My Monthly Column – April 2021

Assistant Principals Positive Problem Solvers

By Xavier Botana

Earlier this month, we celebrated National Assistant Principals Week, recognizing these essential school leaders at the Portland Public Schools. Many of us think of assistant principals as in charge of a school’s day-to-day operations, including being the “disciplinarian.” But today’s assistant principals are much more.

Working in tandem with principals, they’re an integral part of a school’s leadership team and play a key role in building the school’s culture and tone. They work closely with students and support and supervise school activities. They also look out for safety and wellness, and the traditional discipline of the past has evolved to a focus on positive behavioral support. They work with students and families to understand the circumstances behind student behaviors and develop plans to help students achieve their potential. 

As a former assistant principal, I deeply appreciate all our assistant principals do. This month, as part of an ongoing series about our outstanding PPS staff, I’m featuring one of these vital school leaders who exemplifies the modern assistant principal: Robyn Bailey at Lincoln Middle School. 

Robyn joined PPS in 1998 as an educational technician at Lincoln and has been there ever since, becoming a teacher and then assistant principal. She does amazing work at the school, including leading an effective intervention strategy to reduce student chronic absences. Here’s more about Robyn:

How did you get into this field?

Growing up in Portland, many people in my family were in education, but I always said I wasn’t going to be an educator. I went to school initially to be a nurse, but discovered that was not what I wanted. I graduated from college with a degree in linguistics and worked at a bank in their education department before deciding I wanted to be an educator. I was an ed tech, then realized I wanted to get my teaching degree. I taught math, English and science and then became an ELL teacher. I took on leadership roles while teaching, in the union and at the building level, and that influenced my decision to become an administrator.

How has your varied experience impacted your job now?

The most important thing you can do is make connections with students and families. Once kids trust you, they’ll work closely with you. Because I was in the classroom so long, I know that if a kid is doing something wrong, there are underlying reasons. Once you figure out what they are, you can usually make that connection with students. Very rarely do I have to discipline a student because they know me, they trust me, and when I ask them to address a behavior, they do it. With families, they have to trust you, they have to understand that you are there for all of our students to be safe and secure. I’m fortunate to have an amazing team supporting this philosophy.

How has COVID impacted your work around chronic absence?

I have a great team that supports the idea that we have to go to people’s homes to make connections. But now we do many porch visits, because we can’t go into homes. We really try to target why a student is having difficulty in coming to school and we make whatever adjustments we need to. 

What drives you in your job?

I want to do better everyday. I want to find solutions to things that aren’t working well. I want things to be systematized and predictable so that people here, whether adults or students, can anticipate what’s happening and know that they are going to be appreciated and have the opportunity to do well.

My Monthly Column – March 2021

Ed techs punch above their weight

By Xavier Botana

Educational technicians – better known as ed techs – are the glue that holds schools together. I speak from experience: I started my career as an ed tech.

Principals and teachers rely on ed techs. The Portland Public Schools has 235 ed techs – almost one in five of our employees. Their titles give a sense of the range of work they do. We have regular classroom ed techs and also media/library, special education, functional life skills, computer, PATHS, and ELL ed techs, as well as med techs. In general, ed techs help students reach academic and behavioral goals, provide supervision, establish vital one-on-one relationships with students and collaborate closely with staff and parents. 

In short, ed techs punch well above their weight – and often don’t get enough recognition. That’s why this month, as part of an ongoing series about our outstanding PPS staff, I’m highlighting one of these exemplary employees: Roberto Keith. An ed tech at East End Community School and King Middle School, Roberto joined our district 24 years ago as an ed tech at Reiche Community School.

Like former PPS ed techs Suellyn Santiago, now principal of Lincoln Middle School, and Dr. Abdullahi Ahmed, now Deering High School co-principal, Roberto is interested in moving up the educational ladder. He’s pursuing his teaching degree at the University of Southern Maine and plans on earning a master’s in education.

How did you get into this line of work?

I was born in Colombia and didn’t speak English when an American couple adopted me at age 7. I grew up in Boston and went to Johnson & Wales University to learn to be a chef. Even though I worked in wonderful restaurants under great chefs, the food you create – the customers eat it and it’s gone. I needed more recognition for what I can create, and when I started working with children in a Head Start program, I found my passion. 

Tell us about your job before COVID.

I work a lot with our Spanish-speaking students, interpreting, translating and reaching out to their families. I would begin with East End’s Rise and Shine before-school program. I did a lot of activities with kids: soccer, lacrosse, even sledding in the winter. I want kids to understand how wonderful it is to get outside. Then I went into the classroom and checked in with students and helped them to understand what they needed to learn to adjust to school.

How has COVID changed your job?

