Sarah Lentz, Chair of the Portland Board of Public Education
December 16, 2024

Introduction      

Good evening, Mayor Dion, City Councilors, and fellow Board members and Portlanders. My name is Sarah Lentz, and I am the Chair of the Portland Board of Public Education. I would like to acknowledge my fellow Board members attending tonight (please stand), including Board Vice Chair Micky Bondo. I'll also recognize our Superintendent, staff, union leadership, and other dedicated members of the Portland Public Schools team.

As I stand here tonight to give my third State of the Schools address, I invite you all to take a moment to ground here together to be present in this moment. Take a few deep breaths. Roll your shoulders back, wiggle your toes, and push your feet into the floor, a floor that sits on land that our city and schools are built upon, unceded land of the Wabanaki, the people of dawn.

The mission of our district charges us to ensure a challenging, relevant, and joyful education that empowers every one of our learners to make a difference in the world. Additionally, it calls upon us to build relationships among families, educators, and the community to promote the healthy development and academic achievement of every learner. This is not a mission we take lightly, especially as we are Maine's largest school district, with 10 elementary schools — two of which are on islands — three middle schools, and four high schools, plus Maine’s largest adult education program, Portland Adult Education. Our district has 6,571 students, over 3,000 adult learners, and more than 1,445 staff. In our pre-K through 12 student body, 59 languages are spoken, 30% are English language learners, 18% receive special education services, and 8% are housing insecure. Over 57% of our students and their families qualify as economically disadvantaged, which means they are at or below 185% of the poverty line as defined by the USDA. That means for a family of four, their income is at or below about $57,000 annually. Our students are also incredibly racially and ethnically diverse, with almost 53% of our students being students of color.

In 2022, I came on to the Board because I believed in our mission. I was proud of the rich diversity in our schools and our bold commitment to equity–to make sure every student, regardless of their identities, would be supported to succeed. Because of that, I knew my child could get an education here that would not be like other places. I was excited to uphold and protect the work of the district.

However, a few months into my service, our payroll and retirement systems crumbled, our superintendent resigned; our strategic plan, the Portland Promise, expired; and I learned how fractured our relationships were with many in the community and with our colleagues at the city. Our district has made substantial progress in all of these areas over the last few years, and I will share more with you tonight about our successes and the areas we still have to grow. My biggest takeaway from my time as chair is that we will not meet our mission if we do not move forward together.

Last year at this time, Superintendent Ryan Scallon was already leading the district in creating a new strategic plan that would be built on the successes of the Portland Promise. He traveled all over our community (from community centers, to mosques, to PTO meetings, to multilingual events) to hear directly from community members, families, and leaders about what was working in our district and where we need to focus our efforts to make things better. He spoke with over 500 community members and encouraged over 900 folks to complete a survey on our district. At the same time, the district started a relationship with the company Attuned, which performed a robust data analysis to create an “organizational diagnostic” identifying the district's strengths and weaknesses. A stakeholder group of community members and partners used this organizational diagnostic to develop what is now our new five-year Strategic Plan. The Board passed this plan earlier this year, and it was also used to inform our budget.

As I mentioned before, this new Strategic Plan was built upon the successes of our previous plan, the Portland Promise. Those familiar with the Portland Promise will notice some of its language and concepts echoed throughout the new Strategic Plan, including: Equity, Achievement, Whole Student, People, and a new strategy, Systems. This is not a coincidence; rather, this plan builds on the great work already happening in the district, but gives us focus and a plan to improve our work and specifically student outcomes. This Strategic Plan is also accompanied by a set of specific data-driven “Mission Measures” that will help us track our progress and indicate if we indeed are closing the inequities we see within the district. Each of you should have a packet in front of you that includes more detailed information on the current plan, but tonight I wanted to go through it at a high level, giving clarity to each of the five strategies and highlighting examples of existing successes. The initiatives in each strategy all move through the same process: design, launch, monitor, and refine.

Five Strategies, One Strategic Plan

First, Equity: We strive to be an anti-racist, inclusive district by rooting out systemic inequities and vigilantly supporting each student to achieve their potential.

While equity is its own strategy, it is also woven throughout all areas of the Strategic Plan and serves as the foundation to all of our work. We are currently designing initiatives to advance staff mindsets and cultural humility in support of equitable outcomes and experiences for our students and families. Future efforts include:

• Further developing opportunities and systems that improve outcomes for our historically underserved students and families.
• Designing and implementing enhanced adult education programs to accelerate career opportunities and provide multi-generational support to PPS families.
• Expanding and strengthening programs that deliver better outcomes for multilingual learners.

