When Gorham resident Ryan Caron, 37, was hired in April to take the top job at South Portland High School, he called the opportunity, “the best of both worlds.”

A native of the small Aroostook County town of Ashland, Caron was, at the time, principal of Sacopee Valley High School in Hiram. Twice the size of his former school, and half as big as his hometown, SPHS was, Caron felt, big enough to be a new challenge, yet small enough that he could maintain a personal relationship with students and staff, and not get lost in an educational bureaucracy.

Hired to a two-year probationary contract at a starting annual salary of $99,039, Caron beat out 26 other applicants for the job. The father of two young children, ages 3 and 8, Caron admits it’s been a rapid ascent to his new post, which he began on July 1. Caron earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of New England in 1998 and a master’s in educational leadership from the University of Southern Maine in 2009. He began his career in special education at the Spurwink School, then a year later moved on to Windham High School, where he taught social studies from 1999 to 2007. He became assistant principal at Sacopee Valley High School in 2007 and rose to principal there in 2010.

On Monday, Caron took time to talk to The Current about his new job, and his hopes for the coming school year that starts this week.

Q: Of all the options open to you, why did you apply to South Portland?

A: I was very happy at Sacopee Valley, but I had applied for an assistant principal’s position here in South Portland years before I was hired there. I was kind of intrigued by South Portland even then, from the interview process and the amount of information they shared about the school. So, I had an idea about things that were going on in South Portland and, although there were several principalships that were open this year, I applied for South Portland only.

Q: What was it like applying to work in South Portland a second time, for a higher position?

A: I was blown away by the interview process for this position. I met with teachers and administrators and teachers and parents and students, who all had very thought-provoking questions. But, as I said, I was very happy where I was. So, I had said to myself, I’m just going to let people know what I believe in and if they like it, they like it, and we can look further. If not, I’m doing great work where I am.

Q: What do you believe in, that you shared with the interview committee?

A: I believe that relationships are central to good education. We need to know the students, their strengths and weaknesses, and then, to the best of our ability, deliver instruction in a way that reaches those students. There are things in schools that are put upon us, but if something doesn’t have a positive impact on all students, I try to move away from those things. I also believe that South Portland’s focus on rigor and relevance in its mission statement falls right in line with what I believe needs to happen.

Q: SPHS has failed to meet “adequate yearly progress” on federal testing standards for more than six years. How will you turn that around?

A: It’s all connected looking at better curriculum, better instruction, better assessments, so we have a clearer picture of what students know and what they don’t know. The end result will be a better performance on standardized tests. Then, we want to use protocols to understand what questions students are struggling on. I’m not interested in teaching toward the test, but I am interested in taking time and energy and trying to find areas of weakness, and areas of strength. We want to have an introduce-reinforce-and-mastery type of learning process. We want to assure we are not teaching and re-teaching one thing multiple times while certain areas are not addressed. Of course, we don’t know yet if Maine will continue with the SAT tests or move to the Smarter Balance assessment, so my focus is on improving the instruction, day-to-day, here in the high school.

Q: Another measure of success might be the percentage of students who leave high school ready for college-level classes. Southern Maine Community College often complains that too many high school graduates come to them needing non-credit remedial classes. How can you change that?

A: That leads into the conversations we are having about moving to proficiency-based grading and reporting, where you try to separate learned material from habits of work. In the traditional grading-scale system, students can do OK, get acceptable grades, based on effort, rather than purely on mastery of content. South Portland has a strategic plan to move away from that, which has already begun at the grade-school level. We are very new into this, and even though the high school is at the end of the multi-year plan, I will be asking that we look at content areas to examine what proficiency-based instruction should look like at the high school, maybe pilot some programs, so we can bring that information back to the district-level committee to say, this is what’s working, this is what’s not working. We also need to increase communication with SMCC and other area universities and colleges. We may want to look at enhancing how we use the Accuplacer test, which is what SMCC uses for placement in courses, to see if there are trends that South Portland students are showing that can lead us back to curriculum discussions.

Q: What is your opinion of the Common Core initiative, which seeks to align curriculum across all U.S. states?

A: It’s a work in progress. There is concern about a loss of teacher control, but I believe it gives us a clear target. If we have clear targets, and our assessments are tied to those targets, and everybody plays, it can only lead to good things. It’s when we have one target here, and some other organization has another target over there, and they don’t match up, then we’re running in circles.

Q: How tough has it been to take over administration of a high school that’s in the middle of a $42 million renovation project?

A: Everything has worked out fine so far. I was at Windham during the renovation there. I worked in trailers on the front lawn during my first four years there, and my last four were in a brand new building. I saw the impact on the community, on the school, on the kids and teachers. So, I see great things coming from this process.

Q: How have things gone during your first two months on the job, this summer?

A: I’ve been very impressed in the short time I’ve been here with the engagement of teachers, the amount who have been in the building during the summer. I’ve kept an open door with staff members and I’ve had a pretty steady stream who’ve come in to share their thoughts, who’ve been open about where they think we can go. I’ve also had parents and student leaders come in just to say, “Hi.” I’ve been just blown away by the pride that the South Portland community has in its schools and in themselves. South Portland has the feeling I was hoping it would have, that we are “all in.”

Q: For students and parents whose first contact with you may be this article, what would you like them to know about you?

A: I’m pretty transparent people are going to see who I am pretty quickly. I just want them to know that I am student-centered, that I look at every situation individually and I will make decisions based on what I think is in the best interests of students. My door is open and I welcome communication with as many people in the community as I can manage. My goal was to form a personal relationship with every graduate of Sacopee Valley. This is a building year, but that is my goal here as well.

With pictures of and by his two young children adorning his office wall behind him, Ryan Caron, 37, of Gorham, settles in as the new principal of South Portland High School.

Copy the Story Link