On the days the kids come to school, I want them to feel electrified and that they belong. I celebrate them showing up for school. Because of masks and social distancing, it’s a little harder. When I talk to a kid about a math problem or a book, I want to be right next to them. But I feel the same compassion and enthusiasm as before. With remote, some of my families don’t have a good understanding of technology. I feel so happy when we connect and I can see them on the computer camera. My families can call me 24 hours a day to answer their questions.

What inspires you about your job?

It’s great to get to see these kids go on to college and make a good career. I just talked to one who now has his own business and he told me, “Mr. Keith, do you know why I’m doing so good in life? It’s because people like you taught me to respect myself and never give up and how important it is to go to college.”

My Monthly Column – February 2021

 

Parent community specialists: Lifelines between families & schools

By Xavier Botana 

My columns this year are showcasing members of our outstanding Portland Public Schools staff. This month, I’m focusing on the vital work of our parent community specialists.

Parents are our partners. Research shows students do better in school when their parents are involved in their education. But it’s hard to engage with your child’s school when you’re new to this country and English is not your home language. That’s where our parent community specialists come in.

About one-third of our 6,500 students come from homes where languages other than English are spoken – more than 60 different languages. Our parent community specialists serve as multilingual language and cultural liaisons to those families to help them develop strong relationships with our schools. 

Their jobs involve assisting families with their communication needs, serving as interpreters, translators and connectors in a wide range of situations that include registering children for school, parent-teacher meetings, IEP (individualized education program) meetings and school presentations and events.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, they also do much more. Our parent community specialists are lifelines to families needing assistance with not only educational issues like remote learning, but also with food insecurity, job loss, unemployment benefits, housing and health issues.

One of our amazing parent community specialists is Monique Mutumwinka, who speaks six languages: French, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Lingala, Swahili and English. Originally from Rwanda, where she was a dentist, Monique came to this country in 2010 and has worked for our district since 2013. Now a U.S. citizen and proud mom of three Deering High School graduates, she loves helping other families make successful new lives in our community. Here’s more about Monique:

Tell us about your job.

We are the bridge of communication between the schools and the families. For example, we do translations, we do intake when families arrive, we do meet and greets between parents and teachers and we do Special Education plans, explaining and advocating for parents of children with special needs. Sometimes, we go in the classroom with the students, spending hours or a day with them, just to get them adjusted to the first day of life in an American school. We are cultural brokers, explaining cultural differences. For example, when you talk about a learning disability, our families don’t understand. For us, a disability is a physical disability, so we need to be cultural brokers and explain to parents. Otherwise, their students don’t get the services they need. Also, in our culture, you don’t speak unless a teacher calls on you. Here, you need to speak up if you don’t understand. You have to advocate for yourself or you don’t get help.

How has COVID changed your job?

Now we play the role of connecting families with not only educational resources but also case management. It’s 24-7, because now the needs are greater. We help with social emotional needs for the parents, academic needs for students (“My son doesn’t know how to get into his Google Classroom”), how to get school meals and how and where to get a COVID test. Families think, “Monique has the language. She can help me.”

What inspires you about your job?

I love it because I feel a lot of satisfaction when I see a student graduate. You see them go from “A” to “Z,” from intake to graduation, and you see what they can do for themselves and future generations. You have helped them to have a new life and their parents are more independent and successful. You’re a problem-solver helping the community. It’s very satisfying.

 

My Monthly Column – January 2021

Custodians among frontline heroes of this pandemic

By Xavier Botana

At the Portland Public Schools, we’ve always been grateful to our custodians for making sure the buildings we walk into each morning are clean and safe. Now, however, we are even more aware of how important their work is to safeguard the health of our students and staff. COVID-19 has made us value these essential staff even more. 

Their work to thoroughly clean and disinfect our schools helps enable our students to attend school in person – an experience increasingly important at this time for students’ learning and social/emotional well-being. Our custodians are among the frontline heroes of this pandemic.

This month, as part of an ongoing series about members of our outstanding PPS staff, I’m turning the spotlight on one of our exemplary custodians: James Benner, head custodian at East End Community School. 

James joined our district 14 years ago and is clearly a lifelong learner. He uses every opportunity at work to learn more about building systems to make sure everything runs smoothly, and takes Portland Adult Education classes in his spare time. A class on playing the piano has led him to take private lessons. Here’s more about James:

How did you get into this line of work?

Portland’s Teen Center helped me find a job at the start of my working career. They help kids get their foot in the door in a lot of places. I got a seasonal job grounds keeping, and then I got a job working at a hotel, mainly dishwashing, but I also was a prep cook and set up for banquets. I started with the school department after that. My mother is a custodian, she’s now head custodian at Lyman Moore Middle School, and she knew I was trying to get something with more solid hours and security.

