South Portland Board of Education salutes summer programs

SOUTH PORTLAND – The South Portland School Department held the Board of Education meeting to review the superintendent’s report and plan for a new school year. The meeting began with kind words for Elyse Tipton, who is resigning from the school board. She is resigning to be able to run for city council in District 5. The school district now has seats open in District 3 and District 5.

The board expressed its gratitude for Tipton’s “amazing work,” including helping plan for the middle school, helping create and pass six budgets including during COVID. She was given credit for advocating new positions, expanding the library collection and many, many other things.

“I thank my fellow voters for the privilege of serving on the South Portland Board of Education and I look forward to continuing to be part of growth, change, and shared prosperity in our beautiful community,” said Tipton.

The next item of the agenda was the superintendent’s report, given by Superintendent Timothy Matheney. The superintendent talked about giving recognition to the summer learning in their district, specifically thanking Barbara Fletcher, principal of Dyer School and Erika Mazzeo, director of curriculum.

Fletcher described the summer learning programs as a success. She went on to say, “I’m happy to provide you with some summer learning highlights.” She said there was faculty from all across the district involved with our extended year services. She explained that the extended year services were determined by a student’s I.E.P. team. The two primary reasons for student’s requiring those services are “due to the nature and need of a student’s disability, or if the student will not achieve goals without extended year services.” There were 126 eligible students this summer.

The Elementary Learning Academy (ELA) had 95 students, grades 1-5. These were students identified as children who would benefit from language skills, acquisition, and routines. Seventy-seven percent of the students were multi-lingual learners. There were 26 educators, and it was held for four weeks, four days per week, from 8 a.m. to noon. Thirty-two percent of the students were McKinney-Vento eligible. This means that the student meets the criteria of being a housing-vulnerable student. Currently there are 194 housing-vulnerable students, down from about 300 last year. Mazzeo said of the Elementary Learning Academy, “It has been empowering.”

The superintendent highlighted the new middle school for grades 5-8. He described a project an artist is working on for the new school. Chris Miller, the new artist, is almost done with his project he titled, “Shark School Cosmos.” Of the artwork, Matheney said, “I think it’s just one of the ‘wow’ factors when you walk into the main entrance hallway of the school.”

There will be an open house on Oct. 21 at the new middle school.

The school board is hiring a variety of positions such as ed tech 1, special ed techs, bus driver, food service staff, custodian and director of finance and human resources. All but one teaching position has been filled.

The school board voted unanimously in favor of Policy BBAB-R, which states that students entering their sophomore, junior or senior years are eligible for nomination to be elected as a student representative to the South Portland Board of Education. There were two students in attendance for the meeting, Gabe Domingos and Anglela Kabisa. Both students agreed that a sense of belonging is important for students to do well in school.

The board also voted in favor of Policy BEDBA, which states the board authorizes the use of a consent agenda to manage the meeting time effectively. A consent agenda will be part of the board’s full meeting agenda. A consent agenda groups together routine, procedural and informational items to allow the board to approve consent the agenda items all at the same time.

There were some resignations from Anthony Lombardo, director of buildings and grounds, Nathale Davidson, school nurse of South Portland Middle School, and Dian Reardon, reading interventionist of South Portland Middle School. A motion to accept donations was accepted. Pape Subaru donated $5,000 to Skillin Elementary School, Rotary Club of South Portland-Cape Elizabeth donated $1,000 to the South Portland High School’s community picnic, and $5,000 from the Rotary Club to support McKinney-Vento students.

Finally, the board voted to approve the following people to move forward in the hiring process. Tara Berkoski, Grade 2, Kaler; Derek Goodrich, instructional support, SPHS; Tracey Hollingswroth, Math, SPMS; Allison Kelliher, kindergarten, Dyer; Ariane Meno Kobo, ESOL, Brown; Shayna Malyata, library information integrator, SPMS; Matthew McKenney, behavioral strategist, SPHS; Gretchen Nelson, computer science, SPHS; Emily Parker, instructional support, SPMS; Kimberly Rutherford, instructional strategist, SPHS; Kathleen Thibodeau, school nurse, SPMS; and Elizabeth Wright, instructional support, Kaler.

The school board meetings are held on the second Monday of the month at 7 p.m. at the high school lecture hall. The next meeting is Sept. 11.