School Board Member to Call for Hiring Freeze

Benjamin Meiklejohn, At-large Portland School Committee member, has submitted a motion to declare a hiring freeze for all non-mandated, non-instructional positions. The motion will be considered at the committee's next business meeting, August 22nd.

"In light of the school deficit, we need to reassess the need for all unfilled positions." says Meiklejohn.

Currently, the district has over twenty unfilled positions, according to a report given to the committee on August 15th.

"At the least, we need to be clear with prospective employees who are applying and being interviewed, that not all positions will likely be filled."

The committee could make exceptions on a case by case basis, to hire a person for a particular position, but the default status for seeking new hires would be that the schools are in a hiring freeze.

"The public should know that I am actively pursuing all means to reach financial solvency. This is something we can do immediately," says Meiklejohn, who is the senior-serving member of the Portland School Committee, in his sixth year and second term, and who is currently chair of the
schools' finance committee. He is running for re-election.