What do you like about custodial work?

Jobs like dishwashing, you’re doing the same job over and over again, but there’s a lot of different tasks we do as custodians and you deal with different scenarios. I have an inquiring mind and I like puzzles. I enjoy the puzzle of trying to figure out all the different things that come up through the days and making everything work. I love the staff here and my custodial staff here is great. They’re an amazing team. 

How has COVID changed your job?

Ramping up to get school ready for the fall, there was a lot of figuring out. I was part of the Tiger Team, four head custodians who worked with our bosses and did a lot of studying about COVID-19 and cleanup procedures and helped create the guidelines we go by. We learned about upgrading HVAC systems and we were a huge part of setting up classrooms to make sure that everybody is maintaining distance. Cleaning became extra important, disinfecting and sanitizing specifically. And I like to think we played a pretty big role when staff came back into the building, helping to calm people and letting them know it was OK, things are staying clean and we have procedures in place to keep it as safe as possible.

What inspires you about your job?

I’m a custodial rep in my union, and I like working with union members and management to try to find a middle ground between everybody. I have a son, he’s a teenager, and even the kids have a stronger appreciation now of being in school. The school system is about teaching kids and I think that’s such important work, and it’s nice that my job has such a strong impact on keeping that going.  

My Monthly Column – December 2020

Bus drivers are key ambassadors for PPS

By Xavier Botana

The yellow school bus is an iconic symbol of public education. But those vehicles would have no meaning without the people behind the wheel: school bus drivers.

Our bus drivers typically are the very first Portland Public Schools staff that many of our students encounter as kindergartners. And each day, as they transport students in all kinds of weather, bus drivers are the first to greet our kids each morning, and the last to wave them safely off the bus to their homes.

In short, our hard-working, dedicated bus drivers are ambassadors of our schools. They are on the front line – and never more so than during this pandemic.

I’m writing a series of columns featuring members of our outstanding PPS staff – and this month I’m focusing on one of our valued bus drivers: Laura Whitmer. Laura, who transports Ocean Avenue Elementary School and Lincoln Middle School students, has been on the job just 10 months, but she exemplifies the best qualities of our drivers. She’s also fast building a student fan base.

Here’s more about Laura:

Tell us about yourself and becoming a bus driver.

I was born and raised in Portland. I worked in retail for nearly 30 years but I needed a change and the opportunity came up. I applied, interviewed and was hired in March.

What about driving a bus appealed to you?

I had thought about it for about the past 10 years. Some acquaintances are bus drivers and they said it’s a good job. The biggest vehicle I had driven before was my husband’s pickup, but I was like: I can do this. It was rewarding to study and take the permit test and the road test and get my license. I was pretty darn proud of myself! I love children. I have two grandchildren, who live in Cumberland and take the bus there. I love seeing all the different kids. They’re just so grateful when you pick them up and you take them home.

How has COVID-19 changed the job?

I started three days before our schools shut down, when I rode with different drivers, learning routes and the ropes, like securing wheelchairs. With COVID, a lot of things changed. There are a lot more protocols for cleaning, with a lot more time involved and you’re wearing masks and gloves. All summer long, I rode with another bus driver delivering school lunches to families who couldn’t make it to the meal sites. I was the one running the lunches out to the homes we stopped at. It was worth it, making sure that the kids had their meals.

Do masks for bus drivers and students impact communication?

In the beginning, it was tough. It was hard for some students to understand me and me to understand them, but we’ve built a relationship. We’re all good now. They know the protocols for getting on the bus – they have to use the hand sanitizer and wear their masks. They’re really good about keeping their masks on.

What do you enjoy about being a bus driver?

It’s rewarding. The kids are very thankful. One day, while cleaning the bus, I found a note where a girl was sitting that explained who she was and thanked me for bringing her home every day. I have it at the front of my bus on a little magnetic clip so she can see that I appreciate it. One little boy gave me a little paper flower. I have that hanging there in the front of my bus. It’s sweet.

My Monthly Column – November 2020

Curriculum coordinators are leaders in learning

By Xavier Botana

To help our students succeed in a diverse and ever-changing world, the Portland Public Schools constantly works to improve what we teach and how we teach it. Our curriculum coordinators lead this work, developing instructional materials, making sure they meet standards and helping bring curriculum to life by supporting teachers. 

This month, as part of an ongoing series in which I’m featuring members of our outstanding PPS staff, I’m focusing on one of our curriculum leaders: science teacher Brooke Teller. 

Brooke is not only our STEM Coordinator but took on the role of Outdoor Learning Coordinator during COVID-19. Under her leadership, our district has developed such a successful outdoor learning program that it has drawn wide-ranging media attention, including from The New York Times, NBC News and U.S. News & World Report. 

