten to that. >> Okay. Are there other opportunities for outside of the EPS um reimagining? Are there any opportunities for um funding opportunities like out of the supplemental budget

100that is being crafted right now? Is that the other part? >> That's what we're working with uh representatives on right now. We don't have a clear pathway, but those are the conversations that are happening. Yeah. >> And then thank you. And then my last question would be how can I know you said that you know part of what's happening right now is uh trying to get a sense of like when the most effective ways to advocate and when to start doing that what how can folks find out about that so that if there are folks who want to like reach out to their legislators and say yeah you know Portland really needs help you know how how can folks like be aware of those mechanisms and and know when and how to do that. >>

101Yeah. So, Dr. Valenuela has really taken the lead on that and we anticipate using the um the community newsletter. Um if something happens faster than that, um we could consider using a bulletin, but it would mostly come through email to all Portland public families and then social media layered on top of that. >> Okay. Thank you, chair. Great questions. Um board member Ali Ali. >> What's up, y'all? Um that was uh Thank you, uh chair. Um so I'm I'm trying to really consolidate all of this information that we're given in um such a crisis moment while just dealing with previous crisis moments back toback. Um, and I think just to to to I think you were also asking on how um people are communicate community our community um can participate in supporting that bill um

102especially the $4.1 million loss that we're going to have this year not knowing that if this this bill does pass um uh in in reconsolidating uh the the how they measure everything um if it will take in effect um and start next year or not. But um uh working in the uh in the state uh the one of the best things you can do is do a testimonies um for that bill. Um and really uh I mean this is for anybody that's listening as well. Um and and we do hear a lot of uh the feedback that we're hearing about these decisions that we might make or not. Um and understanding that you know a lot of it's I'm seeing it now you being in the city um rather than state that these are uh

103state um you know uh situations that are affecting us in our city. So that being said, um I I am I'm I'm having like a big question mark in a lot of the because all this is connected right now, right? So um when it comes to student student success when it comes to the finance when it comes to um um legislative piece I'm seeing a lot of uh you know the attendance thing and the the suspension thing and then very terrible not terrible from my perspective not good data I'm seeing from um math and as well as um uh ELA um uh any type of language art testings being low um and you know in consolidating the the middle schools My question is is Ryan, do you do you believe that moving forward um right

104now in this crisis that this may be one of the best options that we have um to to consolidate the the middle schools and try to see if we can you know improve in all the factors that we were discussing today from uh both members. So, I think it'd be premature for me to weigh in on the board resolution that is up for discussion at the March 10th meeting. I think that there's a reality that we face that our strategic plan pushes us to continue to improve outcomes for students and pushes us to uh do that in a thoughtful way that um is has been staggered over five years, right? And staged over five years to do that. and the initial work of the strategic plan is showing that it's improving outcomes for students and

105that it is helping to close gaps not at the pace that any of us want to and the reality is is that this work is not something that happens overnight. So that that's one piece. I think the second piece is that every year we have financial challenges and that those financial challenges come within a number of contexts, but one of them is the fact that part of the state funding formula for us is around property valuation. And the reason that they have that property valuation in there is because they're saying that that is the local ability to cover cost. And so what they're saying in their state funding formula for this coming year is that the local ability to cover expenses is three u it is $3.3 million higher than it was last year. The

106reason my number of 3.3 is a little bit different than the 4.1 which is the reduction is about $800,000 of that reduction is because of lower student enrollment. $3.3 million of that is around property valuation. Just to give you a sense of how significant the property valuation is to this formula is we asked the state and they ran analysis that said if Portland uh property valuation did not change from last year to this year, our actual funding would have gone up $7.8 million. And so it went from going up to going down. Now, it's not quite an apples to apples to hold Portland's property valuation flat while others go up, but it shows you that significant swing uh that that has. And so I think that what we see in the last 3 years is

107that every year we've had to weigh tradeoffs in our budget and we've tried to do it as strategically as possible while recognizing that reductions in staff are real and our student enrollment population has gone down by 6.7%. Over the last I think seven or eight years. Uh well our school staffing population has actually gone up. And so that's a piece that we're we need to like wrestle with within any budget process. And so I think that in the budget, one of the things that the board has asked for is like are there other structural adjustments that need to happen including things like consolidation of a school? And so I think that that's a question that sits with the board and is something for discussion starting at the March 10th meeting. >> Okay. Thank you for

108that. Um so yeah I do see I I see the abruptness of why this um resolution came up and it is very unfortunate. Um but uh I I thank everyone for the information that was um given today. So yeah um and lastly um on behalf of the the the u the current bill or whatever um is happening up in the the legislature um I think it was 381, right? >> 318 318. If anyone wants to like um provide any uh testimony or uh be you know be helpful in any possible way, you can um go ahead and uh provide testimony there through their website or you can go to the workshops or the um uh the discussions in committee. Uh and it's very helpful. Um I've done that before and it supported many bills uh

109to be passed. So um yeah. So thank you guys. >> Yeah. And we'll make sure to announce when those are um so people know. Any other questions? >> All right, then we're gonna move on to the ad hoc committee. Um, Miss Bondo. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you, chair. All right. So, yes. So, uh, I would like just to refresh to to refresh the public about the purpose and the foundation of the the hard committee. So, it comes from the resolution. So the committee exists as a direct response to the resolution affirming the district commitment to equity, belonging and supportive school. So our mandate is to act with deliberate speed to ensure the district is a safe space for all students and staff. So the committee is composed by three board members. Bryen no and

