savings in the areas of data and word processing, student transportation and food services. Performance evaluations and justi fications of ex p en d itu res before specialized citizen budget-review committees also have made the school district more responsive and efficient in its day-to-day operations. FINANCE PROGRESS TOWARD GOALS ACHIEVEMENT Improving student achievement Portland Public Schools students in all grade levels are making increas ingly rapid progress through a bal anced, well-designed curricula. Today its students are typically half a grade to one grade ahead of where students were six years ago. For example, this year’s third-graders have mastered as much of the m athe matics curriculum as fourth-graders had six years ago. In your opinion. do you fed the Portland Public Schools are providing basic skills to children'* The most impressive achievement increases recently have been in m athem atics, p articularly at the lower grades. For instance, the percent of stu dents in Grade 5 m aking satisfactory mathematics progress toward grad uation has gone from 67.4 percent in the spring of 1981 to 82.4 percent in the spring of 1987, a gain of 15 percent. But achievement goals are set for all students and until all students are achieving satisfactorily, the Portland School D istrict will co n tinue to develop programs and provide individ ualized instruction and other special support for low-achieving students. M any more Portland elementary schools now are served by counselors and child-developm ent specialists providing early attention to potential behavior and learning problems. Just as students in Portland overall outperform their peers nationwide in academic achievement, so do our minority students. The general trend in districtwide basic-skills achievement scores has been upward during the past six years since the Portland Board of Education rededicated the school district to its central mission of educa tional effectiveness. During that period of growth and renewal the rates of gain for minority students often have been as great or greater than the rates of gain of n o n m in o rity stu d en ts. T h a t has resulted in a progressive reduction in the differences between minority and nonm inority student scores. A dram atic indicator of the pro gress in m inority-student achieve m ent is that the percentage of black seniors passing the Portland School D is tr ic t’s rig o ro u s g ra d u a tio n - standards tests of basic skills has risen from 71.2 percent in 1984 to 91.1 percent in 1987, almost a 20 percent gain in just three years. MANAGEMENT Improving school district planning and operation Establishing one- and five-year plans and goals have been routine tasks at all levels in Portland Public Schools during the past four years. Also routine has been accomplish ing m ore with 11 percent fewer administrative employees. T h at’s a rem arkable achievement by itself, especially since the school district’s enrollment has been rising steadily during that time. But th e re are m o re c o n crete examples of getting better services from available dollars: Maintenance of the school district’s aging physical plant — most schools are more than 60 years old — has embraced advances in computers and technology and saved millions of dollars. Com puterized systems also have generated m illions o f d o llars in M aintaining adequate and stable funding Since voters last approved a tax- base increase, in 1982, the school district has trim m ed m illions of dollars from the real cost of its administrative operations. And those dollars — representing an annual one percent reduction m andated by the school board and generated through improved efficien cies — have provided funds for expanding instructional program s such as summ er school and the drug- and-alcohol and talented-and-gifted programs. F urtherm ore, those efficiencies provided a 1987-88 general-fund budget even lower than 1985-86 and allowed the school district to anti cipate operating within its 1982 tax base through 1989-90. T h at’s four years m ore th an forecasted and promised in 1982. And, as frosting on the fiscal cake, the efficiencies have produced unan ticipated resources for improving the school district’s aging physical plant and for retiring bonded indebted ness. To ensure cost-efficiencies, future departm ental budgets must justify increases for inflation as well as other factors. Furtherm ore, as an amendm ent to the m andated one percent annual redirection of central expenditures to instructional program s, there can be no net growth except for inflation in e x p e n d itu re s fo r g o o d s and services. COMMUNITY Increasing community confidence R e d u c in g s c h o o l d r o p o u ts , increasing youths’ employment skills and providing increased access to jobs — especially for low-income and minority students. Heavy goals to tackle. But im por tant goals for the Portland School District and its community. Portland Public Schools’ partici pation with local business, govern ment and education leaders in the P o rtla n d In v estm en t — a plan designed to achieve those goals — is one of many areas where the school district and its com m unities are working together toward comm on goals. The school district recognizes that schools and local businesses in the future will increasingly share equip ment and training responsibilities. A lready business and industry participate in partnerships — ranging from middle-school career fairs to cooperative work-experience pro grams for high school students — that promote improved relationships between schools and their com m u nities. Com m unity support of Portland Public Schools, shown in the approv al of the school district’s newest tax base in 1982, benefits both students and the local economy. Last year the Portland School District bought more than $25 million in products and services from 1,000 local businesses. Portland Public Schools deposited $350 million in local banks and each m onth made a payroll totaling $14 million. That meant approxim ately $8.75 million in take-home pay for some 6,500 employees. Portland Public Schools reaches out to the community through exten sive networks of community advisory committees, parent teacher organiza tions, vocational task forces, the V olunteers in P o rtla n d Schools (VIPS) program and other areas.