Consider this: Portland high school sophomores, juniors and seniors have been full remote learners since the spring. They have not had any in-classroom instruction – not because it is unsafe (Cumberland County remains “green”) but because it is “too complicated.”

What is more challenging, however, is the experience of high schoolers struggling to focus on computer screens while responsible for siblings cavorting in the background; the emotions of high schoolers, isolated from teachers and peers, who think they must not be worth the trouble to develop a plan for them to return to school; the questioning of the group of soccer players who wonder why sports are more important than education.

Through the CARES Act, Portland recently received over $6 million to assist in returning students to the classroom. These dollars can hire space planners, improve HVAC systems, purchase state-of-the-art video equipment, buy plexiglass dividers, floor directional tape, masks, etc., with the goal of achieving in-person classroom instruction for all grades.

Yet, Superintendent Xavier Botana’s statement (“School districts face end-of-year deadline to spend CARES money,” Oct. 19) made no mention of addressing “complications” for returning grades 10-12 to school. Rather, the district’s proposal to use “the money to make direct payments to families for COVID-related expenses, including child care as well as other things like lost wages or supplies and materials for supporting children at home” was rejected.

Spend the money now to allow Portland’s 10th- to 12th-graders in classroom instruction, like all other schools in the area.

Penelope St. Louis and the Parent Planning Committee
Portland

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