Howard C. Reiche Community School

Howard C. Reiche School

Howard C. Reiche Community School
Address
166 Brackett Street
Portland, Maine 04102
United States
Coordinates 43°39′01″N 70°16′02″W / 43.6504°N 70.2672°W / 43.6504; -70.2672Coordinates: 43°39′01″N 70°16′02″W / 43.6504°N 70.2672°W / 43.6504; -70.2672
Information
Grades K–5
Number of students 300
Website reiche.portlandschools.org

The Howard C. Reiche Community School is a K–5 elementary school in the West End of Portland, Maine. Currently there is no principal.

The school building was constructed in the 1970s. Buildings in a four-block area were demolished to make room for the school, which was built according to an open-plan design. The two-story building, occupying 5.2 acres (2.1 ha), was designed for 371 students.[1] It was designed by Portland architect Wilbur R. Ingalls, Jr.

As of 2004, the school was the main elementary school for English as an additional language (ESL) students in the Portland Public Schools. ESL instruction began at Reiche in 1981 in response to an influx of Asian immigrants in the school's neighborhood after Portland's designation in 1980 as a refugee resettlement city.[1][2] As of 2004 there were 515 students in the school, of whom 60 percent were from ethnic or linguistic minority groups and of whom 88 percent received free or reduced-price lunches. The students spoke 27 different languages other than English in their homes, including Arabic, Spanish, Somali, Khmer, Vietnamese, Serbo-Croatian, and Acholi.[2]

There were about 300 students enrolled for the 2010-2011 school year.[3]

A branch library of the Portland Public Library was located in Reiche School from 1974 until 2010, when the library branch closed. Its space is now occupied by a new community policing center.[4][5] The building also houses a community health clinic, a community swimming pool, a community gym and locker rooms, and other community center facilities.[1]

In 1991–1992, Reiche School was designated a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.[6] In both 2003 and 2004 it was listed as failing to meet federal standards under the No Child Left Behind program.[7] After the initial listing was announced in 2003, Reiche's "failing" rating was criticized by the principal of another Portland elementary school, located in an affluent neighborhood, that had been identified as one of Maine's best-performing schools. Longfellow School principal Dawn Carrigan was quoted in the Bangor Daily News comparing her school's results with Reiche's and stating her opinion that "there is no good reason to create public lists that compare schools, particularly when students come from different backgrounds."[8] In subsequent years, Reiche school succeeded in getting off the "failing" list by making Adequate Yearly Progress.[9]

In June 2011, Reiche announced it would become a teacher-led school, forgoing the more common principal leadership. It became one of the few schools in Maine to try the model.[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Tracie J. Reed, Rethinking Reiche. Master of Architecture thesis, University of Massachusetts Amherst. May 2010
  2. 1 2 Frankie E. Plymale, Howard C. Reiche Community School Archived 2006-01-13 at the Wayback Machine., Antioch New England Multicultural Center for Research and Practice, Antioch University New England.
  3. ↑ School website
  4. ↑ Reiche Branch, Portland Public Library website, accessed February 23, 2011
  5. ↑ Kelley Bouchard, West End police center gets a new face, space, Portland Press Herald, July 12, 2010
  6. ↑ Blue Ribbon School Program: Schools Recognized 1982-1983 Through 1999-2002 Archived 2014-06-30 at the Wayback Machine., U.S. Department of Education. Accessed February 23, 2011.
  7. ↑ Maine has little choice but to meet standards ; No Child Left Behind is a defective law, but federal funding would be hard to lose. Portland Press Herald, September 29, 2004
  8. ↑ Bangor Daily News, August 12, 2003, page A-1; article quoted by Gene V. Glass (2008) on pages 215-216 Fertilizers, pills, and magnetic strips: the fate of public education in America, IAP, ISBN 1-59311-892-9, ISBN 978-1-59311-892-1.
  9. ↑ East End Community School PTO, January 19, 2011 Meeting Minutes, East End Community School (Portland, Maine) website, accessed February 24, 2011
  10. ↑ Reice to try teacher-led school Portland Daily Sun, June 3, 2011
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