Portland Public School Department News

Students at Nathan Clifford Elementary School who participated in a public art project are displaying their work displayed in two locations this fall. An environmental sculpture titled “The Gates of Nathan Clifford” has been installed in front of the school. Student drawings and photographs will be exhibited at the Portland Museum of Art throughout November.

Maryjane Johnston, Clifford’s art teacher, worked with last year’s fourth graders on the project. Students studied works by environmental artists Jeanne Claude and Christo. The husband and wife team will have their art on display at the museum in November.

The sculpture in front of the school is based on a drawing by Genevieve Worthley, a Clifford fifth grader. A Clifford parent, Jolene McGowen, and her sister, Jill, helped sew the piece. Funding came from the Portland Education Partnership and University Credit Union.

Christo and Jeanne Claude have been invited to visit the Clifford installation.

The Maine Adult Education Association has named Robert Wood, co-director of Portland Adult Education, as the state’s outstanding adult education administrator. Wood received the Gerald Levasseur Award at the association’s recent annual conference. The award recognizes outstanding work in the field of adult and community education.

Wood has served as co-director of Portland Adult Education since 1995. During his tenure, the academic program greatly expanded. Last year more than 1,600 learners participated in the GED, worksite, college preparation and English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs.

Wood has served on numerous state and regional boards to increase opportunities for all of Maine’s adult learners, including refugees and homeless people. When Lewiston experienced a rapid increase in its ESOL enrollment, Wood provided expertise and helped develop grant opportunities that benefited both Lewiston and Portland.

Portland’s new Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound High School has been selected as one of 75 promising high schools nationwide to participate in a five-year initiative sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the International Center for Leadership in Education. The initiative will identify, analyze, and disseminate the nation’s most successful school-wide practices and policies for providing a rigorous and relevant curriculum to all students.

The Maine Department of Education selected Portland’s ELOB High School as one of five Maine schools to participate in the initiative because of it innovative approach to engaging students in their educational program.

“Though the school has yet to develop a track record, the vision and leadership demonstrated by the Portland School Department and the bold step of organizing high school learning in this hands-on approach should make the school one of our most interesting schools to watch and use as a model in the coming years,” said Patrick Phillips, deputy commissioner of the Maine Education Department. “In addition, we believe the new high school program will benefit during its formative years from the exposure to high performing and innovative high schools in the network.”

The initiative aims to move the 75 schools from “promising” to “proven” models of success as defined by learning criteria over the course of five years. Instructional practices and policies involved in that transformation then will be disseminated nationwide.

Participating schools will receive technical assistance, resources and professional development. A liaison will check in monthly.

Derek Pierce, principal of the ELOB High School, and John D’Anieri, school coach, attended a recent symposium on reinventing high school in Washington, D.C. to kick off the initiative.