Portland schools to use some fed funding to continue remote learning FacebookTwitterEmail The district has received a $312,000 grant as part of a federally funded coronavirus relief package. Approximately 200 students this academic year have chosen to opt out of in-person learning, Superintendent of Schools Charles E. Britton said Tuesday. “This year, students have been allowed to opt-out for whatever reason,” Britton said. In most instances, they did so because no vaccine has as yet been approved for children, and in particular for “children with other ailments,” Britton said. Portland Superintendent of Schools Charles BrittonJeff Mill / Hearst Connecticut Media file Britton said that with so many students opting out of in-school learning, the district was compelled to, in effect, “create two parallel school systems.”