Let’s Talk About the 2024-2025 School Budget
The Portland Public Schools budget is now in the hands of the City Council and Portland’s voters.
My thanks go out to Superintendent Scallon and his team for doing the hard work. And I’m glad to say the three positions I advocated for - improve student outcomes; support faculty and staff; and responsible stewardship seem to be guiding themes of this budget process.
Let’s talk a little bit about what the budget provides for:
An increase in attention and direct intervention on students academic success - specifically literacy, while maintaining mathematics, social studies, science, health, world languages, fine arts and performing arts
Increased staffing and support of the students who have special needs
Increased attention to provide an emotionally and physically safe environment.
The new budget allows for this to happen because:
Early intervention will occur sooner for student literacy and mathematics issues as literacy and math professionals who once advised classroom teachers will now work directly with students
Preparation time has been increased for elementary teachers so they can better meet the needs of their students
Access to art, music, and physical education for elementary students has been increased considerably
Additional clerical support for Special Education professionals has been increased meaning more time to work with their students.
Directors and their administration teams formerly housed in Central Office will now be based in the schools, which, hopefully increases understanding of the day to day realities of teaching and learning; language access; special education services; and school culture in the Portland Public Schools
Some Central Office positions were eliminated or folded within other positions
This reallocation of resources combined with the elimination of some administrative and operational positions; the in-sourcing of transportation; and stronger finance and data management systems kept the 2024-2025 budget under control relative to the previous year’s budget.
How did this all come about? Under the leadership of Superintendent Scallon the Portland Public Schools listened to students and parents and engaged the collective professional experience of PPS educators and staff. The input generated from these conversations combined with an analysis of the present state of teaching and learning led to the changes. Where we direct our money and energy indicates what we believe is important.
One concrete example is the relocation of two teams of people formerly housed in Central Office to their respective school building sites. The elementary school team is led by Dr. Duina Atkinson and the secondary school team by Dr. Amed.
Each team includes individuals focused on teaching and learning, special education services, language access, school culture, and academic content appropriate to the level. They will provide direction for, assistance to and accountability for student outcomes at their respective levels.
Being physically closer to the students will benefit the teams’ learning and provide greater personal contact with students, parents and teachers.
Another focus of this budget is to improve student attendance. Chronically absent is ten or more unexcused days. Absenteeism increases in the middle schools and is most prominent in the high schools. There are a variety of reasons these older students might miss school. Some reasons include the student’s family responsibilities, lack of stable housing, and perceived lack of purpose for school.
To reverse this trend the 2024 2025 school budget includes social workers, counselors and staff that support students so they overcome the barriers to attending school. These staff are present in all grade levels. Much of the work at the high school seeks to improve relationships among students and teachers.
These are all positive changes. Only committed action will lead to continuous improvement. I give credit to the present administration for addressing past inefficiencies and allocating resources to be more effective in improving student outcomes; supporting teachers and staff; and doing it in a fiscally responsible manner.
