Portland Public School Department News

A new state law will make about 300 more Portland children eligible to receive free breakfasts at their local public schools this year. 

Any child who qualifies for free or reduced lunch, based on family income, now will receive a free breakfast as well.  The state will reimburse the Portland Public Schools for the breakfast meal price (30 cents per child).

“This new law means more children will receive the most important meal of the day,” said Ron Adams, the Portland Public Schools’ food services director.  “That will pay dividends in the classroom, as they arrive ready to learn.”

Adams encouraged families to fill out the free and reduced lunch application form that all children will receive on the first day of school.  More families may qualify under U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines because of the economic downturn, he said.

The district’s funding from federal programs such as Title I are tied to the number of students eligible for free and reduced lunch.  Last year, about 47 percent of the district’s students qualified.

For more information about the free and reduced lunch program, please contact the Portland Public Schools’ Food Services Department at 874-8231 or email foodservices@portlandschools.org.

Back-to-school items for Casco Bay High School (CBHS) freshman and seniors this year will include a sturdy kayak, paddle and waterproof notebook.

The White Pine Foundation has fully funded a collaborative effort between Rippleffect, an outdoor adventure and leadership development organization,  the Telling Room, a group of professional writers that focuses on developing the author within each student, and Casco Bay High School, where expeditionary learning emphasizes high achievement through active learning, character growth, and teamwork.  The funding will allow the entire freshmen and senior classes (more than 100 students) to each experience a four-day, three-night quest at no cost to students or the school. 

The freshmen class Casco Bay Quest on September 16-19 will orient students to one another, their crews (small advisory groups), expeditionary learning and the potential provided by their unique high school experience.  The entire Class of 2012 will begin to address the humanities question of the year: How do you create and sustain community? 

Besides developing skills in sea kayaking, coastal navigation and outdoor living, freshmen will undertake group initiatives and writing exercises that will reinforce the thematic questions of ninth grade crew: Who are you? Where do you want to go in the world? 

The senior class quest on Sept. 9-12 will allow students to leave their legacy, literally, on the island for the freshmen to discover in boxes hidden on the outer islands of the bay.  The Class of 2009, Casco Bay’s first graduating class, will take stock of who they are and where they want to go, with the expedition serving as the launching point for a year-long senior seminar project.

Each of the five senior crews will have its own journey, kayaking in Casco Bay, visiting and camping on various islands.  The entire class will begin and end together on Cow Island. 

During the four-day quest, the Telling Room will lead morning and evening writing workshops focused on the question that will be the centerpiece of both CBHS’s senior seminar and senior English class: What conversation are you having with the world?  The writing will provide fodder for students’ college essays.

Students attending the Portland Public Schools may ride METRO buses for 50 cents (half-fare) during the 2008-2009 school year with a student ID or METRO Student Fare Card.  The cards will be available through schools during the first two weeks of classes.                              

For additional information, visit www.gpmetrobus.com or call 774-0351.

The Portland School Committee’s Superintendent Search Subcommittee has compiled feedback from nearly 500 residents about the qualities sought in a new superintendent.  Those comments, gleaned from five forums and a survey conducted last spring, will form the basis for a national search to hire a leader for Maine’s largest school district.

The Portland School Committee is expected to appoint a 20-member superintendent interview panel at its September 3rd business meeting.  Those nominated include teachers, administrators, union representatives, business and education partners, parents, community members and a student.

The School Committee will screen all applications, based on the list of desirable characteristics developed with community input, and select those candidates to be considered by the interview panel.  That group will conduct interviews and site visits and provide input to the full School Committee.  The committee will make a final appointment.

It is expected that a superintendent will be hired in February 2009 and begin work on July 1, 2009. 

The proposed interview panel includes:
· Joan Gildart, Longfellow Elementary School teacher
· Christian Perry, King Middle School teacher
· Kathryn Toppan, Deering High School teacher
· Herb Hopkins, the district’s finance director
· Grace Valenzuela, the district’s multicultural director
· Derek Pierce, Casco Bay High School principal
· Kathleen Casasa, Deering teacher and president of the Portland Education Association
· Steve Rogers, Portland High assistant principal and president of the Portland Administrators Association
· Al Higgins, district electrician and president of the Base Union
· Heather Washburn, Presumpscot Elementary School ed tech
· Luisa Deprez of the University of Southern Maine (USM) women’s studies department
· Abraham Peck, also at USM, director of the Academic Council for Jewish, Christian and Islamic Studies
· Margaret Hazlett, parent at East End Community School
· Gretchen Berg, parent at Hall Elementary School
· Regina Phillips, parent at Deering High School
· David Ruff, parent at King and Nathan Clifford Elementary School
· Kathy Buxton, parent at Riverton Elementary School
· Ethan Strimling, executive director of Portland West
· Khadija Guled, social worker at Community Counseling
· A student yet to be named

Those participating in the forums and the survey stressed the importance of hiring a superintendent who is a good communicator with experience in the classroom and as an administrator and strong business skills.  Respondents also expressed a strong preference for a candidate who is familiar with Portland.  A summary of all of the feedback received at the community forums may be found on the Portland Public Schools Web site (www.portlandschools.org) in the Superintendent Search section.

