001Wait, hold on a minute. All right, I would like to call the business meeting of the Portland Board of Public Education to order. It is Tuesday, October 14th, 2025. We are meeting in a hybrid format with some of us here at Casco Bay High School and some online via Zoom. Um, Dr. Warren, will you please call the role? >> Good evening. Member Ali Ali, member Ali, >> here. here. >> Sorry, Ali. Ali here. >> Oh, sorry. Got you. Member Yar Ali. I heard uh Vice Chair Bondo >> present. >> Member Brighten. >> Member Lena >> here. >> Member no. Member Operman >> here. >> Member Sautell >> here. >> Student Representative Fitzgerald. Student Representative Kiba. Student Representative Lee >> here. >> Student Representative O'Brien >> here. >> Student Representative Ziggler. Chair Lent present. Uh, thank
002you. And now the pledge of allegiance. This over here. Let's move it up from behind the speaker. Okay, we're just going to leave it there for tonight, everyone. Uh, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Portland Public Schools recognizes the original inhabitants of the land on which our city and schools stand. the Wulis Tiguay or Maliset, Mcmmack, Ponobscot, and Pasimacquati 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. Um, and board member Lena is going to
003read our mission and our definition of equity tonight. The Portland Public Schools is responsible for ensuring a challenging, relevant, and joyful education that 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. 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 the Portland public schools when there are no identifiable differences in outcomes and experiences for any population subgroup. Thank you, board member Lena. Um, and next up we're going to do uh public comment. Um, so if any would like anyone would like to give public comment, they can come up to the podium
004or if they would like to give public comment via Zoom, they can raise their Zoom hand. And I'll just give it a few beats to see if folks are coming in. All right, seeing no one for public comment, I'm going to go ahead and close public comment um and just give a few remarks. Um, first of all, uh, we've got some exciting news, which is the Portland Public Schools, um, is proud to have been chosen as the 2025 agency of the year by the main chapter of National Association of Social Workers. Um, the district was selected for the award in recognition of the outstanding work that its social workers and school counselors have done to address the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of students in the district. Um right now we have more than 40
005social workers in our district and approximately 20 school um counselors. Um and uh part of their work is um that they've been really recognized for is their culturally responsive and healing centered approach to removing barriers to education for students in the district. Um school-based mental health professionals collaborate um with students, educators, families, and communities to remove these barriers. so um uh that students can access uh the education that they deserve here at Portland Public Schools. Um and I would love to um recognize Sarah Beam who is here with us in the audience tonight. Let me just double check. Is there any kind of physical thing that I'm giving to Sarah or am I just recognizing her? >> I think actually they attended an award ceremony and they received the physical thing already. Um so yeah,
006we're just further recognizing the achievement. I have seen you the picture with the little award. Um so Sarah, if you just want to rise and we can give you a round of applause um for all the leadership that you are demonstrating. >> Thank you. And I know Sarah that you are one of many on that team, but all of your efforts together is incredible and our students are so lucky to have you. >> Like to say one thing. >> Yes. Do you want to come up to the microphone just so everybody can hear? >> Um well, thank you so much for that recognition. We really appreciate it. The one thing I just want to name in addition to everything you said is that we couldn't have done this work without our multilingual department, the collaboration
007with our family and community engagement specialists is really what has allowed our school to be as culturally responsive as we are. So, thank you very much. >> Well, thank you for adding that. Thank you, Sarah. Um, and then I I just wanted to highlight um all of the opportunities for community engagement that are happening around the district. Um, today we had two or do we have three? I can't remember. Two. Um, but board members are out in schools and in communities right now a lot for the next several weeks and just want to highlight upcoming opportunities. Um, uh, tomorrow, October 15th, uh, there is a session at Row Elementary School. tomorrow night from 6:00 to 7:00. Um, and then there's also uh before that a virtual session for staff, PPS staff from 4:00 to 5:00.
008Uh, October 16th, which is this Thursday from 6:00 to 7:00, you can join us at Lincoln Middle School. Um, and then October 29th from 6:00 to 7:00. Um, we are going to meet at the United Way of Greater Portland, which is on Forest A, 550 Forest A. they have a great uh community space uh that we'll be using. And then um on October 30th from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. um there's going to be a virtual session that anyone can join. Um additionally u the superintendent and many of the central office staff have been out at PTO's um talking about a variety of things. So, kind of um some of the topics of interest and then I'll off I'll open the floor up to anybody that's been to these sessions to just share um kind of
009any highlights that you that you've heard from folks. Um uh um what was I where was I in my thought? It's going away. Um PTO's um joining us. I I lost my thought. >> Highlights. Yes, thank you. I'm sorry. Too many meetings today. Um uh yeah. So some highlights um from those meetings. We've been talking about boundaries, the boundaries work that has been happening. We've talking we've been talking about what the budget might look like uh coming up. We've been reviewing how cell phone policies um have been rolling out. We've been uh today we heard about the need for pickleball courts and more um community engagement things on campuses. Um so really these discussions are open um to what is important in the community and we just welcome you um to come and and share
010with us. Uh and if you can't come to any of the meetings, you're always welcome uh to email the board. But if there's any board member here who would like to share some takeaways um from those sessions, I would welcome those. Now anyone I know I'm putting people on the spot without much time to prepel. No. Um I think one of the things besides just the need for um the creative uh need for a pickle ball court um was how uh seriously our students are taking their education and how um when they identify a barrier to their education. They see it as uh something that's standing in their way from getting the most out of their education here at Portland Public Schools. and it has just been awesome uh to see how students think about
011all the things that they could accomplish while they're in PPS as a foundation for their future. Um so that that uh has given me goosebumps several times this week. Um and I just uh look forward to hearing even more from folks. All right. Uh so with that and let me just double check that board member um Upper didn't have anything to add. Okay, beautiful. Um, and with that, I'm going to turn it over to student representative um, O'Brien uh, for your remarks. >> Thank you, chair. Um, I had some pictures to share. I wasn't sure if Dr. Skellan is able to >> You want them now? >> Uh, yeah. It sort of goes with different parts of like what I have to say. So, right now we've entered the second month of school and PASS
012has a new school mascot, which is the Narwhal. We've never had a mascot before and students were given the choice between a few potential candidates. I did vote for the unicorn, but the narwhal is very cool and I'm excited about it. It's just as unique. PADS is host also hosting an open house this Thursday open to anyone curious. Visitors will be able to meet our staff, tour the facilities, and learn more about the programs and also get to see some student work. This past month, on the next slide, you'll be able to see that we hosted a car show at PAS to raise money so that our students can participate in the Skills USA competition. It was on September 20th, and we were able to raise $3,000. I've talked about it before, but I can
013sum it up briefly. Skills USA is an organization that gives career and technical education students a way to compete using the skills that they have learned at the programs like PATS. PADS has also opened an online store to raise money for the Skills USA program. And then on the next slide, PAD's newest program, the outdoor leadership education program, has been busy this fall as well. They have been out sea kayaking in Casco Bay and had the chance to try fly fishing today. Actually, the program was out on a rope course. Currently, the carpentry program is building a yurt for the outdoor leadership to use. And then on the next slide, the welding program fixed some carts from Central Kitchen that are used to deliver food to spaces. Uh it's less expensive than having to buy
014a whole new cart, and it gave the students practice working with aluminum, which I guess is different than they're used to. Um, the HVAC program is on hold this year, but Mr. Stilfin, our principal, is very optimistic that it'll be up and running again in no time. Uh, he says he has great candidates applying, and we should be able to offer that program again by next school year. In many programs, student field work positions have started. These are paying jobs in the fields that students are learning in. Currently, we have 13 students across the programs of careers in education, welding, HVAC, and masonry. Not all programs have started their placement. Biomemed and automotive will both be starting this spring. I thoroughly enjoyed my field work. I'm back at Riky, the elementary school that I attended
015with third with the third grade teacher I had in third grade, and it's definitely an amazing experience, and I'm having a lot of fun with my students. Coming up, Paths will be hosting its annual college fair on October 24th. schools from around Maine come and share about their school and it's a great opportunity to explore the options that we have in the state. The last thing I wanted to touch on is the implementation of the new cell phone policy policy at PATS. Dr. Scallan has mentioned this, but paths uses lock boxes rather than yonder pouches, which is nice because if there's an emergency or like a need for communication, it allows teachers to be pragmatic and uh things are still relatively accessible, but teachers are still able to strictly uphold the expectation. In talking with
016Mr. Stilfin along with my own experience as a student, I can say that everything is generally going just fine. Even students from other districts are adjusting well to our phone policy and the expectation is understood at our school. Paths has had a largely no phone culture anyway, so the change was not huge for our program. And that concludes my remarks. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Student Representative O'Brien. Um, what questions do people have? Board member Brighten, go ahead. >> Sure. Um, thank you for that update. Um it's uh so much cool stuff and I really uh really love Narwhal. U my question has to do with it. So it sounds like um the Narwhal was selected based on student input. I'm curious about whether the graphics were also um had student involvement. >>
017I'm actually not sure. I can ask uh Mr. Still about that, but I was curious myself. Yeah. >> Yeah, that would be great. I I appreciate hearing more about that. Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you, Chair. >> Dr. Warren, did you have a thought there? >> I was just trying to make sure that um member Braden could be heard both online and in the room. It seemed like it was a little quiet. Greg, it's okay. Okay, perfect. Yeah, that um a few of us got to spend the morning with past students and it was just really cool hearing about how their work is integrated into so many other parts of the district and just the skill coming out of there is is um really amazing. hearing kids talk about um working on boats and
018motors and all kinds of things. It was just really really exciting. Um other questions uh for student representative O'Brien, I'm was wondering if you might be able to share the link to the online store. I did just a quick Google and I couldn't find it, but if you can find it and share it with the board, I would love to get some Narwhal merch. >> Absolutely, I can do that. >> Beautiful. Thank you. Awesome. Okay. Uh, we're going to move on to the superintendent remarks. Did I miss something? >> Board member Aperman had her Zoom hand up. >> Oh, I missed it. I apologize. >> It's okay. I just wanted to commend uh the students at PAS that really spoke up today and uh I appreciate their depth of understanding of what it takes to
019learn. So uh and Caroline was her group uh participant was very clear. So that's total sum. >> Thank you board member Uberman and apologies for not seeing your hand. Um uh so with that we're going to go to the report of the superintendent now. >> Good evening everybody. I have three short updates um and we'll give a little bit more around the boundaries um later on. Uh so first just really exciting news that uh Portland High School senior is a published author. Portland High School senior Ramona Row will start college next year with a huge life accomplishment already checked off. She's a published novelist. Ramona recently had her first full-length novel published through the telling room titled Factory Town. It's a science fiction novel set in Worcester, Mass, where she has family roots. Second, um
020high school selection process is in full swing. In fact, um, last week, Casco Bay had its open house, and tonight, uh, Portland High School has its open house. Daring has an open house scheduled for October 21st. High school preference forms are due on November 17th. Changes were made this year to move the process a little bit earlier so that we're better in we're in better alignment with our neighboring private and charter schools. And then third, this is National Principal Appreciation Month in Portland public schools. We are fortunate to have 15 principles and two directors that are truly phenomenal and go above and beyond for students and families every day. We should honor their contributions every day, but in October, uh we will take an extra moment to honor their contribution to the district and the
021success of all students. Thank you. Just also will call out, I haven't gotten in the habit of this yet, but there is both for board awareness the list of individuals who have exited the district and uh new hires that are not in a um class that gets voted on by you. >> Thank you. Um so next up we have the report of the secretary. Um uh we have the consideration and action to approve the meeting minutes of September 30th, 2025. Are there any correction to those meeting minutes? That's okay. Okay. Seeing no uh corrections, um the minutes are approved as distributed and now we have our focus on education. >> Good evening. Tonight we actually have two. So I think we have a folky on uh education. Um and so our executive director of the
022foundation uh Andrea Weissman Summers will come up in a little bit to do an update on the foundation. I'm going to do a quick update just because it is a topic that is going on right now just around the boundary committees. Um and just to share a quick update uh to also get interest in joining uh one of the listening sessions that you talked about board chair and so chair lent mentioned this um but we have four upcoming community meetings and had one this last Friday and so you can see the schedule up um here on the screen but also on our board materials. So if you're looking for that you have that there. Um it includes both um sessions at elementary school, a middle school, a uh community partner as well as a virtual.
