Staff & Community Newsletter - Sept 30, 2022

Dear Portland Public Schools families, staff and community members,

Happy fall! It’s now officially autumn on the calendar, and exciting teaching and learning is fully underway at the Portland Public Schools.

As just one example, we inaugurated our new PPS Mobile Makerspace in a Sept. 14 ceremony at Rowe Elementary School, where the makerspace will be housed. This mobile STEM lab will travel around to our elementary schools for two-week visits so that  all students will have the opportunity to explore STEM learning using this amazing resource. I am grateful to our many funders who have helped to make this opportunity possible. Thank you to Assistant Superintendent Melea Nalli, Foundation for Portland Public Schools Executive Director Andi Weisman Summers and, especially our STEM Coordinator Brooke Teller for their vision, passion and drive in making this project become a reality. I am also thrilled that Karen Shibles, a seasoned and exceptional science educator,  has volunteered to lead our makerspace learning.

At its Sept. 20 meeting, the Portland Board of Public Education approved changing the district’s high school preference process, starting this fall.

Portland students traditionally are able to choose whether they want to attend Portland or Deering high schools. Casco Bay High School, which is smaller and enrolls only 100 students per grade, uses a lottery system if it has more than 95 applicants for its freshman class. Because Deering and Portland have no cap on the number of students admitted, this has led to fluctuations at those schools over time. Sometimes the fluctuations are very high, which has led to an unequal distribution of resources (such as staff and course offerings) between Portland and Deering and significant variance in the student composition, with PHS being less diverse than the district.

When you visit our district and school websites, you’ll see a beautiful brand-new website that launched on Sept. 26. You’ll find informative and engaging content at your fingertips and a clear and well-organized navigation system so that our staff, families and community members can easily find the information they need. Unlike our previous outdated website, the design is mobile-first. Also, accurate translation into more than 50 different languages for our multilingual families is a snap – anyone can toggle from English to a different language at the top right corner of the site. In addition, our Staff & Community Newsletters, like this one, can now be found and read directly on the website. Just go to the District Homepage and you'll find our newsletters under the News & Calendars tab. Newsletters will be archived in that location.

Check out this NewsCenterMaine, WCSH Channel 6 story: “Portland schools welcome its new Mobile Makerspace" about a new opportunity for STEM learning for our elementary school students.

Read this story in the Portland Phoenix about father-son duo Joseph Giordano Jr. and Joseph Giordano III, who are an invaluable asset to two Bulldog athletic programs:

Father-son ‘Coach Gs’ play pivotal role for Portland Bulldogs