The Lewiston School Committee approved a new assistant principal at Lewiston High School Monday night.

JoAnne Dowd,  currently the high school’s aspirations lab supervisor, will replace Michael Hutchins, who is retiring in June.

Lewiston High School has one principal and three assistant principals for 1,200 students — a population that is growing.

Superintendent Bill Webster nominated Dowd, and Principal Gus LeBlanc gave a presentation to committee members. LeBlanc said Dowd has done a great job in the aspirations lab and has the kind of experience that will help guide high school students.

A former English and social studies teacher, Dowd worked for Great Maine Schools, a group that brought about educational improvement at the high school. She worked with staff on professional development, LeBlanc said.

“We’re very fortunate,” he said. “We had 70 applicants for this position. We interviewed 11, had strong candidates. I ended up with three finalists but JoAnne, with her background and skill set, was the strongest candidate.”

Dowd told the committee she was excited about serving as assistant principal, working with students in a different way and serving as a role model.

“I told my daughter, who’s seven, there was a possibility I was going to get this job,” Dowd said. “She looked me in the eye and said, ‘Mom, that makes me feel like I can do anything I want to do when I grow up.’”

Her salary for assistant principal could be $78,000, Webster said, adding that the salary is still in negotiation.

The committee also approved Lewiston’s first teacher evaluation and professional growth coordinator, a job that will be paid for by a federal grant to improve teaching.

The coordinator is Amanda Winslow, a teacher at Montello Elementary with 16 years of experience. She was described as a teacher who has held many leadership positions and served as a mentor.

Winslow thanked the committee and said Lewiston is ahead of the curve when it comes to teacher evaluation and improving student learning.

“I’m looking forward to helping us continue to pave that road,” he said.

Winslow’s salary will be $57,000, Webster said.

In other business, LeBlanc told committee members the high school is getting closer to boosting graduation requirements. Students will not only have to pass certain courses to get their diploma, but they will have to demonstrate they know how to do certain skills — the kind of skills that employers are looking for, LeBlanc said.

Report cards will continue to show the traditional letter grade, but also include “rubrics,” or scores denoting where students are in terms of demonstrating proficiency. A score of 4 will mean “exceeds expectations,” 3 is “meets expectations,” 2 represents “partially meets expectations” and 1 means “needs improvement.”

Beginning with the Class of 2017, in order to graduate, students will have to show they’re proficient in technology and oral presentations. By the time the Class of 2019 graduates, students will also also have to demonstrate they’re proficient in reading, interpreting, problem-solving and writing.

Lewiston students are capable of meeting higher standards and the faculty is capable of helping students achieve that — “but we’re never going to get there if we don’t set a firm goal and our kids are never going to have those skills if we don’t set those firm goals,” LeBlanc said.

Committee members agreed.

“It’s well done,” Committee Chairman Jim Handy said.

The committee could vote on the graduation requirements in May.

The committee also heard a report on the Virtual High School program, where students are taking online classes in a variety of subjects — German, oceanography, zoology, the stock market and video game design — classes that they would not otherwise be able to take.

As part of the program, Lewiston teacher Michelle Crowley shared how she teaches practical law, an online high school class, to students all over the country.

Lewiston’s Montello Elementary School to get safer entrance

LEWISTON — Realizing more needs to be done to make Montello Elementary School’s entrance safer, the Lewiston School Committee on Monday night approved spending $275,000 to upgrade the entrance.

“It’s been four months since the Sandy Hook shooting,” Superintendent Bill Webster said. The Lewiston School Department had done a lot of capital improvement budgeting before that tragedy, and “we really needed to rethink student entrances and anything else that could make schools as safe as can be.”

The entrance at Montello “is grossly deficient” compared to other Lewiston schools, he said. There is a person posted at the entrance of other schools, but not at Montello. It also makes the school less welcoming.

“Someone walking up to Farwell or Geiger or Longley has a human contact right from the beginning,” Webster said. The renovation would allow the school secretary to see, greet and monitor the safe movement of students, parents and visitors, committee members were told.

At Montello, visitors walk into a large lobby where a sign directs them to a half flight of stairs. There, they walk into a “glass cage,” Facilities Director Joe Perryman said. The school secretary is behind a sliding glass window in that glass cage.

The project would renovate the main entrance, creating an entrance similar to those at Geiger and Farwell. To do that, an existing roof over the area will have to be raised, allowing the installation of a ramp that meets code, as well as new stairs from the main office to the lower entrance level.

The project would also widen an existing ramp that connects two parts of the school from four feet to nine feet, removing a “bottleneck” and better allowing students to move through the school, Perryman said.

The work would be financed by putting off Montello’s locker improvements and also by utilizing unused money from other school construction projects.

“We cannot not do this,” said committee member Tom Shannon. “We must protect our children. This is a small price to pay to secure 800 lives.”

The work will be done this summer and completed by the time school opens this fall, Webster said. — Bonnie Washuk