The City Council voted unanimously on May 19 to approve the fiscal year 2026 (FY26) budget recommended by the Portland Board of Public Education. The vote now sends the budget for the 2025-2026 school year to Portland voters on June 10. 

“We are grateful to the City Council and the mayor for their thoughtful consideration and unanimous support of this budget,” said Board Chair Sarah Lentz and Superintendent Ryan Scallon in a joint statement. “The budget was developed through a thorough, collaborative process with our staff, families, students and the Portland community. It prioritizes key investments directly aligned with our district’s strategic priorities, while navigating significant fiscal constraints and being mindful of the concerns of taxpayers. In short, it’s a fair and responsible budget that reflects an unwavering commitment to a high-quality and equitable education for all children and adult learners in Portland. We ask City voters to support it at the polls on June 10.”

The budget builds off a theme of “Funding our Priorities.” It is directly aligned to the five priorities of the district’s new Strategic Plan: achievement, equity, whole student, people and systems. 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.  The budget also includes funding to add the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr as school district holidays, starting this fall. That ensures that students and staff at PPS, Maine’s most diverse school district, can observe those major religious holidays with their families without having to miss school.

Superintendent Scallon described the development of the FY 26 budget as a “comprehensive and deeply collaborative process.”  The process included meetings with teachers, administrators and other staff to ensure their on-the-ground expertise informed budget decisions. Also included were community forums with families to understand their priorities and concerns. “This inclusive approach, including the challenging but necessary step of requiring all departments to start with a zero-based budget to maximize efficiency and ensure every expenditure is justified, has been vital in shaping a budget that truly reflects the diverse needs and priorities of our entire Portland community,” Scallon said.

Developing the FY26 budget required making some difficult decisions. “Following an overall budget reduction in FY25, we continue to navigate significant and persistent fiscal pressures,” the superintendent said. “Rising operational costs, coupled with minimal increases in state funding – which, I want to underscore, accounts for only about 16-17% of our total budget, placing a significant burden on local taxpayers – have required us to make some challenging tradeoffs to ensure we can continue to deliver a high-quality education for all our students without compromising essential services.” The superintendent said the budget “focuses on making necessary, but not additional, investments to maintain the educational excellence our students deserve.”

The budget would raise the school portion of the property tax rate by 5.33 percent ($0.42 per $1,000 of assessed value). For the owner of a median-priced $500,000 home, the budget would increase property taxes by $210 per year or $17.50 per month.

Scallon cited the following significant cost pressures:

●      Employee salaries increasing by just under 5%, reflecting the need to remain competitive in attracting and retaining the dedicated professionals who serve PPS students every day.

●      Medical benefits increasing by a substantial 9.6%, a significant external factor that impacts a large portion of the budget.

●      Debt service increasing by $480,000, an obligation that the district must meet  to maintain its facilities and infrastructure.

●      The district's share of the Maine Paid Family Medical Leave program, costing $505,000, a new mandated expense that, while important, adds to the budgetary challenges.

●      Inflation, with the overall costs of goods and services in the Northeast rising by 3.7% in the past year, impacting everything from classroom supplies to utilities.

Despite these considerable constraints, this budget strategically invests in several key areas that directly align with the district's Strategic Plan priorities: achievement, equity, whole student, people and systems. “These targeted investments are crucial for advancing student outcomes and ensuring a supportive and enriching learning environment for all,” Scallon said.

These key investments include:

●      Access to Enrichment Subjects: Providing additional music teachers at Portland and Deering high schools. This investment directly supports the district’s commitment to a well-rounded education, fostering creativity and providing opportunities for students to explore their talents in the arts.

●      Elementary Literacy: Adding early literacy education technicians in kindergarten classrooms at the district’s Title I schools, which are schools serving a high percentage of socio-economically disadvantaged students. This crucial investment directly supports the district’s achievement goal in the Strategic Plan by providing targeted support at the foundational level of reading, setting the youngest learners on a path to academic success.

●      Special Education: Investing in staffing at the Central Office and school level to support programming. This ensures equity and access to appropriate and individualized services for all learners with disabilities, a fundamental commitment of the district.

●      Multilingual Learners: Conducting an external evaluation of current programming and increasing staff with ESOL credentialing. This furthers the district’s equity goals and strengthens its support for the Portland Public Schools’ increasingly diverse student population, ensuring all students have the language support they need to thrive.

●      Early Childhood Capacity: Slightly increasing staffing to prepare for special education services for three- and four-year-olds and developing aligned district capacity. This proactive investment in the district’s youngest learners ensures early intervention and sets a strong foundation for their future educational journey.

●      Adult Education: Investing in creating a strategic plan focused on Adult Education, recognizing the size of the school – the largest in the district – and the importance that the school has in developing the city’s workforce.

In short, Scallon said, the FY26 budget “is the result of a thorough, collaborative, and difficult process, navigating significant fiscal realities while prioritizing strategic investments that are directly aligned with our district’s strategic priorities and focused on the success of each and every student.” The budget also is cognizant of taxpayers.

“I want to emphasize that when we learned that benefit costs would increase by 9.6%, significantly higher than the 6% originally projected, the Board of Public Education took decisive action,” Scallon said. “The Board reduced the budget by over $400,000 to offset these increased costs and minimize the impact on taxpayers.”

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 Council’s vote was on the local portion of the budget.

This budget reflects a 6 percent or $10.3 million increase compared to the $161.4 million FY25 budget. It requires an investment of $127.2 million from local taxpayers. It would raise the school portion of the property tax rate by 5.33 percent ($0.42 per $1,000 of assessed value). For the owner of a median-priced $500,000 home, the budget would increase property taxes by $210 per year or $17.50 per month.

The next and final step in the FY26 budget process will be the budget referendum vote on June 10. Budget details can be found on the district’s FY26 Budget page.  Go to the Elections & Voting page on the City’s website for information on absentee voting, polling places and more.

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.