Office Of The Superintendent

Aaron started his educational career in 1996 as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan, working as an English teacher and program outreach program director. He returned to Maine, and in 1999 began working as a social studies teacher for Auburn Middle School, where he had previously been a student, and then became a service learning coordinator for the Auburn schools. 

Aaron started working for the Oakland (California) Unified School District in 2002 as a lead teacher and went on to become a school and district leader who led innovative school improvement initiatives. He was the founding principal of the Oakland Unified district’s Coliseum College Prep Academy and led that school’s transformation from a low-performing middle school into one of the top secondary schools in the city. He then led the transformation of four district middle schools through the district’s Office of School Transformation. Townsend next joined the district’s human resources division, becoming the Deputy Chief of Talent Management and helping to transform the department into a Talent Development Division to find, keep and grow extraordinary educators for district students and families. In 2016, he became a senior consultant for the High School Redesign Initiative of California-based Pivot Learning, leveraging his varied experiences to support school transformation across California and Massachusetts. He returned to Maine and joined the Great Schools Partnership in 2018. He was a senior associate with that nonprofit, which works to redesign public education and improve learning for all students before joining the Portland Public Schools. 

Aaron graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Education Policy and holds a masters in school leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He lives in Yarmouth with his family.

Melea started her career in education in the late 1990s after graduating from Bowdoin College with a double major in Africana Studies and Sociology.  Her studies and her experience growing up in the Minneapolis Public Schools compelled her to pursue a career in social justice and in public education specifically.  She went on to join Teach For America as a corps member and taught special education in a small border town in Texas, where she was named the district teacher of the year. She went on to hold a variety of other teaching and teacher coaching positions and spent over a decade working in education reform nonprofits that partner with urban and rural school districts focused on educational equity.  Prior to joining the Portland Public Schools she served as the chief operating officer for The Achievement Network and in that capacity she led the national network teams to coach school and district leaders around data-driven instruction.

Melea holds a master’s in education leadership from Harvard Graduate School of Education.  She is trained as a trauma-informed yoga teacher.  She loves to spend time on the water and when she’s not working, she can usually be found at a sports venue cheering on her two boys, who both attend the Portland Public Schools.

Along with her full-time work, Janet is active as a volunteer with HART of Maine and Port Resources. She is also involved with several state committees connected to the Office of Aging and Disability, Maine Coalition for Housing and Community Services, Vocational Rehabilitation and Maine Parent Federation.

Janet enjoys her free time with her husband and son traveling, doing woodworking projects and perusing YouTube for great DIY ideas.

Outside of her role with PPS, Emily is a graduate student at the University of Southern Maine in their Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. Her hope is to bring the work she is able to do as a student to her current role with PPS in order to serve our community as fully as possible.  

When she is not at PPS or USM, Emily is spending quality time with her partner and their two cats, enjoying  a good book, and tending to her out-of-control indoor-plant garden.