Brooke joined our district in 2007 as Casco Bay High School’s founding chemistry teacher and was Cumberland County’s 2017 Teacher of the Year.

Here’s more about Brooke:

Did you always want to be a teacher?

When I graduated from Smith College with a biology degree, I was actually thinking about becoming a physician’s assistant. But I ended up in the alternate route teacher certification program in Connecticut, where I grew up. I went back and taught at my high school and then at two different start-up schools in Connecticut before moving to Maine. I think I’ve always been a teacher. I spent summers in high school and college teaching swim lessons to young swimmers and coaching swim teams, and I’ve always loved doing something outside from my time as a kid at the nature center or playing outside. The science and teaching aspects were always part of who I am.

How did you become both our STEM and outdoor learning coordinator?

I was at Casco Bay for 11 years and then applied for a sabbatical to work with elementary teachers on science. I became STEM coordinator in 2019 to continue that elementary science work and start looking at our 6-12 science curriculum. Then, in our planning for this fall, it became clear that being outside was safer in terms of transmission of the virus. It was a role that needed to be filled and I stepped in to do that. 

Are STEM and outdoor learning related?

I’m seeing a lot of intersections between outdoor learning and science. For example, in our science curriculum, we’re starting to look at phenomena – something for students to notice, look at and wonder. When students are outside, they might notice that the leaves are turning colors, and then teachers can use that to teach science concepts because students have had a chance to think about what’s going on and hypothesize. They can figure out what happens to the pigments in the leaves and why they’re falling off the trees. 

What are examples of what an outdoor learning coordinator does?

I was able to organize outdoor learning training opportunities for teachers before school started. I can’t be at every school at once, so I helped to recruit building liaisons that I’m in contact with about outdoor learning. I was able to coordinate support from so many community partners, like the City of Portland, that really helped with tree stump seats, and many local businesses.

What drives you?

It’s all about our students – what I can do to give them the best experience they can have. Like right now, I’m working on making sure students have hats and gloves to be warm when they’re outside – so they have the opportunity to look around, be curious and ignite the scientist inside of them.

 

My Monthly Column – October 2020

PPS is grateful for our school nurses

By Xavier Botana

I was thrilled this month when Talbot Community School teacher Cindy Soule was selected as Maine’s 2021 Teacher of the Year. But I wasn’t surprised that a Portland Public Schools educator won such an honor – because we have so many exemplary staff members. 

The People goal in our Portland Promise commits us to attracting and retaining the best and the brightest. Our staff members are dedicated and passionate about helping our students succeed. They deserve our gratitude. That’s why in the coming year, I’ll be featuring the voices of individual staff members telling why they do the work they do, why it’s important and what they find most rewarding. 

This month, I’ll highlight the importance of school nurses – particularly during this pandemic – by introducing Lizzie Nalli. She’s a skilled and caring nurse in her second year serving students at Deering High School. Lizzie grew up in Cumberland, graduated from Greely High School and earned a nursing degree from Georgetown University and a master’s in public health from George Washington University. After working in Washington, D.C. and New York City, Lizzie and her husband returned to Maine about seven years ago to raise their children. 

Why did you become a nurse?

I was one of those people who applied straight to nursing school from high school. I always felt I’d be a good fit. I liked science and those types of subjects in school and I really like people. I enjoy the diversity of what you can do with a nursing degree, working in different locations and specialties.

Your work has included many different types of nursing, including working in the ER. What drew you to school nursing?

I wanted to work in preventive health and health care promotion and I didn’t want to leave patient care. In a school, there’s a lot of room for health promotion and interacting with students. 

What was a typical day for you at DHS before COVID-19? 

I would see a fair number of kids each day who came to the office or when a teacher called me to a classroom. The complaints could range from an emergency – like a seizure – to a stomachache or a student needing help getting eyeglasses. Deering has a student-based health center and I work as a team with a health assistant, making sure students have vaccines and teaching them how not to be intimidated by the health care system.

How has your job changed with COVID?

With fewer kids in the building, we have a lot less traffic in the office. Now, it’s a lot of tracking kids out sick to see if they have COVID symptoms, making sure they’re getting tested and have notes from a doctor before coming back to school. I also do health screenings to make sure no one with COVID comes into the school and I make sure people are up to date with vaccines. Kids with non-acute needs email me or call me.

Why did you make videos for students before school started, demonstrating mask wearing, hand washing and physical distancing?

I wanted to give a warm, enthusiastic welcome to kids coming back and also pass on information of what to expect. I also didn’t want students to think I hadn’t been thinking about them over the summer!

What keeps you motivated?

The people – the staff and the students – make Deering a really rewarding place to work. I also like knowing that I have a role in helping students come back to school and making sure it’s done in the safest possible way.