PORTLAND, Maine — Portland Public Schools held a public forum on the next school budget Tuesday night.
Parents, teachers, and community members came out to ask the Portland school board to increase resources for students despite an estimated deficit of around $10 million.
"We are currently in a severe youth mental health crisis," Rowe Elementary School counselor Kate McAlaine said.
During the forum, McAlaine asked the school board to increase funding for mental health resources.
"I’ve done suicide assessments multiple times this year," McAlaine said. "I’ve had two students that lost parents this year and it’s hard to find the time to support them because there is so much need at our school right now."
Factors driving the expected deficit are federal COVID funds running out and state funding staying the same as expenses are rising, according to Portland School Board Chair Sarah Lentz.
"All these things add up to this big number," Lentz told NEWS CENTER Maine.
At the forum, school leaders said they're committed to keeping the impact of cuts on students as minimal as possible. But school board chair Lentz says with a deficit this size it won't be easy avoiding staffing cuts.
"Realistically, about 85 percent of our budget is people," Lentz explained. "We’re not going to be able to get $10 million of cuts out of 15 percent of our budget, which is an incredibly hard situation to face because I think when we think about our district, or people are our district."
Right now, it's unclear what cuts will be made.
The budget will first need to be approved by the school board and then the city council. The public will vote on the budget in June.