Heroes of education honored State launches ‘Celebrate School People’ recognition project

AUGUSTA – Paul Sullivan has played piano for the Pope and the Dalai Lama. He has conducted Broadway musicals, performed in many of the finest concert halls in the world, and even won a Grammy award as part of a band.

But the music teacher at Brooklin School says, “Teaching has been the most challenging and rewarding part of my musical career. I’ve learned much more than I’ve taught.”

Roland Botelho is a chef at Perry Elementary School who makes shrimp scampi and chicken cordon bleu so students can be exposed to different types of food. The author of a series of children’s books, he also teaches about nutrition, helps conduct science projects, and acts as a mentor when students need someone to confide in about personal issues.

“There’s nothing more fun than to have children in front of you,” he says.

Sullivan and Botelho told their stories Monday when “Celebrate School People,” a new yearlong project to honor and recognize school workers, was launched at the State House.

Co-sponsored by first lady Karen Baldacci and Susan Gendron, commissioner of the Maine Department of Education, the project will include videotaped stories of school people from across Maine who will be interviewed this summer by Patsy Wiggins, a television journalist, and Kathleen Alfiero, a former teacher and substance abuse counselor.

The women, both from South Portland, created the project to draw attention to the caring school employees who make a difference in students’ lives.

Also as part of the project, a statewide media campaign will be launched in late August and a major event is planned at the Augusta Civic Center for Oct. 18 that will be attended by 4,000 of Maine’s school people who will be selected through a lottery at each school. The date will be officially proclaimed “Celebrate School Day.”

“School people haven’t always been recognized the way they ought to be,” Alfiero told the educators, legislators and other project supporters who attended Monday’s event at the State House Hall of Flags.

“School people’s stories are pouring into our office,” said Wiggins. “Every one of us can remember a person who has made a difference in our lives.”

Baldacci, a former teacher herself, said her son attended Abraham Lincoln School in Bangor where teacher Jan Brier “opened my eyes to the importance” of a caring, nurturing school community.

Gendron, a former superintendent, said she always marveled at the school bus driver “who knew every child by name,” the “lunch ladies who would periodically get standing ovations because the kids truly loved them,” and the custodian who each year gave four $1,000 scholarships to graduating seniors “because he believed in being a role model and in nurturing schoolchildren.”

After Monday’s event, which included songs performed by Brooklin School students, Sullivan praised the idea of celebrating teachers and other school workers.

“If people only knew how much heroic effort we put in on behalf of children,” he said.

Students need advice and support from each adult in the school system to get a well-rounded education, said Botelho.

“Everyone needs to lend a hand or pieces of the puzzle will be missing,” he said.