The increasing cost of personnel, rising debt costs for past borrowing, inflationary pressures and special education programming are the biggest financial hurdles facing Portland Public Schools, Superintendent Ryan Scallon said during a school board forum Tuesday night.

He laid out the challenges at Casco Bay High School during the school board’s first public forum on the budget for the 2026 fiscal year beginning July 1. Members of the public weighed in on the budget process, with many encouraging the district to increase music education opportunities.

Scallon said the district has a healthy fund balance of about $13.8 million, while an unknown variable is the rapidly changing landscape of federal education funding and policy, which President Donald Trump has promised to overhaul.

At this time, my recommendation is that we continue to move forward with our budget process while paying attention to these, to be responsive and know that we have a healthy fund balance to soften any potential negative adjustments in the year,” Scallon said.

Last year, 70% of Portland voters supported the $161 million budget. During the budgeting process, parents spoke against proposed cuts of $2 million that would have eliminated almost 30 positions. The final budget approved by the board and City Council eliminated 10 jobs.

Scallon said last year’s budget added mental health and social work support, increased planning time for teachers, retained multilingual learner staff, increased reading intervention resources, added culture coordinators and maintained extracurriculars and sports. It reduced the number of middle and high school teachers, and the size of some central office departments.

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For the 2026 fiscal year, he said some areas that will require new or increased investments include adult education, special education and multilingual learners.

On Tuesday, public commenters focused on the district’s increasing needs. Several commenters, like parent Christian MilNeil, encouraged the district to increase property taxes if necessary to fully fund education.

“The school system isn’t just educating our kids, it’s providing extremely vital social services to families and struggling households and people who really, really do need it,” he testified. “So please err on the side of spending more to help those people, and worry less about impacts on homeowners who are doing quite well.”

Portland parent Damon Yakovleff said property tax relief can ease that burden on homeowners who need help.

“We can’t balance our budget on the backs of hardworking teachers and students” Yakovleff said. “So I think we really need to pursue property tax credit programs as much as we can, when we do need to increase the budgets and tax rates.”

Many commenters also asked the district to add more music education by increasing the number of music teacher positions. They cited benefits of music that extend beyond the learning of an instrument, like building relationships and improving communication skills.

“It cannot be overstated how important that connection to music is just to get kids to come to the door, because we all know that’s the top priority,” said Jayne Sawtelle, a retired Portland music teacher. “If kids aren’t there, kids don’t learn.”

Scallon will present a recommended budget to the school board on March 4. The board will vote on the budget April 8, then it will tentatively go to the City Council for a vote on May 19. The public will vote June 10 on the budget, as well as on a school board member to fill a vacant at-large seat for a six-month term.

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