Recognizing excellence in teaching, Fiona Hopper and Bridgid Neptune awarded Education for the Common Good 2024

The Department of Education presented Fiona Hopper and Bridgid Neptune with the Education for the Common Good Award 2024.

Each year, the department presents the Education for the Common Good Award to local educators to honor their dedication to teaching, learning and the wider community of education professionals. Recipients are chosen because their continued work represents three core values ​​of the Department of Education:

• Be aware of the big picture
• It embraces theory and practice
• Live and model a spirit of inquiry

This year the Department selected Fiona Hopper and Bridgid Neptune. Hopper is the Social Studies Teacher Leader and Wabanaki Studies Coordinator for Portland Public Schools. In 2015, she co-founded a course for teachers in Portland that explores systemic racism and its impact on education. Neptune is a citizen of the Passamaquoddy Nation and an emergency medicine nurse. She is also the mother of two children in the Portland Public Schools

Hopper and Neptun were presented with the award by the education teacher Doris Santoro on Oct. 17 during the Brodie family reception and dinner. This year’s Brodie Lecturer was Dr. Rebecca Sockbeson, Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Alberta and a Penobscot scholar who focuses on Indigenous knowledge, decolonization and anti-racism.

Santoro explained that through their work, Hopper and Neptune have championed the ideal of being aware of the big picture, recognizing the systemic inequities affecting students and Indigenous communities, particularly the Wabanaki, in Maine’s education system. They modeled a spirit of inquiry by asking how systemic racism has affected Indigenous education in the state of Maine and how it can be improved. The pair embraced theory and practice in creating a curriculum that will teach Wabanaki Studies to students in Portland Public Schools. The curriculum was launched in 2023. The Maine Wabanaki Studies Act of 2001 requires that Wabanaki studies be taught in all Maine schools. Through their curriculum, Hopper and Neptune hope to meet and exceed the requirements of the law.

The Education for the Common Good Award honors educators who have created positive change and dedicated themselves to the community. The Department of Education is pleased to honor Hopper and Neptune for their work promoting Wabanaki Studies in Portland Public Schools.