Snyder returns as chairwoman of Portland School Board

During the Portland School Board’s Monday organizational meeting at City Hall — held after the swearing-in ceremony of members elected last month, but before those members joined their City Council counterparts for an inaugural gala at the Ocean Gateway Terminal — Kate Snyder was re-elected as the panel’s chairwoman.

Here’s the Portland Public Schools’ announcement of Snyder’s re-election, as well as Justin Costa’s appointment to the head of the board’s high profile finance committee Monday:

Kate Snyder (left), an At Large member of the Portland School Board, has been reelected to a one-year term as board chair. Justin Costa, who represents District 4 on the School Board, was elected chair of the board’s Finance Committee.

A School Board member since 2007, Snyder chaired the Policy Committee
for one year and the Finance Committee for two years before her election
as School Board chair in 2010.  She served until recently as executive
director of the Maine Board of Corrections.Snyder acknowledged that the School Board faces significant challenges,
including selection of a new superintendent and developing a budget for

the 2012-2013 school year with continued declining revenues and
continually increasing needs.  But she added, “I’m optimistic.  We
have a strong school board, dedicated, professional staff, an involved
community and fantastic students.”

Costa won election to his second term on the School Board last month.He is in his last year at the University of Maine School of Law, where
he was the inaugural recipient of the school’s McKusick Fellowship.

“Our schools’ finances have come a long way in the past three
years, going from disorganized documents to multi-year budgets that
allow us to plan for the future,” Costa said.  “The task for this
coming year is to align our budgetary priorities with the district’s
comprehensive planning framework.  I look forward to working with my
colleagues, the Portland City Council and Portland Mayor Michael Brennan
to make that happen.”

Seth Koenig

About Seth Koenig

Seth has nearly a decade of professional journalism experience and writes about the greater Portland region.