By Bonnie Washuk,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Deborah Goding, 53, of Auburn, now an assistant principal at Montello Elementary School, will be principal this fall.

Goding will replace outgoing Principal W. Gus LeBlanc, who will take the reins at Lewiston High School.

The announcement was made Monday night by School Superintendent Leon Levesque to the Lewiston School Committee. As they applauded her, committee members said Goding was a great choice.

On Tuesday, Goding said she’s excited about taking over the largest K-6 school in Maine. “Montello has the greatest staff in the world to work with,” she said.

One goal for Montello will be to continue making improvements, especially ensuring that all third-graders are at the third-grade reading level, Goding said.

Montello has about 900 students, including 170 Somali students learning English. And 75 percent of the school’s students qualify for free and reduced lunches, meaning they come from economically disadvantaged households.

Goding was raised in Danvers, Mass., and graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington. She’s been assistant principal at Montello for seven years. Previously, she had taught at the Harrison Elementary School in Oxford.

In other business, school committee members heard a report from Thomas McMahon Elementary School Principal Althea Walker and other Lewiston educators who recently visited schools in Liverpool, England.

When asked by committee member John Butler what would they do differently after learning how England teaches, the group agreed they’d like to:

• See philosophy taught to elementary students. Sixth-grade teacher Michelle Russell said since she’s returned from Liverpool she’s taught some philosophy in her class. Students who she normally can’t get to raise their hands become engaged. Teaching philosophy to younger students helps develop critical thinking skills, she said.

• Work with parents to reduce truancy. In Liverpool, uniforms are mandatory at public schools. Police routinely see and return truant students to schools. While Lewiston lacks that kind of power, it can do what Liverpool does in showing parents how much education their children lose when they’re late or miss school, teachers said.

• Teach young students about career opportunities. Liverpool teachers begin talking about what jobs students might have as young as 7 years old. They incorporate business practices in their lessons, and they never stop talking about jobs, said Jim Horn, assistant director of the Lewiston Regional Technical Center. When those students get to college they know what they want to major in, Horn said. Horn said he’d like to see Lewiston offering more job shadowing, internships and teaching students about career choices earlier.

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