Portland Public School Department News

The Portland School Committee on June 25 approved an amended teachers’ contract that extends through August, 2011 and includes a number of changes intended to ensure both financial predictability and sustainability for the new professional development-based salary schedules.

District administrators on behalf of the School Committee and the Portland Education Association (PEA) all agree that they continue to support the intent of the contract.  “We continue to believe, as the contract states, that the best predictor of student learning is teacher learning,” said School Committee Chair John Coyne.  “We just need to be able to manage the costs more effectively.”

The Living Contract Committee, which includes PEA, School Committee and district administrator members, met over the last weeks to consider changes to contract provisions including base salary increases, course reimbursement, frequency and eligibility for salary increases (termed “salary lane changes” in the contract), the length of the contract and how to transition from the current contract to the extended contract. 

New or amended contract provisions (effective September 1, 2008) include:
· Extending the contract through August, 2011.
· Requiring new employees to accumulate three years of active service before qualifying for a salary lane change.
· Requiring three years between salary lane changes.
· Requiring teachers to submit documentation to qualify for a September lane change by early January to enable more predictable budgeting.
· Decreasing eligibility for course reimbursement for most members to one course per year.
· Agreeing to 0% increase on base salary for the school years 2009/2010 and 2010/2011.
· Agreeing to a $1,295,000 transition cap on salary lane changes effective September 1, 2009.

In addition, all parties agreed to maintain the current level of health benefits coverage for the term of the contract.  The agreement also contains a plan to support teachers as they transition to the new contract requirements.

Interim Superintendent Jeanne Whynot-Vickers is pleased with the result.  “We met our goal to protect the intent of the contract while making changes to ensure we could continue to support the contract financially,” she said.  “The PEA members demonstrated commitment and vision by putting aside personal gain for the greater good of our educational system and our students.  This is something we can all be proud about!”

“This contract is good for our teachers, our district and, most importantly, it is good for our students,” said Kathleen Casasa, president of the Portland Education Association.  “This contract offers a new way of paying teachers. Our Professional Learning Based Salary Schedule is a pay plan for the future and will shape the next generation of educators’ understanding about pay.” 

Portland Public Schools/Portland Education Association contract facts:
· Extends the contract through August 2011 (two additional years).
· Requires new employees to accumulate three years of active service before qualifying for a salary lane change (currently no requirement).
· No retroactive submission for course work for new hires is allowed.
· Requires three years between salary lane changes (currently teachers can submit for lane changes up to twice a year).
· Requires teachers to submit documentation to qualify for a September lane change by early January to enable more predictable budgeting (currently teachers can submit documentation twice a year).
· Decreases eligibility for course reimbursement for members on salary lanes one to four to one course per year (currently three per year).
· Requires a B or better to qualify for course reimbursement (currently requires a passing grade).
· Course reimbursement limited to the USM graduate school course rates.
· Course reimbursement extended to two courses per year at the USM graduate school course rate for teachers in lane five (highest lane).
· Agrees to 0% increase on base salary for the school years 2009/2010 and 2010/2011.
· Agrees to a $1,295,000 transition cap (currently no cap) on salary lane changes effective September 1, 2009.
· Agrees to a 2% increase on differential pay and an additional $25,000 for increasing differentials for the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 contract years.
· Agrees to hire one PEA teacher leader to work with administrators to collect data and to track the impact of this salary system on student learning,  teacher practice changes and overall contributions to the Portland Public School community.  This teacher also will assist with proposal oversight and assist in designing in-house training to support professional development needs.
· Maintains health benefits at current coverages, levels and employer contribution for the term of the contract.

Intent of the Contract
We believe that the best predictor of student learning is teacher learning.  Therefore, the salary schedule is designed to recognize and promote significant contributions to student learning or teacher practice or the school district community based upon an equitable standard equally accessible to all members of the unit.

The system’s goal is to encourage teachers to remain career-long learners, to increase and update their skills, and to be visible models as learners to their students.