110myself as a chair. So we have a technical support of the superintendent uh Jennifer Bradley who's a director of people and biloney and uh Lisa Burke who's our senior director of finance of finances. So our core objective for the community is the audit. So our primary task is to identify and hire an external firm to conduct industry towide equity investigation. This audit will act as a mirror test to help us understand where we are using the best practices excuse me for and and meeting needs for student and staff and also where the gaps uh exist for student and staff. So right now we are under drafting the the RFP. So just for definition purpose is um request for proposal framework. So the the RFP is is open competitive um bidden process for professional services. So

111we are on the stage of the drafting it. We are currently on the on the on the process. So we've been supporting by the senior director Lisa who who has completed an intensive review of the the order request framework all the uh timeline information requirement and uh legal standards. So we have also we call the wish list. So that mean we began drafting the initial scope of work to define our visionary goal. So we had only two meetings for next meeting steps that mean we will continue to create a formal document that included all the detail scope of the work and also with FEA we going to map and discuss different element of the statesman of work. So just to make sure the the RFP is legally sounds and mission align for what we want

112to accomplish. So I don't know if you would Brighton you want to add something or good. >> Um I I don't have a lot to add. Um I am excited um to move forward um in our upcoming meeting uh discussing the RFP itself and really watching the work continue to move forward. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Any questions? Do you have um and I know that we asked this last time but I can't remember what you said just the timeline of when you want to get it posted. >> It's still on process. So we still I think on Friday we may have some more details from Lisa. >> So beautiful. >> Thank you. Okay. Was that a hand? >> I can. >> Okay. Let me just double check um Zoom. Okay. Um so now

113we're going to move to um the um report of the secretary. Um we have two sets of notes tonight. Uh first we have the consideration and action to approve the meeting minutes of February 10th uh 2026. Are there any corrections for those meeting minutes? Okay. Seeing none, uh the meeting minutes are approved as distributed and then we have the consideration and action to approve the public forum on fiscal year 2027 budget minutes of February 10th, 2026. Are there any corrections to those minutes? Okay. Um so seeing no corrections, uh the meeting minutes are approved as distributed. Um we are actually going to um flip old business and personnel um to get to the attendance uh boundaries committee. Um so up tonight we have the second read for the consideration and action to approve recommendations of

114the attendance uh boundaries committee. Um is there a motion for that consideration? Thank you board member Brighten. Is there a second? Thank you board member Operman. Are there any questions from the board? Board member Ali, >> could you reiterate that please? >> Yeah, it's the consideration and action to approve the recommendations uh of the attendance boundaries committee. Um so we went um uh deeply into those uh in the last meeting. This is the second readath member Sautel. Go ahead. >> Um can you just clarify what it means to approve the findings? So it's approving the recommendations was at was at the end of the report. So things like um you know uh charging the district to to look at the certain policies to make the minimal recommendations for the elementary boundaries which would total 31

115students. Um one thing that I I think was not clear to everybody is that those 31 students can be done over time. Um so there would be minimal impact for them. But it was basically everything that was outlined at the end of the report. >> Um I I think I didn't ask my question correctly. Um this is like not the final project, right? This is product. This is uh still ongoing discussion. I mean obviously if we're talking about middle schools um >> so the work of that committee is done. >> Okay. Thanks. If the if the board chooses to take up further projects around boundaries is we're talking about middle schools that is that is possible but this committee work this is the end of the committee >> that was question thanks >> yes board

116member Lena go ahead um I just wanted to add something um board members that the recommendations from the committee have ongoing work as part of it so it's not like we did this study the end it's over part of the recommendations are what to do moving forward like when to do this again um etc and that's in the document. So just wanted to point that out. >> Thank you board member Lena. Um board member Yura Ali go ahead. >> Thank you. Um I wanted to say a few comments. Um after reading the report and really sitting with you know everything that has been done I think I want to thank you all. Um I was I really like the recommendations. I think it gives um time and um you know it gives a plan to

117the future and also I do really appreciate the other recommendations such as looking at policies that uh supplement this work. Um I had a question earlier but it was already answered. Um yeah, I think I just wanted to say that and I I I remember I was a little concerned about um the findings and you know the recommendation and how it will go but after sitting with all the data I think I am in favor and I really liked everything you guys did. >> Thank you um board member Yusur Ali. >> Any other questions from the board right now? Vice Chair Bondo, go ahead. >> Yes, thank you so much uh chair. So I just want to say thank you for everything so far have done with the community and everything. So I I got

118a little uh shock on the middle school recommendation because when I try to see what we we read from the last last uh last night on the during the curriculum committee with the resolution moving forward with the middle school. So I've just kind of little if is not any contradictions here with some other what the the boundaries have found to give those recommendation or it just something then we can base on that and moving our other studies. So that's why those kind of contradiction when I look at what we happened yesterday and when I I saw the middle school accommodation. >> Yeah. Um would you like me to respond or >> Oh yeah yeah yeah. >> Yeah. Um so I I think you know the committee couldn't come to any um formal recommendations around middle

