Portland Public Schools committee reviews governor's budget headlines and MEPRI recommendations amid sharp funding swings
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Summary
Committee members reviewed Governor Mills' education proposals and MEPRI's EPS funding recommendations, heard district leaders quantify an $11.8 million valuation-related funding swing, and agreed to pursue targeted advocacy with the Portland legislative delegation.
Portland Public Schools officials on Feb. 9 reviewed headline items from Governor Mills' proposed education budget and preliminary recommendations from the Maine Education Policy Research Institute (MEPRI) for updating the state's EPS funding formula.
The Public & Legislative Affairs Committee discussed several state proposals that could affect local budgets, including a plan to increase minimum teacher pay to $50,000 by 2029, a proposed statewide student cell-phone ban, about $6,000,000 proposed for retrofitting school buses with stop-arms and door safety technology, and state funding for an education department effort to develop an AI toolkit for schools.
Why it matters: committee chair Sarah Lentz said the items in the governor's proposal and MEPRI's recommendations could materially change how state dollars flow to districts. "This is the year that [the governor] is also trying to use money from basically a giant rainy day fund or reserves at the state level," Lentz said, adding that many items remain proposals that must move through the legislative process.
MEPRI recommendations and local impact: Lentz outlined MEPRI's principal recommendations: reindex regional adjustment values, incorporate community income levels into ability-to-pay calculations, update selected model parameters for adequacy (including transportation and other costs), and restructure special-education funding with increased regional supports. Lentz encouraged board members to review MEPRI's report and suggested inviting the institute to present to the board for questions.
District leaders described the practical stakes for Portland. "If property valuation had stayed flat... we would have received $7,800,000 more next year. But because of the change in property valuation, we're actually losing $4,100,000," Ryan Scallon, superintendent of Portland Public Schools, said. "That's a swing of... $11,800,000 just because of property valuation. That's 18% of our total funding that we're losing." Scallon framed the numbers as a product of both shifts in enrollment (including declines in multilingual and economically disadvantaged student counts) and rapidly rising property valuation.
Scallon also noted adjustments in the formula's weights: MEPRI and staff have discussed raising the tiered economically disadvantaged student weight from 0.15 to 0.35 per pupil as part of adequacy updates. He cautioned, however, that small changes in parameters could have asymmetric effects across districts.
Comparative context: Scallon gave comparative state figures to show how outputs differ across districts: prior to reimbursements the formula produced roughly $12 million for Portland this year (with reimbursements bringing the district's state-related revenue closer to $19 million), while Gorham receives about $24–$26 million and Lewiston about $74–$76 million. He said reimbursements and special-education reimbursements complicate direct comparisons.
Next steps and advocacy: committee members agreed the district should prepare targeted advocacy. Lentz and staff discussed organizing a Portland delegation meeting in Augusta to brief legislators on local impacts and potential statutory language changes; Superintendent Scallon and Grace Valenzuela agreed to draft invitation dates and a short agenda for the delegation.
Quotations in context: the committee used Scallon's funding figures to illustrate the district's budgetary exposure to valuation changes and to justify near-term outreach to the legislature. Lentz stressed the proposals are not final and that the education committee in Augusta will hold work sessions to draft bills in response to MEPRI's report.
What remains unresolved: the committee identified several open questions that will require follow-up, including precise treatment of local tax abatements in the state valuation, the final language around teacher-salary implementation, and whether specific MEPRI recommendations will be translated into draft bill language by the education committee.
The committee adjourned after setting next steps for outreach and asking staff to return with detailed talking points and data for a delegation meeting.
