Portland Public School Department News

Several students from the Portland Public Schools have been selected to participate in Maine’s All-State Band, Jazz Festival, Choir and Orchestra. 

Dominic Sbrega, a Deering sophomore, will perform in the All-State Jazz Festival.

Nick Brown, a Deering freshman, and Grace Batsford, a Portland High senior, have been chosen for the All-State Band Festival.

Sbrega and Alexandra Gribizis of Deering and Marie Genova of Portland High will perform with the All-State Orchestra.

The following students have been selected for the Maine All-State Choir:  Aaron Peisner and Eileen Hanley from Portland High, Karl Nordli, Bethany Bragdon, Alexandra Wilkins, Jenn Rothbart, David Barber-Callaghan, Jeremy Turner and ‘Ishah Price from Deering.

Seniors at Deering High School in Portland will have the opportunity to learn first-hand about a variety of careers through a speaker program taking place during the next several months.

Kim Kalicky, a local businesswoman and parent of a Deering junior, organized the program.  “I would have loved a program like this when I was in high school,” said Kalicky, who works at R.M. Davis, Inc., a wealth management firm.  “My goal is that every senior will get something from the program by the time we’re finished in May.”

Kalicky kicked off the series earlier this month by talking about careers in financial advising and wealth management.  Future speakers include Lee Nelson, an anchor at WCSH6, on February 14 and Portland City Councilor Jill Duson on March 6.

A computer engineer, a nutritionist and a plumber or electrician also will be among the 10 speakers.  The series is part of Deering Coaching, the school’s advisory program. 

“The speakers will tell students about jobs requiring a wide range of educational credentials and offering a range of salaries,” said Eli Small, a Deering teacher who is helping to coordinate the series.  “We are very grateful to Kim Kalicky for taking the initiative to plan the program.”

Students at Hall Elementary School recently collected donations for C.A.R.E., a local nonprofit group that provides necessities and comfort items to children battling cancer and their families.

The fourth and fifth grade classes taught by Steve Fuller, Pat Lammers and Kristin Uhlig presented the items to Jenna and Suzanne Posey of Scarborough.  The Posey family started C.A.R.E. (Comfort, Aid, Relief and Ease) after Jenna was diagnosed with leukemia at age five and treated at the Maine Cancer Care Program.

When Jenna was in the hospital, the family discovered that comfort items and everyday necessities often were forgotten due to the worry and stress of dealing with a child who has cancer. Jenna now is a healthy high school freshman, and C.A.R.E. is providing baskets to local hospitals for distribution to families who need to know others care.

The Hall students collected tissues, lotions, teddy bears, writing journals, gift certificates and cash during the month of November.  They learned the true meaning of giving. 

Eight Portland students involved with the youth civic engagement group, YOUTHINK, recently participated in a Harvard research study titled “Young People’s Perspectives on Relationships and Community.”  The study explores young people’s sense of trust in their community.  YOUTHINK members were selected as participants because of their high level of civic engagement and leadership.  

Kira Conley, a senior at Portland High School, was one of the participants.  “The study made me think about how I look at trust in my personal life, in situations that are important to me but society in general doesn’t see that way,” she said.  “In YOUTHINK, we have to trust one another to accomplish our goals, and we have to trust adults in the community to listen to our perspectives.  But I hadn’t thought about how that might affect my personal life before now.”

In two sets of interviews, YOUTHINK members responded to questions about trust in their everyday lives as well as hypothetical trust scenarios.  Conducted by The GoodWork Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the study results will be released in the near future.  Carrie James, project manager, said, “The ultimate goal of this project is to develop educational tools to help young people understand issues involved in determining the trustworthiness of their fellow citizens, societal institutions and sources of information.”

Ainsley Wallace, YOUTHINK director, said, “It is exciting for YOUTHINK members to be recognized for their extraordinary level of civic involvement.  We are interested to discover how students’ participation in community leadership affects their sense of trust in community institutions, news media and local leaders.”

YOUTHINK is a youth-driven organization that creates positive change in Portland by empowering young people to speak and to act on issues that affect their lives. YOUTHINK currently is working on a youth rights campaign, planning a summit of Portland youth to create an agenda of common priority issues, conducting trainings for the Portland Youth Advisory Council and working with local high schools to create a service-learning elective course.

The board of 25 young people has awarded $20,000 in mini-grants to more than 200 students in the last three years. YOUTHINK’s local partners include Portland Public Schools, the Portland Education Partnership, and the United Way of Greater Portland.

John Coyne, the District 5 representative to the Portland School Committee, has been reelected to a second term as the committee’s chairperson.  Peter Eglinton, the District 3 representative, was elected chair of the Finance Committee.

Kathleen Snyder and Jaimey Caron were inaugurated as At-Large representatives in a ceremony at Portland City Hall on December 3.  Eglinton was sworn into office for another term.

Three new student representatives also have joined the School Committee: Jules Szanton of Portland High, Joshua Tingley of Deering and Chris Pulsoni of Casco Bay High School.