SOUTH PORTLAND — Ken Kunin is looking forward to returning stateside and starting a new job as superintendent of schools here on Aug. 1.
“Across an ocean about 4,500 miles away, and looking to a big move back home this summer, already I cannot wait for school to start in September,” Kunin said Thursday in an email from Italy.
Kunin, who is principal at an American school in Rome and a former principal in Portland schools, was confirmed Monday to become superintendent by a 6-0 vote of the School Board.
Kunin has a two-year contract, running through June 30, 2017, with a yearly salary of $127,000. That’s $6,900 less than the salary for outgoing Superintendent Suzanne Godin, who announced in November that she will resign in June after eight years in the district’s top position because she wants to return to more classroom-oriented duties.
One of 25 applicants and seven semifinalists for the job, Kunin is the middle- and high-school-level principal at the American Overseas School of Rome, which serves 600 students from 50 countries. Prior to that, he was a senior research consultant for the Center for Education Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation at the University of Southern Maine.
Kunin’s professional experience spans more than 35 years and includes stints as principal of Deering High and Reiche Community schools in Portland.
“From my many years living in Maine before my current four years in Italy, I know that South Portland is a great small city with an outstanding school system,” Kunin wrote. “It is a tremendous honor to be chosen as the next superintendent … in a community committed to providing an excellent education for all students.”
Kunin started his career as a teaching intern at the Walker Home and School, a special-education day and residential school in Needham, Massachusetts, where he later worked as a teacher and administrator. He has a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Brown University, a master’s degree in special education from Lesley University and a certificate in educational leadership from the University of Southern Maine.
“Being in schools and seeing evidence of student excellence – made possible by great faculty and staff, of course – is what I most look forward to and what keeps me focused on what is truly important,” Kunin wrote. “My hope is that through my work I can be of service in setting the conditions where this excellence is not only possible, but inevitable.”
Kelley Bouchard can be reached at 791-6328 or at:
Twitter: KelleyBouchard
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