PPS Community Newsletter - Oct 3, 2024

Three Portland Board of Public Education seats are up for election on Nov. 5: an at-large seat and the District 1 and District 2 seats. Only the at-large seat is contested on the ballot.

That seat is currently held by Board member Nyalat Billiew, who is not seeing re-election. Two candidates are vying for that at-large seat: Maya Lena and John Rousseau, both newcomers to Portland politics. Lena is a substitute teacher and artist in Portland and a PPS parent.

World-famous cellist Yo-Yo Ma is coming to Portland’s Merrill Auditorium on Thursday, Oct. 10 – and Portland Public Schools high school orchestra students will have a unique opportunity to attend as Ma rehearses with the Portland Symphony Orchestra that day.

The second meeting of the district’s new Community Advisory Committee on Attendance Boundaries for PreK-8 Schools took place on Sept. 26. The Boundaries Committee had 3 objectives: Understand the process, familiarize themselves with data to be used to consider adjustments to the boundaries & identify the committee's priorities when making adjustments to boundaries.

Joshua Chard, East End Community School teacher and 2024 Maine Teacher of the Year, and Melissa Frans, PPS special education multilingual coordinator, have been named as Maine Department of Education 2024/25 Teacher Leader Fellows – a cohort of six extraordinary educators from across the state. The six will share their expertise in civics, personal finance, integrated arts, and multilingual learning, including teaching multilingual learners with disabilities, with other educators across the state.

Nyalat Biliew – Sierra Club Maine's Grassroots Climate Action Organizer, a member of the Portland Board of Public Education and a Deering High School alum – was nominated in September for the Congressional Black Caucus’ Young, Gifted & Green 40 Under 40 Award. This honor recognizes environmental justice leaders under 40 from across the U.S. – including Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other non-white individuals. These leaders come from various fields such as education, arts, policy, healthcare, social justice, storytelling, and clean energy, and they are all contributing to solutions for the climate crisis and dismantling environmental inequities.

There are many ways to volunteer in The Portland Public Schools. Volunteers are always needed for classroom assistance, after-school tutoring, and chaperoning field trips. In addition, there are a wide variety of other volunteer opportunities. Check out the following examples and volunteer to make a difference in the lives of our students: