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CFO outlines budget impacts from 2025 legislative session; district to add monthly financial reporting
Summary
Portland Public Schools’ new chief financial officer briefed the board on funding outcomes from the just‑closed state legislative session, projected shortfalls in certain grants, a last‑minute reduction to outdoor school funding and plans for more frequent, visual financial reports to the board.
Chief Financial Officer Michelle Morrison and finance staff presented a budget update to the Portland Public Schools Board of Education, summarizing how state and federal decisions from the 2025 legislative session will affect the district’s 2025–26 budget.
Morrison said the district planned using the state school fund figure of $11,360,000,000 and has aligned its planning to that level. She warned that several targeted areas, notably special education and some student-investment funds, did not receive additional state funding after a late negative revenue forecast. At the federal level, Morrison said Title I and IDEA allocations remain flat, which does not keep pace with rising costs.
Morrison also told the board of a late session reduction to outdoor school funding — a 20 percent cut — and cited an early estimate that the district’s tuition exposure for the sixth-grade outdoor-school line item is about $665,000. She said district staff are working to quantify whether transportation and additional costs are affected.
On federal grants, Morrison said the state is reconfiguring allocations for preschool, migrant and multilingual programs into a smaller lump sum and that the district has not received final allocations. She flagged “changes to assurances” for federal program participation — new compliance obligations that staff are reviewing and that could create fiscal or operational requirements should the district accept federal funds under new terms.
To improve transparency and board oversight, Morrison proposed more frequent financial reporting: monthly visual summaries that show real‑time enrollment, operating costs and project-level capital spending. She said the district would present informational sessions during the year on major drivers such as PERS, capital projects and curriculum adoption cycles.
Board members asked for a breakdown of the outdoor-school figures and for staff to explore whether community fundraising or the Fund for PPS could be options to preserve program days. Morrison said staff would return with additional analysis and talking points for directors to use when they hear questions from constituents.