023And so uh please if any of the things I'm about to talk about peique your interest, please consider joining. Um and if you are not able to join but still want to give feedback, you can certainly email the board at schoolboardlandschools.org. Just as a reminder for folks that are uh tuning in for the first time on this, the committee was established based on a board of education resolution in 2024. And this boundary committee had what I think of as four charges. First, determine if elementary and middle school boundaries should be adjusted. Second, determine how those boundaries should be adjusted and make recommendations to the board. Determine if changes should be made to the middle school model based on current and future enrollment. identify additional projects, policies or challenges that may need to also be addressed
024by the board in the strategic plan and to submit those recommendations to the board for action. The board resolution also established a committee that must be representative of Portland public schools. You can see the list of community members there including board members, staff, principles, parents, students, alumni, and community members. To guide this work, the boundary committee established a set of five priorities um as they're making potential adjustments to the boundaries. The five are first utilization. So that's how much of the school space you are using. looking at that both in current year, fiveyear and 10-year projections. The second is looking at demographics and taking a district-wide perspective by considering socioeconomic uh differences between schools. The third was a priority to maintain neighborhood schools which was defined as the ability to walk to school. The fourth
025is around transportation and considering any impact um changes would have on transportation and work towards limiting the amount of time that students are spent on a bus or walking to school. And then fifth is in any set of changes to try to minimize the number of students that are impacted by the overall changes. We looked at this in August um and I have shared in the diligent community or our board materials uh the most recent um boundaries. You can see for elementary school the most recent boundaries are on the right the drafts. Um the left is the current boundaries of what is in effect today. The biggest changes around the elementary school boundaries since we looked at this in um August is that if you look at this area that's um sort of hatched right
026here between presumpt um that is a change. Second is if you really zoomed in and you can see this online um and you look at this space right here between Ocean Longfellow and Reichy that was slightly adjusted as well since August. I think those are the big changes in the elementary since August but I'm looking at chair if you have any others. >> No, but I would like to just um put in one piece of context if that's all right. um with those guiding uh principles that the committee set out um I think the thing that we noticed very quickly is to pull the lever on one of those means that you don't meet another one and so these these guidelines are often in in really big tension um with one another and um uh
027I think as we started to really look at the numbers um to hold on to these it we weren't able to move as as far as people were hoping we would move um in terms of balancing out um uh socioeconomic uh um numbers and utilization frankly. >> Thank you for that. And so on the on the website in board materials you can see the uh proposed boundaries that will be discussed at the community sessions uh for elementary school. And then here are middle school. The big um adjustments that I just want to highlight here for folks that are following this along is that the proposed boundaries uh take a step to limit the number of elementary schools that have split feeders or that feed uh different middle schools. And so if you look on the
028right, one of the changes on the right is that East End would fully attend Moore and no longer be split between Moore and or yeah between Moore and King. Second is Telbot would fully attend Lincoln um and not be split between Lincoln and Moore. The third is that Longfellow would still be split between Lincoln and King, but a uh more equitable or more even split. In current model, it is almost 98% go to Lincoln and 2% go to King. Those were the big changes that have happened since August. Obviously, the packet has a little bit more detail on it, but I wanted to make sure that as we're thinking about folks engaging in the community sessions that they have this information and also you board members have this as well. I do anticipate that the
029committee will make a recommendation to the board in November. And so I think that it'll come to you at the end of November, beginning of December. Um don't hold me to that, but that is about what I think it would be. Um the future work is they're gonna at this next committee meeting the following Thursday, so not this week but next week. Um they will be reviewing uh broad recommendations on policies and budget. Uh they will also be reviewing community feedback and adjusting as appropriate. And so they won't have all of the feedback at that time uh but we'll have a sizable amount of it. Um and then third is they will be developing some implementation recommendations are things like when does this happen if it happens? Um how do fifth graders get impacted? Do
030fifth graders move or do they stay at their current school? Um and so that is where uh the committee is at in its work. And so I'm happy to take questions. We also have board members that are on. And remember this is not the point where you're really debating it um because it hasn't come to you yet. But this was really to make sure that board was up to date on the changes that they're recommending or discussing. >> What questions are there from board members around um the process? Um because this this will really be the last time before you get the recommendations. So if there's anything that you want to make sure that we're thinking about or any questions, uh please do ask them now. >> Yeah, you start. Go ahead. um you had
031mentioned that especially with utilization um there was not like significant changes then is it beneficial to go ahead with this work um just wanted to know that >> yeah so uh that's a great question and I think one that the committee is really wrestling with as well as the community um and I I we don't have a definitive answer yet um and I think um one of the things that we are still continuing to kind of like parse through is um in this new set of boundaries where are the advantages and who is disadvantaged in this new system. Um, you know, we met with a lot of multilingual families last week who really identified um, uh, some challenges around uh, you know, transportation, which I know we have a lot of challenges in the district,
032but um, some specific ones uh, that are um, uh, for those families. And then also around kind of um, I think, you know, there are pockets of housing throughout the city that are really heavily impacted and um, uh, I is that where we want to put the impact of this change? And I think that there are a lot of really big questions that we have to to consider um and that maybe a boundary change isn't isn't the the move that we make to try to balance um the the the demographics that we're looking to balance. Maybe we more heavily rely on policy. I think that there's a lot of conversation happening around that. Uh, I'm going to go to board member Upperman and then I'll come to you, board member Brighton. >> Thank you, Chair.
