News & Calendars

As the next step in the fiscal year 2027 (FY27) budget process, the Board of Public Education will hold a public hearing and vote on Tuesday, April 14, to recommend a FY27 budget to send to the City Council. Earlier, on March 31, the Board held a first reading and a public hearing on the proposed budget, which is for the 2026-2027 school year. The budget currently before the Board is the Board's Finance Committee Recommended Budget. The Finance Committee voted on March 23 to recommend to the Board a budget that made some adjustments to the Superintendent’s FY27 budget proposal. The committee voted to cut the budget by $1.1 million, which would lower its impact on the school portion of the tax rate from the 7.3 percent initially proposed to 6.43 percent. The Board will hold a second reading and public hearing on the budget on April 14 and vote that evening to recommend a school budget to the City Council for bottom line approval. The Board's hybrid meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at Casco Bay High School and the public can attend in person or via Zoom at: https://tinyurl.com/3c3tayaj
Learn more about the FY27 budget and watch our Budget in Brief video series to better understand how the school funding formula works.

The artworks of Casco Bay High School student Penelope Schofield and Portland Arts and Technology High School (PATHS) student Anna Maria Loboda are among more than 40 pieces selected by a jury of professional artists to be displayed at the Capitol Complex in the Maine Excellence in Arts Education Exhibition. The exhibition, which opened March 18 and runs until May 28, 2026, is on display in the Cross Office Building in Augusta.

State Senator Rachel Talbot Ross made a special appearance at the March 24 Board of Public Education meeting to recognize the Portland High School boys basketball team for recently winning the Class A boys basketball state championship. The PHS Bulldogs beat Camden Hills on Feb. 28 to claim the state title. It was an amazing run for the Bulldogs, who went from being the sixth seed in the South regional to state champions. The win also gave coach Joe Russo his sixth state title in a 36-year career with the program.

The Board of Public Education's Finance Committee on March 23 held a public hearing on the proposed school budget for the 2026-2027 school year (FY27). The Committee also voted to make adjustments to the FY27 budget that would lower its impact on the school portion of the tax rate from 7.3 percent to 6.43 percent and approved sending its recommended budget to the full Board. The Board is slated to hold a first reading and public hearing on the Finance Committee's recommended budget on March 31. Watch the Finance Committee's meeting on YouTube: https://youtu.be/T6h8qBUwn4s

On March 10, Superintendent Ryan Scallon presented the proposed budget for the 2026-2027 school year. He started his presentation of the fiscal year 2027 (FY27) budget with a report of the improved outcomes for students the district has seen over the past two years of implementation of its five-year Strategic Plan—particularly for economically disadvantaged students, multilingual students learning English, and students with IEPs in reading and in math. The proposed budget aims to build on that progress while confronting fiscal challenges.

Casco Bay High School freshman Albertina Dos Santos is the grand prize winner of The Telling Room's 19th Annual Statewide Writing Contest. Dos Santos’ winning poem, "To Love a Country," was recently selected as the winner by a panel of judges that included local authors, illustrators, editors, Telling Room alumni, and current Telling Room students. Dos Santos will be published in The Telling Room’s upcoming annual anthology of youth writing and will receive a cash prize of $250.