Here are some examples of work that’s already happening around equity.

During an October visit to Mackworth Island in Falmouth, our fourth-graders had the opportunity to learn more about the Wabanki through stories of people and land. Students spent time with a Penobscot archeologist, learning about the earth and human changes over time and getting to experience portaging a canoe. This learning connects to the fourth-graders' Dawnland Unit in the classroom and other outdoor and experiential environmental literacy lessons. In fact, we are a state leader in developing a Wabanaki Studies curriculum. The developers of this curriculum, Wabanaki Studies and Black History Coordinator Fiona Hopper and Indigenous advisor and former PPS parent Bridgid Neptune, have worked with representatives of the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Mi'kmaq, and Maliseet nations and were recently honored with Bowdoin College’s 2024 Education for the Common Good Award.

At Ocean Avenue School, having multilingual books in the school library is creating fun “book buddy” experiences for students. Librarian Eva Platt says, “Students have had a blast finding matching books in different languages around the library. Having students’ buddies read the same book in different languages has helped students feel welcome and connected as they develop reading, literacy skills, and friendships. The books also help promote cultural awareness and inclusivity.”

And speaking of books, the Portland Public Schools was awarded $25,000 from the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation to purchase a diverse selection of books for the libraries of each of the district’s three middle schools: Lyman Moore, King, and Lincoln. Each school’s library will be able to buy about 400 books. The books will benefit students who are English language learners, and funds also will be used to expand the libraries’ collections with books representing culturally diverse perspectives.

Court Caywood, library media specialist at Moore and Lincoln; Meredith Doyle, a multilingual educator at Moore; and James Ford, Moore's former community engagement coordinator, led the effort to apply for the award. The books will bridge the gap between the multilingual students’ current level of English proficiency and the texts written for English speakers at the middle school level.

This fall, the district hired a new food services director, Jen Montague. Jen, who also is a parent of two PPS students, has goals of improved food quality through more from-scratch cooking, more nutritious foods in accordance with improved USDA guidelines around added sugar, more local purchasing, and a more diverse menu that reflects the tastes, needs, and cultures of PPS students.

Last spring we also saw 57 students earn the Seal of Biliteracy, which is given to students who have studied and attained proficiency in two or more languages by high school graduation.

And finally, in May, Deering High School Administrative Secretary Liana Littig won a Recognizing Inspiring School Employees (RISE) Award for the extraordinary contributions she has made to students, her school, and community. Littig, who is proficient in Portuguese and Spanish, is particularly helpful in supporting Deering’s multilingual families. She was one of two Maine 2024 RISE Award State Honorees to represent Maine for consideration for the national award.

The second category of the strategic plan is Achievement: We enhance academic preparedness for college and career and instill a joy of learning in our students by delivering a universally accessible, rigorous, and equitable curriculum.

This year, in grades K-8, we’ve been supporting the use of high-quality instructional materials that provide students with consistent access to grade-level tasks through full implementation of both the CKLA and EL literacy curricula. In addition to the implementation of these curricula, we are continuing the high school redesign process as part of our work to make sure every student is prepared and empowered for life after PPS. We have hired the company DMG to help us evaluate our specialized services and ensure our students with disabilities and their families are getting exactly what they need to be successful.

In years two through five, we will also be focusing on:

Universal implementation of math, science, and language arts curricula.

• Developing school capacity to provide more effective instruction to multilingual learners and integrate English language development strategies into the teaching of core content.
• Implementing a plan to increase students' access to enrichment subjects like arts, computer science, and world languages.

But there is also remarkable work already happening in this achievement category, such as:

 “The Blue Heron,” Casco Bay High School’s student literary magazine, was recognized in January as a 2023 REALM First Class magazine by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). “The Blue Heron” was the only student magazine in Maine to receive that top honor.

Harry Brahms, a student in the groundbreaking cybersecurity program at the Portland Arts and Technology High School (PATHS), has achieved a significant milestone by passing the CompTIA CySA+ Certification Exam–A cybersecurity exam that I had to google. He is the first PATHS student to accomplish this feat. Special shout-out also to his teacher, Nate Jalbert.

Odyssey of the Mind teams at Rowe and Lyseth elementary schools distinguished themselves at the Northeast tournament in Biddeford April 27.

