LEWISTON — The Maine School Superintendents Association presented Lewiston Schools Superintendent Jake Langlais with its Outstanding Leadership Award on Thursday at the 111th Annual Maine Commissioner’s Conference in Bar Harbor.

Lewiston Public Schools Superintendent Jake Langlais receives the Outstanding Leadership Award Thursday from President Patricia Hopkins of the Maine School Superintendents Association in Bar Harbor. He said the recognition comes after a challenging school year that involved navigating the last of the pandemic-era mandates and the aftermath of the Oct. 25, 2023, mass shooting in Lewiston. Submitted photo

The recognition comes after a challenging school year that involved navigating the last of the pandemic-era mandates and the aftermath of the Oct. 25, 2023,  shooting in Lewiston, Langlais said.

“It took a lot of people to bring almost 6,000 kids back to school after October 25th, when people didn’t feel very safe for good reason,” Langlais said.

For Langlais, taking care of students, staff and their families was a priority throughout the year.

“Any time you have a situation with big emotions like that, not just the incident itself, but the two days of lockdown after were also very challenging, you have to think about how do we take care of people first. That’s what we’re really intentional about,” Langlais said. “We’re still trying to be really intentional about taking care of people who got back into routines and maybe avoided some of that stress that came up from that event and just pushed through the school year. Now that they’ve reached summer, hopefully, they’re taking time (to heal).”

While challenges were plenty, Langlais credits his colleagues at the district for seeing it through.

“The good work that happened over the past year was not just me by any stretch,” he said. “Karen Paquette, our assistant superintendent, is an amazing person to work with. And (so are) our principals and executive directors that help carry out the work. I’m honored and humbled, but this past year, especially, the work that’s been done really took a team.”

Lewiston Superintendent of Schools Jake Langlais stands in May 2021 in front of the Dingley Building where he has an office. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal file

“The past year has certainly had its challenges. That continues because we still don’t have a budget,” Langlais said.

Last week, the City Council voted 4-3 to send the amended budget off to a third referendum July 9.

Not having a finalized budget creates other challenges, Langlais said.

“We have to have conversations about people’s jobs, and what’s the right thing to reduce if people are voting it down because the budget is too high,” he said. “From a school perspective, there is no right thing to cut. I tell people that there is no good cut at this point.”

As of July 1, the district had 52 job openings.

“We’re hopeful the referendum passes on July 9. If it does not, any vacancy that’s not filled is definitely going to be a part of a conversation. I’d rather try to find a way to work through an opening than to have someone lose their job,” Langlais said.

Lewiston’s public school enrollment numbers have increased within the past few years.

“Sometimes people forget how big we are as an organization. We have closer to 6,000 kids than 5,000 now,” Langlais said. “We have a lot of apartments being built. Our enrollment will continue to grow. We’re trying to position ourselves well for the next year and the years to come.”

Despite the challenges, Langlais said he was excited for the next school year.

“I think the energy that kids bring is why we do it,” he said. “I love the summer for summer, but I don’t love the summer because the kids aren’t here, or as many kids. I look forward to them being back,” he said.

“I think the big exciting thing for next year is that we’re far enough away from COVID now to really start keeping the momentum that was built over the (past) year,” he said.