033I, uh, was particularly interested in knowing if the committee uh, was reaching out to those little sections of the community that are affected. So, I mean, a parent may not even know that there's a possibility that they are switching um, from one one place to another. And I would just recommend that some kind of direct um male direct, you know, see this if if this is what we're talking about and so that they understand that that's a possibility. >> Thank you, board member. We can certainly note that and and see what we can do. Board member Brighton. >> Thank you, Chair. Can you can you hear me? Or I'll just talk loudly. I'm gonna grab um board member Norris. There you go. Hello. Um, so my question has to do with the five priorities. Um,
034and it sounds like utilization and demographics um have been really tricky. I'm curious about whether the other ones have um sounds like neighborhood schools um um preserving that um component of our school district um has been you know more successful. I'm curious particularly I guess about transportation and whether the proposed boundary changes whether the committee feels like there has been some progress there um and some value in terms of you know making it possible for more kids to successfully get to school walking you know less time on a bus that sort of thing um curious about whether there's value there and like is that the pro and con that we're looking at is that really where the benefit would be. Yeah, that's a great question and I'll take a a shot and then Dr. Warren
035if there's anything that you want to add. Um, you know, I think that we're looking at transportation in a couple of different ways. First, like we spent, you know, a couple of months thinking about where are the I forget the transportation word, the hazard zones. >> hazard zones in the city and do boundaries uh the way that they are currently drawn um you know protect kids from having to cross those to get to school. And I do think that the cleaner boundary lines do do that like um uh to an extent. Um and so I think that it is um and there's there were also just like weird little pockets that were in our current boundaries and weird islands that were making transportation um uh harder in some ways the way they're currently drawn. So
036I think that the new the new versions do make that better. But I think one of the things that we're struggling with is to really make an impact around um economically disadvantaged means putting kids on buses and taking them further to a different school. And so I don't think that these the committee usually came to consensus around not doing that. Um so that has um not happened. >> Can I ask a quick follow-up question? Um so to the extent that the proposed boundary lines um that might come to us as a recommendation to the extent that that does yield some benefit in terms of hazard zones and you know transportation um areas. Um I'm curious about the downsides you know so it sounds like there might be some pockets of communities that might h that
037might not like that for various reasons. I'm also curious about the costs. you know, I I don't know how much it would cost to redraw the boundary lines. I I just my gut is like, oh, it wouldn't cost anything, but I don't know if that's true or not. So, I'd be interested in hearing more about that. That's a great that's a great note, Sarah. And um also I um I do want to just um an example that got got used recently I think is a is a good one that um there would be some King students um that would then have to go to Lyman Moore for middle school and that is a very different path to school than going to um uh Lincoln. And so it's not that some families wouldn't just like the
038the the new boundaries that they're actually it actually in some cases creates additional barriers for families who already have a lot of barriers to get to school. And so that is another piece that um the committee is is wrestling with. And can I ask a follow-up question about that? Um so my question about that is whether that would be part of the conversation in terms of implementation and whether we could say you know effect with this class of students or you know we're changing the boundary lines but we're going to do an opt out you know form for families that are impacted and things like that. I mean I think right now the the world is still our oyster. We have not narrowed down uh yet and uh at this point I would love to
039just Dr. Warren, if there's anything you wanted to add or board member Lena, >> thank you. Um, yeah, I would I think I agree with you, Chair Lince, that there's still um there's still a lot at play, right? And and there's still ways that I think the committee is talking that could clean up some of the haz hazard issues that we've got um in terms of, you know, students crossing over major like Forest Avenue, um Washington a that kind of thing. But um you know there are also things that would potentially increase transportation needs, right? Um so that's still all I think part of the conversation. I want to make sure that people also are aware that there's a whole separate strategic initiative that's specifically dedicated to looking at our transportation um procedures, systems approach
040overall. And so it's a little bit of a dance um back and forth between these two processes because the boundaries committee started its work before the transportation initiative um started you know digging into the research and looking at numbers and figuring things out. So however the boundaries thing proceeds will also kind of influence some of the thinking and planning on the initiative um 5.4 which is is the strategic initiative specifically about transportation. So ideally it would be synergistic not in conflict. >> Exactly. >> We'll have to make whatever they goal. That's the goal. Yeah. >> Um board member Lino would you add anything? >> No. >> Yeah. Vice chair Bondo go ahead. >> Yeah. I just wonder on the under the boundaries proposed if the funding formula allocated to each uh each school may change
041under the under the proposed or and also the class size or or if it's too early into the process. >> Um I I do not think that those things will happen necessarily through this process but those are things that are in conversation. I know the policy committee is potentially looking at creating a policy around class size. And then I know Superintendent Scallan has been working on um uh thinking about our budget um in a more equity focused way where we're looking at percentages of students that may fall into uh certain demographic types. >> Thank you. That makes sense. Thank you. >> Yeah. Any other questions? Yeah. Student Representative O'Brien. Go ahead. >> Thank you. I was just wondering about um giving all of the for lack of a better identification the toe of the Portland
