The Portland school board approved a slate of four applications for major construction projects at its meeting Tuesday night, possibly paving the way for a long-anticipated plan to consolidate three of the district’s high schools.

Though details of any potential consolidation plan, including its budget and site, have not been finalized, the district has for years talked about bringing students from Casco Bay, Deering and Portland high schools together on a new, unified campus. The campus also could include the Portland Arts and Technology High School, which serves mainly 11th and 12th graders who are currently required to travel offsite for traditional classes.

District officials have said a new campus could feature upgrades and improvements like science labs, fine arts studios and athletic facilities. A new school also could allow programs to be more narrowly tailored to student needs, including offering on-site career and technical training, officials have said. Superintendent Ryan Scallon clarified Wednesday that the district has not officially decided to move forward with a consolidation plan.

The board passed each application with minimal discussion and no public comment offered.

“Let’s wish them luck as they move on to the state,” said Board Chair Sarah Lentz.

Maine funds major school construction projects every five years, and applications for the next funding round are due Aug. 30. Tuesday’s meeting was the board’s last regular meeting before that deadline. After receiving all applications, the state will rank them based on need and fund the projects it determines to be highest priority.

The application was split into four actions for clerical reasons, since each school will be reviewed separately by the state, Scallon said.

“If one of our schools were to get to be at the front of the line and ready for a conversation, it’s at that time that we would then engage with the state around the scale of the project,” Scallon said.

Scallon said the state will take around a year to review the applications before returning any decision on the applications individually or as a whole. “And then it will take some time for this whole process to play out,” he said.

Portland High School independently applied for this funding during the last cycle, but was ranked 15th out of 74 schools that applied. The state only funded the top nine applications.

Each of the three high schools is currently “significantly underutilized and requires significant investments in their facilities to provide a safe, healthy and quality learning environment,” the district wrote in the applications.

It’s not clear what would happen to the buildings currently in use. The school board plans to craft future plans for those facilities during the consolidation planning process, according to the district’s applications.

Board member Emily Figdor applauded the work of her fellow members in putting together an application, but said the entire process of requesting state funding is inefficient.

“I do think it’s going to take not just these applications, but advocacy at the state level,” Figdor said at the meeting. “The challenges that we have with our high schools are beyond our means as a city.”

The board also voted unanimously to approve the appointment of 14 members to a new Boundaries Committee.

The 12-14 member group is charged with reviewing district enrollment data for pre-K through eighth grade and recommend whether PPS should redraw enrollment boundaries “to achieve more equitable enrollment and demographic balance,” according to the resolution that created the committee in June.

Those appointed include a handful of residents and parents, school administrators and staff, school board members and former students.

The current boundaries were drawn more than a decade ago, according to the resolution. Today, the district sees wide demographic gaps between its schools.

A report of the committee’s findings and any recommendations is due to the school board by February to be considered for the 2025-26 school year. The committee is slated to hold its first meeting Thursday.

Earlier Tuesday evening, the school board reviewed the district’s approach to remedying years of short payments to some employees’ retirement accounts and a backlog of employees who had fallen out of compliance with district requirements.

Those retirement issues, which impact a minority of employees in the district, stem from payroll issues that plagued the district for years.

“We are up to date with estimated payments, where we are out of date is reporting,” Scallon said. That means MainePERS is unable to determine how to sort money the district has already paid, but is not owed any additional funds.

He said it’s not currently possible to say how much money or time the corrections will cost, “but it will be a significant and costly process.”