Portland students make
all-state musical groups

Five students from the Portland Public Schools have been named to all-state musical groups based on auditions.

Julia Kang, a violinist at Deering High School and the current semester’s concertmaster; Gabriel Doss of Portland High School, principal cellist of the Deering-Portland-Casco Bay High School Orchestra; and Nick Brown of Deering High School, principal clarinetist of the Deering Concert Band, were chosen for the All-State Honors Festival Orchestra.  

Andrea Levinsky and Sydney Kucine from Deering High School were named to the All-State Honors Chorus.  They both perform with the Deering Chorus and Select Chorus.

Whole Foods donates
to Longfellow School

Whole Foods Market recently presented a check for nearly $6,000 to the Longfellow Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization in support of the school’s learning garden.

Longfellow will use part of the donation from Whole Foods Market to purchase a small greenhouse, to build an outdoor classroom with help from students at Portland Arts and Technology High School and to purchase artists’ clipboards for sketching and writing about the garden.

The donation will also enable the school to partner with the local nonprofit group, Cultivating Communities, to more fully integrate the garden into Longfellow’s curriculum.  Cultivating Communities will help teachers set up a system of volunteers to sustain use of the garden for student learning when the grant runs out.

Portland School Board
sets new meeting day

Effective earlier this month, the Portland School Board is now holding its regular business meetings, workshops and committees on Tuesdays rather than Wednesdays.  

The board decided to change the meeting day to accommodate members who have to travel for work.  

School Board meetings and committee meeting dates are announced on the Portland Public Schools web site at portlandschools.org.