Superintendent Ryan Scallon presented his recommended $161 million school budget proposal for the 2024-2025 school year to the Portland Board of Public Education this past Tuesday. The theme of the Portland Public Schools FY25 budget is “Centering Students,” summarizing the essential priority of this budget.

The budget addresses significant fiscal challenges with strategic reductions and restructuring. It would raise the school portion of the property tax rate by 6.85%, adding about $191 (approximately $16 per month) to the annual tax bill of the median-priced home ($375,000) in Portland. This tax rate increase is significantly below the 17.41% that would be necessary to replace all the $19.4 million in lost revenue and increasing expenses that the district faces.

As the superintendent has been sharing with the Board and the Portland community for several months, fiscal year 25 (FY25) is shaping up to be a very difficult budget year, with unique fiscal challenges such as the loss of about $9.4 million in federal COVID relief funds, relatively flat state funding and increasing expenses. Scallon explained to the Board that the recommended budget required some painful trade-offs to address those challenges, but that the reductions in the budget have been made as far away from students as possible.

However, he said, “This budget is not just about cuts. It includes strategic investments to enhance student mental health, and maintains or increases enrichment programs, such as art, music, gym, library, environmental literacy and foreign language. It also retains our current number of multilingual teachers and maintains sports and extracurricular programs, which are key to motivating many students to keep working hard in school and achieve their goals. In other words, this FY25 budget is centered on our students.”

The FY25 budget proposal is aligned with the district’s emerging strategic plan and marks the first time that the district has presented a comprehensive budget of all revenues and expenses. The $161 million budget consists of a local budget of $153.3 million and an additional $7.7 million in additional funds, such as grants and federal Title I funding.

The Portland Public Schools community is encouraged to stay engaged and involved in the budget process. Please read on for information on how to do that. We value your input!

Read the superintendent’s FY25 recommended budget, and WATCH his slide presentation of the budget at the March 5 Board meeting. See a summary of key budget highlights on our website.

The school budget will now undergo extensive review, discussion and potential revision by the Board, with multiple opportunities for public comment. Then the Board will send its  recommended budget to the City Council, which sets the bottom line of the school budget and sends it to city voters for a final say at the budget referendum in June. 

BUDGET TIMELINE: On March 5, the Board referred the superintendent’s recommended budget to its Finance Committee, which will hold its first review of the budget at a virtual meeting on Monday, March 11. (Click HERE for the FY25 budget calendar, which includes meeting times and joining information.) After a series of meetings and public hearings, the full Board will vote on April 9 to recommend a budget to the City Council, which approves the bottom line of the school budget. The Council is slated to vote on the school budget on May 20 to send to voters on June 11. Learn more about the FY25 budget and budget materials on the district’s website.