At Monday evening’s meeting of the Portland City Council, Board of Public Education Chair Sarah Lentz presented the annual State of the Schools address, highlighting the district’s diverse demographics and high percentage of students learning the English language.
Similar to her address to the City Council last year, Lentz began her presentation with a mix of a guided meditation and land acknowledgment.
“Take a few deep breaths,” Lentz said. “Roll your shoulders back, wiggle your toes, and push your feet into the floor, a floor that sits on land that our city and schools are built upon, unceded land of the Wabanaki, the people of dawn.”
Lentz then turned to the demographics of the Portland Public Schools district, Maine’s largest school district with 10 elementary schools, three middle schools and four high schools.
Across all schools, the district has 6,571 students, with 30 percent of those students being English language learners, and nearly one fifth (18%) receiving special education services, Lentz said.
[RELATED: Portland Schools Seek to Spend $224,000 on Hiring English Language Teachers for ‘new arrivals’…]
“Our students are also incredibly racially and ethnically diverse, with almost 53% of our students being students of color,” Lentz added.
The next topic of Lentz’s presentation was the district’s new five-year Strategic Plan, which was formulated by Superintendent Ryan Scallon alongside community members and other partners earlier this year.
The district’s Strategic Plan has five pillars: equity, achievement, whole student, people and systems.
“First, Equity,” Lentz said, going over each part of the strategic plan. “We strive to be an anti-racist, inclusive district by rooting out systemic inequities and vigilantly supporting each student to achieve their potential.”
For achievement, Lentz said that the district will “enhance academic preparedness for college and career and instill a joy of learning in our students by delivering a universally accessible, rigorous, and equitable curriculum.”
The third category, “Whole Student, Connected Community,” refers to the district partnering with families and communities organizations to “nurture supportive, inclusive school communities that promote belonging and engagement.”
“People,” the fourth strategy, related to recruitment and retention of staff in the district, while the last strategy, “Systems,” affirms the district’s commitment to implementing “consistent and clear operational procedures and systems that enhance equity, efficacy, and accountability across Portland Public Schools.”
[RELATED: Portland Schools’ Equity Push Aims for All Students to Have Equal Outcomes, Equal Experiences…]
Lentz, now in her third term as chair of Portland’s Board of Education, commented at a Board meeting following the November general election that immigrants have “come under attack” due to the election of Donald Trump, and said that the district is preparing for potential mass deportations of immigrants by the incoming Trump administration.
Lentz claimed that “one of the groups of our community that has recently come under attack in the administrative changes is our beloved immigrant and refugee community,” adding that the alleged “attack” will “likely only intensify.”
“Just a reminder, that there are no current plans for mass deportation or other action, but we’re doing everything that we can to be prepared should this become the case,” Lentz said.
Watch:
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="33347 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=33347">14 Comments
Oh boy, better start building those new schools. You think your property taxes are high now, just wait. Be sure to thank those democrats you voted for when that bill rolls around. Suckers.
“Our students are also incredibly racially and ethnically diverse, with almost 53% of our students being students of color,” Lentz added.
Lentz never explains how the diversity is of benefit as though we’re supposed to take this statement as gospel. No one is going to remove legitimate legal immigrants which is another boneheaded statement.
The fact that this woman doesn’t recognize this as a problem, scares the shit out me
DOGE will take care of these problem
administrators through elimination of the Dept. of Ed.
Their power to perpetuate propaganda seems to disappear when they don’t have access to endless piles of other people’s money.
this idiot did not mention one word about budget and how the test scores of Portland students is in the toilet like the rest of Maine students. Portland is lost to the woke, Communist mob!!! Good job people of Portland, you get what you vote for!!!! I have never seen a city and state make such an effort to destroy itself as fast as it can!!!
What a bunch of woke psychobabble from this woman.
learning english…. 30% of 6571 is 1971 kids… wow alot fee housing for some people huh? how much did prop taxes go up? atleast 30 %!
Well Biddeford and Lewiston were this way 60 years ago. How are they today?
Look at their test scores.
She forgot the word ILLEGAL between that and immigrants. “that immigrants have “come under attack” due to the election
8% is nearly 1 in 12 not nearly 1 in 10
If you thought last year’s 20% property tax increase was something, wait until you see next year’s increase
Maine is about to pay a whole lot extra to feed migrants under the guise of education, while our own students’ opportunities suffer immenslly
Vote for Cali/NY policies, become Cali/ NY
mo money, mo money, mo money! People’s Republic of Portland (All Southern Maine)
What do you expect, it’s Portland!
Portland is the cesspool of Maine. All the sh!t drains there!
‘Beloved immigrant community’. This is the kind of BS we get from so-called educators! People listening to her talk must have been rolling in the aisles😆😆