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South Portland board weighs closing one elementary school in FY27 budget and two reconfiguration paths
Summary
Finance director presented a FY27 budget that proposes closing one elementary school and offers two options — grade-span reconfiguration (primary/intermediate) or keeping K–4 with one closure — to address a structural deficit, prompting questions about timelines, class sizes and legal and transportation implications.
The South Portland School Board on March 23 reviewed the superintendent's proposed FY27 budget, which includes personnel and nonpersonnel reductions and a recommendation to close one elementary school to narrow a multi‑million dollar shortfall.
Finance Director Abigail Ketchin told the board the proposal would reduce district costs in multiple areas and that closing one elementary school produced roughly $378,000 in savings in the administration's modeling. "We are proposing to close one elementary school," Ketchin said, adding the FY27 package includes both personnel reductions and operational cuts and that the overall budget increase would be 3.3 percent — "which works out to about $257 additional per year" for the average local taxpayer under current assumptions.
Why it matters: district leaders said declining…
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