Brunswick School Department veteran John Paige has stepped in to become the interim principal at Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary following the departure of Jean Skorapa.

Skorapa moved on to become the Assistant Superintendent at Regional School Unit 3.

Paige began his teaching career in New Hampshire in 1972 and apart from a brief moment when he thought he might enjoy retirement, Paige has been going strong as ever in a profession he feels has struggled in recent years.

Paige has since served as a teacher, principal or administrator in Brunswick and School Administrative District 75, most recently as a curriculum coordinator in Brunswick for the past three years.

Paige said on the same day he saw the emailed letter announcing Skorapa’s departure, he received an email from Superintendent Paul Perzanoski asking if he could stop by the office — Paige said he had a feeling.

“John’s well respected in the community as well as in the school department and he’ll be a great fit for the start of the school year until we find somebody else,” Perzanoski said.

With such a long career, spanning over four decades, Paige said the footing of public education isn’t quite as solid as when he started teaching.

Paige said rapid changes in educational practices and political interference, such as Augusta not funding local districts at the rate the people of Maine voted upon, are causing undue stress on teachers.

“The reason I got into public education was a real desire to help all children,” Paige said — a desire to help all kids regardless of socioeconomic class. Paige said even poverty has changed over the years he’s been an educator.

Paige said back in the 1970s, he felt like the country was more hopeful, having just come out of the war in Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement. There was poverty then as there is now in Brunswick — Paige recalls Moodyville where one student supposedly had a cow in the house.

Still, Paige said even the poor seemed more hopeful than they do now.

“There’s a different kind of feeling to the poverty — it’s despair now and parents who have given up. I see that,” Paige said.

Paige said many like himself came into teaching believing they could change the world — and he said, for a while they did. He said now, he sees much of the optimism gone.

“It’s like people have given up — and I won’t let that happen,” Paige said, saying he believes in the big picture and the ability to regain the hope and momentum he once saw.

“(Paige) has a great loyalty for the Brunswick community. He wants to make sure that things are done well and anything he can do to help, he does. We’re really pleased to have him,” Perzanoski said.

Perzanoski said with a laugh that eventually retirement may call Paige away for good and he’s not sure what the department’s going to do then.

dmcintire@timesrecord.com