Portland Public School Department

Christine Boucher, a Deering High School senior, and Gavin Bauer, a Portland High School senior, have been named National Merit Semifinalists based on their performance on the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.  Semifinalists are among the highest scoring entrants in each state.  About half of the 16,000 semifinalists are chosen to receive Merit Scholarship awards.

Four Deering students- David Barber-Callaghan, Emma Dunham, Alexandra Gribizis and Hajara Shareef- have been named Commended Students through the National Merit Scholarship Program.  Commended Students placed among the top 5 percent of more than 1.4 million students who entered the 2008 competition.

Zachary Scrutchfield, a Portland High School junior and YOUTHINK youth board facilitator, has been named one of the Top 100 national finalists for the Case Foundation’s Make It Your Own Awards.  If he succeeds, YOUTHINK will receive funding for a Portland youth summit to bring young people together to build a sense of community, constituency and to create an agenda of priority issues throughout the city. 

Scrutchfield’s proposal, one of 4,641 submissions, describes plans for the summit. YOUTHINK, a Portland-based, youth-driven organization that empowers young people to speak and act on issues that affect their lives, will sponsor the summit in January or February.  Scrutchfield is one of the leaders in planning the event.  His proposal calls for engaging other student leaders and groups such as the Portland Youth Advisory Council.

“I’ve realized there are deep issues that keep youth and adults from working together to create a better Portland, and grants alone won’t fix them,” Scrutchfield explained in his application.  “Many teens don’t feel valued, and leave Maine as soon as possible.  We want to bring the youth community together so that we can brainstorm the different issues in neighborhoods, and start thinking about actions we can take as young people, and just get to know each other.  There aren’t many chances for people to mix it up with people who aren’t like themselves.”

As a Top 100 finalist, Scrutchfield will receive a subscription to “GOOD” magazine, a personalized webpage and fundraising “widget” for the project, $100 to begin fundraising and a copy of Peter Karoff’s book, “The World We Want.”  The Case Foundation will assign him a “proposal coach” to help strengthen his application. Scrutchfield will submit an extended proposal by November 12 for one of twenty $10,000 awards. Online voting will choose four of the top 20 projects for additional $25,000 prizes.

The Make It Your Own Awards “are a direct response to research showing that many people feel disconnected from public leaders and institutions and don’t believe they have the power to make a lasting difference in their community,” according to the Case Foundation’s website. 

Scrutchfield has been involved with YOUTHINK since 2005.  He also serves on the Portland Youth Advisory Council.

The Maine College Transition Program has awarded Portland Adult Education (PAE) a $30,000 grant to help adults prepare for college.  PAE was one of 22 organizations in Maine chosen to implement such programming.

Maine Education Commissioner Susan Gendron congratulated the grant recipients at a recent, statewide adult education directors’ meeting in Augusta.  Rob Wood, co-director of PAE, participated in the ceremony.
 
Funding for the program was included in the two-year state budget proposed by Gov. John Baldacci.  The initiative won strong support from the Maine Legislature.

The goal of the College Transition Program is to help Maine adults successfully transition to college and earn a degree. Adult education programs provide classes in subjects such as study skills, college writing, algebra, biology and chemistry.  They also help with completion of applications and financial aid forms and provide college counseling and career planning. Services are available at low cost to the individual.
 

Riverton Elementary School and Community Center has completed a $3.2 million expansion and renovation project.

The 14-month project added new wings at both ends of the building, a discovery room, a new Dental Health Center and a new Recreation Department all-purpose room.  A new ventilation system and energy efficient windows were installed.  The project also improved school security. 

The College Board has recognized 24 students and recent graduates from the Portland Public Schools for their outstanding achievement on Advanced Placement (AP) exams last May.
   
The Advanced Placement program offers college-level courses for high school students.   AP exams are graded on a five-point scale.

Fiona Wilson, the 2007 valedictorian at Portland High School, was named an AP Scholar with Distinction for receiving an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of the exams.

Twenty-three students from Portland and Deering high schools were named AP Scholars for earning an average grade of 3 or higher on three or more AP exams taken in May.

The AP Scholars from Deering are: Gavin Beirne, Jessica Hedrich, Anthony Loring, John Moore, John Neidig, Kevin Pedro, Karin Skalina, Adam Sleeper, Emily Walker, Jonathan Witt and Eliza Wood.

The AP Scholars from Portland High are: Gavin Bauer, David Bruenjes, Ryan Carmichael, Samuel Cory, Crystal Cron, Rachel Heasly, Priscilla Knox, Bly Lauritano-Werner, Aaron Peisner, Cezar Postolache, Nathaniel Walden and Adrian Williamson.

Nationwide, about 18 percent of the more than 14 million high school students who took AP exams earned recognition as AP Scholars.
   

Jane Jameson, a second and third grade English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at Riverton Elementary School in Portland, won recognition as an outstanding teacher and $1,400 in classroom supplies through OfficeMax’s “A Day Made Better” program.

Employees from OfficeMax’s Portland distribution facility surprised Jameson by delivering a digital camera, printer, art supplies and other gifts to her classroom on October 2.

Jameson was one of about 1,000 teachers throughout the country recognized through the program, which is a partnership between the office supply store and the nonprofit group, Adopt-A-Classroom.

“A Day Made Better” recognizes that teachers typically spend hundreds of dollars of their own money on classroom supplies each year.  OfficeMax donated more than $1 million to schools such as Riverton through the program.