South Portland school staff are anxious, worried and fearful, according to one union president. Derek Davis / Portland Press Herald

Layoffs are coming for some South Portland School District employees.

Superintendent Tim Matheney stated at a school board meeting last week that significant cuts – to the tune of $5 million – are needed to bring the fiscal year 2026 school budget to an increase that is digestible for taxpayers and reasonable for the school board and City Council to pass.

He forecasted an over 11% increase to the budget without the cuts.

In an email to school staff shared with the Sentry, Matheney wrote, “At this point in our budget development process, it appears that we need to reduce our projected FY26 expenditures by at least $5 million to prepare a reasonable budget for consideration by the school board and City Council.”

Matheney added, “Over the past several months, we have worked hard to explore every avenue … to avoid staff reductions, but the reality of our FY26 budget requires us to implement layoffs.” He also noted that 80% of the district’s annual budget goes toward salaries and benefits for staff. “While layoffs are unfortunate, we’ve worked diligently to minimize their scope. Fortunately, because of retirements, resignations and vacant positions in the district, many of those employees whose positions will be cut will find other roles in our district. We will work hard to ensure that that’s the case.”

According to Matheney’s presentation at the Feb. 24 meeting, there are a number of factors driving the increase in this year’s budget. The district must increase special education positions to meet increasing demand, while several existing positions are impacted by declining Title I, Title IV and McKinney-Vento funding. They have also seen a substantial decrease in philanthropic funding to South Portland’s adult education program, he said.

Complicating matters further, the district’s Support Professionals Association, Administrators Association, and Teachers Association will all be negotiating new contracts this spring.

In an interview with the Sentry, Sarah Gay, president of the South Portland Teachers Association, said employees are feeling “nervous,” “anxious” and even fearful.

“A lot of what (union leadership is) doing right now is just educating and comforting, but there’s definitely some tension,” Gay said. “There’s a lot of fear. There’s a lot of worry. We’re talking about $5 million that needs to be cut from our budget. That’s a very, very large amount.”

Staff are concerned about programs and resources being cut as well, she said.

Gay has been a teacher in South Portland since 2009. While there have been “smaller position cuts” during tough budget years in the past, they haven’t experienced anything “quite this substantial” during her time there, she said.

A draft of the FY26 budget will be shared at the school board’s March 10 meeting.

“We are currently in the final stages of identifying the affected employees for the staff reductions,” Matheney said in a statement to the Sentry on Monday. “We will share more details about the reductions at Monday night’s board meeting.”

“We’re really hoping that lots of folks join us on Monday and ask lots of good questions,” Gay said. “I think the potential impacts of cuts at that dollar amount is going to be something the community should really be involved in, discussing and understanding.”

While fearful they may lose their jobs, staff members are also worried about the potential impacts on South Portland students.

“Our core mission is educating. That’s what we’re here for,” Gay said. “We’re all going to have to work together to make sure whatever we need to cut or change or do is still going to let us meet that goal.”