119schools because of um it just we couldn't get close to a solution that worked without moving kids all the way across the city or potentially getting rid of um you know access to resources like the health center at King Middle School. um and and so we basically ran out of time um because we just couldn't get um to consensus uh in in the group. So I do think that like what the the work of the committee indicates that there's still a lot to be thought about at the middle school level and I I see it as kind of like a an entry point into what's named in the resolution. That's why I just want to make sure there is open doors for then we can move to >> Yeah, I don't see any contradictions. >>

120Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> Thank you, Vice Chair Bondo. >> Member Ali Ali. >> Yeah, um this is just a clarifying question. Let me just make sure that um I'm writing it correctly and I can get the right answer. So, right now we're not voting for everything to pass that the boundaries committee has done, right? We are voting for it including um the boundaries um the population that may be moving to different schools like >> there the only students that are moving are there are 31 students at the elementary level and they would be moving over time. >> Okay. Okay. And is it okay >> along with all the other policy recommendations and everything lined in the report. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and move us to public

121comment now. So, if anyone would like to give public comment, um, you are more than welcome to do so. >> Hello, I'm Damon Yakliff on Bolton Street. Um, I served on the boundary committee as many of many of you know. Um, I'd like to speak in favor of adopting the committee's recommendations. Um I think we did push the elementary school boundaries as far as we could in improving um the various C five categories that are referenced in the report without incurring any unacceptable trade-offs. Um, and I think it's important to stress that in order to um, further improve the balance of the schools and utilization, we really have to look more holistically and um, our community's housing policies and recognize that there are many structural issues um, around class and that have been entrenched in

122our zoning codes and our our investments and infrastructure and building of of housing, especially affordable housing. So, we really need to focus on that. I think everyone should take away uh from this experience that we should go out to our communities, especially those that don't have much in the way of affordable housing and stress that we should be building D-restricted two or more bedroom housing that can accommodate families um across the city. Um there's some projects such as at Belffort Landing that have um unfortunately seen a lot of opposition, but I think we should recognize that building projects like that will improve the equity of our schools and our communities and really should be um supported. Um so to speak to the U middle school question, um I do think that that's something that should

123be um further addressed. Um what I know that there's not a recommendation in the um committee's report. I do think that there uh and looking at the w bigger question of possibly consolidating from three to two middle schools um means that we might want to hold off on any other serious changes to the middle school boundaries. But I I do think it may be worth taking a small interim step in trying to consolidate the boundaries of the middle schools. The so-called clean it up where there's minor changes to make sure that the boundaries of the elementary schools and middle schools align well with the with each other so that we don't have any unintended consequences where um let's say somebody builds on a new lot that's on one of those boundaries where there's no one

124living now. we didn't pick it up and that student may be the one person who goes to um a different middle school than the rest of the neighborhood. So, I think it is important to make some of those minor uh technical changes. Um and that's something that the board could look at later, I think. Um but but I I would like to put it on the radar. Um also, there was one unfortunate split where Ocean um elementary did have it split into all three of our middle schools. that may be worth cleaning up as well. I I wouldn't suggest making some of the other middle school changes to reduce the cohort splits that were considered, but I do think some of those minor technical changes might be worth looking at. Um, again, I don't think

125you need to look at it tonight, but you might want to look at in the future getting a cleaned up middle school boundary. So, um, you know, I think that's the key takeaway for me is the minor technical changes to the middle school, support the elementary boundary changes, and recognize that we we really do need to work on our housing policy and and equity and building affordable housing around the city. So, appreciate working with the board members, rest of the boundary committee on this and um hopefully uh this will be an incremental but positive improvement for Portland public schools. So, thank you all. Thank you and thank you for your service on the committee, David. Um, we're going to go online now we to Aaron Beal. Hello, my name is Dr. Aaron Beiel. I work

126for Lyman Middle School and I have previously worked for Lincoln Middle School. Um, our student representatives had a question earlier in the meeting about the data. It's my job to work with these numbers. The test that um was represented is the main throughear which is in the umbrella of main through year but is not ex is sorry and this is public comment on the boundaries committee uh recommendations. Do you have comments on that? Um my comments on the boundary recommendations would be that we take into consideration the pattern of development and the aging students in those most recent projects when we look at our boundaries committee. Um, enrollment right now has one small moment in time of a pattern, but we know that those are flexible and our boundaries committee should be flexible as well.

127Thank you. We're going to go to Holly Zella next. Hi, can you hear me? >> Yes, go ahead. >> Okay, great. Uh, my name is Holly Zela. I live on Conquered Street. I have a student at Lincoln Middle and a student at Longfellow Elementary. And I serve on the Longfellow PTO board. Um, the Longfellow PTO has been advocating for years now to expand the area served or that Longfellow serves. And um I think that the current proposal doesn't do enough to expand Longfellow's area. I really appreciate that um the work that the boundaries committee did and how closely they looked at all of these factors and that there is some increase. I I appreciate that. Um I think that the fact that the boundaries committee con seemed to conclude that they couldn't reach all of

128their goals. it feels like we've chosen to not reach any of them. And I think that if the advice now is that we need to go to the the city to to try to get more affordable housing, more diverse housing in the neighborhood that Longfellow serves in order to have a more diverse school. I'm in favor of that. I see that as a good long-term path. I think it's a lot less likely to happen if Longfellow's area stays as small as it is now and as it is even with these changes. I think the more that we can shift even a little bit uh of those neighborhoods that are walking distance to Longfellow, students that are bust to row but could walk to Longfellow that do walk to Lincoln for middle school. Um that's the

