Principal award winners announced

The 2017 MPA Principal’s Award winners from the Portland Public Schools’ three high schools were recently announced. The students received their awards at an Honors Luncheon in Bangor on April 8.

Matt Suslovic, who attends Casco Bay High School, has a long list of scholastic and co-curricular accomplishments, but to him the highest praise is when someone calls him a good listener. And what is he most proud of? “The spectrum of people I consider really good friends.” Suslovic served as the CBHS student representative on the Portland Board of Public Education for a year and is the senior representative to the CBHS student cabinet, where he has been instrumental in moving issues forward.

Spencer Todd is a senior student/athlete at Deering High School, where he played varsity golf and baseball all four years. An excellent athlete, he also has excelled in the classroom despite a rigorous academic schedule. Todd was instrumental in re-establishing the Deering Debate Team. Todd has qualified in the National Speech and Debate Tournament and will travel to Birmingham, Alabama, in June to compete. 

Ludiya Abdalla was the Portland High School student representative on the Board of Public Education from December 2015 to December 2016. Abdalla  is also a leader in Seeds of Peace – and a strong advocate for doing what is right for all students. She is known as a good listener and an articulate communicator. 

The Principal’s Award is presented at more than 100 Maine public and private high schools by member principals of the MPA, the professional association that represents Maine’s school administrators.

Student’s ‘Doodles’ a winner in Screensaver Challenge

A Lincoln Middle School seventh-grader’s love of doodling earned her a place as one of 20 Maine student artists whose artwork will be showcased as screensavers to approximately 70,000 students and educators statewide, starting this fall.

Emily Segal is among the winning artists in the Maine Department of Education Maine Learning Technology Initiative Screensaver Challenge. Her artwork, a collage of her doodles that was inspired by her new pair of eyeglasses, is called “Seeing Through.”

More than 200 students statewide submitted images to be considered for the Screensaver Challenge. Students in K-12 can submit artwork at the beginning of the year to be selected for display. The images are scored and selected by an independent panel of three judges.

Segal said she was encouraged to enter the contest by her art teacher, Louis-Pierre Lachapelle, who makes “middle school art class challenging and enjoyable.”

“I was inspired to do this piece by my love for doodling and my new glasses,” Segal said. “My glasses inspired me to show a clearer outlook on life and I thought my new perspective could be seen as doodles. ‘Seeing Through’ was made from a collage of many of my doodles.”

Segal and the other winning student artists will have their work showcased on MLTI devices for the 2017-18 school year. In addition, the student artists will have their registration fees waived for the 2017 MLTI Student Conference, and their winning pieces will be printed and displayed at the Department of Education’s Augusta offices this summer, from June 1 to Aug. 31.

The Math Team at Cheverus High School won the Class C state championship at the Maine State Math Meet held April 4 in Augusta. The head coach is Joan Renger; it is the team’s 15th win in the past 19 years.The Green Team from Waynflete in Portland took top honors in the State Science Olympiad Tournament held April 1. The team took first-place finishes in 13 of the 23 events, and second place finishes in another eight with seniors Althea Sellers and Willson Moore, along with junior Callie Banksmith taking home individual gold medals. Waynflete’s White Team took third place in the state tournament. Both teams are coached by science teachers Wendy Curtis and Carol Titterton. Lincoln Middle School seventh-grader Emily Segal is one of 20 winners statewide in the Maine Learning
Technology Initiative (MLTI) Screensaver Challenge. Her artwork, a collage of “doodles,” will be among
those showcased on MLTI devices to students and educators statewide, starting this fall.

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