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

This column is the final installment in my series detailing the impacts of the new Portland Public Schools five-year strategic plan. This month, I’m focusing on our “systems” priority.

Our strategic plan has five priorities: equity, achievement, whole student, people and systems. Each is supported by multiple initiatives to achieve that goal. We’re starting some initiatives this school year and phasing in others over the next four years.

Our systems priority commits us to developing and implementing consistent and clear operational procedures and systems that enhance equity, efficacy and accountability.

This is important so our educators can focus on students and their needs without being distracted by operational issues in areas such as transportation, facilities or finance.

The 2024-2025 key initiatives we’ve set for our systems priority include: designing and implementing the data infrastructure necessary to monitor progress of the school system effectively; implementing effective two-way communication strategies with families, students and staff to increase engagement and trust; and designing and implementing a sustainable multiyear financial model that enables PPS to successfully implement the strategic plan and allocate resources equitably.

When it comes to data, we are making progress on the integration, piloting and rollout of our new PowerSchool data dashboard tool. This tool consolidates a range of data sources into a single platform, providing real-time, interactive visuals that allow us to examine patterns, compare data across the district and track trends over time. Our data team is providing weekly snapshots on chronic absenteeism and monthly snapshots on suspensions, data that can help our school staff take preventative steps to help students at risk for absenteeism or behavioral issues. Next year, this system will enable us to review academic data and provide timely interventions and enrichment for students.

As Maine’s most diverse school district, where our students and families speak approximately 60 languages, effective two-way communication between families, students and staff is key. That’s why this year we had a district-wide launch of ReachMyTeach, a translation software created by a Deering High School teacher and student in 2021. The software, already being used by our classroom teachers, allows the district to immediately send urgent messages and important updates in English that are automatically translated into parents’ preferred languages. Any responses get translated back into English. RMT messages can be delivered via email, text or WhatsApp, enabling us to quickly and accurately keep everyone in our PPS community informed.

To better communicate with our staff, this year we also launched the Staff Hub, a new staff-only portal. It provides a centralized location for a wide variety of key information, forms and resources for staff, including HR forms and applications, benefit and leave information, technology application tutorials, professional development opportunities, standard operating procedures and more.

We also have been doing a lot of work to improve our transportation system and operating procedures. This includes adding a tablet to every bus with routing software that enables us to track their locations, gather data on the efficiency of our routes and communicate maintenance needs to management in real time.

We are also in the midst of the fiscal year 2026 budget process. This is both an essential operational function of the district and it is necessary for the budget to align with and support our strategic work. This year I’ve just proposed an FY26 budget themed “Funding our Priorities,” reflecting that the investments proposed in this budget directly align with strategic plan priorities. Those include targeted investments in special education, music education at the high school level, and literacy instruction in our elementary schools.

This is my final column in The Forecaster, but I will continue communicating with the community about the budget and other issues through other channels.