042boot to Moore Middle School rather than King just because like two keys bridge wouldn't like more middle school is so far from that Portland. Is there like like I'm guessing I'm wondering what the reason is for that. >> Um do you remember you can you take that one? Thank you. Yeah, happy to. Um, so this was a trade-off about whether or not East End gets split as a feeder. So if you look at, um, I don't have it up on the screen, but I'll put it up on the screen real quick. Um, because I think what you're proposing is a good idea and one that the committee wrestled with. Um, and in the world of tradeoffs landed slightly differently. So here's the left right which has just a small bit of as you described it
043the toe going to more just that little bit of east end um in the proposal that they have right now it has all of East End going with some argument about benefit of not like being able to travel with your peers as opposed to being um split. >> Why not send all of that part to King though in terms of like geographically it's much closer. Yeah. So that came up in the possibility and didn't end up getting settled on because of what it would do to socioeconomic factors at King. >> Okay. >> And so this was the tension of trying to balance uh or make closer the socioeconomic between Moore and King. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. Great question. Any other questions from the board? Okay, I don't see any more um hands uh
044on that. Uh so more to come from the committee, but board also I just uh recommend uh that you continue to watch the recordings if you can um or even come to the meetings uh especially these next two as we are really into the um final decision-making uh pieces around this. Uh and now we get to do the foundation report again. Hi all, thanks for having me. Uh, Superintendent Scallan has graciously agreed to show the slides this evening. Uh, so I'll jump right in except that there. Oh, can you hit it? Sorry, I didn't realize we had a build in there. It's not showing up. So, go over some basic documents. um give an update on the PPS arts partnership tonight, a summary of our basic needs support that we're running this year, um and
045then our quarterly uh readout and and acknowledgements of gifts and kind business found and foundation donations as well as individual donations. Thanks. So, I'm hoping that all of you received by email our annual report, which um is uh we we are not printing them any longer. It is a requirement for nonprofits to print an to have an annual report. Um, and we've decided that that everyone is so digital focused that this year for the first time we didn't print them at all. Um, but it's available as a PDF and as a hazine kind of a flip book and you should have gotten those already, but I just wanted to draw attention to that. That's the summary of all of last year. Um, and the the image I'm showing there is just showing our our revenue
046growth over the last six years. and you'll see that we're um continuing to grow, which is great. Uh the other um not so much fun but required documentation we do each year is we do conduct an external audit. Um and um as usual, which was great, the auditors found no material weaknesses in our accounting principles, which was wonderful. um we are able to maintain 80% of our expenditures as direct investments in programs and resources to benefit Portland students, which is also um that's kind of the goal for most nonprofits, but it's challenging to meet for a nonprofit that does rely so heavily on fundraising rather than actually staffing programs. So, we were pleased with our having three me board three staff members this year. We were able to stay at 80%. Um, and you know,
047there's lots of things I could have pulled out in there. That that document will be on our website within the next week. Um, so if you want to take a deep dive, you are welcome to. Um, but I did just draw out one um one highlight, which is that we ended the year with an increase of our net assets of $98,000. And now we'll jump into the much more fun stuff, the programming. Um, so I know that I've spoken with you all before about the PPS arts partnership. This is our pilot year and we have um made connections and have are working out agreements and I wanted to highlight what the partner what which partnerships are happening this year. So Casco Bay High School is partnering has two partners. They're partnering um 9th grade is
048partnering with the telling room for poetry and visual artist Billy Gerard Frank around in a unit around slavery and abolition. And each student will have um will get to decide if their kind of deep dive piece of their final project that will be presented to the public will be a poetry piece or a visual arts piece. Um so we're very excited about that. Lincoln Middle School is working with Portland Ovation's main artist in schools, Antonio Roa, uh who's a performing artist, and he will be spending most of two full weeks at Lincoln um in March, which is thrilling. And there'll be a performance then, too. Um, Gene Ranket Row is working with the Portland Museum of Art and they just finalized that they're going to be working with Jared Lank who is an indigenous photographer
049and filmmaker who's going to be doing some kind of photography or film with row fifth graders around their sense of place. Next, uh, side by side is working with East End Lysath and Ocean School. They're actually working with almost all of the elementary schools in Portland, but these are the three we're funding through the arts partnership this year. And I don't have the details of exactly what those projects are yet, but I will soon. Um, and the the least finalized, but but getting closer is dearing. Um, the entire art department team um is finalizing their proposal, but they're hoping to work with Ponobscot Nation artist Firefly. So, um, very cool stuff is happening. And then there's some other music and arts priorities that I wanted to share. Um the foundation has made a few commitments
050so far this year. One of them is giving $1,000 um for additional supplies for every music, visual, and performing arts teacher in the district. Um I can't guarantee that we'll do that every year, but we are doing it this year. So um you know, folks are just able to buy glazes or clay or, you know, instruments, whatever technology things they need. Um, and the the teachers were unsurprisingly very pleased with that with that announcement. Um, we are also purchasing a new lightboard for Dearing High's auditorium that's being coordinated by the Dearing Players, which is very exciting. And, um, Spencer Field is a student who's kind of spearheading that with with his adult supervision. And we have selected the equipment and should be ordering it in the next couple days, which is great. Um, we're going