129perspective I wanted to share on that. And I do think that the area that is being added to Longfellow um on the middle school map isn't going to Lincoln. So, that would be an example of a a small cleanup that I would think should be made so that um Longfellow doesn't split, especially with uh such a small student population. That's it from me. Thank you. >> Thank you, Holly. Uh is there anyone in the room that would like to give public comment? >> My name is Emma Sulis. I live um in Old Orchard Beach on 12th Street and I teach fifth grade at Row Elementary. My primary comment tonight is to urge this board um to return the boundaries proposal to the committee for further consideration, especially in regards to the Row Longfellow line. There

130are several goals outlined in the committee's report. One of which is to achieve more equitable enrollment. A fitting goal considering Portland's commitment to equity at the center in all of what we do. I am concerned about this multi-year project resulting in no action for several reasons. Um, but especially when I look at the projected utilization numbers for Row over the next 5 to 10 years. Currently, ROW is at just over 73% capacity, projected to increase by nearly 10 percentage points within 5 years. If my math is correct, that will house over 540 students at row. In contrast, our long fellow colleagues and neighbors are working at 60% utilization and projected to decrease over time. In regards to the maintenance of neighborhood schools, some of our students live closer in physical distance to Longfellow or are

131equidistant between the two schools. A zone change over time in our neck of the woods can still allow for community togetherness. I do appreciate the stress on minimizing disruption to families who may be uprooted by a boundary shift. Um, but I haven't heard ideas for ways to roll out an adjustment in stages. For example, could families have choice during the first year of this move? Allowances for upper grade students to finish finish and graduate at their current school for siblings to stay together while this transition affects multiple children in the same household. Many students already have an out of neighborhood placement or waiver, so this is not an unprecedented concept. The committee's report does touch on the use of physical capacity as a misleading measure. Um, but this isn't explored any further in writing and

132I feel it really needs to be. For example, at Row, our single incredible school counselor is managing a ratio of 1 to 476. Our Spurwink counselor is working out of a recycling closet with no windows. I'm teaching 26 kids in one classroom. add any extras and I'll have to decide whether to sacrifice space for the classroom library. Arrange desks in rows or eliminate my teaching table to make room for more student desks. Buyer code capacity matters. Yes, and it is necessary a necessary way to begin categorizing a study such as this one. However, we as teachers know very well numbers aren't everything and can't be the only way to represent the needs and experiences of our students. The boundaries committee was formed and has been working on this project for two years to investigate and

133improve a problem that we are facing in our schools. Now, it feels like we've been told that it isn't a problem worth solving because it's not going to solve everything and because folks will need to adjust and compromise. Portland schools professionals are creative and smart and I know we can do better than to stick with the status quo. Please consider sending this proposal back to the committee for another round of investigation, creative thinking, and forward motion. Thank you. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else? Okay. >> Hi, I'm Kate Meline. Um I'm the school counselor at Row Elementary and I have pretty much the sweatshirt in every color in case you were wondering. Um and I'm a very proud Row employee. Um, and I'm also a parent to two students at Longfellow, one in third

134grade and one in first grade. Um, and um, first of all, I want to say that the last time I was in this room, I was in a sea of blue with all of you with blue hearts and you were exceptional and thank you and I'm really proud of our community. Um, and in that vein, that's why I moved to Portland and that's why I have my students in the Portland public schools is because the diversity that we have is our strength. It's our greatest strength. And Longfellow is devoid of that and it doesn't need to be. There is affordable housing with diversity 1.1 mile from Longfellow. It's walkable and those students are being bust 2.6 six miles to go to row. This boundary that this proposal limits what Longfellow can do. It's it's limiting

135my kids ability to have an expanded world view that our students at Row are getting. And it's not it doesn't have to be. This is why the boundaries committee was formed is because the disparity and the inequity of Longfellow is a big problem and the Longfellow community wants it. Our the Longfellow staff wants it. We want five specials at Longfellow. Like it's really disappointing to see that there's no movement here. I'm so grateful for the 22 students that are coming from Talbot. I really am and I'm and thank you. And so much more could be done to help row which the utilization numbers are inaccurate. The I think it says there are 434 students currently enrolled at long at row which gives us 73% utilization right now. That number is inaccurate. We have 476 students

136as of Thursday when we get another one from Raiky. And because apparently prek isn't calculated into those numbers, preK takes up space. They take up resources. They are part of our community. Those numbers need to be included. So we're actually right now at 79% utilization. And the projection is that we would get to 89%. That's untenable. It's not fair for our row students at all. It's not fair to our row staff. And it leaves Longfellow devoid. It leaves Longfellow depleted and weak because it's not reflecting the Portland community that the Longfellow parents and staff choose to work for and choose to be in. And so I please please please reconsider that long fellow um row line and where that disparity can be more equitable because if we say that we believe in equity this is

137a this is a place to show it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other Yeah. Coming up. >> Hi. Sorry. Hi again. Um, >> just wanted to say thank you for everyone for looking into this. Um, again, my our I live on Mayfield Street and we are on the Longfellow side of Mororrow's Corner and Morals Corner is just a very very very busy intersection. So like our child uh for whatever decision we get to to be at Longfellow just from a geographic point of view so we can build a community of friends within walking or biking distance. Um related to middle school, uh we live also in a weird area that if you went to Talbot, if you continue to go to Talbot, pretty much everyone is going to Longfellow or sorry to Lincoln,

