The South Portland School Department administration has consistently stonewalled, obfuscated and undermined public confidence with this year’s budget. The school board approved 5-2 a reconfiguration plan sending more than 400 children to a different school in August 2026, on top of closing Kaler Elementary in mere weeks.
The board voted despite the district’s abject failure to provide basic details: how children would be reassigned to new schools; whether neighborhoods will be kept intact; where teachers and administrators will be reassigned; and agreeing to cap the time even pre-K children will spend on buse or even setting a deadline to reveal this critical information. All this in a year when scores of positions have been eliminated.
Reconfiguration resurfaced as a “budget solution” just two months ago. In early February, the district myopically launched an online budget platform and then promptly ignored it. To date, just 10 of 127 questions submitted have been answered. The district canceled a March public forum. Questions raised during public comment routinely go unanswered. District staff filibuster, shifting the burden onto educators to reassure children and parents, and solve for this ill-planned idea.
There has been no stakeholder task force, nor any substantive role for parent or teacher involvement. These actions do not build community trust or confidence that reconfiguration can succeed.
Meanwhile, the new superintendent search proceeds behind closed doors, without commitment to gather input from parents, at a pivotal moment for the district. This is neither transparency nor accountability, which South Portland taxpayers, parents, teachers and children deserve.
Hayley Rumback
South Portland