Last year, Rowe Elementary School started a parent-led Odyssey of the Mind club. This year, Rowe was able to send four teams to the tournament, and two teams placed in the top three. The Classics team placed second in their problem and division, and the Rowe Technical team placed first, with the special achievement of a perfect score. In addition, Lyseth Elementary School sent two teams to the tournament, with their Vehicle team placing third and their Technical team placing second.

In April, Deering High School 11th-grader Violet Blum Levine took first place in Tyler Technologies’ 2024 Maine App Challenge for creating a system for easily scheduling parent-teacher conferences.

Two Portland High School juniors, Harriet Mishkin and William Guerin, are already contributing to real-world scientific data. Under Dr. José Fernandez Robledo of Bigelow Labs, the students participated in an experiment to test for the presence of transmissible neoplasia (cancer) in soft-shell clams from the Scarborough marshes. So far, they have found polluted water as a potential catalyst. This is just one of more than 50 internships in the 2023-2024 school year at Portland High as part of the Extended Learning Opportunities (ELO) program, directed by Andrea Levinsky.

Simon Bean, an eighth-grader at King Middle School, has been awarded a $500 service-learning grant from Painting for a Purpose for his project Building Community through Building Birdhouses. Simon hopes his project will aid fellow students in gaining insight into future career paths and opportunities as they continue their education.

Simon plans to bring students together to research bird-specific housing requirements and begin their designs. Once design plans are finalized, they will construct their birdhouses, which will be uniquely decorated by each student and displayed throughout the school’s campus. Simon’s project will allow students to find self-expression through design and open doors to potential career paths through career and technical education (CTE) learning at the Portland Public Schools.

In May, the Maine Environmental Education Association recognized the Portland Public Schools as “School of the Year” for helping students develop a deeper understanding of environmental issues. Because this work is district-wide, led by Environmental Literacy Coordinator Katie West, the award went to the entire district instead of just one school.

Seven Portland Public Schools students were named as Semifinalists in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship Program: Portland High School seniors Madeline Butters, Lawrence Foster, Dvora Katz, and Alexander Price; and Deering High School seniors Violet Blum Levine, Anja Machado, and Asa Tussing. The seven PPS students are among 53 Maine seniors the program named. This is the highest number of PPS students recognized for this academic achievement in recent years.

Finally, in January, the Deering High School Debate Team won the 2024 Maine State Speech and Debate Championship. Deering won the Varsity Public Forum, placed second in the state for Public Forum, and placed third in the state for Congressional Debate.

Strategy number three is Whole Student, Connected Community: In partnership with families and community organizations, we nurture supportive, inclusive school communities that promote belonging and engagement.

In this first year, we are focusing on increasing the capacity of schools to create and implement whole-school systems, Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum, and relationships that promote a joyful, supportive, and safe school culture. Other initiatives include:

• Developing and implementing systems for identifying and delivering behavioral support services.
• Developing, piloting, and scaling a community schools model to effectively support students and expand access to community partnerships.
• Expanding access to out-of-school-time activities (such as sports, clubs, and other non-academic opportunities) and school-wide events across the district to boost student engagement and motivation.
• Designing and implementing student leadership opportunities to amplify student voices and incorporate them into system/school decisions.
• Ensuring we meet the commitment to universal readiness for kindergarten through partnership with community organizations.

Already this year, our community has been showing up to support our district. In October, world-famous Grammy Award-winning cellist Yo-Yo Ma visited Merrill Auditorium for a performance with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. Thanks to some enterprising educators, high school orchestra students had a unique opportunity to watch Ma rehearse before the concert. In addition, the iconic musician took time to speak to students, as did PSO principal cellist Brent Selby.

In September, the Portland Public Schools held ribbon-cutting celebrations of the beautiful new renovations at Presumpscot, Longfellow, and Reiche elementary schools, marking the completion of Portland's Buildings for our Future (BFOF) projects! City voters in 2017 approved a $64 million bond for renovations to Lyseth, Presumpscot, Longfellow, and Reiche elementary schools. The renovations to Lyseth were completed in 2021, and a community celebration was held then.

As Superintendent Scallon said, “These buildings provide our students with the 21st-century learning environments they deserve and need to succeed. Students and teachers have access to beautiful and improved learning spaces that are essential to facilitating teaching and learning and to building strong, safe school communities – all of which are foundational to the equity, achievement and whole student goals of our new Strategic Plan.”