138I'm sorry. And if you would just and if nothing changed and he went to Longfellow, he would let me start over again. I'm sorry. So if he went to Talbet for finished Talbet, he would go to Laymore, but the rest of his friends would go to Lincoln. And even if he went to and nothing if nothing changed, if he went to Longfellow, all of his friends would go to Lincoln and he would still go to Laymore for where we live right now. We just live in like a weird island of, you know, kind of in the wrong spot. Um, just want to say that and I again appreciate everyone looking into it and thank you. >> Thank you. >> Any other public comment? Okay, I'm going to go ahead and close public comment. Um, and

139then if there's any, uh, discussion from the board. That was a lot. I'm just going to go we'll go around. Uh, board member Brighten. Go ahead. Thank you, chair. Um, so I have I um I have what I think is actually a question. Uh so I apologize for not asking it during question period but um I am curious about whether it is workable possible um I think it's a procedural question. So if we were to pass the recommendations of the committee does that then close us off from being able to make minor technical questions or adjustments um in the future? I guess my question is do we have to go through another boundaries committee process to do that or like >> No, the board could it could take that up. I mean I think that

140um uh part of the work is in policy committee. I think that that could start there. I think at any time the board could write another resolution to say this is the way these are the things that we want to address. This is how we want to do it. like the the board made the decision to have a committee um in that process, but the board could make a different decision uh about what how to move forward with these other small pieces. >> Okay. And so it doesn't have to be all or nothing. This is, you know, this is it forever. Um but there's opportunities. Also, just a sort of a follow-up question to that, the when we're talking about actual like really minor technical um you know, oh that one block or whatever, is

141that something that the board has to do or is there like a staff component to the cleanup? >> Yeah. So, and Dr. Warren, I might have you jump in here on this one, but part of what um made the process longer was going back in to redo the whole internal system to make sure it was accurate with across all systems. And so as the um demographer would move the boundaries that would then update those systems that we use to pull the road level details. Um I would ask Dr. Warren I don't I don't know how from you know the the decision that's made here how those things get updated or like to make sure that they're all right on the the website. Um but I would yeah ask you to share your your wisdom around

142this. I do not have wisdom when it comes to technology. Um, no, we uh I mean I don't know technically how that works, but obviously if there are any changes made, we would make sure they got updated in in the system, but I can't say how that gets done, but we will follow whatever the board guidance is. >> Thank you, chair. Board member Aperman, did you have a hand? No. Uh, board member Ali Elli. >> Yeah. Um so I do have a question um after hearing um from um public hearing uh the point about and I we've discussed longfellow before but um the point about some kids move being moved to row um elementary and you know particularly around the equity piece and how the utilization will increase in row and longfellow um the utilization

143numbers would decrease over the years that makes me already question can someone answer that It's almost the same question. >> Yeah. Do you want to answer ask your question and then we'll >> Yeah. >> So I my question is a followup of Miss Meline's question which is about the row longfellow boundary and the affordable housing she was referring to. I'm assuming it's Dohy Commons but I don't know if that's what you were referring to. And my question is a I I need a reminder from my friends on the committee. um was the reason that wasn't considered for a Longfellow because it would be like a pocket of a neighborhood that would be then bust where the remainder of the neighborhood would not necessarily be is that I'm just trying to make sure we answer that

144question. >> Yeah, I in my memory and Damon I'm going to invite you back up to the microphone if you can remember better than I can. Um but I believe like we didn't just want to have like little islands, right? That then we're busing. So to take that whole area then didn't didn't really affect the numbers overall. That's what I'm remembering. But Damon, I would invite you to weigh in. >> Yes, thank you. Um so yeah, that is the case. Uh basically the what it would be is setting up a situation where there are um some kids on one side of the street who live in the affordable housing being busted to a different uh school than their uh cohort on the other side of the street. And so that we, you know, their friends

145on the other side of the street would be bus to row while they would be bus to Longfellow. Um creating, you know, some equity issues there as far as neighborhood cohesion. Um and it just didn't it didn't sit right. I I live two blocks from there, so I would say um I'll say my child has a friend who lives there, and I think it's great that we have new members of the community who live in the affordable housing that was built there. And um I think there's some real benefits to that. Thank you. Um, and I think the reason that Damon's neighborhood wasn't moved to Longfellow was because it would only increase the enrollment, but it wouldn't change the economic diversity. >> the percentage economic o >> overall I think it made things worse in

146terms of economic disparity. So it it was I mean I jo I joined the committee like halfway through and so I know the committee was wrestling with all of these different things and I I mean it is almost like the person who commented that said that because we couldn't achieve balance in all of the goals the committee decided to sort of shy away from making sweeping changes if we felt that it wasn't going to reach the goals that were presented. >> Yeah. If I could speak one more piece of information to add to the um consideration too on that is we did look at a um more ambitious scenario that did add significant numbers of students to Longfellow. It did create kind of an oddlooking district that um but uh we heard I think there's

147significant um push back from many of the people who live in that district who did not want to be moved. Um I think it was from uh Ocean Avenue to Longfellow. Um so I think that there's a lot of consideration here of of minimizing disruption too. And for many of those people it would create significant um unacceptable disruption. >> Yeah. Thank you. And I just wanted to address the second part of your question which was the um increased utilization. Yeah. >> Um so the the committee did look at 5year projections and 10-year projections um which basically has like Riky and Row flip-flopping in from where they are right now. So Reichy will decrease, ROW will go up. Um but there are a couple policy recommendations within the report. One making sure that the boundaries happen

