Nearly two-thirds — an estimated 61 percent — of the South Portland residents who participated in Tuesday’s election voted to approve the proposed $73 million school budget for Fiscal Year 2026.
Tuesday’s election saw a 12.6 percent turnout with 2,545 voters making their way to the polls to weigh in on the multi-million dollar budget proposal.
The now-approved $73 million budget represents a 5.45 percent increase in the cost of K-12 public education in the city, equating to an additional $3.25 million that need to be raised in property taxes. This translates to a 6.14 percent tax increase compared to FY25.
Despite these hikes, the budget includes a net reduction of nine full-time equivalent (FTE) positions.
This does not necessarily mean that nine positions were cut from the budget, but rather that the total amount of hours worked by those in the eliminated positions are equal to that of nine full-time employees.
According to official city documents, the budget includes $28 million for regular instruction, $15 million for special education, $3 million for school administration, and $2.8 million for transportation and buses, among other things.
More detailed data regarding the proposed FY26 budget reveals that special education is the largest source of increased expenditures with costs rising about $2.25 million over those of FY25. Proposed regular instruction costs represent a nearly $1 million increase over the previous year’s budget.
According to a Maine Public article published in early March, Superintendent Tim Matheney attributed the rising costs in the proposed FY26 budget to factors such as a greater demand for special education, a drop in federal funding, and less philanthropic support for the district’s adult education program.
Matheney — who announced last Wednesday that he plans to step down in December — has spoken out regarding the proposed staffing cuts and the criticism that they have drawn from parents and teachers.
“We’ve confronted a really stark year financially,” he said, according to the Portland Press Herald. “It has been a time of significant challenges, but I think the result of our staff members and our leaders in the district collaborating, we’ve done some really phenomenal work.”
Matheney also noted some areas of disagreement between himself and the school board regarding these staffing reductions.
“The board’s decision to eliminate the director of Mental and Behavioral Health position against my recommendation is just one of those differences,” he said.
South Portland Teachers Association (SPTA) President Sarah Gay has raised concerns that union members did not have a voice in the budget creation process.
“Getting face time to talk about the budget process was extremely challenging for our union,” Gay said in an interview, according to the Portland Press Herald.
“We have a legal right to meet and consult about changes to our working conditions, it was very difficult to have that right upheld. And as a result we really did not have a voice in the creation of the budget, which put us in a position, when speaking on behalf of our members and schools, it was all defensive and reactionary instead of proactive and constructive,” she added.
A non-essential spending freeze was put in place by Matheney through June 30.
According to official election results published by the City of South Portland, 1,555 residents voted in support of the proposed budget while 987 opposed it. Three ballots were either left blank or contained errors that invalidated them.
In accordance with State Law, voters were also asked if they wanted to continue requiring that school budgets be approved by residents for the next three years.
A substantial 71 percent of voters who turned out Tuesday expressed support for continuing the school budget validation process for the next three years.
