Superintendent Ryan Scallon sent a letter to the PPS community on Sept. 25, asking community members to use care to ensure the city's streets are safe for students and reminding PPS families to fill out their household income data forms by Oct. 2 to ensure full state funding for the Portland Public Schools.

Sept. 25, 2026

Dear Portland Public Schools Community,

There is a lot happening across our district and city right now, and we need your partnership to make sure that all of our students and schools are safe and successful.

Help us keep students safe. I shared previously that there was an accident on Warren Avenue on September 12 that killed a Scarborough student and seriously injured two Portland students. Days later, an East End Community School student was struck and injured by a vehicle near that school. Our thoughts remain with all affected by these horrendous incidents. These events underscore the urgency of Portland's Vision Zero commitment to safer streets, and I'm asking our community to join that effort. Please help us keep our young people safe by following posted speed limits, slowing down in school zones, putting down cell phones and avoiding other distractions, and keeping an eye out for people that are walking or riding bikes or scooters. Also, every week, multiple cars pass our school buses when their lights are flashing. This is incredibly dangerous. We make every effort to capture license plate numbers and pass them on to the Portland Police Department. Please never pass a bus that has its lights on, whether on the street or in a school driveway–and report it to the police if you see someone else do it.

Make sure PPS receives full funding. I want to again ask everyone to please complete your family's Household Income Data Form by Oct. 2. It was sent to you Sept. 6 through ReachMyTeach. We need to have 100% participation to receive all of the funding that our district is entitled to—not achieving this goal means we will lose vital funding that we need to educate our students.

Stay engaged with Board and District progress. At Tuesday’s Board meeting, we shared a new data dashboard that shows the district’s progress on achieving our strategic goals. We are now in the third year of our strategic plan and making strong gains. This dashboard is an important tool that enables our community to track our work and help us ensure that every student in every school feels a sense of belonging, is inspired and supported to meet high expectations, and achieves academic success. We also provided updates on attendance, discipline, and school climate data. Encouragingly, chronic absenteeism and suspensions are trending in a positive direction, although high schools still face challenges that the district is actively addressing. The disruption caused by immigration enforcement is a major driver of these issues at the secondary level. In January 2026, attendance dropped sharply during a period of increased enforcement. You can watch the full Board meeting on YouTube, and view the supporting documents here.

Sincerely,

Ryan Scallon, Ed.D.
Superintendent