Portland Public schools to receive $175,000 grand.

by Houssein Mouhoumed

PORTLAND, Maine — The State’s largest school district will receive a grant of $175000 to assist educational technicians become certified teachers and diversify the teaching staff. 

The grant to Portland Public Schools is from nonprofit group NewSchools Venture Fund. The school district believes that the grant will help educational technicians with services such as foreign transcript analysis, payment for additional coursework and expanded mentoring. 

The grant will help immigrant educational technicians to become fully credentialed, the district said. 

Portland Public Schools district is the most diverse school district in Maine with more than 40% of students being people of color. The training would benefit schools because demographics of teachers employed in Portland have not kept up with the pace of diversification of the student population.