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Recognizing Excellence in Teaching, Fiona Hopper and Bridgid Neptune Awarded the Education for Common Good Award 2024

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

Each year, the department presents local educators with the Education for the Common Good Award to honor their dedication to teaching, learning, and the broader community of educational professionals. Awardees are chosen because their ongoing work represents three core values of the Education Department:

• Be aware of the big picture
• Embrace theory and practice
• Live in 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 Portland teachers that explores systemic racism and its impact on education. Neptune is a citizen of the Passamaquoddy Nation and a nurse practitioner in emergency medicine. She is also the mother of two children in the Portland Public Schools

Hopper and Neptune were presented the award by Professor of Education Doris Santoro on October 17 during the Brodie Family Reception & Dinner. This year’s Brodie Lecturer was Dr. Rebecca Sockbeson, a Professor in 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 upheld the ideal of being aware of the big picture bt recognizing systemic inequities that impact Indigenous students and communities, especially the Wabanaki, within Maine’s education system. They have modeled a spirit of inquiry by asking how systemic racism has impacted Indigenous education in the state of Maine, and how it can be improved. The pair have embraced theory and practice by creating a curriculum that will teach Wabanaki Studies to the students of Portland Public Schools. The curriculum was launched in 2023. The 2001 Maine Wabanaki Studies law requires Wabanaki Studies to be taught in all Maine schools. Through their curriculum, Hopper and Neptune hope to fulfill 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 Education Department is thrilled to honor Hopper and Neptune for their work advancing Wabanaki Studies in Portland Public Schools.