The mission statement of the
Bangor School Department reads:
The Bangor School Department will offer high quality
instruction
and comprehensive programs to provide academic excellence
for
all students.
It is a mission that I will
continue to support wholeheartedly as part of the Bangor School Committee.
My GOALS for a final term on
the School Committee are:
-
To continue to
foster accelerated learning at all levels.
-
To continue to
demand and promote professional excellence of our staff.
-
To continue to
promote the safety and security of all in well-maintained facilities.
In my years on the School
Committee, I am proud to have helped achieve recognition for our outstanding
achievements in the Bangor School System.
Bangor has two National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence: Bangor High
School and the James F. Doughty School.
Bangor High School has also been named one of the top 1,000 high schools
in the United States, and the faculty of our School Department is second to
none. Competition is keen for teaching
positions in Bangor, as we constantly seek the most highly qualified teachers.
Our school system is one of
the best in New England, and is the model that others have studied because of
its effectiveness and efficiency. Since
1984, it has been my privilege to work in assisting this achievement of
excellence: first as a classroom volunteer at Vine Street School when my three
children were young, then as Co-President of the Vine Street PTO, and since
1999 as a member of the Bangor School Committee. I am proud to have played a role in expanding
academic opportunities for the children of Bangor, and am equally proud of
those youg people’s many successes.
The Bangor School Department
believes that ALL children are entitled to receive an education based on the
goal of academic excellence . . . not only the brightest students, but ALL
students.
We believe that ALL children
can learn higher order skills, and indeed MUST achieve at a high level in order
to compete successfully in the global economy that is increasingly an integral
part of their world. I continue to be
interested in serving on the School Committee to do whatever I can to ensure
that ALL children in Bangor have the opportunity to receive an outstanding
education.
Our goal of academic
excellence for all students has met with growing success, as evidenced by our
students’ achievements, both academically and in the areas of extra and
co-curricular activities. Our students
have won both state and regional honors in sports and co-curricular
activities. Many families choose to move
to Bangor because of our superb schools.
The School Department is the second largest employer in the city, and our
faculty and staff are to be commended for their commitment to academic excellence
for all students. It has been an
honor for me to have played a role in
defining the mission of the school department, and to see the outstanding
results of our pursuit of academic excellence.
In my years on the School
Committee, I have been privileged to work with three outstanding
superintendents, from whom I have learned a tremendous amount. I have served as Vice Chairman of the
Committee for several years. I continue
to serve as one of Bangor’s three representatives to the Board of Directors of
United Technologies Center, the career and technical high school serving the
region. On the UTC board, I have chaired
the director search committee, served on the Finance Committee, and am the
current Vice Chairman of the Board.
In addition to my service on
the Bangor School Committee, I have served on the boards of the Bangor Symphony
Orchestra, the Bangor Children’s Home, and Winnie-the-Pooh Nursery School. I am also active at St. John’s Episcopal
Church in the choir and on the Stewardship and Finance Committees. I am married to Paul C. Szal, M.D., a
radiation oncologist at Cancer Care of Maine.
We have three grown children, Katie (BHS 1995), Carolyn (BHS 1999) and
Tim (BHS 2002), and two young grandchildren.
It will be an honor for me to
continue to serve on the Bangor School Committee!
