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Superintendent reaffirms support for transgender students, announces equity-policy review
Summary
At the March 18 Portland Board of Public Education meeting, the superintendent publicly defended the district's support for transgender students and athletes, cited research and district data on achievement gaps, and said the board will revise the district equity policy in response to recent court decisions and ongoing national debates.
The Portland Board of Public Education on March 18, 2025 heard Superintendent (name not specified) reaffirm the district’s support for transgender students, staff and athletes and said the board will make targeted revisions to its equity policy.
The superintendent told the board the district will "continue to support all of our students, and that includes our transgender students," and said recent national actions and public debate require the district to be explicit about its commitments. He added, "I cannot continue to sit silently."
The statement tied the policy work to district data and to student safety. The superintendent said Portland Public Schools is Maine's largest and most diverse district, with about 6,500 students; roughly 53% are students of color, about one-third live in homes where languages other than English are spoken, 56% are economically disadvantaged, and nearly one-fifth receive special-education services. He said assessments show persistent gaps: in 2024 multilingual learners trailed nonmultilingual peers in reading by 44 percentage points and in math by 40 points; similar large gaps exist for economically disadvantaged students.
Why it matters: the superintendent framed the policy change and public statement as a response to what he characterized as targeted national efforts to restrict participation by transgender athletes and as a public-health concern. He cited higher risk of suicidal ideation among LGBTQ+ youth in Maine and said denying students access or othering them exacerbates that risk. "When suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among teenagers and 38 percent of LGBTQ plus youth in Maine reported considering it last year, we must support mental health in our youth, not make it worse," he said.
He addressed common public concerns about athletics directly. The superintendent characterized the number of transgender athletes as very small and said local experience "has been no loss of opportunity to participate." He cited a US Olympic Committee study in the meeting and urged reliance on medical and youth-development professionals, not politicians, for guidance on youth athletics. "Decisions about youth athletics are best made by parents and informed by coaches and athletic directors," he said.
The superintendent also announced the board will consider "small revisions" to the district’s equity policy over the next three weeks to align the policy with current legal constraints and the district’s goals. He referenced the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Harvard admissions case during that explanation and said the policy changes are intended to "reinforce" rather than roll back the district’s equity commitments.
The board offered broad public affirmation of the superintendent’s remarks at the meeting; no formal vote or final policy language was offered that night. The superintendent said the district will continue training for hiring teams, deepen professional development, and use data to target supports such as reading intervention and programming for English learners.
Board members and the superintendent framed the statement as part of ongoing work to close achievement gaps and to protect student mental health while the district continues to monitor state and federal actions that could affect funding or programming.