Two students at Deering High School were selected this summer as Bank of America 2024 Maine Student leaders, winning paid summer internships connecting them to leadership training and work experience. Isabella Figdor and Jael Mowa, both seniors at Deering this fall, not only gained practical work and leadership experience while working with local nonprofits, but also have received financial education coaching from Bank of America’s Better Money Habits curriculum, all while earning competitive wages.

For nearly two decades, the seven justices of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court have held oral arguments in appeals of real cases in high schools around the state. This year, on Wednesday, Oct. 9, the state’s highest court held oral arguments at Deering High School, with students from Deering, Portland, and Casco Bay high schools all invited to attend.

Maureen Sturtevant, a Portland Public Schools parent and attorney at Drummond Woodsum, served as the attorney for the day, helping students understand the proceedings and engage in questions and answers. “This makes real the material that our students study abstractly in their civics, government, and history classes. They are getting a front-row seat to something most will never see in person,” said Deering Principal Jake Giessman.

On Oct. 25, Deering High School hosted three ambassadors to the U.S. from French-speaking countries: Laurent Bili of France; Noel Nelson Messone of the Gabonese Republic; and Martial Ndoubou of the Central African Republic. This event celebrated the French language and heritage in Maine and provided a unique opportunity for students to engage with high-level diplomats.

Portland Adult Education (PAE) held a special public forum at the Portland Public Library hosted by ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) students shortly before Election Day. The timely event provided an opportunity for PAE students to engage with state and local leaders on pressing issues such as housing, immigration, gun violence, and transportation.

This event showcased the efforts of 75 PAE students, ranging in age from 20 to 86, who hail from countries across the globe (including Somalia, Guinea, Turkey, Angola, DRC, the Dominican Republic, Sudan, and Congo Brazzaville). Students asked prepared questions about issues they have been researching and discussing in their classes. The forum was part of a larger initiative aimed at educating PAE students about the U.S. government and the importance of civic engagement.

Sports achievements this year include Portland High School seniors Samantha Moore and Aran Johnson winning Class A Cross Country State Titles and Portland High winning the Class A Football championship.

The RamDogs, the cooperative girls swim team of Deering and Portland high schools (which also includes students from Casco Bay High School and Baxter Academy) and potentially one of my favorite adaptations by our district, won the Class A girls’ swimming and diving state championship on Feb. 20. A hearty Baah-Woof! to these outstanding athletes!

This year we also had tremendous support from members of our community through the Foundation for Portland Public Schools. The Foundation was able to start multiple new funds including the Ed Feeney Athletics Fund, which provides athletic gear to students who can’t access it otherwise. Additionally, the family of Meghan Miers made a generous and multi-year gift through the Foundation that is supporting grants to staff.  

Our fourth strategy is People: We elevate recruitment, retention, and staff-development practices focused on ensuring instructional excellence and cultivating an inclusive work environment that supports collaboration and staff well-being.

This year we are focusing on implementing a shared vision for a strong and inclusive staff culture where staff are valued, affirmed, effective, and supported. An example of this approach was when the entire staff of approximately 1,400 PPS employees gathered in one space – Merrill Auditorium – on Aug. 28 to kick off the new school year as one district. Typically everyone in the district starts each school year in separate schools and at the Central Office. This year, the district used a different, one-team approach to generate energy, inspire all PPS employees, and create a shared sense of belonging.

Additional initiatives in this category include:

• Implementing recruitment, selection, and support systems to enhance the quality and demographic diversity of staff.
• Strengthening onboarding for staff to increase effectiveness of new hires.
• Strengthening practice of all staff, teachers, and leaders through improved systems to provide regular feedback, coaching, professional development, and evaluation aligned to PPS's instructional, cultural, and operational vision.  

We know that our people are our biggest asset and that retaining our talented staff is essential to our success and that of our students. So many of our staff are recognized each year for their outstanding achievements, and this year was no exception:

• Courtney Graffius, technology integration coordinator, received the 2024 School Administrator of the Year award presented by the Maine Association of School Libraries. The award honors administrators who have helped to develop strong and effective school library media programs in their district.
• Greg Tosi, longtime Deering High School athletic trainer, received the Bill Cox Service Award for his dedication to athletes’ well-being.
• Michael Loring, lead custodian at Presumpscot Elementary School, won Maine’s 2024 Migratory Waterfowl Stamp Art Contest.
• Educational technician Jennifer Cooper won the Maine Education Association's 2024 Joan McGovern Education Support Professional Award.
• Heather Sawyer, a science teacher at Deering High School, is this year’s winner of the Russell Award. This is an honor bestowed upon one teacher each year who exemplifies a firm commitment to the teaching profession, shares a love for learning with students, demonstrates intimate involvement in the ongoing life and activities of Deering High School, and displays creative self-renewal in their teaching practices.
• East End Community School students and families came together in May to hold a “Danny Day” celebration for Danny Lowe, a beloved crossing guard with autism who has been helping students make it to school safely for many years.
• The Maine Department of Education announced that two Portland Public Schools educators have been selected by Maine DOE as its 2024/25 Teacher Leader Fellows. Joshua Chard, East End Community School teacher and 2024 Maine Teacher of the Year, and Melissa Frans, the district’s special education multilingual coordinator, are members of the new class of six extraordinary educators from across the state.
• Jonathan Graffius, Deering High School computer science and technology teacher, is the New England Region winner of a Computer Science Teaching Excellence Award from the Computer Science Teachers Association. Winners excel in inspiring students to explore the computer science field, engaging students in learning rigorous standards-aligned computer science content, and broadening the participation of underrepresented students in computing.
• Administrator Dr. Grace Valenzuela, who has devoted her long career to advocating for education and social justice for multilingual students and families, received a Lifetime Recognition Award from the Northeast chapter of the Multistate Association for Bilingual Education (MABE). Dr. Valenzuela, currently the district’s director of communications and community partnerships, was honored for her contributions to bilingual education and language immersion in Maine.

The district has recently begun negotiations with our Adult Education instructors and will soon start negotiations with PEA, our union for teachers. We hope to build on the successes we saw in the new three-year contract with the Portland Education Association for Educational Technicians, the union representing our ed techs. This new contract increases pay for ed techs each year over the life of the contract, which will make the district more competitive when it comes to hiring and retaining ed techs.

            And last but not certainly not least of our strategies is Systems:  We develop and implement consistent and clear operational procedures and systems that enhance equity, efficacy, and accountability across Portland Public Schools.

This year we are focused on developing a data infrastructure so we can build and use dashboards to monitor progress; clarifying Central Office roles and responsibilities; and implementing a sustainable multi-year financial model to support the strategic plan and equitably allocate resources across the district. This will, of course, include passing next year's budget.

Last year, with the support of the Council and Portland voters, we were able to pass a $161.4 million school budget. This year we hope to pass a similarly sized budget while navigating a series of existing and new challenges. While we don’t face the Covid-era ESSER funding cliff we had last year, we are confronting flat or decreased funding from the state despite increased need; continued increased costs to existing mandatory expenses like special education costs, salaries and benefits, and debt service; and potential loss of federal funds due to administration changes. It will take all of us to create a budget that meets the needs of our students while also remaining fiscally responsible to the people of Portland. We welcome the opportunity to meet with each of you to discuss our priorities and look forward to your questions.

Outside of the budget, I am happy to report that we have fully implemented ADP, our new payroll system. I am grateful to every single Finance Team member for their contributions to get us to this point. However, during the implementation process, we uncovered many years of erroneous data related to contributions we make to MainePERS, the state retirement system. After many conversations with MainePERS and leadership from our unions, we have hired external support through BerryDunn to audit all employees dating back to 1996. We expect this effort to take more than a year, but Superintendent Scallon, district leadership, and I remain committed to fully fixing these issues, even if the solution is complex and time-intensive.

In addition to continuing to shore up our financial systems, this strategy encompasses other work like codifying district-wide systems and standard operating procedures for communications, transportation, and family engagement. Much of this work will be informed by our newly created community Boundaries Committee, which is charged with creating a series of recommendations to the Board around attendance boundaries at our elementary and middle school levels in service of more balanced enrollment and demographics across the district.

These five strategies in our new Strategic Plan give us a road map to an equitable future for our students and our city.  Superintendent Scallon often uses the phrase “One Team” to describe how he envisions the district tackling everything in front of us. Now, more than ever, I feel part of “One Portland Public Schools’ Team.” As I look at the work in front of us, I realize the One Team he speaks of is not just those in the school district but all of us in Portland. Our vision challenges us to create a future where all students graduate prepared and empowered. It will take our neighbors, nonprofit partners, business partners and elected officials working together to achieve that future. I invite you to join as we move forward together.

Thank you, and now I’m happy to answer any questions.

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@lentzs@portlandschools.org - their gift is supporting grants to staff, not music and the arts!