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Committee discusses districtwide advocacy and fundraising; board calls for cooperation amid funding shortfalls
Summary
Board members discussed a new districtwide fund and its outreach plans, urged collaboration with school liaisons, and framed larger funding shortfalls as a state-policy problem; members encouraged public engagement to make the fund work.
Portland Public Schools'policy committee spent part of its Oct. 20 meeting discussing a districtwide advocacy and fundraising effort intended to raise supplemental resources for schools.
A board member said she planned to support the fund and asked colleagues to help recruit school liaisons so every school hears about the fund's work. "Jackie and the fund are currently looking for school liaisons from every school out there," a member said, urging collective outreach.
Several board members cautioned that districtwide fundraising cannot substitute for full public funding of education. One member framed the problem in larger fiscal terms: "Whether it's 500,000 that was raised or 3,000,000 that was raised, there's a drop in the bucket of an $11,000,000,000 budget," she said, arguing that state-level funding shortfalls drive internal competition for scarce resources.
Board members encouraged outreach and asked the community to engage constructively with the new fund while continuing to press legislators for greater investment in public education. The committee did not take formal action; members said they would continue public discussion and follow-up in future meetings.
