Leaders at Portland Public Schools are confronting their enrollment crisis amid recognition that declining numbers spell trouble for the district’s finances and resources.

District officials expanded on their strategy to retain and recruit families and students at a Thursday meeting of a Portland School Board subcommittee dedicated to teaching, learning and enrollment. The relaunch of the subcommittee comes as members of the new School Board list reversing the decline as one of their top priorities.

Top of mind for those leaders is addressing low enrollment at Jefferson High School, which enrolled 459 students in the last academic year. Ahead of a $466 million modernization project funded by the district’s last two bonds, Superintendent Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong has emphasized her desire t

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