WINDHAM – The Maine Principals’ Association (MPA) has named Windham High School’s Kelli Deveaux as the 2014 Assistant Principal of the Year.
“Ms. Deveaux is a visionary educator who consistently inspires her colleagues to bring their best game to the table when it comes to doing what is right for students,” wrote MPA Executive Director Richard Durost, in a press release. “A natural and exceptionally effective leader, Deveaux has an astute grasp of current and emerging best practices and an uncanny capacity for eliciting consensus based on the best interests of students. She ensures a personalized learning experience for all students and employs an entrepreneurial approach to creative problem solving. Deveaux represents the very best in school leadership.”
At a ceremony in the Windham High gym on Tuesday morning, Deveaux gratefully accepted the award and gave a two-minute speech.
“I’d like to thank the staff and students of Windham High School for allowing me the opportunity to work with you and to work for you every day,” Deveaux said. “I hope that I represent you as well as I know you represent yourselves.”
In an interview, Superintendent Sandy Prince hailed Deveaux’s “extraordinary commitment” to the Windham-Raymond school system.
“She works tirelessly to ensure success for all,” Prince said. “She always creates the conditions for Windham High School to be successful, for students to achieve at high levels. She always maintains an instructional focus, and I’ve witnessed plenty of times where she’s customized plans that take into account the needs of individual students, and she does this in a magical way. She really does. I could go on and on. I think she just goes the extra mile.”
Deveaux’s is the latest in a string of recent awards bestowed upon Windham educational leaders.
Earlier this year, REAL School Principal Pender Makin won the Principal of the Year Award, and Regional School Unit 14 Food Services Director Jeannie Reilly was chosen as the 2013 Food Services Director of the Year for Maine. Reilly went on to win the Northeast regional director-of-the-year competition. In 2011, then-Windham Primary School Assistant Principal Kristen Grant was chosen as Maine’s Elementary School Assistant Principal of the Year.
Durost declined to specify why Deveaux had been chosen, saying that the selection committee’s criteria are confidential. In the press release, the association cited Deveaux’s “accomplishments as a collaborative educational leader, as a role model in the development of positive school culture, student-centered policies and programs, and as a tireless advocate for assistant principals.”
Deveaux, of Gorham, is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and the University of Southern Maine. She originally taught English at South Portland High School. In 2002, she was hired as Windham High’s assistant principal.
The Maine Principals’ Association, which represents elementary, middle and high school principals and assistant principals across the state, was formed in 1921. The organization, based in Augusta, “focuses its work on promoting the principalship, supporting principals as educational leaders, and promoting and administering interscholastic activities in grades 9-12,” according to the press release.
The MPA plans to recognize Deveaux at an awards banquet on March 27. The organization has also invited the Windham High assistant principal to a three-day program in Washington, D.C., in April, hosted by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Kelli Deveaux, holding a bouquet of flowers, and her family celebrate her award from the Maine Principals’ Association.Send questions/comments to the editors.