148every um after every census um uh so that it's you know every 5 years that we're looking at this as opposed to every 20 years. Um and then the other piece was looking at a outofd district policy to um put some guard rails on where students can request to come in to hopefully um uh um get students moving to schools with lower enrollment. >> Okay. Um based on those facts and how we had a target and we did our best, right? um from what I can say from what I'm hearing um to to try to reach that and it was not you know um accommodatable. Um I'm going to shy away from this uh kind of particularly because of the move of 19 following 1960s all the way through 1990s of how communities were deliberately

149separated by highways in every major city and how public schools uh major public schools in all the um all the major cities in every single state was completely divided um inequitably uh particularly during that time the population was majority uh black and white um even though right now it's a lot more people of color it kind of falls into the same category that we're dealing with right now where u these schools are going to be overpop populated um the houses were I mean at the time um uh where they were deteriorating kids were getting sick from le uh from lead from mercury degree, whatever. Um the kids were falling asleep during class because of the circumstances that their parents had to go through and whatnot. Um and then the uh the funding for the major

150um schools were extremely decreased um and the util utilization was really high. So because of that system that was created um post segregation um and how that was created is not something that we would like to um you know either it's currently happening or it's or or continuing to happen um you know which leads to higher crime rates, higher incarceration rates, higher mental health issues, whatnot. So knowing that a system like that was created, um I can't help support um something that's not going opposite of that. Um and I appreciate everybody doing the work and if it's not possible, it's not possible. I just don't think I would continue to support this because of that obvious major issue. and any if anybody wants the the the information on that. Um it's called uh the color

151of law by Richard Rothstein if uh anyone wants to take a look at it. But that's it. Thank you >> board member Lena. Did you have another question? Vice Bondo, go ahead. >> Thank you so much. Yeah. So I just want to say thank you for the public comments and uh just came back to me couple years ago. We be we we were tried to do the elementary school reconfiguration and uh I really appreciate what both uh Ali just mentioned about the post segregation. So is always raised then long fellow has been untouchable and uh and I just wonder if is any way we can make some um recommendation here adding some amendment or recommendation then we need to to look at to be more uh to give more option because I see the next

152boundaries here is on 2030 and I feel like is is really too far for us to consider I have a nephew and niece is so living here on Capis Street. So they have to take a bus all the way to Talbot or we have a long fellow close by. So when I look at the map here I know that's why we have done for the boundaries but I feel all the time then long long fellow has a little bit of length of privileges than other other schools. So this is just my two cents. Are we open to really make a change or we just going to be silent and uh having everything is surface and uh having not to hide but keep on walking on the on the post segregation but we don't say anything

153out loud. So I think when I look at here I was not I follow the boundaries but I didn't follow every every time but I just wonder if we can have some other recommendation and leaving some open on the arolement and then see the the size utilization on the rooms and we can also we've been talking about the middle schools how we try to eliminate some of the zip code zoning and opportunity for students. So I think this is some of the some of the facts as well. So those are just my two cents. >> Thank you board member Bundo. Um board member Sautell. >> Um two items. Can someone clarify for me um what the policy is or or what practice has been around uh allowing parents to request a different school than the

154one they're in? >> The district they're in. Superintendent, can you address that? >> So, there is a policy that allows for uh families to um request it. Um it's different for if it's out of district than if it's in district. If it's out of district, it's a superintendent request. Requires permission from both superintendents and the state has restrictions about what criteria can be considered for that. um within the um in district um changes. So requesting you may live in the Longfellow but you want to go to Telbit uh piece. Uh those requests go to our assistant superintendent for elementary and secondary who review them um and make a determination again based on if there is space and um best needing the need of the student. >> Great. Um, that was my first question. And then,

155um, at the risk of making Damon's head explode or Sarah or Maya, is there any willingness in that committee to go back uh for one more discussion following these comments? No. >> Damon shrugging. I I think we could probably hire Damon to do a a great job with whatever question we put in front, but um, board member Oh, sorry. Let me let Jaden finish. >> Oh, that was my question. Like is um I just feel like we've heard things that pro maybe the committee already heard, but I hadn't really thought of and I've had a couple calls from people saying specifically around the long fellow um row boundaries. >> Yeah. And I'm going to respond and then I'll um call on you. I I think it's just like important to realize that this committee was

156charged with trying to use boundaries as the tool to to get to the outcomes that were stated by the board. And the work of this committee found that boundaries we couldn't get to those goals. Boundaries is not the tool that we can use to to fix what's happening at Longfellow, to fix what's happening at Reiki, and to fix what's happening at other high utilization schools right now because it it doesn't it doesn't balance the way that we hoped. like we looked at maps after maps >> to try to figure this out. And I do believe that there was equal commitment from everyone on the committee to um to to do like I think that the committee and weigh in um I think the committee would have made incredible sweeping changes had it gotten us to

157the results that we wanted to get to, but we couldn't get there. And so it was like, well then we're not going to make hugely disruptive moves if it's still not going to get us to the outcome that we're trying to solve. >> I think I mean if you look at a map of Portland, I'm looking at the the recommendation on my screen right now. The location of the schools is part of the problem in terms of finding balance. A lot of the schools are really geographically close to each other. I mean, presumptend school are very close to each other, but they're also surrounded by water and so the boundaries can't really go anywhere. So, that's part of the challenge. Ocean A and Longfellow School are actually very geographically close to each other. So, I

