Announcement from PPS Superintendent Will Heath Regarding May 8th Portland Bond Vote

The month of May is approaching fast and I want to remind everyone that we have a bond vote on May 8th. Several of our residents have received their absentee ballots and contacted me with questions about the ballot language. To help out we have developed a Q & A specifically about this language. The Portland Public Schools Bond Ballot Q & A.pdf includes a picture of the ballot and the most common questions and answers that have come from this ballot language. If the previous link does not work you can access the document on our Bond page or by following this direct link https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3ooCtaBBR8GRjBTUTBKN1VPV2lqRHpOVlM1V09HMGx2MDBN/view.

As a reminder, Portland Public Schools will ask voters to approve a zero mill bond increase on Tuesday, May 8, 2018. Currently, residents of the school district pay 7.35 mills on all homestead property. The passage of this bond will not increase this millage rate and will generate $25 million in revenue. It is important to note that taxpayers will not see an increase in their tax rate from this proposal.

In an effort to educate voters and to be as transparent as possible we have posted several documents to our website. I highly encourage you to visit the site to learn more about this bond and the needs that it will cover. This information can be accessed at https://sites.google.com/portlandk12.org/2018-bond/home

Our school board, staff, and bond committee spent a great deal of time analyzing the needs of the district to determine what should be put on this bond proposal. Through an in-depth process that lasted several months, the bond committee determined the greatest needs for the district. This process allowed the committee to reduce the initial proposed $47 million wish list down to this $25 million proposal that will not raise the current tax rate. It is a very comprehensive proposal and will address the majority of the needs that were indicated on our recent district facility assessment. The needs addressed include areas of school and site safety, technology, building renovations, parking lot circulation problems, maintenance, and athletics. There have been questions about the specifics of what will be completed and the percentage each represents with the bond. I highly encourage you to view the Portland Bond Breakdown document which can also be found on the bond page of our website.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please contact me directly by calling my office at (517) 647-4161 or by email at wheath@portlandk12.org.

Will Heath

Superintendent

Portland Public Schools