Gwen Smith – Principal

Diane Price – Lead Secretary

Renee Dubois – Kindergarten Teacher
Renee has been an elementary teacher for 9 years. She has taught in Springfield, Massachusetts, Portland and Peaks Island, Maine. She and her husband Andrew reside in Portland. Her favorite thing about the job is helping kids learn through music, literature and hands-on activities. In her spare time she enjoys playing the piano and camping.

Tonya Bufano – First Grade Teacher
Tonya has been teaching on Peaks Island since 2002. She taught in Los Angeles for three years prior to Peaks Island School. She resides in Portland with her husband Carlo and son Julian. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her family, camping, reading, shopping and going to the beach. She hopes to someday find the time to complete a Master's degree in teaching early literacy, which she enjoys very much.

Wendy Litchfield – Second and Third Grade Teacher
Wendy has been teaching at the Peaks Island School since 1989. During this time she has taught grades from first to fourth. She loves teaching on the island because it has such a caring atmosphere where people know and support one another. She enjoys knowing the children and families through the elementary years and then keeping in touch with them on into their higher education years and young adult lives. Wendy lives in Portland and has one adult son, Nathan, one adult daughter, Sarah and a grandson, Oscar. When she is not in school she loves to read and to travel. She spent one summer teaching in Japan and one school year teaching first grade in Belgium.

Kara St. Germain- Fourth and Fifth Grade Teacher

Gayl Vail – Educational Technician and Librarian
Gayl has been an ed tech and librarian at the school for 28 years. She lives on Peaks Island. She has 3 grown sons and 1 grandson. Her favorite thing about the job is exploring children's literature and the challenge of bringing literature to the students in a creative way. She also likes that the small school allows for knowing each child as an individual. In her spare time she enjoys plants/gardening, reading and “assorted” crafts.

Susan Carlson – Partnership Developer/USM ETEP-Unified Intern

Robin Walden – Reading Recovery/Literacy Teacher and Technology Coordinator
Robin has worked at the school since 1997.  Her various roles include Reading Recovery teacher, Data/Literacy Specialist and building technology coordinator, as well as working for the district as a technology trainer.  She lives on Peaks Island with her husband Larry, daughter Sarah (a sophomore at Mt. Holyoke College) and son Nathaniel (a senior at Portland High School). Her favorite thing about the job is helping kids learn to read. In her spare time she enjoys reading, traveling and walking.

Marge Mehler - Special Education Teacher/Learning Strategist
This is Marge's second year at Peaks Island Elementary as the school's Learning Strategist. She comes with thirty-two years experience in Special Education as a teacher, administrator, and consultant in Glastonbury, CT. She, and husband Ken, "retired" from teaching and moved to Peaks as year round residents in September, 2006, after having been "summer folk" on Peaks since 1985. Her higher education includes a BA in history/secondary education from Hartwick College, graduate level Special Education certification at Central Connecticut State University, and an MS from Wesleyan University. Marge is a published freelance writer and currently working on a non-fiction manuscript, Water-Taxi Chronicles. In addition to teaching at Peaks, she is also the Learning Strategist for Cliff Island School.

Maryjane Johnston – Art Teacher
I am very excited to be the new Art teacher for the Peaks Island School. I live in Cape Elizabeth with my husband, Alex, our two daughters, Zoe and Isabel, and our dog Scout. I have been teaching Art for thirteen years and I currently teach at the Nathan Clifford School, the West School and Cliff Island. I received my BFA from Maine College of Art and my Masters from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA., but more importantly, I love my job. I feel very fortunate to be with children learning about art all day. I look forward to meeting all of you and being a part of your community.

Sukie Rice – Music /Choral Teacher

Ann Stepp – Strings Teacher

Audrey Cabral - Band Teacher

Christine Bearce – Physical Education Teacher
Chris has been a physical education teacher at the Peaks Island School for at least 13 of the past 25 years. She fell in love with the island and its people and lives on Peaks for as much of every year as she can. She bought a house on the island in 1991. She and her husband Chan have a foster son, Roger. She enjoys teaching and playing tennis, taking care of her flowers and exploring new places.

Joni Beliveau – Speech Therapist
Joni has been a speech/language therapist for 30 years. She has been at Reiche School in Portland for the last 26 of those years. Last year, she began servicing the “islands” too. She is thrilled to be an “island girl” if even just for a few hours a week! She has a MS degree in Speech Pathology and a MS degree in Computers in Education. She is the Building Tech Coordinator (BTC) at Reiche. She is the secretary for the Portland Education Association. She is also a 7 year breast cancer survivor!! She and her husband, Pete live in North Deering. She has a 22 yr. old daughter, Devin, who is a senior at Champlain College in Burlington, Vt. In her spare time, she loves to ride “2 up” on the back of her husband’s BMW motorcycle during the warm months and sit in her sunroom in front of the woodstove and read in the cold months. She also has a beanie baby collection numbering in the 1000s!

Gail Kelley – Occupational Therapist

Rosemary Mason – Social Worker
Rosemary has been a Portland School Social Worker since 1986. She works four days at Riverton School and one day at Peaks Island. She lives in Portland with her husband, Keith. Her son Jake is a student at USM, and her daughter Christina lives and works in Seattle. Rosemary enjoys playing Celtic folk harp, reading, hiking, camping and watching movies.

Tina Veilleux – School Nurse

Kathleen Newell – Head Custodian/Cafeteria
Kathy has worked at the school for 22 years. She lives with her husband Stan “the tree man” on Peaks Island. Amanda, her grown daughter, lives in Portland. Her favorite thing about the job is working on the Island, in the school she attended as a child. In her spare time she enjoys decorative painting and rug hooking.

David Nowers – Custodian

Marie Watson – Lunchroom Aide
Marie has been a lunch aide for 11 years. She lives on Peaks Island. She has 6 children: George, Patrick, Michael, Sean, Renee and James. Her favorite part of the job is the “variety” and helping the teachers, which is very rewarding. In her spare time she enjoys putting together jigsaw puzzles, reading and sewing.

George Rosol - Transportation