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The City of Portland’s Public Health Division, working with Northern Light, will offer flu and COVID bivalent booster vaccination walk-in clinics at two locations. One is on Oct. 7 at the Portland Public Health Clinic, 39 Forest Avenue. The other is at City Hall on Oct. 12.

Thanks to a new Maine law, school meals are free for all Maine students, but it’s still very important to fill out a free-or-reduced school-meal application. Completing the applications provides the Portland Public Schools with family income data that helps the district receive the federal and state funding we need.

At its Sept. 20 meeting, the Portland Board of Public Education voted unanimously to approve a new three-year collective bargaining agreement with the Portland Education Association, The new contract shows trust and collaboration on both sides, with educators and the district working towards a common goal of student success. The contract begins this school year and runs through the 2024-2025 school year.

Research shows that making music benefits mental health, helps engage students in school, and builds community. Students need this more than ever. You can help!

At a ceremony in Brunswick Sept. 15, four Portland Public Schools educators were presented with the 2022 Education for the Common Good Award by Bowdoin College. The four recipients of this year’s award are Superintendent Xavier Botana; PPS Director of BIPOC Career Pathways and Leadership Development Julia Hazel; Portland High School Assistant Principal Alberto Morales, and Executive Director of Human Resources Barbara Stoddard. They were recognized for their work to transform conditions for educators of color in the district

To kick off the NEA Big Read: Portland, ME, a city-wide discussion of immigration using the adult novel INFINITE COUNTRY that is taking place this fall, the Portland nonprofit I’m Your Neighbor Books and USM’s Department of Literacy, Language, and Culture delivered 1,200 children’s books to the Portland Public Schools – texts that will extend the conversation from kindergarten to grade 12. I'm Your Neighbor uses children’s books and stories to welcome immigrants, sharing books that help all students to better understand the perspectives of others and learn to value diversity.

The Portland Public Schools unveiled its new mobile makerspace on Sept. 14, prior to its launch with students the following week. The PPS Mobile Makerspace is a mobile lab that will provide a collaborative setting for making, learning, exploring, and sharing, using high-tech to no-tech tools. It will provide every PreK-5 student in the district with at least one design/innovation/engineering experience each year. The makerspace will travel between schools to engage and empower students to explore, create, and solve meaningful problems in the STEM fields

Rippleffect, a nonprofit that promotes youth development and leadership through adventure, on Sept. 13 officially announced the Rippleffect Outdoor Center (“ROC”), a central piece in Rippleffect's vision to provide equitable access for all Maine youth, starting in Portland’s backyard. 

The Portland Public Schools has worked with our medical team to develop COVID-19 protocols for the new school year that reflect federal CDC recommendations.

Two dedicated Portland Public Schools educators are stepping into assistant principal roles. Talya Edlund, is the new assistant principal at Lyseth Elementary School. Edlund, the 2016 Maine Teacher of the Year, has been the math coach at Lyseth for the past year. Emily Parr, a special education teacher/liaison at Ocean Avenue Elementary School for the past eight years, is the new assistant principal there. The appointments were ratified at the Aug. 16 Portland Board of Public Education meeting.

The Portland Public Schools is getting a slate of new school leaders:  Nicole Bradeen is the new principal at Longfellow Elementary School; Sarah Gips Goodall is the new principal at Lyseth Elementary School; Jason Bradeen is the new assistant principal at King Middle School; and Blake Kastle is the new assistant principal at Lincoln Middle School. The school-based appointments will be ratified at the Aug. 2 Portland Board of Public Education meeting. In addition, Terrence Young, formerly Longfellow principal, is now the executive director of district operations. 

This Portland Public Schools’ COVID-19 advisory reports numbers from the past six weeks, from mid-April through today, Friday, June 10. These weekly advisories have been an effort throughout the pandemic to keep the broader PPS community informed about the number of positive cases by school.

With the school year ending (June 14 is the last day for students and June 15 for teachers) and with a lower COVID prevalence in our community and schools, this will be our final weekly COVID report. We will not do weekly updates during summer school and, if current conditions hold, will not resume those reports for the 2022-2023 school year. Of course, should conditions change, we will resume appropriate communication to ensure that staff, students, families and the general public have the necessary information.

The City Council voted on May 16 to approve in full the Portland Board of Public Education’s recommended $133.1 million FY23 school budget, turning down amendments to reduce it. The budget will now go to city voters on June 14.

Maria Eugenia Fernández Iglesias, a second-grade teacher in Lyseth Elementary School’s Spanish Immersion program, has been selected as Teacher of the Year 2022 by the Ministry of Education, Embassy of Spain.

The Portland Board of Public Education on April 5 voted unanimously to approve a $133.1 million school budget proposal for the 2022-2023 school year. The theme of the FY23 budget is “Keeping the focus on teaching and learning.” The Board’s budget goes to the City Council on April 11.

Superintendent Xavier Botana presented his $132.9 million school budget proposal for the 2022-2023 school year to the Portland Board of Public Education on Tuesday, March 15. The theme of the FY23 budget is “Keeping the focus on teaching and learning.”

Merita McKenzie, physical education teacher and coach at Lyseth Elementary School, is the winner of the 2021 Elementary Physical Education Teacher of the Year Award.