158I don't know. It it was really really hard um trying to find balance and you know there was a really strong uh desire to keep walkability as much as possible in neighborhood schools and you know Damon mentioned his neighborhood there when I just joined the boundaries committee they had looked at a scenario where people from that neighborhood which the closest physical school to them is Longfellow School currently district dist districted for row the example was given to bus those students to eastern East End school in order to balance demographics, which I mean it it worked in terms of balancing it, but it really was taking those students and moving them across town for the sake of balancing um economic percent of economic disadvantaged students. >> So very superintendent wants to add something and then we'll

159come to board member oper. Yeah, I think the the committee wrestled with this uh pretty extensively and what they kept coming up against is that there's no clear great answer and there's no answer that achieves all of the priorities. And so I think that if we put this back to the committee um and ask them to look at it, it it's going to be a similar recommendation. And so if the board wanted to make some adjustments, I think that's within the board's discretion. I will say in the recognition of the committee's work that we had a demographer that worked with us for over a year and their feedback was one based on the location of your schools, the geography of your city and the housing stock. Um there is not a great way to address

160utilization and socioeconomic with boundaries unless you're going to change some of the stated priorities that are guiding the work. when our neighborhood when our neighbor South Portland wrestled with this, they did not have that one of their priorities was to maintain neighborhood cohesion and walkability. And so when they got to a spot for recommendations, of which I don't think they're actually implemented yet, but when they came to recommendations to get socioeconomic balance, there's actually a significant amount of busing proposed in their recommendation. That is something that could be a change and a recommendation. I I think that it would be to the board to say, look, we want to go back to this, but we're going to change these conditions. Otherwise, absent changing the priorities. You're going to come back with a very similar recommendation

161after a year plus of work. >> Board member. >> Thank you, chair. I have a comment and then a thought. The comment is this goes back to the first meeting uh and the people wondered why row had such a peculiar arrangement and it goes to the fact that a school bath and Clifford was closed and turned into housing, nice housing, expensive housing. Um and that brought a group of uh a balance. It was a balanced community of of um some low-income and higher income students. Um but there was it wasn't perfect and there were issues with that building that needed to be improved. So but just to say whatever we do so it there's an unintended consequence somewhere along the line. The one thing I thought of knowing row been in the building And in

162the groups that are in there me it was mentioned um prek there's also a fair population of breathe students there um many of whom I believe are bust um from other places so these are students that are already being displaced and as a possibility of increasing space at row and utilizing space at Longfellow that might be a uh a not not changing boundaries, not really changing transportation because they have to be bust anyway. So, uh might be a thought that we could continue. The question I have is is that something that the uh administration can do without us having to vote on it um or is it something that um we have to suggest, vote, etc.? Yeah, I mean I think the board could, you know, author a resolution asking the the the district staff

163to do X, Y, and Z. Um I think we would want to see what that is and have it come back to the board. Um just because it is around boundaries. Um but I uh yes, we could we could certainly do something like that. >> I'm just calling your attention to the fact that you have a hand up. >> Oh, thank you. Um Yura, go ahead. >> Um yes, thank you. So, I think my comments were um kind of going off of what Ryan said. Um, and I mentioned um last meeting that the committee did start with a very um I won't say narrow, but like constricted um you know I don't know points that they had to go off of. So, I look at this recommendation as a as a framework for the board

164to go um to work on and add on to. So, I think I'm in favor of the board um either at committee level or the whole or the full board coming together and um specifically pointing out the parts that we have an issue with and then working together as a you know as a body to um improve what we are looking at right now. But I think it would be uh it would not be a good idea to send this back to the committee cuz again we will get the same things. And um excuse me. And I think also that with the board I am in favor of a more aggressive um what is it called approach this time um to make sure that we are um going to the results that we want cuz

165not everyone's going to be happy. Sorry. >> Thank you Ellie. Any other discussion from the board? Yeah, I guess I guess yeah, I was going to comment saying like you know um you know the number one thing we have the one number number one problem we have in this country is obviously the same issue that we've been dealing with since this country technically uh technically has started and it really takes a lot of time a lot of effort a lot of energy a lot of emotional discomfort a lot of stress a lot of heart problems you name it um and you know I think one of the biggest things that you know it's up to us is always to eliminate that number one problem and it's really to look at the ignorance of um viewpoints

166of what color may be or may not be um what race may be and where it may not be and um you know try to you know create some inequities um within it you know so just understanding that um we're trying to do the opposite so we can live in a better country so we can actually we don't have to fight against our 4% of the of the population we can be better as a country against um other um uh countries as well as uh continents you know so you know, just to say that, you know, minor things like this can can affect um uh major decisions later. Um and with that being said, I would um yeah, that's that's pretty much all I got to say. >> Thank you, board member Ali. Any other

167discussion from the board? Oh, where is Dr. Warren? >> I have. >> You have it. Okay. Um, so I'm going to um just say um a couple quick words. Uh, as someone deeply involved in the committee, like I I do feel like the work was very much full of integrity. It was thorough and you know, I think you ask any committee member and it felt like at times we our heads were just beating the wall because we couldn't get to where we wanted to go with the tools that we were were using. So, I do think that um the policy recommendations are strong within this report. The small changes that we did um uh uh make sense to me. I do think that this is a kind of a a starting point for further middle

