Portland school board members recently picked Xavier Botana, who’s previously worked in Indiana, Illinois and Oregon, to lead the state’s largest district as superintendent. He’ll set the tone for nearly 7,000 students — about 36 percent of whom speak a primary language other than English at home — and 1,300 employees. Many priorities will compete for his attention in this influential position. We hope the following three will be among them — and that state lawmakers will get behind them with funding:
Supporting low-income students
One of the greatest challenges at any Maine school, including in Portland, is preparing low-income students for fulfilling pursuits after graduation. We know much about how a family’s struggles can stunt children’s future growth, such as how well they learn reading and math and whether they graduate high school or some type of higher education. An estimated 51 percent of Portland students are considered “economically disadvantaged” — meaning they qualify for free or reduced-price lunch — with some schools facing higher rates.
Portland is lucky to have local places to learn from. For instance, Presumpscot Elementary School in North Deering was among 20 Maine schools in 2014 able to show consistent progress in English and math, despite having high numbers of low-income students. And there are more places from which to draw inspiration. For instance, staff at Lincoln High School in Walla Walla, Washington, started to use a method called “trauma-informed teaching” — to address the toxic stress in students’ lives that can lead to misbehavior — and saw far more college-bound graduates.
Keeping up with school building maintenance
It seems pretty basic: Stick to a plan for updating schools over time and budget for it. But the reality is always more complicated, especially as structural updates often are some of the first items to be put on hold as budgets constrict.
In April, Portland voters approved a $29.7 million bond to replace the Fred P. Hall School, which had been damaged by fire in 2012 and was in sore need of improvements even before that. But it’s far from the only school that needs capital investment. Four other elementary schools — Longfellow, Lyseth, Presumpscot and Reiche — were named in a 2012 report, updated in 2016, as requiring major renovations. The school board is scheduled to take an initial vote on June 7 on a $70 million bond, which city voters ultimately would need to approve, to upgrade those four schools.
The price tag will only increase as time goes on. Making sure all Portland school buildings are safe and welcoming places of learning, while balancing other priorities, will be a key challenge.
Pursuing ‘constancy of purpose’
Whether it’s improving student achievement, addressing child hunger, retaining excellent teachers and administrative staff, responding to the needs of a diverse student population, boosting student aspirations or just keeping up with technology, it’s a continual challenge to stay the course. That doesn’t mean education leaders shouldn’t be able to adapt and grow, just that they need time — more than just a few years — before a strategy will bear fruit.
As part of a BDN multimedia project on growing Maine’s economy, University of Maine System Chancellor Jim Page described this approach as “constancy of purpose”: Determine how many students need help in a particular area, figure out what will help get results and implement the changes over a long period. Such a long-term view will require the school board, staff and superintendent to have patience, work together and keep at it. It’s never as simple as it sounds.