The Portland School Committee is considering hiring the Maine School Management Association to assist in the superintendent search.  The position will be advertised nationally beginning in October.

For more information about the superintendent search process, please visit www.portlandschools.org.  Sarah Thompson, the Portland School Committee member who chairs the Superintendent Search Subcommittee and the Personnel Committee, may be reached at  thompsa@portlandschools.org or by calling 761-9275.

The postcards started arriving in the office of Portland’s Riverton Elementary School in 2000 - and they’ve been coming ever since.  The pictures on the front and postmarks on the back tell the story of a globetrotter who has visited Hong Kong, the Philippines, New York (several times), Wisconsin, Camden and Old Orchard Beach just this year alone.

The writer begins each card, “Dear Raccoons,” showing that he or she knows Riverton’s mascot.  Cards are signed simply “Your friend.”  They all are written in the same, shaky penmanship.  And they all are sent to an incorrect address - 16 Forest Avenue, rather than 1600 Forest.

But everything else about Riverton’s faithful pen pal remains a mystery. 

“We don’t know who it is,” said Ginny Lofman, the school’s lead secretary, who has 77 cards displayed in chronological order on the wall by her desk.  “No clue.”

When the postcards first began arriving, school staff assumed they were sent by someone who had retired recently, perhaps a former principal.  But the writer clearly has a budget beyond most school retirees. 

During the past eight years, he or she has made several trips to Hawaii, New York, Baltimore, North Carolina’s Emerald Isle, Florida (Key West, Orlando and West Palm Beach), Biloxi, Miss. and Old Orchard Beach.  Other destinations include Cleveland, Anchorage, Houston, New Orleans, Riyadh, Tel Aviv, Sweden, St. Paul, Holland, the Hoover Dam, Ireland, Washington, Puerto Rico and Trinidad-Tobago.

“I’m in the Big Easy,” says one card.  “Ate dinner in the Four Seasons,” says another.

The staff was so curious to learn the identity of the anonymous sender that they once sought help from the husband of a teacher who is a psychic.  He pictured a woman’s hands putting the cards into a mailbox, a connection to the Flintstones and something coming out of an airplane.

The next postcard said, “Don’t believe the psychic.”

That’s one of several clues that the secret writer has some inside connection to Riverton School.  Another postcard, sent in 2007, alluded to the school renovation then underway.

The most recent postcard, with a picture of the Old Orchard Beach pier, arrived at the school on July 10, while Lofman was on vacation.  It reads:

“Hello, Raccoons, Came to see you but school’s out.  Maine summer weather just great.  Cruisin’ the beach, still great.  Have a great summer.  Your friend.”

Lofman has lined up the cards neatly in rows marked by year - and she’s already made a place for 2009 cards.

Would she like to know the sender’s identity?

“It’s been so much fun having the mystery and trying to figure it out,” Lofman said.  But she added, “I’d like to know before I retire.”

The Portland School Committee has approved the appointment of several principals, assistant principals and other administrators.

Steve Nolan, formerly the assistant principal of Lincoln Middle School, has been named principal.  He replaces Kathleen Rossi, who retired in June.  Before joining Lincoln in 2004, Nolan taught math at the secondary level in Topsham, Lewiston, Farmingdale and California.  While at Lewiston High School, he received the Golden Apple for Excellence in Teaching and he was nominated for a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics.

Cynthia Loring is the new principal at Presumpscot Elementary School.  Loring replaces Carole Clark, who retired recently.  Loring has served since 2000 as the assistant principal of Lyman Moore School.  She previously taught for 15 years at Reiche and Lyseth elementary schools in Portland. 

Joseph Makley has been hired the district’s computer technology coordinator.  He previously worked as the curriculum and information technology director for the Jay school department.  Makley also has worked as an English teacher, technology leader and curriculum director for School Administrative Districts 36, 39 and 75 in central and western Maine.

Ron Adams is the district’s new food service director.  He replaces William Verrill, who retired earlier in the summer.  Adams held similar positions for the school districts in Gorham and Yarmouth for the past 12 years.  He previously directed East End Kids Katering.  He was president of the Maine School Food Service Association in 2007-2008.

Suellyn Rumery Santiago, a math teacher at Lincoln for the past 10 years, has been appointed as the school’s vice principal.  Last year, she interned with then-Principal Rossi.  Santiago taught briefly at Presumpscot Elementary School and she worked as an educational technician at Lyman Moore Middle School before joining Lincoln’s staff in 1998.

Sandra Gorsuch-Plummer was hired as assistant principal at Lyseth Elementary School.  She replaces Phoebe Russell, who retired in June.  Gorsuch-Plummer worked in the Scarborough schools for the past 14 years, starting as a substitute teacher and most recently serving as interim principal at Eight Corners School.

Philip Darasz will serve during the coming year as Moore’s assistant principal.  A physical education teacher at Moore for the past seven years, he previously taught physical education in the New Haven, Ct. public schools.  Last year, Darasz completed the Leadership for Tomorrow’s Schools program.