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Harriet Tubman, Roseway Heights principals ready for challenge of opening new middle schools
12/8/2017As Portland Public Schools prepares to open Harriet Tubman and Roseway Heights, the middle schools’ principals are in high gear making sure everything is ready for the start of the 2018-19 school year. With dozens of community meetings, coordination with 26 departments within the district and the other logistics of opening schools, Natasha Butler of Harriet Tubman and Kathleen Ellwood of Roseway Heights are the steady hands in the middle of the whirlwinds.
“I’m excited and believe this is going to be a monumental change for the community,” Butler said. “We have the opportunity to create a strong multi-cultural school community, and hub for the community as a whole.”
Butler’s prior education experience is extensive. Before being named Harriet Tubman’s planning principal, she was principal at Open Meadow (now Open School) in Portland, assistant principal at Martin Luther King Jr. School and school improvement assistant principal at Margaret Scott Elementary. She was also a department chair at Portland Community College, director of education at SEI Academy, graduate support director at St. Andrew Nativity School, and director of education at De La Salle North Catholic High School. She also was a teacher at Whitaker and Beaumont Middle Schools.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Natasha Butler, Harriet Tubman
503-916-3541
nbutler1@pps.netKathleen Ellwood, Roseway Heights
503-916-3542
kellwood@pps.netThe school communities that will feed into Harriet Tubman -- Boise-Eliot/Humboldt, Irvington, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sabin -- have been anticipating the opening of the new school for more than a year.
“All four of my feeder school communities are extremely supportive of me, and offered assistance as this moves forward,” Butler said. “The support has been humbling, and I’m excited to launch a new middle school in the North-Northeast area.”
Butler earned her bachelor's in Speech Communication and Master of Education from Portland State University, and her Master of Administration from the University of Portland. Her experience in establishing and maintaining academic programs; in developing and facilitating appropriate level curriculum for public and private academic programs; and in developing training workshops for teachers and curriculum for classrooms makes her well prepared for the task ahead.
Ellwood is equally prepared and excited about the process of opening Roseway Heights. She joined Portland Public Schools as an interventions and support coach, then served as an assistant principal and then principal of Irvington Elementary School. She spent her first 19 years in education in the Long Beach Unified School district in California, where she held a number of roles in teaching and administration.
“So far the process of preparing to open Roseway Heights is going well,” Ellwood said. “A primary focus right now is community building. We’re a little different than Harriet Tubman in that my feeder school communities are in the beginning stages of coming together. I’m confident by the time we open in August, the students, parents and teachers will feel a sense of community under the Roseway Heights name.”
Vestal, Lee, Scott and Rose City Park will be feeder schools to Roseway Heights. Vestal, Lee and Scott are Title I schools with highly diverse student populations. Ellwood’s extensive experience with middle schools and experience teaching in Title I schools gives her clear understanding of her future students. She is reaching out to community organizations such as the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization and Hacienda House to help her incoming students and families feel welcomed and informed about the process, and to get input on how to make the school community an inclusive and welcoming place.
“We’re also holding events at the feeder schools and working with Madison High School, so that the incoming students get to know each other, and to ultimately create a larger Madison community, because these students will be feeding into Madison,” she said.
Ellwood has a doctorate and master's degree in Educational Administration from Concordia University, and a bachelor's in History and Secondary Social Studies Education from Niagara University.
To learn more about the district’s process for opening Harriet Tubman and Roseway Heights, visit our Middle School Planning web page.
-Pamela Jordan
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