A regional approach to challenges will help Portland
schools thrive
By Xavier Botana
Mainers strongly
identify with the cities and towns they live in. We Portlanders, for example,
are very proud of our great city and all it has to offer. But Portland didn’t
become great all by itself. Portland is the seat of Cumberland County and its
success is linked to the success of other cities and towns within our region.
Thrive2027 is an initiative seeking to capitalize on what
Portland and the other communities in our region can do if we work together
collectively, instead of in our “silos.” Launched in 2016 by United Way of
Greater Portland, Thrive2027 is built around three ten-year goals to make
Cumberland County better and stronger in the areas of education, employment and
health.
As superintendent
of the Portland Public Schools, I strongly believe in the value of a regional
approach to address educational and other challenges, so I have become a member
of the Thrive2027 Council. The Council is made up of leaders from government,
corporate and nonprofit sectors throughout the county who advise and oversee
Thrive2027 to ensure its success.
Cumberland County
is Maine’s most populous county and is already a great place to live for many.
However, the three Thrive2027 goals, created by and for community stakeholders,
are designed to make it stronger for ALL residents in the 28 communities of our
county: Baldwin, Bridgton, Brunswick, Cape Elizabeth, Casco, Chebeague Island,
Cumberland, Falmouth, Freeport, Frye Island, Gorham, Gray, Harpswell, Harrison,
Long Island, Naples, New Gloucester, North Yarmouth, Portland, Pownal, Raymond,
Scarborough, Sebago, South Portland, Standish, Westbrook, Windham and
Yarmouth.
The three goals are
to ensure that:
- More
kids have a strong start in school so that they’re reading at grade level
by the end of third grade.
- More
people have the education and employment opportunities needed to afford to
live and work in Cumberland County – to thrive, not just survive.
- More
of our neighbors live longer, healthier lives.
When it comes to
our children’s learning, the first goal is vital. Research shows that
third-grade reading ability is a key indicator of future academic success. In
the 2017-2018 school year, 59 percent of the county’s children read
proficiently at the end of third grade. By 2027, the goal is to hike that to 70
percent.
Strong
pre-kindergarten programs can help students reach that goal. My column in September was about the
Portland Public Schools’ plan to expand our pre-K program over the next five
years in an effort to eventually offer pre-K to all Portland 4-year-olds. Any
efficiencies and savings that might result from a regional approach to pre-K
expansion would benefit everyone.
The second and
third Thrive2027 goals might not seem to be education related, but they are.
With the prices of homes and rents rapidly increasing in Cumberland County,
schools in Portland and other communities are serving an increasing number of
homeless students. In 2017, just 65 percent of households in the county paid
less than less than 30 percent of their income for housing. Boosting that
number to 70 percent by 2027 will help ensure more youngsters have a stable
home environment, making it more likely they’ll succeed in school.
And doing more to
promote the health and well being of families also leads to better educational
outcomes.
The idea behind Thrive2027
is collective action. By bringing people together around a common goal, all
working at it from different vantage points, I believe we’ll be exponentially
successful. In the end, we’ll get more than the sum of our individual efforts
to help Cumberland County communities thrive.