051to be spending about $35,000 on a combination of lighting and projection equipment for Portland High Auditorium, which is a drop in the bucket of what that auditorium needs, but the Casco Bay Performing Arts team and the Portland Performing Arts team are kind of pooling together because they both use that space for their performances. Um, we're committing to getting new stage curtains for all three middle schools. Apparently, they're in very rough shape. Um, so that is exciting. And the piece I forgot to put up here, but that I was just speaking with Audrey Kabal about earlier today, um, is that we're going to buy new music stands for all of the schools in the district, which is also, um, a much needed capital improvement. So, that's exciting. And that is all thanks to that remarkable gift
052we received in the summer specifically for music in the arts. Um, and I'm going to bring up the question that I know that um, Representative Bondo always asks me. I decided I would just make sure to build it in tonight around meeting the basic needs of students and families. So, we're running several programs that are intended to meet those basic needs so that uh kids can focus more on on learning and less on some of the basics. So, we're running families in crisis as we have for many years with a budget of $5,000 a month for rental and utility assistance. Um, we did reinstate for the first time in several years a food stability grant program that um is being reviewed right now, but we'll be giving out $10,000 in grants of up to $1,500
053um specifically to address food instability or insecurity for students and families. Um, I anticipate the need to grow that fund again with the upcoming and already existing um cuts in federal food support. Um, so we will be trying to fundra for that to grow um as needed. Although we don't see ourselves as a leader in that sphere because there are so many groups doing it. It does feel like an all hands on deck kind of situation. Um we're continuing our vision van work with which the healthcare access we launched last year. Uh we're working with Greater Portland Health this year rather than 2020 on-site. They're they have an they've for the last year and a half had an optometrist on staff for the first time ever. um and they don't have funding for her to
054go on site to do vision care at each school, but we've worked out an agreement that we can we can pay them what they need to kind of mobilize their van so that they can do site visits and um help kids get prescriptions for glasses. So, that's being coordinated by Tina Vetu and the other school nurses along with Portland uh Greater Portland Health and we're providing the funding for that which is great. And then finally, um the last piece of that is the Edfeni Athletics Fund that's available um for any student in the district who wants to participate in sports can purchase any kind of basic athletic gear, sneaker. It's it's mostly a sneaker fund thus far, but um but it can be used for all different things. Um you know, we're occasionally buying socks,
055buying shinuards, buying mouthguards, um buying sports bras, you know, different things that that students need. Um, we know that school teams can provide a uniform, a helmet, and the very most basic gear, but they don't provide that kind of athletic wear that kids need for practice necessarily. Um, and we don't want any we don't want our activities to only be available to students who can afford to participate in them. Um, so that fund is continuing to do that and any staff member in the district can refer a student and we'll purchase the gear and have it shipped to that school. Thanks. So, uh, comes time for acknowledgements and you might recall from the spring that we've taken over the acknowledgements for gifts and kind in the district. So, there used to be at every meeting
056kind of a reading of the donations to the district. Now, we have a longer such reading, but only quarterly. So, I'm going to read through those next. So, so far, and I'm gonna read everyone's name, we want to thank Christine Jenkinson, Megan Waterman, Victoria Gabbor, Justin Meyers, the Portland Maine Elks Lodge, Sarah Brighten herself, uh Kathy Stevens, Sparime Entertainment, Christopher Brun, Patricia Chassie, I don't know if I'm saying these right, Chase, David and Linda Kerstein, uh Claire Panagos, Katherine Horitz, an anonymous donor, Dean Sweets, Monty's Fine Foods, VRO Fiber Map, Megan Donovan, CHP Services, Burns and McDonald, and Samantha Leopold. They've all donated um gifts of of goods or services to the district to individual schools or the district. So, thank you very much. And then we'll move on to uh businesses or foundations who
057donated to the foundation this summer. Uh, somehow I didn't manage to put a total on there, but uh, but those were our donations. Um, I'm not going to read through all of them, but I'm happy to answer questions if anyone has any. Go right ahead. Next. Uh, and then individual donations. Um, as of last Monday when I submitted these slides, we had received 141 individual donations totaling 1,88,000. And of course, that includes the million-doll anonymous donation. Um, so, you know, 88,000 from the other 140 folks, but half of which uh is designated to support music in the arts, as well as donations to a range of our other programs and fiscally sponsored projects. And on those notes, I think some folks know we're the fiscal sponsor for Maine Community Swimming. We've also been serving as
058the fiscal sponsor for Families for Moore, the parent or family teacher organization at Moore, for uh King Family Crew, which is their family organization. And we just today signed to be the fiscal sponsor for the Dearing High School FTO, family teacher organization. So, that's another uh piece that will be lumped in with our revenue. And I think that's it. Any questions? >> Awesome. What questions do board members have? Board member Lena, go ahead. >> Thank you. Um I think it's awesome about the thousand dollars for all the music and arts teachers. So, thank you for coordinating that. >> Um I did have a question about the um the arts program. I know it's a pilot year, so it's sort of like minimal of what's happening this year, but I'm curious about the vision moving forward
