LEWISTON — Superintendent Todd Finn completed one of his long-term goals with the hiring of Kaitlyn Barcellos as his Lewiston public school continuous school improvement coordinator.
The School Committee’s vote Monday night was unanimous.
Never heard of the job title? That’s because it was created by Finn, who found federal funding to pay for the position. Barcellos is the only person in the state with such a title, Finn said.
“To be a member of this Lewiston community will be an absolute dream,” Barcellos said via a teleconference call. “They actually rocked me with opportunity and possibility such as an interconnected school staff with the community. It’s a place I can really see myself grow and help.”
The job entails looking continuously at four areas — demographics, perception, process data and performance data. Barcellos will gather the data, interpret it and present it to each individual school during a school year.
The process then repeats itself, allowing each school to see where it’s been, where it is at and what it needs to do to keep improving. Each cycle should allow schools to keep growing positively.
The demographic and performance data are easy to determine, Finn said. It’s the perception and process data that is less obvious, requiring many surveys and other data collection methods.
Lewiston should see improvements in such areas as attendance, graduation rates, communication and student achievement.
Finn interviewed more than 20 individuals before he and a committee unanimously selected Barcellos, who lives in Rutland, Vermont.
In other news, the School Committee recognized electrical instructor Greg Cushman who was honored as the state’s electrical instructor of the year. He teaches at the Lewiston Regional Technical Center.
Cushman thanked the committee for the “privilege to teach” boys and girls at the center.
The board also made a presentation to the Police Department’s three school resource officers — Matthew Vierling, Ken Strout and Kevin Cramps.
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.