Letter from our New Principal
Dear PAES Family,
My name is Brandon O'Neal and I want to say how excited I am to be joining the team at Portland Adventist Elementary School as the new Principal. I am truly blessed to lead a school with such a rich history of providing a quality Christian based education.
I have had the privilege of being an educator for nineteen years, three of which were in the Seventh-day Adventist school system. My teaching career has given me the opportunity to work and learn from so many great colleagues, parents and students. My experience has shown me the value of the school family and that as an educator I am just a small piece of the puzzle that makes up our students' lives. You will often hear me say "all means all". I truly believe God sends every student through the doors of PAES and we have the responsibility to serve all of our students. I understand that it will take all of us to be a successful learning community.
My goal as your principal is to provide leadership that will facilitate a school environment that promotes community and provides the best possible academic instruction to meet the needs of each student. The educational program must be academically challenging and engage each student through the use of instructional best practices that lead to a deeper understanding of concepts. With a more in depth understanding of material, students are able to explore new ideas and access learning. While I believe that academics are a very important part of education, I also believe that teaching the love of Christ is just as important in developing the "whole" child. I am excited that we have the opportunity to teach our children and our community about the love of Jesus.
Coming with me to Portland is my wonderful wife Karla, who shares my passion for education, our two daughters Journey and Story and our Schnauzer Zoe. Journey is 13 and will be an incoming freshman at PAA and Story is 11 and will be entering sixth grade at PAES. We are a very active family so in our free time we enjoy cycling, hiking, playing soccer, staying physically fit and spending time in the great outdoors.
Over the past few months I have had the opportunity to visit with many members of the PAES family. I have seen firsthand your love for students and your desire to see PAES become the standard for quality Christian education. I have complete confidence that together our school will be a place where our students will continue to grow both academically and spiritually.
Respectfully,