Portland Public Schools will face a $56.3 million budget deficit in the upcoming 2026–27 school year. Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong’s proposed budget, which she presented to the Portland School Board on Tuesday night, would reduce 336 full-time employees as a consequence.
Armstrong’s proposals recommend reductions of 112 school-based FTE, 101 in specialized programs, 48 in building supports, and 74 in its central office. (There is some variation, given rounding.) The presentation of her budget kicks off a series of public meetings, though school staffing changes have been applied across schools, and district officials have said changes to school-based staffing will be challenging to make at this point. The district employs more than 8,000 people, Armstrong said.
The $56.3 million number grew from an earlier district projection that PPS would face a $50 million deficit in the upcoming year, and thus proposed layoffs have also expanded from an earlier draft in January. The district faced—and patched, largely through furloughs—an unexpected $22.5 million deficit in the middle of the academic year…