Portland schools present year-end operations review; departments cite progress and ongoing staffing, IT and facilities needs

Leaders from Portland Public Schools gave the Finance, Operations and Personnel Committee a year-end review on June 9 that highlighted operational improvements in facilities, finance, food service, human resources, information technology and transportation, while flagging staffing and system vulnerabilities to be addressed next year.

“I'm gonna pull back up the PowerPoint, and share what we did. As I did that, as I do that, 1 of the things that we wanted to do as we come to the end of the year, this is a time where we are doing reflection around our strategic plan and where we've made progress and where we need to adjust,” Dr. Scallon, superintendent, said as the presentation opened.

Facility staff reported improved work-order tracking and vendor management and said the district inventories about 700 HVAC units. The team added a facilities manager to boost project management capacity and said several vendor contracts (snow removal, landscaping, custodial supplies and safety equipment) are scheduled to go out to bid next year. Staff also said delays in the city’s purchasing and legal workflows have slowed some capital work.

In finance, leaders said they addressed long-standing audit concerns about segregation of duties by reviewing Munis and ADP permissions, and introduced month-, quarter- and year-end checklists and standard operating procedures. The accounting team added new staff this year, including an accounting manager, payroll manager and purchasing manager.

Food service reported menu changes and higher participation: director Jen Montague told the committee the program added more culturally diverse options — including halal meals, jerk chicken with plantains and chicken curry — and that student participation rose about 3% this year, yielding roughly $14,000 in additional monthly reimbursement revenue that is reinvested in food service. “A 100% of the food in Portland Public Schools and in Maine, is free,” Dr. Scallon added during the exchange.

Human resources said it has hired more than 80 people since May 1, reduced posted vacancies, developed SOPs and begun piloting ADP-based digital onboarding and employee-document storage to increase transparency and reduce errors. HR also said it has started randomized and requested exit interviews and plans to expand exit-interview practices.

Information technology leaders described investments in cybersecurity and a new hardware-replacement strategy. Staff said legacy and poorly organized server infrastructure has contributed to intermittent phone outages; the district split IT into two teams — user-facing technicians and an engineering team focused on backend systems — and signed a contract with an outside technical provider to assist in stabilizing systems.

Transportation staff said they did not cancel a bus route in the past two years despite staffing challenges. The board previously approved one additional bus driver and the district launched an internship pipeline with Portland Adult Education to train and recruit drivers. Staff said runs were frequently reconfigured and that vendor costs remain an area of focus.

Board members drew connections between those operational updates and policy priorities. Board member Opperman suggested exploring expanded technology and career-readiness offerings and improved internal and public communications. Board member Lena requested stronger exit-interview practices, targeted purchases of classroom equipment (for example, cameras for photography classes and additional calculators), and a closer look at transportation for athletics and middle-school routes. Board chair Lentz highlighted translation services and material availability at the school level as priorities.

District leaders said they will bring departmental plans into alignment with these board priorities and provide more detailed updates when committees reconvene in August.