Since attracting and retaining highly skilled teachers is critical to improving student performance, it is clear that the new salary scheme’s success is dependent upon concerted efforts to craft budget approaches that do not have negative impacts on staffing levels, working conditions, or resources for teaching and learning.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools recently awarded a Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) grant to the Portland public schools.  One of five awarded in New England, the $266,000 grant will provide the funding to improve and strengthen existing emergency management plans. 

The grant focuses on improving and strengthening emergency management plans, namely in the areas of prevention and mitigation, preparedness, and response and recovery.  These goals will be met through staff and student training around emergency management planning, an enhanced system of emergency reunification procedures for parents and guardians, and increased collaboration between the school district and local law enforcement, government and health agencies. 

Scott Wyman, Benefits and Safety Manager, who co-authored the grant with Michael Clifford, Safe and Drug Free School Coordinator, explains, “Taking action now will help save lives, prevent injury and minimize property damage in the event of a crisis.”

The grant project establishes a collaboration among the Portland public schools, the Portland Fire, Police and Public Health Departments, and Community Counseling with an ultimate vision of building and sustaining a strong, mission-driven relationship across the partnering systems. 

On June 10, Portland voters approved a $19.7 million bond referendum to fund construction of the Ocean Avenue elementary school. The state will reimburse Portland for all but $60,000 of the construction costs. The referendum was approved on a vote of 7,080, or 69.1 percent to 3,166, or 30.9 percent.

Five administrators with a combined 166 years of experience working for the Portland Public Schools retired in the summer of 2008.  

Presumpscot Elementary School Principal Carole Clark began her teaching career at the Peaks Island School in 1972.  She also taught at Riverton Elementary.  She was an assistant principal at Peaks, Riverton and Lyseth schools.  When Presumpscot Elementary School reopened in 1988, she was chosen as its principal, a job that she held for 20 years.

Lincoln Middle School Principal Kathleen Rossi was hired as a teaching intern at Lyman Moore Junior High School in 1968.  She has worked in all three of Portland’s middle schools and spent a year at Deering High School.  Rossi taught language arts at Moore and worked as a guidance counselor at both Moore and King Junior High School.  In 1984, she was appointed an assistant principal at Lincoln.  She has been the principal of Lincoln since 1990.

Lyseth Assistant Principal Phoebe Russell began her career as a speech and language therapist.  She joined the Portland Public Schools in 1973 and worked at West Elementary, Baxter, Morrill and Nathan Clifford schools.  In 1981, she was hired as a speech and language therapist and learning strategist at Lyseth.  She became the school’s half-time assistant principal in 1990 and the position became full-time four years later.
 
William Verrill, the district’s director of food services for 31 years, helped plan and open the Reed School Central Kitchen.  He was a leader in the effort to remove desserts from the school lunch menu, reduce sugar usage and fat content and increase servings of fruits and vegetables.  Past president of the Maine School Food Service Association, Verill testified before the U.S. Senate Committee about the School Food Service and Commodity Program.  He served as national vice-chair of the National Commodity Letter of Credit Program, which worked in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Donna Green, director of Computer Technology Services, taught mathematics, physics and computer science at Deering High School for nine years.  She created and developed the Advanced Placement computer science curriculum.  While continuing to teach half-time at Deering, Green was appointed as the district’s half-time technology coordinator in 1993, and she became the full-time director of the technology department in 2003.  She has been involved in everything from design of the district’s Web site to oversight of the laptop initiative in the Portland Public Schools, completion of the city’s INET wide-area fiber network and the district’s recent conversion to the Powerschool student information system.

Five students at Lyman Moore Middle School in Portland have been awarded two, $300 grants to print brochures that they wrote about dangerous adolescent games.  Kids Consortium’s Dara Fund awarded the team the initial $300 grant.  YOUTHINK, a youth-driven philanthropy organization based in Portland, presented the students with another $300 check in May. 

The Dangerous Games project was one of several undertaken by seventh graders in David Hilton’s social studies class at Moore last year as part of Project Citizen, a civic education unit.  Students investigated community issues that were important to them and developed strategies for addressing those issues.

Olivia Wilkins, Ellen Jewett, Katie Donlan, Rachel Luebbert and Nicole Mason had heard of “the choking game,” but did not realize how widespread it was before undertaking their research.  Through polls taken at school, interviews and research, the team learned that the game has caused many injuries and deaths across the country, including two deaths in Maine in recent years.