059of, you know, how many students will get to participate. I know you mentioned specifically the row program is just with the fifth graders >> and how are you going to >> or do you have a plan to sort of uh make sure that >> through the course of their time in PPS students will have exposure to this that it's not you know fifth graders this year but then third graders next year and then kids get lost in the middle. >> Yeah, it is something we're aware of and we don't have a firm plan for yet. So, as of now, the plan is that next year every school in the district will have an opportunity to have at least one program with an arts partner over time. Um, and I think we're going to I'm hopeful
060that it will be once we're running 18 programs next year that we'll have, you know, a little bit more input and that by the time we're able to then run it for the 2728 school year, we'll have that in place. But I think this year given that it's a pilot, next year we'll just say everybody and then we'll take it from there. But it is something we're cognizant of. Yeah. >> Other questions? Yeah, Vice Chair Bondo, go ahead. >> Thank you, Indiana. I've always been impressed by the growth of the the foundation for those six years. You already answer my question about uh the family crisis. So my question was on the federal shutdown. Exactly. So >> what we know is already happening is a lot of uh issues already happening. So I just want
061to go to more holistic approach than the foundation may take and be more proactive about are we just going to wait until we see the increase of the need for family in crisis or food and security or economic hardship or we building different capacity to be ready just in case? >> That's a great question. Um, we just decided this week that we're going to contract with a group called Capital Campaign Pro. Um, that is a very wellestablished and well- reggarded kind of fundraising consultant firm to help us do a feasibility study to do a bigger campaign and try to raise. We haven't, you know, the feasibility study will tell us the amount, but maybe something in the range of $5 million over the next couple of years so that we can have um greater funds
062to address needs as they come up. So, we're we're working in that direction. >> Well, thank you. It's a must because it's really happening already across the >> Yes. Canadian families. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Thank you for what you do. Thank you so much. >> I just had a couple of questions. Um, uh, I was wondering, uh, the $5,000 a month in the crisis fund, how how far into the month does that get us? >> That's a good question. Um, it it is typically go about a week. Um, but this month it was used on October 1st. Um, the very first day it opened, the the full funding was used up. Um, and that is coordinated by Meen Clancy for the multilingual staff and Melissa McE for the social work staff. Um, and so they
063they rather than the foundation staff make the hard decisions of if there are too many requests, which ones feel most pressing like this family. So it's almost it's I would say it's exclusive almost exclusively used for families to avoid eviction or who have gotten notices that they're either that they've already lost utilities and had them shut off to get them reinstated or to avoid that rather than just paying outstanding bills. >> Thank you. Um, and I was wondering if you could share a little bit more about the food fund um that you're how you're thinking about it. I know you mentioned the $1,500, but like will that go like towards individuals and families or a school or what does that look like? >> That's being run by the steering committee of food fuels learning. And
064so that's a group that's out of the Cumberland County Food Security Council. And I'm not going to be able to get all of the partners correct, but it's a it's a collaboration and they have representation from the Locker Project, from Cultivating Community, from um Good Sheepardd and Wayside Food Pantries and they've formed they have criteria that they posted and that's available on our website as well as their website. Um and they actually are doing their review of applications tomorrow. I'm not going to be able to attend because I have a hold all day other event. So, we're just providing the funding for it, but that group is going to be deciding amongst applications. >> So, >> that's um great to hear. And actually um Camel County Food Security Council, I think, is coming to the
065next board meeting um to give an overview of their work in the project. >> Yeah, this will probably come up then. Yeah. involved in. Um, and I just wanted to um, obviously thank you, Andy. Um, but also just like thank everyone else that is taking time to learn about the foundation and to give because as you can see like it's it's critical funding that you're providing across the district. And, you know, I've been hearing um, while curtains may not seem like a critical thing in a school, you know, I've been hearing about those curtains for four years and haven't ever been able to do anything to address them. and new curtains do give a sense of place and belonging and investment just the same way that that parking lot lines and uh fresh coats of
066paint on the walls do and our kids really deserve that. So, I just am incredibly grateful to anybody um that is giving to the foundation and we would continue to welcome new partnerships as possible. >> Thank you. >> Any other thoughts there? Yes, go ahead, student representative Lee. Uh yeah. So in terms of uh the new lightboard for the daring players. >> Yes. >> Um I was I was just wondering is that coming out of that big like million dollar donation half of which is for the arts that you mentioned. >> Yes. >> Okay. Because I know there was also a time when Spencer wanted it to come out of that like $10,000 donation we got. >> Yeah. There were there was a separate individual donation to the Dearing Players from anonymous local donors last
067year. Um, and there was debate about whether the the full cost of the light board should go to that. And I think it was hard to decide because there were so many pressing needs for productions, but a decision has just been made from the Dearing Players to use $5,000 of that money for some piece from elements for MMA Mia. So, um, hiring, contracting with a musical director and a choreographer, I think, buying some wood for sets that can be used again in the future and maybe like a new drill or something like that. Um, and then saving that other 5,000. The lightboard is now going to come exclusively from that summer gift. >> That makes sense because, you know, I didn't think that we were using that money that way. Yes. Um, and then just
