Dr. Laurie B. Mascolo is set to lead Portal Elementary School through the 2016-17 school year as interim principal, after an Aug. 11 vote by the Bulloch County Board of Education.
Mascolo served as Portal Elementary’s assistant principal for almost four years. Beginning in October 2012 she was shared by two schools, serving part-time at Portal and part-time as a second assistant principal at Julia P. Bryant Elementary, but then was made the full-time assistant principal at Portal in July 2014.
Superintendent of Schools Charles G. Wilson appointed Mascolo acting principal July 29, before the Aug. 1 resignation of Portal Elementary’s previous principal, Paul Hudson. But that was a temporary appointment, and Mascolo’s promotion to interim principal for the year was included in a list of personnel recommendations approved by the board last week.
“I'm ready to serve the students, staff, and Portal community in this new capacity,” Mascolo said after the meeting. “We've had a strong start to the school year, and I look forward to supporting opportunities to help our students succeed.”
Portal Elementary, a prekindergarten through fifth-grade school, had 380 students in attendance on Aug. 12, the 10th day of the school year.
Mascolo began her employment with the Bulloch County school system in October 2009 as a special education program supervisor. From 1993 to 2008, she was a classroom teacher and served in schools in Farmington and Wilton, Maine, and Manchester and Hartford, Connecticut. She also served as principal of the Capitol Region Education Council Polaris Center, a special education school for sixth-grade through 12th-grade students in East Hartford, Connecticut.
Mascolo has a doctorate in educational leadership from Georgia Southern University. She received her master’s and specialist’s degrees in educational leadership from Central Connecticut State University, and her bachelor’s degree in English and secondary education from the University of Maine.
The board also approved Farrah Reddick, Portal Elementary’s intervention coordinator, as interim assistant principal. Reddick has served the school system for 18 years, the last eight at Portal Elementary.
Reddick is a Georgia Southern graduate with a bachelor’s degree in middle grades education, a master’s in education and a specialist’s degree in reading. She also has leadership certification from Valdosta State University.
“It is an honor to serve as an administrator in the same community where I was a student myself,” Reddick said.
Mascolo’s and Reddick’s new assignments were included in a list of 15 appointments, transfers and recommendations approved by the board. The vote was unanimous except for an abstention by member Maurice Hill.
Hudson, who had been Portal Elementary’s principal since 2001, was arrested the night of July 28 in Effingham County by a special unit of the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office and charged with criminal attempt to commit child molestation. The charge resulted from a sting in which an undercover officer posed as a 15-year-old, and no Portal students were involved.