The grants covered the cost of printing 3,000 pamphlets, which will be distributed to all eighth and ninth grade students in Portland next year. The Moore students have presented their work in a variety of settings to audiences that include students, teachers, the Portland School Committee and U.S. Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine).

“Project Citizen has made me realize what a big difference kids our age can actually make in the world,” said team member Katie Dolan.

Teacher David Hilton said, “These students have worked amazingly hard for well over a year.  It is inspiring to watch young people set out to change the world and then make it happen.”

A team from Lyman Moore Middle School scored seventh place at the recent Odyssey of the Mind World Finals at the University of Maryland.  The Moore team competed against 61 others from 14 countries.

The Moore team won a first place trophy at Maine’s state competition on April 5.  The team is made up of students from five schools who have competed together since 2003.

All of the members of the Moore team previously attended Longfellow Elementary School and participated in the Odyssey of the Mind team there.  Last year, they went to the World Finals and finished in sixth place.  After four years together in elementary school, they now attend several middle schools, but they received permission from Odyssey of the Mind to continue as a team.

The members are: Moore sixth graders Justin Very and Griffin Py, King sixth graders Erin Mahoney and Charlotte Spritz, Lincoln sixth grader Zac Dufour, St.Brigid’s sixth grader Peter Dutton and Longfellow Elementary fifth grader Francesca Butterfield.   Two parents coach the team, Michelle Butterfield and David Very.

In partnership with Riverton Elementary School, cPort Credit Union will award 15 college scholarships to students in third, fourth and fifth grade in a ceremony on Monday, June 9 at 2 p.m. at the school, located at 1600 Forest Ave., Portland. 

Riverton teamed with the credit union, one of its business partners, to launch the “Riverton and Beyond” scholarship program earlier this year.  The program encourages students to start thinking about higher education at a young age.  Five, $100 college scholarships will be given at each grade level.   A team of cPort employees and cPort College Club members selected scholarship recipients based on their entries in an essay contest. 

The credit union’s college advisor, Bob Stuart, met with Riverton students to get them thinking about what they love to do now and how that might carry into future college studies.  He shared his 10 tips for writing college scholarship essays.  Those tips were used to grade the entries.

“It has been delightful to hear students say, “Where do I go to college to be a lawyer. . .or a race car mechanic?” reports Riverton Principal Nancy Kopack.    Kopack encourages parents to talk to students about their interests and help them discover the many opportunities available to them.

Some of the scholarship recipients have been college-bound practically since birth, said Stuart, the college counselor.  But many have not, he said. Stuart said that the group includes students aspiring to be an electrician, a vet, a marine biologist, a musician, a surgeon, a fashion designer, a gymnast, a Lego designer, a lobsterman, a football coach and a pediatrician.

Nine students in Christina Mitchell’s English as a Second Language (ESL) intermediate classes at Portland High School will have their writing featured in a new anthology titled “I Carry It Everywhere.”  Photos and quotes from two additional students also appear in the book.

The Telling Room in Portland will publish “I Carry It Everywhere” in June.  The student writers will be honored at a book release party on June 12 at 7 p.m. at Space Gallery, 538 Congress St., Portland.  Some of the students will read their stories at the event.

Volunteer writers from the Telling Room worked all year with Mitchell’s students on the project.  Only 18 of the 400 pieces submitted by area high school students will be included in the anthology, and half of those come from the Portland High ESL classes.

Portland High senior Zaki Hassan won first place in the Telling Room’s writing contest.  Other students whose writing appears include Mohamed Omar, Mohamed Ali, Ilhan Hilowle, Halima Abdille, Zemarai Hassanzada, Samakab Jama, Nestor Gaitan and Hala Ishag.  Two other Portland High students, Mahamed Mohamed and Jamilshah Sayed, have their photos and statements featured in the book. 

Some of the students’ writing may be found at www.tellingroom.org.  The Portland High students’ work also will be shown at the Bayside World Market and Fair at Portland High on June 21.