PORTLAND — School officials want to investigate the idea of having a team of teachers lead Reiche Community School instead of a single principal, Superintendent Jim Morse said today.
Morse plans to float the idea at Wednesday’s School Committee meeting, hoping to win support for a yearlong study of a new leadership model to help determine whether it would be a good move.
Morse said Reiche’s teaching staff and the district’s teachers’ union raised the idea after Reiche Principal Marcia Gendron was transferred to the principal’s position at East End Community School.
Reiche has a strong, cohesive teaching staff with diverse skills, which makes it ripe for a team leadership model used elsewhere in the United States, Morse said. The 314-student elementary school also enjoys strong community support among parents and other residents of the culturally diverse West End neighborhood, he said.
Morse said school officials recently met with Reiche parents and they supported the study. The district wouldn’t attempt the teacher-led model without approval from the School Committee and strong support from Reiche parents, he said.
In the meantime, Morse has named Paul Yarnevich to serve as Reiche’s principal for one year. The committee will be asked to endorse the appointment when it meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Room 250 at Casco Bay High School.
Yarnevich was principal of Trinity Catholic School in Lewiston for the past three years and previously worked at several schools in Arizona.
Reiche is one of 10 public elementary schools in Portland.
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