Supporters urge Portland councilors to support full school budget proposal
The school budget hearing comes after the council s Finance Committee voted last week to require the Portland Board of Public Education to reduce its proposed $5.3 million increase by $1.5 million.
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Dozens of Portland school officials and parents on Monday urged the City Council to send the school’s $125.2 million budget to voters without requiring any additional cuts that would reduce investments in making public education more equitable for students.
The hearing comes after the council’s Finance Committee voted last week to require the Portland Board of Public Education to reduce its proposed $5.3 million budget increase by $1.5 million. The council will hold another hearing before voting next Monday.
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Maine school districts receiving millions of dollars in additional federal coronavirus relief will use the money to address learning loss, summer programming and continuing efforts to safely reopen schools.
Portland Public Schools, the state’s largest district, is expecting to receive close to $18 million from the American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Biden last month. Some of the money will go to funding summer programming over the next two years as well as the needs associated with increasing in-person learning, said Superintendent Xavier Botana at a school board meeting Tuesday night.
“We need to ensure we set aside and commit to supporting our staff and community with the necessary resources to provide expanded access to in-person learning next fall and beyond,” Botana said. “We don’t know how much that will be but we need to be ready to commit the resources to that important work so all students can attend school five days per week in a man
Maine schools to fund summer programs, safe reopenings with federal relief money
School districts must spend at least 20% of their allocations to address learning loss, and some superintendents say they are also looking at summer programming and additional staffing.
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Maine school districts receiving millions of dollars in additional federal coronavirus relief will use the money to address learning loss, summer programming and continuing efforts to safely reopen schools.
Portland Public Schools, the state’s largest district, is expecting to receive close to $18 million from the American Rescue Plan signed into law by President Biden last month. Some of the money will go to funding summer programming over the next two years as well as the needs associated with increasing in-person learning, said Superintendent Xavier Botana at a school board meeting Tuesday night.
Proposed law would require Maine schools to teach African American history
The measure, which would also require schools to teach about the history of genocide, comes as states across the U.S. are examining how they re teaching about racial and social injustice.
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A bill before the Maine Legislature would require schools to teach about African American history and the history of genocide as part of American history. The proposal comes as states and schools across the country examine how to teach Black history amid a national reckoning on issues of racial justice.
“Education is so important in stopping things like racism, discrimination and hate that in my view it’s serious enough to require it to be taught in the law,” Sen. Louis Luchini, D-Hancock, the bill’s sponsor, said Tuesday.
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