October is National Principals Month and the Portland Public Schools is taking this opportunity to shine a spotlight on our principals, who are super. We celebrate and appreciate them not only this month but always! To showcase them, we have asked our principals to answer five questions about themselves and their leadership role. We also asked what superpower they'd like to have to aid in their jobs.

We're featuring each principal individually during this month. Read on to learn more about Super Principal Boyd Marley of East End Community School: 

East End Community School

Principal Boyd Marley

1) Tell us a little bit about yourself:

My undergraduate degree is in criminology and I hoped to be a probation officer.  I did an internship at the old Maine Youth Center (now Long Creek Youth Development Center) doing intake and exit interviews with students via a program called Project Impact.  Once I graduated, the state had a job freeze so I was thinking what my next steps would be. In my time at the Youth Center, I saw a pattern of many students who had IEPs, so decided to do a graduate program in education.

2) What inspired you to become a principal?

I was a long-time special educator (and during that time was elected to the state Legislature).  Even though I was the Chairperson of the Transportation Committee, I found myself in the Education Committee frequently (since I was the only special educator in the legislature). I found I liked budget and policy work and had the added bonus of having had a number of strong administrators as role models and mentors that encouraged me.

3) What do you feel most passionate/excited about in your job?

The students and families. The relationship that we make with our community is powerful and seeing the growth in students over time is very rewarding.

4) What's the most challenging part of being a principal?

The balance of resources versus need.  There are many challenges (and strengths) in our community and the responsibility of continuously balancing all the stakeholders and needs can feel overwhelming at times. Yet – as I'm sure my colleagues would agree – that while challenging at times, the job of educator is a true privilege.

5) If you could choose to have a superpower to help you in your job, what would it be?  Flight. While a definite Batman fan, I have to admit it'd be cool to fly :-)