PORTLAND — Portland High School and Riverton Elementary School will have new leadership next year, bringing in principals from out of state.

Deborah Migneault, from Dover, N.H., will become the new Portland High School principal, taking over for Michael Johnson, who has been reassigned as principal at Portland Arts and Technology High School.

Jeanne Malia from Los Angeles will step into the Riverton principal role, taking over for Nancy Kopack, who is leaving the district.

Migneault was the principal of Dover High School for three years and, before that, the assistant principal at Nashua (N.H.) High School for 10 years. She has two master’s degrees, one in secondary education and the other in 20th century U.S. history and foreign policy.

Malia was the principal at Brentwood Science Magnet in the Los Angles Unified School District for the past two years. In the past, she served the Portland Public Schools as a special education teacher and the assistant director of special services. She has a masters’s degree in literacy from the University of Southern Maine.

Riverton Elementary is undergoing major changes as part of the federal “turn-around” program, which provides grant money to struggling schools to make dramatic changes in an attempt to improve test scores. Riverton has replaced nearly half its teachers in two years.

Migneault will receive an annual salary of more than $108,000 and Malia will receive almost $94,900.

The School Board is expected to appoint the two candidates at its Tuesday night meeting.

Emily Parkhurst can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 125 or eparkhurst@theforecaster.net. Follow her on Twitter: @emilyparkhurst.

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