168school work and I would really encourage if a board member has, you know, I I I would love to come back to um putting more attention on on Longfellow and seeing what what um tools we could use uh around Longfellow. I think that would be great. I would offer uh board members to write a resolution to uh send that to uh you know that maybe the um uh curriculum and student success committee could look at that or um planting seeds. Anyway, um it's uh it's within our wheelhouse to do that. Uh board member Lena, go ahead. Yeah, just to piggyback on what you're saying, Turlins, there is um in the recommendation number two says determining a percentage of um economic uh ed economic disadvantaged students or utilization that would trigger a review process. Um and

169I this that was not recommended by the committee yet but that is something that the board could come up with is a percentage of utilization which it seems like that is something that the staff from row was sharing is a stressor. Um that that would make it so that no school gets too over full and then we would have a better reason to redraw the lines. >> Beautiful. Thank you for adding that >> or change programming not just redraw lines. Correct. Find solutions to the problem, whatever they might be. Okay. So, with that, I'm going to call the vote. Um, so by roll call vote, please indicate whether you are in favor of the consideration and action to approve the recommendations of the attendance boundaries committee. Um, uh, >> yes, we did that hours ago.

170>> She didn't record it, so I'll do it. >> Oh, okay. Uh yes, it was I believe Operman and Brighten. A combo of the two of them >> somewhere in there. >> Yeah. >> Um so uh then uh Dr. Scowan, please call the role. >> Board member Ali Ali, >> no. >> Uh board member user Ali, >> yes. >> Vice Chair Bondo, >> yes. >> Uh board member Bryen, >> yes. >> Board member Lena, >> yes. Board member Noer. Uh board member Operman. >> Yes. >> Uh board member Sautell. >> Yes. >> Our students are gone home for uh the night. Uh chair lince. >> Yes. So the motion passes and the recommendations are approved and I look forward to further resolutions from the board. Uh up next, um I'm going to be making a

171motion, um for the consideration and action to enter back into executive session pursuant to 1 MRSA 40560D to discuss a personnel matter. Um is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Uh board member Brighten, all those in favor. Okay, so we'll go back into executive uh session. Um we'll take a fivem minute recess uh on the way. That's easy. Yeah. >> All right, we are back. So, we have a couple of votes here. Um, and then we'll wrap up for the night. Uh, so up first, hold on, I'm not seeing the attachment. Let me refresh here. Got a couple of personnel items. Um, I'm still not seeing it up yet. We're just making sure the right attachments are in the agenda. There's going to be one attachment in the agenda. Whatever works thinks this

172meeting is over. Diligent community has this as a previous meeting. It doesn't know we're still going. Oh, >> I don't believe so. No, she's great. It's great. She's about to go to school. Righty, is it? I was right in the same grade. >> All right, we got it. started. This is awesome. >> I see it. Do other board members see it on the agenda? >> Let me look. >> Hold on. >> Dr. Warren, are you ready to call the role when I see it? >> Okay, great. Um, so up first we have the consideration and action to renew probationary contracts of principles and assistant principles for the 2026 2027 school year pursuant to MRSA title 20A uh chapter 504 section uh 13301 employment of principles. I would be looking for a motion for that consideration

173action. Thank you board member Brighten. Is there a second? Thank you board member Opperman. Are there any questions from the board? on this slate. Okay. Um and you have Yusur Ali on your computer at this moment. Um so if you have questions, uh just speak up. Uh user, uh any um we don't take public comment on personnel items. Are there is there any discussion? Okay. Okay. Then by roll call vote, please indicate whether you are in favor of the consideration and action to renew probationary contracts of principles and assistant principles for the 2026 2027 school year pursuant to MRSA um title 20A chapter 504 section 1331 employment of principles. Dr. Warren, will you please call the role? >> Member Ali Ali. >> No. >> Member Ysur Ali. >> Yes. Uh, Vice Chair Bondo, >> no.

174>> Member Brighten, >> yes. >> Member Lena, >> yes. >> Member No. Member Operman, >> yes. >> Member Sautell, >> no. >> Uh, the student representatives are gone. And Chair Lince, >> yes. So, the motion passes 53. Um the next uh item on the agenda is the consideration and action to uh renew continuing nonprobationary contracts of principles and assistant principles pursuant to MRSA title 20A chapter 504 section 13301 employment of principles and you can use the same attachment as as on the um previous um item. Uh is there a motion for this uh consideration? Thank you. Um, uh, board member Brighten. Is there a second? Board member Operman, are there any questions from the board? We don't have public comment on, uh, personnel items. Is there any discussion from the board? Then by roll call

175vote, please indicate whether you are in favor of the consideration and action to renew continuing nonprobationary contracts of principles and assistant principles pursuant to MRSA title 20A chapter 504 section 13301 employment of principles. Dr. Warren, will you please call the role? >> Member Ali Ali, >> no. >> Member Ali, >> yes. >> Vice Chair Bondo, >> no. Member Brighten, >> yes. >> Member Lena, >> yes. >> Member No. Member Opraman, >> yes. >> Member Sautell, >> no. >> Uh, the student representatives are not here. Chair Lentz, >> yes. So, the motion passes. Uh, 53. Uh, and I will make a motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? Thank you, board member Brighten. Um, all those in favor, >> we are adjourned at 10:06 p.m.