South Portland residents are set to vote on a proposed $73 million school budget next Tuesday amidst concerns over public school layoffs and property tax hikes.
Although there has been discussion of proposed athletic complex upgrades, a bond for this project will not appear on the June 10th ballot.
The proposed $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 would need to be raised in property taxes. This translates to a 6.14 percent tax increase over 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.
Recommended staff reductions include a full-time Director of Mental & Behavioral Health, a full-time Human Resources Coordinator, and a part-time Community Partnerships Co-Director, as well as a half-time STEM Coordinator, a half-time Instructional Strategist, and a school-based Student Engagement Coordinator.
Other potential school-based reductions outlined in a late-May presentation on the South Portland School District website include an English for Speakers of Other Languges (ESOL) teacher, three K-4 teachers of social emotional learning, a McKinney-Vento social worker, a classroom teacher, a middle school music teacher, a middle school special education teacher, a middle school technology integrator, and a multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) coordinator.
A number of ed tech positions — including three library ed techs, two ESOL ed techs, and one regular education ed tech — were also recommended for elimination, although all those currently serving in positions recommended for elimination have been offered other positions in the public school system, primarily within special education.
In a presentation prepared by the district, it is noted that staffing costs comprise about 80 percent of the expenses outlined in the FY26 school budget.
Non-staff reductions also include several thousand dollars worth of cuts to contracted transport, athletics, technology, and miscellaneous operations.
According to official city documents, the proposed 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.
Superintendent Tim Matheney — who announced 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 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.”
According to a Maine Public article published in early March, 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.
A non-essential spending freeze was put in place by Matheney through June 30.
