LEWISTON – Montello Elementary School will get new leadership this fall.

James Cliffe, the current assistant principal  at Montello, will become principal, replacing retiring principal Deborah Goding.

Cindy Gish, now assistant principal at McMahon Elementary, will become assistant principal at Montello.

Both were nominated Monday by Superintendent Bill Webster, and approved by the Lewiston School Committee Monday night.

Webster said he’s pleased to have Cliffe as Montello principal. “He brings tremendous experience for Lewiston public schools and has demonstrated success in his work at Montello.”

Cliffe has done good work as assistant principal, a position he’s held for six years, Webster said. “He’s up on our teacher evaluation system, on instructional strategies, on curriculum.” Cliffe has been “in on the trenches on everything we’ve done.”

Cliffe, 40, said he considers the job a huge responsibility and priviledge. He said he can’t think of a better place to work.

“What draws me here is our students and staff,” Cliffe said Monday. “I’m surrounded by really good people — teachers who are reflective, compassionate, experts in their craft.”

Montello is a busy place, he said. “Seven hundred kids show up at our door each day with a variety of needs. I’m proud to be with people who open those doors and their arms” to teach.

When parents send their children to school, they expect that they will learn in a safe environment and will be treated with respect. “We provide all three of those things.”

Cliffe, 40, lives in Woolwich with his wife and two children.

Gish is in her second year as assistant principal and has been a teacher for a number of years, Webster said. “Like Cliffe, she understands Lewiston,” Webster said. “She’s 100 percent committed to our city and schools.”

He called her a great teacher who is well respected by peers.

Outgoing Goding is a veteran Lewiston educator who has been Montello principal for six years. Before that, she was assistant principal under then principal Gus LeBlanc.

“She’s been very much involved in all district initiatives,” Webster said. “One of the things that pleased about Deb is how much she has supported and worked to give Jim experience and knowledge.”

There are a lot of good things happening at Montello, Webster said, adding he’s looking to Cliffe and Gish to improve awareness, partnering and communication with parents and the community.

“I’ll leave it to Jim to decide what form it ought to take,” Webster said. “It could be a weekly published report or social media. I’d also like to increase opportunities for parents to get in the school and see what’s happening, to volunteer.”

Montello is a school with a 37 percent student population made up of English Language Learners, or students learning to speak English from immigrant families, which is higher than the city average.

Against his proposition, the school committee recently rejected a redistricting committee recommendation to move downtown, poorer students from Montello to Geiger and McMahon, and students from middle-income neighborhoods to Montello.

Webster said he’ll make adjustments to Montello’s student population to reduce class size through school choice decisions. There are now 100 Montello students who live in neighborhoods of other schools. Webster will be informing some of those families that their students can no longer attend Montello.

“I’m deciding who will be getting a letter and who will not be,” Webster said.

[email protected]