We owe a debt of gratitude to Pat Keeney-McCormack, who was recently presented with an award for her volunteerism at a banquet on March 4, 2015. The Connecticut Association of Schools sponsored this statewide event at the Aqua Turf Club in Southington. Brownstone Intermediate School and Gildersleeve School have been fortunate to have Pat’s help for more than15 years. She is a retired Portland Public School teacher who keeps on giving! Pat is often seen setting up displays and also assists with the hanging student artwork for our two annual art shows.
Read Across America
As part of the school’s celebration of Read Across America, Gildersleeve School invited seniors from PHS to come to the school and read to grade 3 and grade 4 students as a special reward. Cleo Rahmy and Katie Picard coordinated this event. The smiles indicate that it was a huge success!
National Honor Society
Congratulations to the newest inductees to Portland High’s Chapter of the National Honor Society. I was delighted to attend the recent induction ceremony for 18 students from our junior class who were inducted by senior members of our Chapter. Many of our senior members gave warm tributes of introduction before they all recited the NHS pledge. Thanks to our faculty advisors, Deb Wood and Joanne Merola.
Community Health Center School Based Clinic Planning
Youth Services Director, Mary Pont and I have met with our behavioral health staff and administration at our secondary complex. We are busy planning for full implementation of the new Community Health Center School Based Health Clinic for additional clinical help for students. The entire team is committed to beginning the new school year (2015-2016) with this beneficial behavioral health support in place.
Student Successes
Congratulations to grade 7 student, Vincent Minano, who scored 99.7% on the online testing round for the national MathCON competition for students in grades 5-12. Nearly 45,000 students, from more than 330 schools in 42 states, competed in this round and Vincent is one of the top 700 students who have been selected to compete at the MathCON Finals at the University of Illinois in Chicago on April 25, 2015. Vincent is a member of our Future Problem solvers and is also a participant in the History Day in Connecticut program held at Manchester later this month. Thanks to Vincent’s middle school math teacher Alex Jensen for his role in entering 60 Portland Middle School students into this competition.
Congratulations to Geography Bee champion, Jack Turecek, who has successfully advanced to the Geography Bee State Championship to be held at Central Connecticut State University later this month. Jack is a grade five student and is the first Brownstone finalist in recent history. He is also a member of our Future Problem Solvers. Thanks to Kim Baldwin for her efforts in entering Portland students into this annual competition.
March 17, Board of Education Meeting
· On Tuesday, we had a full house at our BOE meeting at the High School. Citizens urged the BOE to set the graduation date prior to April 1 due to schedule needs for Project Graduation. However, no action was taken due to state statute regulations.
· Rick Borg, Portland’s Athletic Director, discussed his proposal to join with Cromwell in a co-op football team. The Board voted unanimously in support of his proposal. An application to Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) will be submitted on behalf of Portland and Cromwell.
· Special Education teacher, Christine Mazzei made a presentation sharing her vision for an expanded educational transition program for students with moderate to severe special education needs called The Bridges to Life Skills Program. This local program will be for students aged 3 to 21. The BOE approved a grant that will be submitted to the Gildersleeve Fund requesting support for a job coach for her expanded program.
· The Policy Subcommittee reviewed an audit report from CABE and completed a draft revision of the BOE’s bylaws.
· I shared a draft of my hiring plan/timeline for our two new administrative positions. I have included that plan for you with today’s update.
· At their next meeting on Tuesday, April 7, 2015, members will be considering a curriculum professional learning plan from our Director of Curriculum, Instruction & Technology, Donna Mingrone. They will be setting the last day of school and this year’s graduation date. They also will be viewing an informational video created by our own grade two teachers at Valley View. This film documents their professional learning work this year in the area of student writing.
Please see the attached flyer regarding an event entitled Understanding the Educational Process._
I am looking forward to seeing the High School’s production of Oklahoma. The students have worked hard.
Enjoy the weekend!
Philip B. O’Reilly, Ed.D.
Superintendent