068another thing that I was wondering in general about the arts partnership >> is that I noticed that, you know, with with exceptions, the majority of them seem to be based in like visual arts. So, I was wondering if there's like plans to try to expand more into like partnering in the the writing realm and the performing arts realm even. >> Great question. um yet we were disappointed that we didn't receive any applications from teachers for music related um arts partnership partners this year. So one of the things we've already decided we're going to do for next year is we're going to take proposals from all of the different arts partners and kind of shop them around to teachers so that you may not a teacher may not have known that like opera can you know
069compose a lirito in a weave. I just met with them. They were so cool. um and they can you know and they work with USM and their composition group and they can perform it or you know 240 strings can come and do whatever and so we're going to get a bunch of ideas from the external partners and then have something like a Google doc where hopefully we can spread very far and wide like does this sound like a fun thing to bring to your classroom like rather than asking the teachers to generate all the ideas so that the ideas can come either from staff or from the arts partners and we're hoping in That way we can balance it better. >> Yeah, I like that idea. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Wish we had thought
070of it before the pilot, but we didn't. So, >> joy of a pilot. Y >> um anything else from board members or student representatives? >> All right. Well, thank you very much, Andy, and to uh all of your staff as well. They're doing a great job. >> Okay, superintendent. Anything else before we move on to old business? All right. So, we have uh a couple of policies um up tonight. Um first, we have some changes to policy JNDB, which is the uh student use of schoolisssued computers, devices, and the internet. Um uh I don't know, uh Dr. Warren if you want to speak to it. I know we did at the last board meeting. No, I don't think I have anything to add. The changes to both of these policies are relatively um technical and
071and minor. Perfect. Um so is there a motion for the consideration and action to approve changes to policy JNDB uh the student use of schoolisssued computers, devices, and the internet. Thank you board member Lena. Is there a second? Thank you board member Brighten. Are there any questions from the board on this motion? Okay, I see no questions. Is there any public comment? Okay, I see no public comment. So, I'm going to close public comment. Any general discussion from the board? This is where amendments would be introduced. Then by roll call vote, please indicate whether you are in favor of the consideration and action to approve changes to policy JNDB, the student use of schoolisssued computers, devices, and the internet. Dr. Warren, will you please call the role? >> Member Ali Ali, >> yes. >> Member
072Ali, >> yes. >> Vice Chair Bondo, >> yes. >> Member Brighten, >> yes. >> Member Lena, >> yes. >> Member No. Member Operman, >> yes. >> Member Sautell, >> yes. >> Student Representative Fitzgerald, Student Representative Kiba, Student Representative Lee, >> yes. >> Student Representative O'Brien, >> yes. >> Student Representative Ziggler, Chair Lentz. Yes. So, the uh motion passes. Um, up next, um, we have, uh, changes to policy JICA, which is weapons, violence, and school safety. Um, is there a motion for the consideration and action to approve changes to policy JICA, weapons, violence, and school safety? Board member Lena. Is there a second? Board member Brighten. Sorry, Vice Chair. Um, uh, any questions from the board on this motion? Any public comment? Okay, seeing no public comment, um we'll move to any general discussion from the
073board on this policy. Then by roll call vote, please indicate whether you are in favor of the consideration and action to approve changes to policy JICA, weapons, violence, and school safety. Dr. Warren, will you please call the role? >> Member Ali Ali, >> yes. Member Yusur Ali. >> Yes. >> Vice Chair Bondo. >> Yes. >> Member Bryen. >> Yes. >> Member Lena. >> Yes. >> Member Noir. Member Operman. >> Yes. >> Member Sautell. >> Yes. >> Student Representative Fitzgerald. Student Representative Kiba. Student Representative Lee. >> Yes. >> Student Representative O'Brien. >> Yes. >> Student Representative Ziggler. Chair Lent. >> Yes. So that motion uh passes as well. And finally tonight we have um some revisions to the fiscal year 2026 budget. Superintendent, would you like to speak to those? >> Just very briefly to highlight
074as it mentions in the memo that the revisions that are before you tonight do not change the overall uh amount of the budget. It is not asking for any type of revision in that way, but is instead just reflecting on changes where funds have shifted from one cost center to another based on us moving from a a budget to actually now living in it. And so that is what you see here. Um, this is something that you will now see going forward going to the finance committee. Uh, as policy asks that we have any movement of $50,000 between cost centers come to the board. >> Thank you for that context. Um, so I would be looking for a motion for the consideration and action to approve revisions to the fiscal year 2026 budget. Thank you,
075board member Bryen. Is there a second? Vice Chair Bondo. Uh any questions from the board on this motion? Okay. Any public comment? Then uh any general discussion from the board? Then by roll call vote, please indicate whether you are in favor of the consideration and action to approve revisions to the fiscal year 2026 budget. Dr. Warren, please call the role. Member Ali Ali. Yes, >> member user Ali. >> Yes, >> Vice Chair Bondo. >> Yes, >> member Bryen. >> Yes, >> member Lena. >> Yes, >> member no. >> Member Opriman, >> yes. >> Member Sautell, >> yes. >> Student representative Fitzgerald, Student Representative Kiba, Student Representative Lee, >> yes. >> Student Representative O'Brien, >> yes. >> Student Representative Ziggler, Chair Lent, >> yes. So that motion passes as well. Um and then I uh would
076like to move for the consideration and action uh to enter into executive session pursuant to 1 MRSA 4056D to discuss the benefit association of school employees um and Portland Administrators Association negotiations. Um is there a second? Thank you board member Brighton. All those in favor? Thank you. That is unanimous and so we will move into executive session and we will come back to adjourn. tomorrow meeting, right? Tomorrow morning. >> Yeah. But do you think we would you need to journ? >> All right. I'd be u making a motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? Thank you, board member Lena. Um, all those in favor. Beautiful.