Ryan Scallon is superintendent of Portland Public Schools. He can be reached at superintendent@portlandschools.org.

Portland Public Schools envisions a future where our high schools have fantastic facilities where we provide students with a rigorous academic, career and technical education high school experience. And with our high school buildings assessed in 2017 to have $40 million each in improvement needs – a price tag sure to climb higher due to increased construction costs – the time to plan for the future is now.

We took an important step toward our “High School for the Future” vision when the Board of Public Education on Aug. 20 formally approved our submission of major capital construction applications to the state for Casco Bay/PATHS, Deering and Portland high schools.

Those construction applications have been conflated with potential consolidation of our high schools, but those are two separate planning pathways.

The construction applications made in August to the Maine Department of Education were simply to see if our aging high schools could win state funding because of the major investments each building needs to create safe, healthy and quality learning environments. After a review of applications from school districts around the state, the DOE will create a needs-based priority list that ranks projects for the potential of state funding. We’ll know where our schools rank in a year.

If we learn that any of our high schools is awarded a share of the revolving $150 million the state has in its major construction fund, we would then begin community-wide engagement on whether the new construction would be for just that school or involve consolidation of our other high schools. An award of state funds means that the state, instead of Portland taxpayers, would cover the majority of the construction costs.

We have another opportunity next year to apply for state funding for our high schools. The DOE has established a new “Integrated, Consolidated 9-16 Educational Facilities Program Funding Opportunity.” This is a chance for school districts to apply for state support for the regionalization of two or more high schools in combination with a career and technical education school, the University of Maine System, the Maine Community College System, and industry partnerships.

The deadline is June 30, 2025, and we plan to apply. We plan to propose the creation of a cutting-edge, grades 9-16 learning environment, housing educational facilities that integrate high school academics and career and technical education, a higher education center, industry training, and adult education. We are currently working with our community in an engagement and design process to develop a prototype. If we are awarded state funding, we would then pursue further and deeper community engagement to develop a final model that would include such factors as determining a location.

What our “High School for the Future” building(s) would look like also is something we’d decide together as a community. However, our overall vision includes building on the strengths of each of our high schools to provide wider class options, greater encouragement of vocational/technical training and early college courses, and enhanced resources for visual and performing arts. We also envision state-of-the-art facilities for science labs, makerspaces, outdoor classrooms, community centers, athletic facilities, fine arts studios and more.

It could take years for any new construction to become reality, but we’re not waiting for that to start improving high school learning for our students. Our new five-year strategic plan calls for us to continue our efforts in 2024-2025 to reenvision the high school experience and strengthen students’ academic, career and technical education preparation – this year and beyond.

See our “High School for the Future” page on our website, where you’ll find community engagement opportunities.