Superintendent Ryan Scallon and Board of Public Education Chair Sarah Lentz issued a statement expressing gratitude to City voters for their decisive approval June 10 of the Portland Public Schools’ budget for fiscal year 2026. 

“We are deeply grateful to Portland voters for validating our school budget for the 2025-2026 school year,” Scallon and Lentz said in a joint statement. “This budget is directly aligned with our Strategic Plan's five priorities: achievement, equity, whole student, people, and systems. It was put together through extensive community engagement and includes some difficult tradeoffs in order to balance both strong programming for students and fiscal restraint. The budget includes investments to strengthen the music program at the high schools, increase rigor and support at the middle schools, enhance reading support at the elementary schools, and provide additional staffing and programmatic support for special education district-wide. Your support at the polls is once again a demonstration that this community values a quality public education for our City’s young people.”

For the second year in a row, the FY26 budget is a comprehensive budget of all revenues and expenses, not only local funding. The $171.8 million budget consists of a local budget of approximately $162.8 million and $9 million in additional funds.

The budget was approved by a 2 to 1 margin. According to unofficial results from the office of the Portland City Clerk on Tuesday, June 10, the vote to validate the budget was 3,347 or nearly 67 percent in favor and 1,619 or just over 32 percent opposed. 

Learn more about the budget on the FY2026 Budget Page on the PPS website. View the budget referendum results.

In other news, Scallon and Lentz congratulated retired Portland High School music teacher Jayne Sawtelle, who was elected to a vacant at-large Board seat. Sawtelle won 3,706 votes or nearly 75 percent, besting building contractor and PPS parent Cassidy LaCroix,, who received 953 votes or approximately 19 percent.

The seat was vacated by Benjamin Grant, who stepped down after he was elected to the City Council this past November. There is only about six months left in the unexpired term for Grant’s former at-large seat, so Sawtelle would need to run again in November to retain the seat. View the election results.

The Portland Public Schools is Maine’s largest school district, with nearly 6,500 students, and it’s also the most diverse. About one-third of the district’s students come from homes where languages other than English are spoken—a total of 59 languages. Approximately 47 percent of the district’s students are white and 53 percent are students of color. More than half of all PPS students are economically disadvantaged.